City of Sails / Auckland

The next part of the holiday begins.
I wrote a journal whilst away, i shan't bore you with loads but will drop a few snippets in along the way.
"Leaving San fransisco with my last views of the financial district and the Bay Bridge. Sad to leave the place i adore, but looking forward so much to the adventure ahead"
"Airports much the same the world over boring and tiring. Saturday 23rd Jan whole day lost in transit due to crossing the international date line"

A free room upgrade was given and this was the view!!
View of Auckland harbour and bridge



Auckland known as the city of sails, you can see why
with all those boats in the harbour.
Fact 1 in 5 own a boat and 1 in 3 have the use of
some sort of vessel.

City of Sails strikes again! How many ?

Took a harbour cruise this was a suspended

swimming pool at the Hilton hotel

View taken on the boat trip. The Sky Tower

dominating the skyline. It is 328 metres high

and the tallest man made structure in N/Z

It was the weekend so many people were out

on the water. Love the angle of the yacht.

Another view from the boat, love the building with the ring

on top of it.

The sky looks very overcast and it began to drizzle,

but i still managed to get sun burnt on my nose, chemist

next stop sun factor 70!!! very deceptive weather, no wonder

the lady on the boat said" free tea and coffee and sun cream"

did not think i needed it, how stupid.

A different view of the Sky Tower at night.

Sky City has many bars, resaurants and a casino.

What a view eh? Loved it!

Tony on the other hand would not step on it, chicken!!!

Stunning view of Auckland from the tower.

Taken at dusk where the lights of the city were

just coming alive.

Sunlight on the city a welcome sight after the grey

overcast afternoon that we had.

Just had to be done, sitting people watching with

a glass of S/blanc and after a long wait a mango

brulee with a difference, delicious a piece of art on

a plate! The wait was well worth it.

Auckland a very clean and relaxed city, harbour based activities being the main attractions, great place to chill out after a long flight. There is much more to the city but only having a couple of days you can only do so much. But a most enjoyable stopover with lovely friendly people wherever we went.

My Holiday of a lifetime

Well i know it has been ages since i last blogged, but i have had a great reason why.
I have been on holiday to far distant shores for five weeks in total, a holiday of a lifetime. San Fransisco, New Zealand, Sydney and Singapore !!!.
Had a wonderful time, exhausting but worth every minute of the travelling.
As you can imagine there were many pictures taken 2500 in total, but we are slowly picking out our favourites.
I have decided to break them up into smaller parts or we will be here for another year looking through them.

Started off in San Fransisco on the 20th January 2010.
I love this place city so much, been fortunate to be there in summer and now winter, both having different aspects in the different seasons.
We left uk in the freezing snow covered land and arrived to a very large storm in America , it was pouring and the wind was howling, weather forecast for the three days we were there AWFULL ! Just togged up in the wets and off we went to explore.
Did a trip on a coach so we could get to see the famous bridge and Golden gate park.
Got thoroughly wind swept as you can see. Got back to the hotel where an open log fire was burning and a welcoming wine tasting was arranged, "ah i've arrived"
San Fran is such a diverse city wonderful shopping malls the sights obviously, but you also get the rough sides with many beggars and homeless people walking with their whole life in a shopping trolley, sad! But i still love it, riding on the cable cars from Powell to Market street down those famous hills! Great food, certainly great wine , we were like children in a sweet shop looking in the supermarkets stocked with our favourite Californian wines! Seeing the bridge and Alcatraz in the bay is magical to me whatever the weather.

The famous cable car there are now only three left in the city

View of Golden Gate park from the bandstand where it was dry

One of the many painted building in the city

My favourite photo , i was wet windswept but i didn't care
"I am in San Fransisco"

The weather was so bad, but it still has a magic about it!

Another wonderful view

Taken from the cable car

One of thos famous hills with the sheer drop down with a view of the bay

The many skyscrapers that adorn the city


New Zealand will come in the next post.
Hope my followers are still there?

Beautiful Sorrento

Well as you can see we really did not have a great time , the scenery was awful, the food bad and well the weather that was bad as well!!!!???? But i may be joking, had a most wonderful time.
Packed so much in one week but still had time to do nothing but drink coffee and people watch down at the harbour.

This iced coffee was just divine and so well presented
the brioche was great to!


our view from the restaurant whilst having our coffee


My pizza was gorgeous thank you for asking!
We were staying in the Neapolitan riviera where the famous pizza
was invented.


The famous villa where Sophia Loren , Gina lolla Brigida
stayed and Tom cruise got married!

With this view i can see why it was chosen! Stunning!

On one of our many walks down to the harbour front

and there were sooo many steps, Lynda did really well

as she had a swollen foot at the time.

Another little narrow street

Sorrento with its many tourist shops

but you can avoid these if you just go a few streets behind

the main area.

Still lots of people!

A view of the Marina Grande

With a view along the Sorrentine peninsular

Taken from the other way with the Marina Piccalo

at the end. Our boat for the day was moored just offshore!

Same view

This was just a snippet of Sorrento it was so beautiful we may go onto Amalfi next time then Pompeii and Herculaneum which were fascinating .

As my trusted guide book said " Amalfi the coast for falling in love"

Pasta, Pizza and Pompeii

My case is packed and i am ready to go to Italy on friday!!
My friend and i are off to Sorrento for a weeks holiday, been planning this for a while but only booked it last week due to my friend having a foot operation, which i can report was a great success and she got the all clear last week.
We will be doing a couple of trips whilst out there one being Pompeii and one to the island of Capri, with maybe a boat trip thrown in. This is our hotel just about a mile outside of sorrento, seems a little more quiet than some we looked at in sorrento itself , apparently overlooking the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius . Although the weather does not seem to great at the moment over Italy we are hoping for at least a few days of good sunny weather. Fingers crossed!!
We will drive up to my daughters tomorrow and spend the night there, that way we will be the right side of the dreaded M25 we can then make our way to Gatwick after the morning rush hour. We are parking at my friends sister-in-laws so no airport charges either!
It shall be great not to have to think about cooking as eating out is one of my favourite things to do in Italy (or anywhere for that matter!) you can sit and people watch ,even if it is just sitting with a lovely cappachino or ice cream. Mmmm i can just taste that ice cream now.
It will be an adventure i'm sure Lynda and i are not known for our sense of direction at the best of times LOL we even managed to get lost in a car park once that is another story!! Our families do get a little worried i think but we are big girls now and can look after ourselves JUST!
So Bonn voyage people for a week or so. The camera and charger are packed in readiness!

Lazy days of summer/Turkey part 2

Picture the sun, the blue sky and the beautiful green warm sea with the fish swimming all around you, this was the place! Xuma (zuma).
Our day started around 10am had breakfast and ordered our taxi we were meeting the others at xuma, arrived at the gates and we were greeted by a lovely young chap who directed us to the entrance where we paid our entrance fee 50 turkish lire which in english money is around £25 each, which seems a lot but believe me it was worth every lire. Found our chosen spot right on the edge of the water a tad cooler there! towels were brought out to us just time for a dip in the sea i think ah bliss! Then the other part of the family arrived just in time for a iced drink "i'll try the frozen kiwi" it was so refreshing. We read our papers and books along with a few more dips in the sea , by which time it was lunch, just choose from the menu we were told, i had chicken slow cooked with cinnamon, parsley and lemon served with rice, tony avocado and chicken salad! washed down with another frozen drink. The facilities were wonderful you could even go for a massage or indian head massage, we passed on that though. There was nothing left to do but to chill out again ! Time just flew by nearly time to go but just time for a glass of wine for sue and i chi(tea) for the others and frozen peach for tony. What a relaxing day bit expensive but worth it, we all enjoyed doing our own thing on that day.

Sue and i after our glass of wine just the one i promise!!
Love sues dress all summery and cherry like!



Just so relaxed the both of us, it was lovely to laugh about
nothing in particular


The turkish side of the family all reading their papers
this was a daily ritual for both of the men, they did come
up for drinks and food at some point though!
This was the view from the sunbeds


Tony and his frozen kiwi drink under the shade of the trees

You could not help but admire the view it was beautiful

and the sea was so calm that day and wonderfully clear

you could see many different little fish swimming

View from the other way looking towards the hills

You can see we had steps down into the sea

It was a superb day, one that we probably would not have gone too if we had been on our own, it is not well publicised in the tourist places and we were the only english people there that day. The day over we all crammed back into father in laws car for the short trip back to the hotel.

So thanks to all for making it a special day! Same again next year is it?

Sights of Yalikavak/ part one

It seems so long since my holiday in turkey!
The hotel was about a mile or so from the main town and its beautiful harbour , there was so much too see along the way. The windmill was the meeting place for many people including us, it is a great landmark, very effective in the way it has been done.


Again along the harbour was this statue, carved and chiseled out of stone, everywhere was kept immaculately clean and litter free


I could say this was our boat for the week but i may be fibbing, the speed at which it was getting was amazing cost a pretty penny i would imagine (i can dream)!!!



Again walking from the hotel down to the harbour. There is something hypnotic about the mosques when they are calling people into prayer, the sound can be heard from a good distance, seems such a contrast to the hustle and bustle of the tourist places that are around.

This one was taken from our hotel looking the other way from the harbour, as you can see the mosque lays amongst the hill and stands out, again the contrast is amazing the mosque looking down on the tourists down below.

Thought i would do this in separate posts. I must admit the holiday was also so different on different days so it makes sense to separate them. On the beach days we all at about 5 oclock would have a sut misir, which translated in english means sweet corn on the cobs but they are cooked in milk and water they were absolutely delicious served hot from the great big cooker , we ate them as we walked up the hill to the car, lips and mouth covered in it yummy i can just taste it now!

View from a foreign window

Just a few views from our holiday in turkey, i have to admit that these were taken by hubby, he commandeered the camera for the whole of the holiday!!

I thought the three here should stand on their own as they were briiliant.

Taken from the hotel room at 5.am the moonlight shimmerimg on the sea.

This is of a beautiful sunset where our daughter was staying high in the hills of Yalikavak the views were stunning

This was taken i am informed at around 5.am when hubby went to open the window
of our hotel room. A liitle dark as you can see but beautiful none the less with the moon shining on the sea and the hills in the background.

The holiday was really lovely and relaxing for all of us i think we all needed to recharge the batteries after a very difficult few months. Will get some more piccies uploaded soon so you can see how beautiful it all was.

Wildlife and countryside of bude

Seems ages since i was there in bude only a few weeks ago though!
These were taken on my days out in bude and a couple were taken in stratton which is where i was dog sitting for the week. I was quite pleased with myself really for getting out and about not knowing the area that well , good old public transport was used quite a bit and very efficient they were to.
Along the canal which has been regenerated to a very high standard, you can now walk for miles , one way leads to the sea, the other takes you along the canal past a nature reserve i spent two afternoons walking along, took my lunch one day glorious weather sitting watching the world go by. There are also a few galleries and tea shops were an ice cream was purchased toffee and caramel yum!!

The lock still in use i may add there were many little boats moored along
the canal.



Three of my lunch companions


I loved this little house very serene i can imagine myself here
on a summer evening with the sound of the water and a glass
of wine!



Was really pleased with this one , again taken along
the canal



Tried to compare this one with the other pretty house on
the canal from before, i know which i prefer,
no comparison really! Old and modern





Another little friend, there were so many, all
basking on the grass then off they would go for
a cooling dip in the water.



I love this one, taken in stratton a few minutes
walk from the house, the colours reflecting in the sun
are really lovely.


The same stream taken from the opposite side of the road

Could not resist this one of Kayla how beautiful

is she?

Taken from the kitchen window they used to come every day

for breakfast and dinner


I was fascinated stood watching for ages instead of

getting breakfast or dinner!

I must admit i loved every minute of my little break, it gave me confidence to get out on my own for a change, you get out of the habit when there is always someone around, i shall be doing it more often from now on!! My friend said two days after i had left, veta my guardian angel for that week was found wondering up the lane Terry seemed to think she was looking for me aw bless, thats our theory and we are sticking to it, how great it is to be loved!!!