Beacon Hill and Boston Riverside

The weather on our last full day in Boston was not looking great when we woke up. It was grey and rainy and cold, it was looking a bit like London! But with prettier coloured houses.

I'd been tossing up while packing as to whether I wanted to bring my warm Superdry jacket, or if in September, my leather jacket would have been enough. Luckily Bradley made me take it, since I needed it while in a thunderstorm in New York, and now on a grey day in Boston.

We didn't have too much of a plan for today, which was good, because the bed where we were staying was so comfortable that we slept in much later than anticipated.

We stopped at a cafe on the way to get some coffee to warm us up, and headed into Boston.

Welcome to the Red Sox Nation

Our first full day in Boston was spent mostly on Newbury Street. This section of Boston is a lovely street full of old Brownstone houses, and shops of every kind in each one.

There is a mix of luxury fashion and high street brands, plus some great vintage jewellery stores.

While we wanted to explore as much of Boston as we could in the two full days we had, we also wanted to pop into some jewellery stores and try on some engagement rings, to get a feel for what type of ring I'd like.

Shipping off to Boston

We left New York just before lunch and hopped on an Amtrak train to Boston. The trip from New York to Boston takes about 4 hours, and if you don't want to drive, the train is the best way.

The Amtrak trains were pretty comfortable, with big seats and lots of leg room. There was also free wifi for most of the trip.

We arrived at Boston Back Bay station in the early afternoon, and headed off to the apartment we were renting in Charlestown.

Charlestown is just out of the main centre of Boston, about a half hour walk, so pretty close, but in a lovely residential neighbourhood instead of the city. Charlestown is where Ben Affleck's movie The Town was based, and is famous for its history of organised crime. Aside from that, it's apparently one of the safest places in Boston for women.

The neighbourhood itself is really nice, full of coloured wooden houses, all really well taken care of. The house we stayed in was bright blue, and is often included on heritage trails.

From Cold Spring to a Brooklyn Engagement

After four days in a big city, Bradley and I were keen to get away from the crowds for a few hours and head up North a wee bit to a tiny town called Cold Spring.

It's about an hour and a half on the train, and on the way we went through lots of lovely looking towns with interesting names like Garrison, Manitou, Peekskill, Sleepy Hollow(!) and my favourite Tarrytown.

It would have been nice to hire a car and stop off at all these towns, but we didn't really want to hire a car for only half a day, so the train it was!

Musical Piano's and the 9/11 Memorial

We'd had so much luck with the weather so far in New York, but the weather for our fourth day in the city was forecast for rain and strong winds.

And that's exactly what we woke up to. Torrential rain and winds strong enough that Bradley had to hold onto me as we left the hotel room.

Luckily it wasn't actually that cold, it was still pretty warm and humid, which was good since there's nothing worse than having to wear jeans when it's raining, and then walking around with heavy damp legs! Shorts are far preferable as even though your legs get wet, they dry super fast.

Views across the Big Apple

After another huge breakfast at the hotel, trying to be a bit healthier, with scrambled eggs and toast, rather than doughnut's and waffle's, we headed straight for Rockefeller Plaza to go up to Top of the Rock, hoping that it wasn't as busy as the night before.

New York State of Mind

We woke up early the next day to a huge American breakfast courtesy of our hotel. We had sugary cereals, eggs, waffles and coffee.

After fueling up for the day we headed down to the Long Island City waterfront to get a proper view of Manhattan. Long Island City is mostly an industrial area, so the walk was pretty uninteresting, but it was worth it for the great views we got of the city. We also stopped for a while to watch a baseball game and some Tai Chi, and then continued on to the Metro station towards Times Square.

Autumn in New York

After spending the last couple of years travelling around Europe and the United Kingdom, we have become quite eager recently for a change of scenery.

After my sister Kylie told me she was planning on going to New York in July of this year, we completely copied her idea and planned our own trip to the Big Apple for September.

We arrived at JFK after a 7 hour flight from London, the longest flight we've taken since leaving New Zealand in 2010. We flew Virgin Atlantic, and I have to say it was a pretty good flight. The food and entertainment were both good, and we arrived in America feeling pretty good.

The only downside was the size of the queues for Customs at JFK, we ended up waiting for almost an hour before we were able to get out of the airport.

We caught the Metro to our hotel in Long Island City, not in Manhattan itself. Long Island City has recently had a big boom in hotels popping up, and while it is still mostly an industrial area, it's only two stops from Times Square on the Metro and hotel prices are much cheaper than in Manhattan.

Parisian Landmarks and the Pere Lachaise

We only had two full days to spend trying to see as much of Paris as possible, so the next day we checked out of our hotel and headed off to the Louvre.

Lucky for us the hotel was happy to hold onto our bags for the day, especially since our train wasn't until late that evening, and we didn't want to lug our bags around, or waste time trying to find somewhere to store them.

Once again, not that into art, so we skipped going inside (for the second time!), and just wandered around outside, enjoying the sunshine and the amazing lack of crowds. Aside from the huge line to get inside..

Walking Tour of Paris

We spent the last long weekend we have until Christmas in Paris. We've been there before, over Christmas in 2010, but it was so cold we found it hard to enjoy the city, and we didn't get to explore Paris as much as we had wanted.

So when trying to think of where we wanted to go for the long weekend, I came across really cheap Eurostar tickets. So Paris it was!

We arrived late on Friday evening, so headed straight to our hotel to settle in. Upon entering our room, we discovered a bottle of wine and some chocolate's had been left for us! I had forgotten I'd put it was our anniversary on the booking form, asking for a nicer room. 

This usually works, we always get put in perhaps a better room or higher floor than we would have otherwise. And it was our anniversary when I booked the room...

Feeling slightly guilty. But not enough to not eat the chocolate's and enjoy the wine!

Weekend in Chelmsford

Last weekend Bradley and I, plus our friend Di, spent two nights visiting our friends Si and Vicki, and their super cute daughter Aaliyah in Chelmsford, Essex.

We went up by train on Friday evening. Chelmsford is located just outside London, and lots of people who live there commute into London everyday. I could easily imagine myself living in the countryside, while still being close enough to London to get there easily, but the expense and travel time puts me off slightly!

We woke up on Saturday morning to a delicious breakfast of pastries and coffee, and then headed off to Heybridge to have lunch at the Tiptree Tea Rooms by the seaside.

London Visitor's in May

This post was sadly missed at the time it happened, due to visa stress and then an abundance of Croatia posts! But better late than never.

We had some visitor's in London in May of this year, my Aunt and Uncle, Ngaire and Peter, came to visit us all the way from New Zealand.

Bradley's family has been to visit us, but this was the first time I had seen any of my family in almost two years, so we were excited!

Unfortunately I don't have any photo's from Ngaire and Peter's first day in London, as the weather was horrendous so we couldn't do anything except sit in a warm pub and drink wine and cider. However, a few weeks later the weather took a turn for the better and we had a full fortnight of glorious sunshine.

Taking advantage of the lovely weather, and the fact Peter was going to an Air Show for the day, Ngaire made the trip down from Essex where they were staying to spend the day with Bradley and me.

The flags at the Apple Market in Covent Garden

Last day in Dubrovnik

After an amazing eight days in Croatia, we woke up early on our last day sad to be leaving.

We headed off to the ferry that was going to take us back to the main land, and then into a shuttle bus to Dubrovnik. It was a much shorter journey than the trip out of Dubrovnik, the whole trip was about 2 and a half hours, and we arrived in Dubrovnik at lunchtime.

Our flight wasn't until the evening, so we dropped our bags off at the apartment where we had stayed when we first arrived. The owner had generously allowed us to store our bags there until our flight. This meant we could enjoy our final day without worrying about lugging around our bags.

A day at the beach in Lumbarda

We had one full day in Korcula, and we spent it at the beach in nearby Lumbarda. Lumbarda is about 4km out of Korcula town, and famous for its pretty beaches. Apparently the other side of the island has the nicest beaches, but as we only had one day we didn't want to be travelling 40km on the bus.

We woke up early and had a wander around the city of Korcula, exploring the sites we had seen briefly the night before. It had been too dark to really appreciate the beauty of the town, so it was nice to wander around the sites and shops in the daylight.

Hvar and Korcula: Two Islands in One Day

We spent our last day on Hvar relaxing on sun loungers on the rocks down from our apartment. We enjoyed our first sleep in, and strolled along the rocks until we found the loungers with the best spot and with a ladder into the water. You had to pay to use them, but it was only about 6 pounds each for the whole day. Much nicer than sitting on the rocks!

Trialling the new Hvar Hop On Hop Off Bus

Since we spent almost the entire previous day away from Hvar, we decided to spend the next day exploring the other side of the island.

Hvar has just started a Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the island. There is only one bus, and it comes around every two hours, so we had to plan our day perfectly.

Before we got to the bus station, we had to stop and buy me a hat. My head was really sunburnt from the previous 4 days spent in the sun, and I had to find something to cover it up before it got any worse.

After visiting a few stores, we managed to find what we were looking for and headed towards the bus station to get the 10.30 a.m. bus. The bus is brand new, but had a large crack in the upstairs windscreen, and it wasn't hard to see why. 

The upstairs is an open top bus, but they haven't trimmed the tree branches along the route, so the upstairs passengers (us included) were constantly hit by tree's as we drove past! I think that's something they need to fix before there are more passengers and it's not as easy to move away from the dangerous seats!

Tiny kitten napping by the bus station

Olympics and a Golden Post Box for Chiswick

London has the Olympic fever at the moment, the build up to the Olympics was crazy. The Mayor of London and Transport for London spent months telling everyone to prepare for the games, and plan travel wisely because it was going to be INSANE with tourists everywhere and the tubes would be horrendous...

So far, it hasn't been that bad. 

I've been working different shifts at work since I work in the City, starting early one week and late the next, and my tube has been empty both to and from work, so it's been quite good. We have spent a lot of time in Chiswick the last few weeks, due to the influx of tourists, and the Mayor told everyone to spend some time exploring their own neighbours and STAY HOME basically. So everyone has been doing that, and now apparently the City of London is deserted, and shops and restaurants are losing money because everyone took the Mayor's advice and stayed home.

Londoner's do seem to be a lot friendlier than usual, possibly also helped by the sunshine we've had this week. People have been letting me onto the tube in front of them and saying Hello in the street. It's quite strange.

World flags on Regent Street

Spending the day on Sveti Klement

We woke up relatively late the day after our arrival in Hvar, I think around 9.00 a.m. Much later than the 6.30 to 7.00 a.m. wake up times from the previous few days! We must have been pretty exhausted after our huge travel day the day before.

We planned to spend the day away from Hvar Town, on the island of Sveti Klement, one of the nearby Pakleni Islands. Sveti Klement is about 20 minutes by taxi boat from Hvar Town, the furtherest away of the islands. 

Most of the other tourists seemed to be going to the islands of Jerolim and Marinkovac, which are both about 10 minutes away, so we headed further out in the hopes of finding a peaceful spot.

Our apartment from the outside

The long road from Dubrovnik to Hvar

We woke up extremely early on Tuesday morning to get to the main Bus Station, where we would be getting on a bus to Split, and then a ferry from Split to our next stop, Hvar (pronounced Phwar, not Hivar.. as previously thought).

The ride takes between about 4.5 to 5 hours depending on the traffic, and it goes along the Croatian cost, giving some amazing views.

Looking back towards Dubrovnik

A day trip to Mljet National Park

On Monday morning, we got up really early again as we had to get to the Marina to get the 9.00 a.m. ferry to the island of Mljet.

Mljet is about an hour and a half by boat from Dubrovnik, with the entire Western side of the Island being a National Park known for its stunning lakes.

We stopped on the way and picked up some picnic supplies, since there isn't much around once you get inside the park.

Weird Peanut flavoured crisps

The walled city of Dubrovnik

Bradley's visa was approved on Thursday, giving him a further 30 months in the UK. While I don't think we'll stay a further two and a half years, we're relieved that the process is over and done with, and we can resume regular blogging again now we don't feel so stressed!

So a few weeks ago, we spent an amazing week in Croatia. We flew into Dubrovnik on Saturday evening, having left London in the afternoon, which made a nice change from leaving in the early hours of the morning.

We landed at about 8.00 p.m., arriving to the chaos of two or three flights arriving at the same time into the very small arrivals area at Dubrovnik airport. After what seemed like forever waiting in a huge crowd, we managed to get through and meet our taxi to take us to our apartment.

We were staying in an apartment in the Ploce area of Dubrovnik, outside the city walls, and slightly elevated above the city, giving us amazing views, but without the loudness of the Old Town.

An afternoon in Munich

We decided to spend our last night on our Austria trip in Munich. We were flying out of Munich the next day, and we didn't want to be rushed travelling all the way from Sankt Gilgen, and then home to London in one day.

We have been to Munich before, during the April bank holiday weekend, and really loved it. So we were looking forward to exploring a bit more of the city. We've been to a lot of places over the last few years, but we haven't had a chance to visit anywhere more than once, so getting a second chance at Munich was exciting.

Exploring the towns on Lake Wolfgangsee

We have spent the last week in Croatia, so haven't had a chance to properly finish our Austrian trip! We are in the process of uploading our Croatian photo's onto the blog, but it takes a while. Hoping to have the first post up this week. Maybe.

So back to Austria... On Sunday we decided to explore the other towns on the shore of Lake Wolfgangsee. The horrendous rain from the previous day seemed to have cleared up and the sun was out, so we headed down to catch the ferry around the lake.

It was much busier in Sankt Gilgen than the day before, however the ferry wasn't crowded and we were able to grab a seat on the upper deck and enjoy the sunshine while we made our way to our first stop in the market town of St Wolfgang.

The picturesque lakeside town of Hallstatt

On Saturday we woke up and discovered that while it was still drizzly, the torrential rain and freezing cold from the day before had gone, much to our relief!

We had planned to spend the day in Hallstatt, about 45 minutes South East of Sankt Gilgen. Hallstatt is a tiny lakeside town, with only about 1000 inhabitants. The journey to Hallstatt is an interesting one. We had to catch a bus to the town of Bad Ischl, then a train to Hallstatt, and then as the train stop is across the lake from the town, we had to get the tiny ferry across the lake. 

Arriving by train and boat is by far the best way to go, the view of the town as we approached was amazing. I'll warn you, this is a very picture heavy post, I actually took over 400 photos in four and a half hours.

The view from across the lake towards Hallstatt

Salzburg in the rain

The first weekend in June was the Queen's Jubilee weekend, which meant instead of the normal one day's holiday we get off for the June bank holiday, we were lucky enough to get two days.

While there were lots of events going on in London, we decided to spend the weekend in Austria, away from the crazy crowds that would be headed into London to watch the Jubilee Regatta. Being able to travel without taking too much time off work is too hard to pass up! Plus, you always get a better view on TV anyway.

We flew into Munich on Friday morning, and caught a train from there to Salzburg. Train travel in Europe is so easy, and we were in Salzburg within three hours of landing in Munich.