I'm nearly not here...

[James Deuce]

Woohoo!

Wish I was there.

[scumdog]

So.... who is going to be "Mr Nicecunt" while you're gone eh? eh?

[James Deuce]

I thought that was you!

[vifferman]

Hope the jetlag didn't hit too bad. Via Asia seems easier on the body than via USA.

No, was OK by the time we got the body clocks synchronised in London (sleeping tablets, coffee, sun, some Serotonin and all's good).
But.... I seem to have DVT or summat - ankles and feet very swollen. I might have to cut them off...

Your idea of the Tom Tom sounds rather good. Urp has a few driving problems to avoid!

DÓH!! Found out yesterday the Passat has a nav system built into the radio. Dunno if it works proper though..

Guday mate, was wondering where you'd got to.

Do stuff you don't want to eh?

I'm here. It''s all good so far - everyone is lovely.
We scattered the vifferbabe's Dad's ashes at a lake near here that he used to hang out at as a kid, swimming, ice-skating, and cutting peat. It was SO beautiful and peaceful - surrounded by groves of oaks and spruce.

Woohoo!

Wish I was there.

You'd love it, Dude! Mebbe next time you can all come.

[vifferman]

Doesn't prove I was really here, but at least it gives you summat to look at...

Hong Kong from the airport transfer bus:

Some place in Londinium...


A few of them there spinny things...

[vifferman]

Holland is a revelation - not quite what I expected. Given that it's the size of the BOP, yet houses ~17 million klompje-wearing flatlanders, you'd think it would be crowded. However, there's so much green, so many parks and recreation areas, and the villages have lots of trees and gardens.
I don't want to go home.

Behold:
View from our bedroom window:


Castle in the village the in-laws grew up in:


Park we walked in yesterday:

[vifferman]

Nope. They can drive properly in Yrp.

Obviously the bits of Yrp we've been to aren't part of Yrp then.
In Brussells, they drove erratically - I couldn't figure out the road rules from their behaviour.
In de Nederlands, they drive OK(is), but don't indimicate (excuse me if the typing goes menatl but I've had several large and potent Yrpeeeeen ales) and cut in and out of the trasaffics leaving just a squidgeon of room. Prolly safe but a larming.

Tomorow (if i survive the nales) I'll post some strangeish photos from here, as I may not be able to post afteer the day after that as I'll be in transit.

[vifferman]

On our second day in Rome, and it's 35 or summat here. We leave tomorrow for Fiorenzia or Florence. Been to Brussells, down the Rhine, Heidelberg, Lucerne, Venizia, and a whole bunch of places in between. Must go and have a shower, beerr and rest afore I expire.

[vifferman]

Just spent 40 minutes typing a message about what I'd been up to, and it timed out. Lost the friggin lot. Grrrrrrrr....

Here's a summary: London-Brussels-Holland-Brussels-Heidelberg-Karlsruhe-Lucerne-Venice-Rome-Florence-Montecattini-Lucca-Pisa-Lyon-Nice-Paris-Calais-London.
I'll fill the details in again wehn I'm not so tired (had a late night last night at Les Miserables.

[James Deuce]

Excellent, but a bummer about having to redo things!

[vifferman]

Alrighty.
The ladies are off to Harrods to spend what's left of our poondz (£££££), so I have some more time. Hopefully I won't lose stuff this time.
I'd post some piccies, but the PC I'm on is locked in a cupboard, so I can't. Anyway, I don't have many (a mere 3400 high-res images or so.)
Yup. 17 Gb of stuff. Don't ask me how that happened, it just did.
Right.
Holland was great - the people, food and beer were awesome, and we were very well treated. Just too much beer, and not enough sleep. And it cost us basically nothing - we weren't allowed to put our hands in our pockets.
Belgium sucked, although there are some pretty things in Brussels, especially the Grande Place. But compared to Holland, it's dirty, looks run down, and the roads and signage are crappier. You can notice it almost as soon as you cross the border: Holland is neat, tidy, well looked after, and then Belgium looks like no-one gives a damn. It didn't help getting VERY lost in Brussels both times we were there. Our tour bus driver is belgian, and he said Brussels is the worst city he's driven in.
Touring by bus is a mixed blessing: it saves you having to navigate, but it also means you're stuck with the schedule of the tour. And a very hectic tour it was.
Day 1 (for us - it was Day 2 for everyone else): Brussells to Karlsruhe, including a trip down the Rhine, and a visit to Heidelberg. The Rhine was lovely (lots of castles, some nice beer and german sossij), and Heidelberg was beautiful. But not for the vifferbabe, who developed a very bad migraine and spent much time on the bus and till 3 or 4 am the next morning heaving up everything she'd eaten in the last few years.
Day 2: Karlsruhe to Lucerne, where we went up Mt Pilatus by chairlift, gondola and then came down again by the steepest finicular railway in the universe. Back to Lucerne via a boat trip on the lake. Awesome.
Day 3: Lucerne to Venice. Did all the Venicey things, and got our eyes very, very full of the sights.
Day 4: Venizia to Rome. Toured all around Rome that night, then had a nice dinner in a restaurant complete with opera singers, overlooking the Coliseum. Got four free bottles of Italian red (was supposed to be one, but hey...).
Day 5: Toured the Vatican and Coliseum, then went to St Paul's church and checked that out. Can't remember what we did that night.
Day 6: Rome to Florence to Montecatini. Florence was very nice, if hot and smelly. Spent a lot of time downloading 7 Gb of images onto two DVDs at an internet cafe in Florence for 12 Euro, then toured the town a bit, and visited Michelangelo's Davids (both of them - the copy and the real one in the museum). Drove to Montecatini which was lovely, but my pillow in the hotel was stuffed with straw or dead rats or somesuch and I didn't sleep well.
Day 7: Supposed to be a bus to Pisa then on to Nice, but the bus broke down. So, we walked around till 9, then waited until 10-ish, then caught a train to Lucca, with a connection from there to Pisa. Only our train was 7 minutes late, and we missed the Pisa leg by 30 seconds.
So, we had the best time (no rush! No tour director!) tooling around Lucca, eating the best (and cheapest) gelato we had in Yurp, before the bus turned up, blown fuse (!) fixed. Off to Pisa, which was a let down: very hot, very touristy, and only enough time to rush around, clickclick, snapsnap, quick lunch, then back on the bus. Won't bother returning there again.
On to Nice (which was very nice), via 176 tunnels, and about as many bridges. Had a lovely french dinner and wine, and then wandered around Nice in the dark, taking photos. Got lost, but found the hotel again so all was good.
Day Next: Nice to Lyon. Not much to say. Bus bus bus.
Day Next+1: Lyon to Ghey Pareee: We've left the continental climate behind, and now it's colder and wetter. No more 30+ days, and cloudy D'Auckland-like weather. Plus some rain. Drove around the city a bit, walked around La Defense, then at night time we took a cruise down the Seine and saw a very ghey and sparkly and blue Le Tour Eiffel. Plus some bits of Paris in the dark and rain.
Day Whatever: "After breakfast our day begins with a guided sightseeing tour which includes views of the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysées, Notre Dame Cathedral and Arc de Triomphe."
Whatever.
We went up the metal thing (Tres Kewl), then spent some hours sightseeing (hmmmm...) had lunch with the Hunchback of Notre Dame (soupe de l'oignon plus du pain), then on to the Louvre. With an annoying French bint named Odille or Eau D'Ille or somesuch. Crap. So we stayed on by ourselves, with a Canadian chick from canadia named Lorraine, and spent three hours walking around about 0.02% of the Louvre on our own. before catching the metro back to la Defense and having a nice meal for our weeding anniversaire with a good bottle of Borgogne red and some creme brulee. Yum!
Day Last: Paris to Calais to Dover to London.
Crap.
Never bother with buses and ferries. Waste of a day, and the channel was rough. I waited in line for 20 minutes at the cafe on "The Pride of Burgundy" (huh) only to find out they'd run out of cornish pasties, just as I got to the checkout. I nearly threw a tantrum. Instead, we went to the overpriced restaurant, and spent £60.09 on hot food. I was worried I might see it again, as the crossing was rough.
Why spend 5 hours or whatver on a bus, and 90 semi-unpleasant minutes on a ferry, and 15 minutes on the tube, when the Eurostar takes 135 minutes from central Paris to Kings Cross in London??!

[vifferman]

So.
Now we're in London. Have been since Thursday.
We've wandered the streets, been on lots of trains (including one to Oxord, and one back which was 30 minutes slowerer), been to Les Miserables, and drank some belgian beer made in the UK. And some Irish beer no doubt also made in London.
We've also walked around Kensington gardens, got damp (it's unseasonably crappy weather here for September, so the locals say ), and went to visit Liz, but she refused to come out to play on account of the rain. As did the busby-wearing pussies that are suposed to guard her, much to the vifferbabe's annoyance.
The ladies are off shopping while I type this. Stuuf that. It was worth giving the vifferbabe my last £200 to have some time off.

Tomorrow, we're off to LA.
For a vacation.

[vifferman]

Gidday.

Arrived back home at 5:05AM yesterday. Woohoo and all that.
Can't wait for work tomorrow.
I think after all that vacationing, I need a holiday...

[vifferman]

I seem to be the only one posting to it.
An indication of its boringness, perhaps.
Mebbe that will change once I post some of the 17GB of photos on here.
A few of them are tres chic.
Or summat.

[portokiwi]

good Photos mate but need more with females in them.
It must have been great to see the sights.
No jet lag?