May 20th, 2008
by Matthew Gain.
Stockholm has been the latest stop on our summer of European travel. Now the place is beautiful, really beautiful, but it wasn’t the landscape that had both us both, mouth agape, constantly repeating the word – ‘HOT!’.
Now it is no secret that the Swedish are beautiful, but it isn’t until you are surrounded by them in their own habitat that the gravity of the situation really hits you. One lap around a relatively small H&M store had the hot girl count at 23 – we were in the store for a total of three minutes…
So what else did we do? Well we ate and drank here, we stayed here, we visited this museum and walked around the city whilst the temp dropped to bloody 5 Celsius – it is mid May for crying out loud.
As is obligatory check out our pics below.
The narrow streets of Gamla Stan
Stortorget
Elizabeth’s cute phone booth
Changing of the guard at the Palace Square
Looking north east from the bridge to Skeppsholmen – the museum island
Kulturhuset – one of the few interesting modern design buildings in the main city
The fabulous Stadsbiblioteket – Main municipal library
Inside the library
It is beautiful isn’t it
Technorati Tags: Stockholm,Travelling Europe
May 11th, 2008
by Matthew Gain.
Well the temperature hit the high 20s today and boy did it feel good. I am not sure if it is just that I am acclimatising to UK weather, but I swear 27 never felt this good or warm back home.
The last week or so has been utter bliss in old London town and this weekend has been nothing but spectacular – hardly a cloud in the sky (except for the moment I took the shot below after ten minutes of rain – it is London still). The girls are wearing not much, the pubs are empty whilst their footpaths are packed, there are sunbakers in the park and in some cases on the roof – and us well we have new deck chairs for our roof terrace – ok, ok terrace might be going a bit far, but it is ours and we love it all the same.
May 5th, 2008
by Matthew Gain.
Elizabeth and I jumped on the Oxford Tube today to visit Oxford. I had never been before, and having now a few friends who attended the uni, we figured this would be the perfect bank holiday excursion.
We left London smiling, enjoying the sun and thanking whoever it was that had finally arranged for the summer to arrive. A little over an hour later the good old English weather was punishing us for our foolish naivety as we trudged the rain swept and rather cool streets in shorts and t-shirts. Thankfully it did warm up later.
We meandered around the town both by ourselves and on a walking tour where we learnt about the colleges and the history of the university. As any good Aussie should, we visited the Turf Tavern, where Hawkey secured his place in the Guinness Book of records by drinking a yard glass of ale in 11 seconds, and also saw where Bill Clinton’s room was.
If you’re interested in learning more about Oxford Uni and the admission process – look here. Info about the colleges here.
My photography, bad at the best of times, was shocking today I am afraid. Oh well…
Having a drink in Hawkey’s honour
Bridge of Sighs
The Oxford University coat of arms – this is present on all university buildings
The New College
University College
Merton College main quad
Technorati Tags: Oxford University,Oxford,Merton College,University College,New College
May 5th, 2008
by Matthew Gain.
Last weekend Elizabeth I visited Mary (the girl to Elizabeth’s right in this pic) in Dublin. We met Mick (her man, who sadly chose that weekend to visit friends in London) and Mary whilst travelling in South America and got on really well.
We had a great weekend and also caught up with Mick’s sister Marie-Anne who we also met in South America. Both Elizabeth and I had visited Dublin before, so the focus was more on hanging out with Mary and having a few Guinness than seeing the tourist sights.
Mary took us on a tour of the local hotspots in Dublin, we visited Kilmainham Gaol and also took in a trip out to the Newgrange Burial Mounds. All the Newgrange tours were full for the day, so we had to enjoy from a distance. Obviously we were gutted, because the tours were full, we had to go to the pub, have a drink and get some lunch…
I took the pictures below on my mobile, so they are not great.
Elizabeth and Mary next to a statue – sorry can’t remember his name
Famine sculpture
The Liffey River
St Pats Cathedral
Kilmainham Gaol
Pretty bloody obvious
Technorati Tags: Dublin Visit
