London... a few lost pictures 2011

You don't get more London than Tower bridge and a big red bus :)

John and I in front of Big Ben and Parliment buildings.... yes that is blue sky behind us!!!

My car to work... if i was the queen that is. Sarah and I visited the stables on a day out at the palace and saw all the carriages including the wedding ones they used for Will and Kate. Best part was the coloring room were we rested our feet and did a craft :)

John Jamming out... makes me smile

Becoming one with the modern art pieces :) we are very cultured

John found and old fashioned bus and did the standard pose... how posh with the leather jacket :)

Baku...the warm months

I have been traveling since September to Baku in Azerbaijan (google it haha). These are just a few pictures from my first trip in the summer time when it is nice and hot, in the winter though it is freezing (i will post those soon). Above is a carnival which is set up along the Caspian Sea boardwalk area. This area is very nice with cafes and benches lining the water which is paved for miles.

This building is right near my hotel I typically stay at and is a municipal facility, not sure exactly what they do in there however. It has a very imposing presence on the area.

Baku is home to the largest flag in the world. they are extremely proud of the flag and you see it everywhere around town. Also the national colors of red, green, and blue are used on everything throughout the city from lighting to flowers.

It is the mini Gherkin!!! My theory is that they took the plans for the building in London and just built the top section :) thy really look identical and there re two of these, one at each entry.

Weekend in Paris

We took a weekend excursion to o'Paris in early December. it was a rather cold weekend but we saw all our favorite museums, had some romantic dinners, and walked around one of our favorite cities :) Plus we finally got some nice pictures of us with the Eiffel Tower!!!!

This is the line outside of Abercrombie on the Champs Elysees....at first when we saw the line we though it was a gallery or exhibit...then we smelled the abercrombie cologne, a signal in any mall of where the store is haha.

John in front of his favorite Paris monument. He was all smiles despite the rainy weather :)

Scambo of the Trip: It was free day at the Louvre with a line of at least an hour and a half..... score one for us, we found a side entry with zero wait time and enjoyed the Louvre for no entry fee and no wait :)

Glühwein enough said

We went to visit Kate in Dusseldorf and enjoyed the Traditional German Christmas Markets. The first stop was the Cologne Market next to the Cathedral. The backdrop was so picturesque with the stalls set up at the foot of the Dom (cathedral in German)

Kate and I getting ready to tackle the market

John and Kate mid market in Cologne. I think we were one mulled wine, one racoulette toast, and a pretzel in at this point :)

This was my favourite type of mulled wine called "Feuerzangenbowle" which is a traditional german drink where a rum-soaked sugarcube is set on fire and drips into mulled wine. They also added an extra shot to make it extra potent...and it was :)

At this stand the mugs had a special holder for the sugar and they lite it on fire in front of us... we were a bit scared to walk around with flaming mugs but the locals had no fear and took theirs right away haha.

An example of a very ornate gluhwein stand in Dusseldorf Old Town

Kate and I enjoying another hot beverage and apple strudel...pay close attention to the wolf lady behind us :) i love drinking and people watching

Picture of Cologne Festival all lit up at night...very pretty and festive with lights over many of the passageways and stands gathered up at central tree.

Luxor... the off strip location

Luxor was much more relaxed compared with Cairo and super hot...100 most days and not a cloud in the sky. They have many of the famous Eygptian sites which we toured in the mornings before it was too hot and leaving us free to lounge at the pool the rest of the day. Here are just some of the pictures from a great holiday :)

This is an old school family portrait...see how they are all lined up and saying CHEESE for the chiseler :)

I couldn'r believe how vivid the ancient wall paintings still were!!

John with the Colossi of Memnon....one was missing a little toe and asked john if he would stand in since he was just about the right size :)

Me outside the Temple of Hatshepsut

The POOL where we spent most days relaxing and playing in the water. They had these awesome lounge chairs which were half emerged inteh water so you could lay out and not get too overheated. Plus since it was not very crowded there were never more than ten other people at the pool!!!!

John playing on his Ipad and enjoying hte beautiful sunset :) They had very comfy sunset chairs at the relaxation pool

Hiking along the Northern Italian Coast

In recent weeks the region of Cinque Terre in Italy has been devastated by massive flooding and mudslides. Seeing the images on the internet I went back to see what I wrote about John and my trip there this past spring and realised I had not posted any pictures. So these are just some of the great pictures we took as we hiked from village to village. I am not sure when the trail will be reopened since it teeters on the edge of the cliffs in many sections but it was an amazing hike and our favorite part of visiting the area.

Hiking down to Manarola

Riomaggiore from the boat cruise. which after seeing all the towns from our hike the previous day was really nice getting a different perspective.

First glimpse through the trees of Vernazza

The towns which are UNESCO world heratige sites do not allow cars and are all made up of winding narrow streets.

Ticket 08396 and 08397

Due to extremely long QUEUE this post is a bit late... sorry for the delay :)

John and I headed out to Wimboldon again this year to join the famous queue as our ticket ballot was un successsful. Weather was not as great as last year but we had our blanket and reading material. This year our ticket numbers were 08396 and 08397 which meant we didn't make it into the first 8000 cut to enter the park so it became one in one out......at this point we left the queue after having been there for about 4 hours :(

We are entering the ballot again this year to try and avoid the queue and next year getting there a bit earlier...hopefully you will see some lower ticket numbers and pictures of some tennis in 2012 :)

THE QUEUE

The guy who never leaves the back od the queue haha