Last days of summer

Susie and I are currently in Granada in southern Spain. Highlights and lowlights of the last week have included:

- A successful day trip out of Rome down to the 2300 year old archeological site at Pompeii and to the top of Mt. Vesuvius!
- Susie's wallet being pickpocketed on the Rome Metro... We didn't notice a thing. Don't know how it happened... What an absolute pain for her, but we just cancelled all the cards and got on with things.
- A 4am wake up for our flight to Spain
- A trip to the BEACH in Valencia!
- Spanish food and culture including La Alhambra, the really old Arabic palace in Granada, going to a flamenco fiesta, and eating paella and tapas
- A hostel with FREE internet! So send me an email!!!

I'm back in Germany again on Wednesday night... Luke arrives on Thursday, Oktoberfest on Saturday, then England on Monday. No time for sleeping!!!!!!

My youth hostel

I've been collecting ideas along the way about what I would have at my youth hostel, if I ever got around to opening one up. It would NOT have seedy old men on reception who wear board shorts and thongs and dirty white blazer jackets. It would have flushing toilets and a hot shower, and it would NOT have bed bugs. Oh, and the bedroom doors would close, if not also lock, and I would have some sort of security system in place so that only paying guests may actually enter the premises and have access to all the facilities and everyone's luggage.

Guess what our hostel in Florence was like!!! Yes, all of the above and more. I forgot to mention the 'kitchen' had only one teaspoon. I ate my muesli with a fork.

Don't worry, Susie and I checked out of there and found ourselves a nice little one-star hotel with all the mod cons like unblocked toilets and a key to our door. At least we were still able to do all our little planned trips, such as to see Michelangelo's David (we were not disappointed) and to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, visit Siena, and go on an afternoon wine tasting tour of the Chianti region.

Now we're in Rome and ready for 6 days of serious sightseeing action before hitting the beach and waterslides in Spain!!!

Russian contrasts

Welcome to St Petersburg... Here is your hotel, a concrete monstrosity complete with a bowling alley, go-karting, and a pool hall...



Meanwhile, just down the road you will find a beautiful orthodox church that looks about as different from your hotel as any building possibly could be. This is definitely my favourite building in Russia - it's called the Church of the Spilled Blood and was built in the 1880s on the site where Tsar Alexander II was killed by a conspirator. How this church survived both the war (St Petersburg was under siege from the Nazis for 3 years) and then the atheist years when religion was banned under communism, I just don't know.


By the way, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Off to Italy tomorrow with Susie so I'll be in touch again when we take a rest from eating, sightseeing and relaxing in Venice and on the Mediterranean coast...!

Absolut Ice Bar

In Stockholm, we visited the Absolut Ice Bar... Fifteen euros covers 45 minutes entry to the bar - which is made entirely of ice, a big fluffy silver thermal coat to wear, and one Absolut vodka cocktail served in a block of ice shaped like a glass!