More UK

It was so HOT in London...



...everyone seemed to be lying on every inch of lawn available...



...we couldn't do too much ourselves so we spent lots of time lying in the sun...



...until we came to COLD Scotland. Lucky we packed the big coats, too. That's Jay Fraser.



We visited the ruins of an old castle at Loch Ness. Nessy didn't come to say hello!

London in May, too!

Well what can I say...we came back from our Paris trip with a broken camera and lots of good memories. Yes, that's right, Michael's camera broke. He was pretty heartbroken I can tell you!
I was in such a travel fewer that I pleaded and begged and carried on until Michael agreed to go to London and Scotland for another week. We hadn't even booked the trip yet! Michael was feeling quite unwell at that stage AND his camera was broken but I wanted to use our remaining spare time travelling because a few weeks later I was going to start full time work. So we booked it and flew to London - with my dad's camera in the suitcase while Michael's was being fixed.

First we stayed with Michael's former Mildura housemate Bree, lovely Bree the journalist, and her boyfriend Gary in their wonderful flat just out of London. We had a GREAT time with them. Except for that one night when Michael was feeling really really sick and we went to hospital the next day. They didn't know what was wrong with him but as we would find out later, he had pneumonia!!!
After some great days in London we flew to Inverness in the Scottish Highlands where we visited a pen friend on mine. Mrs Jay Fraser. She is 86 and we met 12 years ago when my parents and I spent a holiday in Portugal. I had just started English classes and struck up a (very basic!) conversation with her. We've been writing letters ever since. When we got off the plane her first words were 'Maria, you've got so tall!'. I haven't heard that in a while :) Well, the Scottish countryside is probably THE most beautiful thing we had seen in a long long time. AMAZING. Breathtaking. The pictures just don't do it justice. But have a look for yourself.

LONDON!!!



We had to have lots of rests...including this one in Hyde Park



...sitting on the lawn for 3 hours!



The man who discovered Australia: Captain Cook!



Bree's still quite Aussie at heart...having a BBQ with Bree and Gary.

More Paris in May

It says "Here is the Empire of the Dead"



And there it was...



Very creepy!



Back in the world, this is La maison de les Bessigneul's (The house of the Bessigneul family)



French kiss!

PARIS in May...

Bonjour mes amis, hello friends,

in May we decided to visit our friend Marie-Laure Bessigneul, a crazy French girl from France's beautiful capital PARIS. I got to know Marie-Laure as a backpacker when we shared a flat together in Sydney in 2005. I hadn't seen her since so you can imagine we had LOTS to talk about after 5 years! Michael had both been to Paris before so we didn't feel obliged to tick off all the major sights...instead, we had a rather cozy stay in Paris. We stayed at Marie-Laure's great aunts flat in the centre of town, went on long strolls through town, sat in LOTS of cafes and visited a few unusual places...like the catacombes of Paris - where the bones of 6 MILLION Parisians have been stacked up to make room for more bodies on the cemeteries while the Plague was raging. That was certainly a very creepy experience! We also caught up with a friend of Michael's who is doing what Michael's doing this year - discovering the culture of his French wife! We had a great time in Paris - see for yourselves:



The Bessigneul Family - a typical French family?! I don't think so!



French parking - could it get any tighter?!



French shoes...no seriously, if you go to Paris, they all walk around like that!



Marie-Laure and I and some metal construction everyone took photos of...



Got to live up to the Parisian clichee!

Berlin in May !

In May when it was still wet and grey we decided to visit our capital BERLIN. Berlin is one of those cities you either love or hate. As for me, I don't love it particularly. It's all over the place, messy, dirty and full of contradictions. Throughout its history it has been split up and divided so many times that there is no real centre and bits and pieces are happening in every corner. Berlin was heavily bombed in WWII and many ugly (and few nice) buildings have been built to fill the blanks. What is Berlin's identity in the 21st century? They might not even know themselves. I find it fascinating for its history, and I think Michael, too.


Brandenburger Tor.



The Holocaust Memorial.



Inside of the Reichstag, the German parliament.



Reichstag from the outside.

WE HAVE BEEN LAZY!

Dear friends,

it happened - blog-o-laziness has set in. It is what always happens...People start beautiful blogs with photos and all and then the excitement of life is so overwhelming that the blog is forgotten! That's what happened to me, blog-writer and guilty of neglecting our beautiful blog. I know you have been following our blog faithfully and have been waiting for an update...SORRY FRIENDS! I will now keep updating our lovely blog. Where to start?! So much has happened! Be patient and I will slowly fill you in on what we've been up to! Here's a little sneak-peek at what's to come in the coming posts: I'm going to tell you about our travels...Michael's amazing timelaps photography...Maria's new fulltime job - and much more! Stay posted!!!

Love
M&M