Australia & New Zealand - Day 4 - 30th May

Day 4

Today I went to Circular Quay, probably my favourite place in Sydney. Hopefully the images below will explain why.

Circular Quay

Circular Quay was originally called Semi-Circular Quay due to its shape. Over time it became shortened to Circular Quay for convenience and has kept that name since about 1850, even though today it's shape is almost a square.

Circular Quay circa 1892

It is a busy, bustling place with a railway station and numerous ferry terminals for the ferries transporting people across to all sides of Sydney Harbour. 

Circular Quay railway station and wharf.

The Fishburn waiting on berth

Wharf 3, tickets for the Manly Ferry

It houses a cruise liner terminal and numerous restaurants and bars and of course the famous Opera House.

A Cruise Liner in port

The iconic Sydney Opera House

Of all of the bars, my favourite is Buckleys, a bar/restaurant selling craft beers and ciders and serving excellent food day and night. If you are ever down here give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

Looking across the quay to Buckley

While walking around I heard what I thought was Neil Young singing and playing a banjo.  Now those of you that know me know how much I admire Neil Young so I had to find the source of the music.  It  was this unassuming guy playing a ukulele and singing with Neil Youngs voice. Incredible!  I hung around and gave him a good donation. Hope he is there when I go back.

My favourite busker 

Of course, overlooking all of this is the magnificent Sydney Harbour Bridge, but more of this when I visit The Rocks later.

Australia & New Zealand - Day 3 - 29th May

Day 3

After a lazy start to the day we set off for Manly and after a short stop at South Curl Curl to check out the waves ......

............ we arrived in Manly and had a great breakfast in the Sugar Lounge situated. right opposite the beach.  

Great food and service, I would highly recommend this one.  Family friendly and Kids welcome, even Dylan!

We then spent the next few hours wandering along the seafront exploring the offerings on display at the various stalls at the Manly Food, Wine, Beer and Cider Festival.

There was plenty of live music, and I bought an album from an artist appearing there, called Akova

There were crowds of people enjoying themselves, drinking craft beers and ciders,trying various local foods -

I had some great oysters!

After a while exploring more we decided to round things off with a meal in the New Brighton Hotel, a particular favourite of mine......

......before heading home to relax

Australia & New Zealand - Day 2 - 28th May

Day 2

After the troubles of the first leg of the journey the second leg from Abhu Dhabi to Sydney was much less stressful. The plane left on time and a little over 14 hours later we arrived safely at Kingsford Smith International in Sydney, half an hour earlier than expected.  Almost caught Amy out as she arrived at the airport to pick me up and saw that the plane had already landed.

Cerys seemed excited to see me........

             

......... and we were soon on our way to Frenches Forest and on the way we drove past the city and over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Vivid Sydney Light Festival filled the sky. A truly spectacular sight.

A quiet night unpacking and settling in at Amy and Justin's followed just quietly unwinding, relaxing and catching up. Making plans to visit the Manley Food, Beer and Wine Festival tomorrow.

Australia & New Zealand - Day 1 - 27th May 2016

Day 1

After an uneventful trip up to Heathrow from Newport I checked in and had a coffee with Kevin before going through to departures.  Plenty of time to check in at the Ethiad First class lounge and have a nice Champagne breakfast. As usual I was made to feel very welcome at reception and the staff were most attentive in the lounge and dining areas

There was still time for a shower and a massage before my flight was due to be boarded.

Feeling very relaxed I left the lounge and headed towards the gate, whereupon I was informed that there was a delay, which turned out to be 1 and a half hours.  Normally this would not have phased me, but as I only had a 1.45 turnaround in Abu Dhabi to make my flight to Sydney, I was worried and checked the situation with the Ethiad staff.  I was told not to worry as the airline would sort it out, so I didn't, and went back to the Lounge.

Eventually called to board with the message that the pilot would try to make up the time on the journey.

I love flying with Ethiad and as soon as I had settled into my berth I was handed a glass of champagne and a copy of the menu to pre book my meal which would be served at a time to suit me.

 

 

I chose Arabic Mezze followed by Pan Seared Bass with a Cafe de Paris Sauce and Chive Mashed Potatoes.  I asked for it to be served at 12.30.  It was actually served thirty minutes late but it did not detract from what was a very nice meal.

Time for sleep then though, to try and get my head around the time difference as I would be landing in Sydney at 17.55 tomorrow.  

I did manage to get a couple of hours and the Pilot made up a lot of time which meant that we were able to make our connection without any delay.  

Now for the next leg, a 14 hour flight to Australia.

Australia and New Zealand June & July 2016

Thursday May 26th.

Well its finally arrived, I am off to Australia tomorrow.  My brother Kevin will be staying here overnight and he will be driving me to Heathrow at 4.00 in the morning.  I have everything packed and I'm ready to go.

It's going to be a long day tomorrow which is why I've paid the extra and will be travelling business class with Ethiad. Lie flat beds and all that.  I know it's expensive but to arrive having slept well is a bonus and you don't waste the first few days of the holiday feeling 'jet lagged.'

I will be arriving in Sydney at 6.00pm on Saturday evening and my daughter Amy will be picking me up from the Airport with my granddaughter Cerys.  

After a mini panic, my tickets for the Wales tour of New Zealand arrived today.  So I am well set.  

Hopefully I'll have travelling tales to tell tomorrow.

Montpellier & Marseille April 2016

Montpellier & Marseille April 2016

For the second year running, Newport Gwent Dragons reached the semi-final of the European Challenge Cup and were drawn away to Montpellier in the South of France.

Steve Mullis, Thomas Tasker and I decided to make the journey to support them so after checking dates I set about booking the Ibis Centre Hotel for three nights from Friday April 22nd until Monday  25th.  We flew from Bristol to Montpellier on the way out but as there was no return flight available for Monday from there, we agreed to fly back from Marseille on the Monday evening.  This would also give us a chance to see a city that none of us had visited previously.

After that arduous journey to Gatwick we headed to the bar for a few drinks before boarding our flight.

The hotel was fine and the staff very friendly and accommodating, so we decided that we would eat breakfast there every morning.  Good value for money.

Montpellier is a fine city about 12 km from the sea.  It boasts the largest pedestrianized city centre in Europe complete with a new tram system.  It is teeming with shops and Restaurants and dining out of an evening was what you would like to expect in France and we were never disappointed, visiting four different restaurants including that old favorite ‘Entrecotes’

We lost the match on the Saturday evening to a star studded Montpellier side, including amongst a near all international line up, the Du Plessis brothers from South Africa. Despite this fact, the Dragons produced a sterling performance especially in the second half.

The ground was very modern and held about 15,000 people but their food and drink policy was a little unusual in that you had to Pay 1 Euro for a credit card upon which you could deposit any amount of money.  Thereafter, the only way you could purchase food and drink was by proffering this card for a diminishing balance after placing each order.  The worst part of this system was that if you had a balance on your card when you were ready to leave you would not be able to cash it in.

On the Sunday we took a tram to the final station on the route to the coast then walked a couple of Kilometers to get to the beach.  After a stroll around we had a relaxing pit stop in a port side café/restaurant before heading back to Montpellier.

The following morning we had an early breakfast and booked out of the hotel.  We caught the 9.00am train to Marseille and settled down for a relaxing journey.  On arrival in Marseille we headed for the ‘Old Port’ area and were not disappointed when we reached there.  It appeared to be steeped in history and there were many boats moored along the quays which in turn were surrounded by cafes, bars and restaurants.  We stopped in a restaurant suitably named ‘Le café du Port’ for a quick drink which soon turned into a few bottles of wine and a splendid lunch meal.  I would highly recommend this restaurant which had recently re-opened under the ownership of a young French man and his family.

After finishing our lunch we decided to take an open top bus tour to see as much as we could before heading to the airport.  I think it is fair to say we have all been on better bus tours than this one but it did give us the opportunity to see areas of Marseille that we would otherwise have missed.

On completion of the tour we returned to ‘Le café du Port’ for a final bottle of red between us before heading to Marseille airport for the long trip home.  Oh how I dislike the car journey from Gatwick to Newport at the end of a holiday, be it a short one or a long one, but you can’t make an omelet as they say.

Here’s to next season and hopefully we can go one step further and reach the final.