Hello from Vienna

Hi Everyone

Just a quick update to let you know that we are now safely back in Vienna, and currently recovering from our whirlwind tour of Europe. The weather has been fantastic, averaging 29 degrees during the day and about 16 at night. We've been spending a lot of time getting to know Remo, the parents little (52kg) doggie.

This week we've been doing a bit of wandering around town, catching up with people and sorting out Marco's old belongings which are making the attic sag under their weight.

Here is a little picture of Remo in case you don't know him.


Cheers

Lubeck and Hamburg

Finally we headed off to Lubeck, which is about 50km from Hamburg. We hired a car, which made it much easier to get around. As soon as we landed the first thing that struck me was CLEAN - not a spot of rubbish anywhere. It was a shock coming from Italy, which is a little more laid back! Also, absolutely postcard perfect. Beautiful thatched roof houses, and perfectly manicured gardens.


We went to the harbour, also fantastically tidy. They smoke fish straight off the boats on the wharf.

Then we headed to Travemunde (literally Trave River mouth) for a quick dip in the Baltic sea (thanks Peter) !!. You may be able to see in the background a man actually swimming in his speedo's. He later told us he was originally from Vienna and had lived in this area for the last 40 years. For the record the water temperature was around 16 degrees and considered warm and perfect for swimming!

The next day we drove to Hamburg where I was amazed by the high standard of living. Can you believe it was 29 degrees? Anyhow, it was beautiful, however we only had a few hours to explore as we had to catch a plane back to Vienna at 1pm. Here are some pictures of the Rathaus (city hall) and the port area which is accessed from the North Sea.

Pisa

Next we were off to Pisa in Italy - we actually stayed in Terrenia which is a seaside area about 20 minutes drive from the city of Pisa. As you can see it wasn't exactly perfect weather, although it cleared up as the day went along.

I'm happy to say the tower is still standing,

in spite of Marco trying to push it over ....

and thanks to me propping it up!

We also visited the beautiful church:

In addition we ate some fantastic food. Here is Marco with a Tartufo, a favourite dessert of his. I also had the best gelato I have ever tasted - sorry no picture as I ate it too quickly!

Valencia 32nd America's Cup

We left Barcelona by train and headed to Valencia, with the primary purpose of watching the last few races of the Louis Vuitton Cup which would decide who the challenger for the 32nd America's Cup would be. The Swiss team (Alinghi) are defending. I didn't know much about Valencia before we arrived, but I assumed they grow nice oranges (which they do).

First some images of Valencia itself, which has an interesting mix of both new and old.


Now, the America's Cup. This is a huge event for Valencia to host with and the facilities they provided were excellent.
The Defenders (Swiss Alinghi)
The Challengers (Emirates Team New Zealand)
The prize ... the Americas Cup. Racing starts in early July.
Marco, his father Pietro and best friend Roman had their sailing dreams come true by going for a sail on an ex-Americas Cup racer. At 175 Euro per person, I'm sure it was worth it. I hung around Valencia and investigated the beach and the harbour which were both beautiful. I also got to see the Kiwi's do their victory dance!

I could get very used to Valencia, which was a beautiful place. It was hard to get used to the eating times - lunch at 2:30 and dinner no earlier than 9:30. Here's a picture of all of us after dinner at a "locals only" restaurant in the suburbs (recommended by our taxi driver). Nobody spoke English so we had to rely on Marco and sign language. I was sucessfully able to communicate lamb by saying "baa baa".

Pictures of Barcelona

Hi All

Apologies for the delayed transmission due to a lack of computing power for the last week. Here are some pictures of Barcelona.

One of the beautiful buildings in the Ramblas area, near where we stayed.

The huge statue of Christopher Columbus overlooking the harbour.

The yacht club where we had a fantastic (and huge) lunch.

I just had to show you the beautiful headband that I bought :)

Hi From Barcelona

Hi All

Our hotel happens to have computers available so I'm able to write a little post to the blog. Sadly, can't upload any pictures from here. We arrived in Barcelona mid afternoon yesterday after a slightly prolonged flight from Vienna via Berlin. At last I can now say I've been to Berlin - if only to the (slightly depressing) airport. Our flight was FULL of school graduates heading South for their graduation holiday. Needless to say lots of silly laughter and clapping on landing (??!!).

Barcelona is beautiful, as I'm sure many of you already know. We are staying in a hotel in the Ramblas area, which is right in the heart of the action. We went to a slightly touristy tapas bar for lunch, and had a lovely dinner in a "locals" haunt near the hotel. Also did some very important shoe shopping ... with the prospect for more I suppose in the future.

Today we're off to explore a bit more of the city, including a walk down to the harbour which is less than a kilometre away. At the harbour there is a huge statue of Christopher Columbus and a gondola trip across part of the harbour which we hope to try. We'll also catch the subway into the city centre and investigate purchasing our train tickets to Valencia where we head tomorrow. An update is coming soon(ish).....

Cheers

Marco & Monica

Happy Birthday Marco!

Hi All

In spite of our Hong Kong illness which has plagued us over the last few days, we managed to celebrate Marco's birthday in true Malgarini style - with a bottle of champagne and a HUGE chocolate cake. Marco's mother, Gudrun, makes the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. Even without the use of my tastebuds (thanks to the flu) it still tasted wonderful. Here are some pictures of Marco blowing out his candles, which were sufficient for the needs of an entire third world household for half a year.











Last night we had dinner at the Donauturm revolving restaurant, which is 170 metres above ground. The food was excellent, with huge portions, but most exciting was the view. Here is a picture of the parents enjoying their meal, and the wonderful view we had during our meal.









Tomorrow we head off to Barcelona for the Spain - Italy - Germany trip. I hope to get the opportunity to update the blog along the way, but if not I'll do a huge information dump when we get back next Saturday.

Cheers to all!

Monica & Marco