Poland - 22nd to 25th of May 2009

Gotto love May in the UK - two bank holiday Mondays! So after the first long weekend in Prague, we spent the second in Poland. We flew into Krakow on Friday night, but arrived late, so only got into our sightseeing on Saturday morning. We got straight on a bus west for about an hour and a half to Ośweicęm, better known by what the Germans called it, Auschwitz. Auschwitz I, previously deserted pre-war barracks, and the purpose built Auschwitz II - Birkenau, 3 kms away, are incredibly moving and depressing places. Its something everyone should see, and we are glad we did it, but its not somewhere we ever want to go again. It didn't really feel right taking photos, but I took a couple:

After getting the bus back into Krakow about 3ish, we wandered the streets of the old town through to the main market square, reputedly the largest medieval town square in all of Europe.

We walked along the river and out to the Jewish quarter, where we had an early dinner - dumplings of course.

Back into the main square for a few drinks, although neither of us were up for a big night given the morning we had had.

Sunday we again jumped on a bus, this time 40 minutes southeast to the salt mines at Wieliczka, which have been in operation for 700 years. A guide takes a group of you through about 2 km of the mines that are open to the public, down to about 135 metres underground.

Sunday afternoon we had another walk through Krakow old town and through the grounds of the Wawel Castle.

We even had time to watch about half of the F1 from Monaco at a sports bar, before our 5pm train to Warsaw. 3 hours later we checked into our hostel in Warsaw and walked into the "old" town for dinner. I say "old" because basically all (i.e. 85%) of Warsaw was ruined in September 1939 when Germany invaded. The rebuilt old town was based on old photos and drawings, so it looks old, even though it is just over 50 years old. The Palace of Culture and Science:
The Royal Castle at night:Monday morning we went up to the 30th floor of the Palace of Culture and Science for a view over the city, before walking out to Lazienki Park. Warsaw is surprisingly green, and Lazienki Park is a very pretty park just on the edge of the city centre.

Monday afternoon we had another walk through the old town, and then a quick walk through the Royal Castle, another building that looks old, although it was only rebuilt in the '70s.

We had a 9pm flight so we were always going to be home late, but due to bad weather in London the plane stayed on the ground in Warsaw for an extra hour and a half. So we didn't get back to Putney until 2.30am.

Prague - 1st to 4th of May 2009

Another long weekend and another cancelled flight. But at least this time we were notified, so we had to take the Friday afternoon off and get the earlier flight to Prague. The good thing about this of course was that we got time in Prague on Friday night for a bit of a walk around and a nice dinner.

Nicola arrived late friday night, so Saturday morning we were up early for a great cheap breakfast and a walk over Charles Bridge, the historical bridge over the Vltava River, that was built in the 14th century. Unfortunately not early enough to beat the crowds.

Across the river and through St Nicholas' Church on the way up to the Prague Castle, the city's number one tourist attraction, and it seemed as though every tourist in Europe was there. Managed to catch some of the changing of the guards at midday (well we tried to, through the thousands of tourists), before walking through the complex. By now we were getting thirsty so we walked around the hill to the Letna beer garden overlooking Prague from across the river. Great spot to hang out in the sun for a few hours and drink some very cheap beer!
We had planned to get up early Sunday morning and make our way to a little town called Cesky Krumlov, but on Saturday evening after walking around to the bus station and the train station, we realised this just wasnt going to work. So we tried to make up for it by having a late one on Saturday night experiencing some of the Prague nightlife.

Sunday we let ourselves have a bit of a sleep in before walking through a different part of town and then out on the Metro to Vysehrad, a fortress built on the side of the river, dating back to the 10th century. After a bit of a walk around we sat in the sun for the afternoon and read our books and had a bit of a snooze. After such a tough day we decided to head back to the beer garden for another one or two beers, and watched the lights come on over Prague over a few hands of cards.

Monday we got up early to find the awesome weather we had enjoyed on Saturday and Sunday was over. We got out to a castle about 40 minutes away by train in a small town of Karlstejn, but only really for a quick walk around as the rain was pretty persistant.

Back into Prague to give our umbrellas more of a workout. Time for a walk around, lunch, a trip up the clock tower for Warren, and one last cheap beer before the flight back to London.

Anzac day in London - 25 April 2009

Having walked past the NZ memorial at Hyde Park corner on Friday the 24th, we spent ANZAC day afternoon walking around London's Imperial War Museum, near Waterloo. The museum's main displays were around WWII and the rise and fall of Hitler, which was a bit of a shame since the ANZAC day landing at Gallipoli was obviously during WWI. But we still had a good few hours brushing up on our history before our trip to Poland in a few weeks time...

Dubai - 10th to 13th April 2009

Dramas aplenty on the way to Dubai. We were unable to checkin online for our flight, so rang our airline at about 10.30am only to find out that the 9.30pm Thursday night flight that we had booked had been rescheduled to 10.15am. So we were put on the 3.30pm flight which meant we had to skip work for the afternoon, only to get to Heathrow where an abandoned bag caused a bomb scare and an evacuated terminal 3! Finally, we left London at about 5.30pm.

Arriving at our accomodation in Dubai on Friday morning at about 6.30am, we slept most of the morning before a lazy day strolling around the Dubai Marina area and having lunch at the Hilton on Jumeirah beach. This is where we stayed, right on the beach, with a colleague of Warrens.

View over the Palm Jumeirah:Ours was the big glass building on the right.
View of the Hilton/beach from our apartment:
We had an hour or so to burn at the pool in our apartment complex. This is the pool from the lift up to our 41st floor apartment: Friday night we had a drink and then dinner at a chinese restaurant at the Hotel Mina Al Salam (if you want a wine with dinner you have to eat at a hotel restaurant), looking across to the Burj Al Arab:

Saturday morning we got a taxi (the public transport is non-existant, but luckily taxis seem like the only cheap thing in Dubai) down to the Dubai Creek which is the old part of Dubai, although still skyscrapers everywhere! We jumped on a little boat and cruised up and down the creek.

If you look closely you can see our boat in the mirrored glass windows:

We then had a walk around the gold souk (market/bizaar), before heading out to the Mall of the Emirates, the one with Ski-Dubai attached.

We didn't have time for a ski, but had lunch watching some beginners making fools of themselves.After a quick walk around the shops, we headed back to our apartment for a snooze (Ange) or some R&R on the beach (Warren and his workmate). Dinner on Saturday was at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, right in the shadow of the Burj Al Arab again. Then drinks afterwards were up the Burj Al Arab itself, situated on an artificial island you can only get to with a booking, and home of the world's most expensive cocktail!The Burj Al Arab hotel lobby:

Sunday was spent at the Aquaventure at the Atlantis Hotel on the top of the Palm Jumeirah. The Palm is the largest manmade island in the world, and added 520km of coastline to Dubai.
One of the slides goes through the shark/fish/sting ray tank!Sunday night's dinner and drinks were across the road from our Apartment at the Ritz Carlton.

Monday morning we had time for a couple of hours on the beach before our flight back to London.