The Rhine Valley - 1st to 4th of July 2011

Our friends took the Friday afternoon off work and so we picked up the hire car from the train station to set off south from Dusseldorf to the Rhine Valley. A few paperwork issues with the hire car company led to an unexpected bonus for Warren: he was the named driver, and so got to put the pedal to the metal along the famed AutoBahn. In surprisingly poor condition, the Autobahn we were on was basically a two or three laned highway, nothing special in the least, other than the no speed limits, and getting overtaken by Audis at 190 kph.

The main "Rhine Valley" tourist area is a 60km section of the river with castles around every bend. The northern point is a town called Koblenz, where we stayed on Friday night. Situated right where the Rhine River meets one of its main tributaries, the Moselle River, it has a great little old town overlooked by fort perched on the opposite river bank. We had a good look around and got a gondola over the river to the fort for a wine, sausage and views back over town. We happened to be in Koblenz when it seemed every man and his dog were there for some flower festival, that involved sound stages being set up in every square in the city. Couple of drinks later...
Nice late check out and great German breakfast of bread, cheese and meat, and we were on our way further south along the river. There are a number of cool little town perched on the rivers edge, and of course castles a-plenty. This one was Stolzenfels, one of the only castles we ended up actually visiting.
Next stop was a lovely little village called Boppard to stretch the legs.The days drive was only 30km or so, so nice and easy, and so we arrived at our destination, St Goar nice and early. A late lunch (pork schnitzel, still loving being out of Dubai!) and then a mini train up to the castle that overlooks the town for a few more beverages.
Turns out our friends are also big card players, so we found a good picnic spot for some wine and cheese and rocked out a few hands of presidents and 500.
With a whole day ahead of us, we picked up some hire bikes and headed south. Its about 30km from St Goar where we were staying to Bingen, the most southern point of this main touristy Rhine Valley section. We took our time, with plenty of stops along the way for wine tasting, beer, and sausages along the waters edge. Having finally made it to Bingen, we weren't going to turn around and do it all in reverse, so we threw our bikes on a ferry and cruised down river for an hour or so back to St Goar. Another great dinner and more cards and it was time to say goodbye to our friends. They left very early Monday morning for the drive back to Dusseldorf for work, while we jumped on a train south (via Bingen) to our next destination...

Dusseldorf - 30th June to 1st July 2011

Nearly 4 hours by train south and west to Dusseldorf. Friends of ours from New Zealand are currently living and working in Dusseldorf, so we dumped our bags at the train station and went for a walk around the city while we waited for them to finish work.
A great old town of cobbled lanes and beer halls spilling out onto the streets. Our designated meeting area right next to the Rhine, perfect spot for a pint and reading up of the guide book.Quickly back to our friends place before getting shown some typical German eateries - lots of beer, pork knuckle and roast beef, served with dumplings and red cabbage, now there's a hearty meal!
Following day walking around the local markets before picking up the hire car and heading south...

Hamburg - 29th to 30th of June 2011

A speedy 2 hour train north west to Hamburg. More of a stopover on our way to meet friends in Dusseldorf, we had an afternoon to walk around the city, through the town square and along the canals, and up the top of Michaeliskirche (St Michael's Church) for a lookout across the city). With one of the biggest shipyards in Europe, it is perhaps not surprising that it also has one of the biggest red light districts. A miserable night weatherwise, we found a cool little bar to shelter from the rain, a nice change from the endless sun in Dubai!

Berlin - 27th to 29th of June 2011

Arriving in Germany after a mental busy weekend in the UK, we couldn't do anything before a quick snooze at the hotel! Having heard they were almost must-dos in Berlin, we wandered over to Alexanderplatz mid afternoon for the start of a bike tour of the major sights of Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall (or what's left of it)

Holocaust Memorial, still creating controversy today.

Brandenburg Gate

After all that cycling, thankfully the tour took in more culture, an awesome beer garden in the middle of a giant city park.

Final stop as the sun was going down, the Reichstag, seat of the German parliament.

Having ticked off most of the sights on the bike tour, we spent the following day going to the few remaining highlights and revisting a couple of sights in more detail. Namely the Jewish Museum the SS Museum and some of the remaining sections of the wall.

A pretty huge night out followed. We went out on a organised pub crawl with a bunch of 18 year olds, we figured it might be fun, and it kinda was. Met a few nice people and got showed a few "different" bars around a small part of the city. All topped off by an awesome Doner Kebab - Germany has a huge Turkish population and so Berlin in particular has a reputation for great Kebabs. We had our share on this holiday, but for some reason at 3am they are just so good!

Weekend in the UK - 24th to 27th of June 2011

We were lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of our good friends in Dubai, held back in the UK. We arrived at Heathrow on Friday morning and went our seperate ways - Ange into London to spend the day catching up with Nicola, and Warren down to Sussex to play a round of golf. We caught up later that night back in London with the old crew of London friends.

Up early on Saturday morning to head out to Somerset for the wedding, about an hour and a half Southwest on the train and another 30 minutes by cab to the venue. We were staying on site in an awesome old manor, so got dolled up and walked to the top of the drive to the private chapel for the ceremony.

Back to the manor for the reception, bubbly, croquet, and dancing.

Up early on Sunday to make our way back to London for an afternoon in the sun. We went back to one of our favourite pubs with a great beer garden, more time to catch up with friends about the latest goings on in London.

Too many early mornings in a row, but we had a flight to catch so were up early on Monday and out to Heathrow for the flight onto Germany...

Yas Island (Abu Dhabi) - 22nd and 23rd of April 2011

A blast down Sheik Zayad road to Yas Island, about 45 minutes south of Dubai and almost to Abu Dhabi. Yas Island is a development project that (although still WIP) has hotels, hosts the Abu Dhabi F1 grand prix, and most importantly has an amazing golf course.

Planned as a golf weekend, we met three of Warren's workmates (plus one of their girlfriends) at the golf course for lunch on Friday, after which we played a round of golf while the girls sunned themselves back at the hotel.

A dip and a great dinner back at the hotel, we then played another round on Saturday afternoon before hitting the road back north to Dubai.

Beirut - 16th to 19th of February 2011

Straight back from New Zealand, a re-pack, and Warren was off to Beirut for skiing weekend with the boys. Beirut is a 3 hour flight north from Dubai, and the ski field about 1.5 hours up the mountain from there. Day 1 was rediculous, too much snow to do anything, blizzard conditions and only the baby slope to keep us occupied. But that meant days 2 and 3 were amazing skiing, lots of snow and not too many people since it wasn't the weekend. Day 4 was a bit of a write-off, the snow too slushy and the people too pushy. Overall a great weekend and definitely worth the trip, surprisingly good skiing, and a decent sized area that kept us busy for a good three days.

New Zealand trip home - 2nd to 15th of February 2011

Not sure if we really needed to do this blog since we saw basically everyone we know on this trip, but here are some of our pics from our trip back to New Zealand in February. Ultimately 10 awesome days with friends and family!