Northampton and more Leighton Buzzard

Nat's working in Northampton, which is about 40 mins drive away I think, so I went with her yesterday to check out the place. It hasn't got the best reputation, but I thought it had quite nice buildings (a few prominent churches including a circular one from 1100s, a guild hall, a decent town square etc), and an interesting museum. The Museum's main focus is on shoes as this is the home of Doc Martens, and has been a shoe making town since 1100s. Surprisingly really interesting - with shoes from around the world of all different eras... and quite some interesting fashion statements! Its even got the ones Naomi Campbell fell off on the catwalk...

We also visited Milton Keynes which is a purpose built satellite town for London with quite an odd feel to it... huge shopping mall, indoor ski slope, movie theatres, grid layout roads...

And other than that I've been wandering round Leighton Buzzard a bit more... hunting out computer shops to burn a DVD of photos, posting things home etc. Rains kept me from bigger excursions.. it just keeps coming!

England - London and Leighton Buzzard

London

After backpacking around for a while, the novelty of being picked up at the airport and chaffeured to a serviced appartment was rather nice! (Thanks Wendy and company) And realising that we understand all the radio, all the signs etc because everything is in English is good, while doing mental conversions from pounds to AUD$ is definitely not a good idea!

We admired the view from Wendy's 9th floor apartment in Chelsea (St Pauls Cathedral, The Eye, and the Gerkin) We dined out in a Thai restaurant which was the first Asian food we've had for months. And went for a wander round the area, visiting Harrods and Hyde park.

Then it was time to say goodbye - leaving Wendy to go househunting, while I caught a train out to visit Tim and Nat in Leighton Buzzard.

Leighton Buzzard

Whats with the wierd name huh? Well I had to look it up on the Web...

There are a number of theories about its curious name but the most likely is that "Leighton" is an Old English language term meaning a clearing in the woods. The "Buzzard" was added by the Dean of Lincoln in whose diocese the town was in the 12th century. He had two communities called "Leighton" and in order to differentiate them he added the name of his local Prebendary or representative to that of the town. At that time it was a Theobald de Busar and so over the years the town became known as Leighton Buzzard. The other Leighton became Leighton Bromswold.

One other snippet of info... its quarry was apparently used for filming of The Mummy, and more recently The Da Vinci Code!

Now on to the important stuff... Tim and Nat are fine, busy with work of course, but enjoying the town and the convenience of having everything you need nearby (and a very handy mini tesco and chinese takeaway just down the road) while also being able to go for a short walk through fields or paddocks.

Tims a proud gardener - check out the sweetpeas! And over the weekend I've been taken out for Thai dinner with Tim's workmates in Bedford, and also taken on some lovely drives through the countryside... up to hills where they fly remote control gliders, past many thatched roofed cottages, to a national trust country estate, along canals with boats and locks and even to an english pub. Its all very english with small towns, hedge lined fields, and rain... yeah flooding in England if you haven't heard, but we're ok here. Its lovely being able to relax, cook again, and even watch crappy day time TV too!

Dubrovnik and nearby islands

The old town of Dubrovnik is a beautiful walled city, with a lovely harbour full of boats - very picturesque, and hard not to fall in love with. We wandered the white stone paved pedestrian streets, full of pizzerias, churches, palaces, souvenir and icecream shops. And of course we did a lap of the city walls, which had to be a highlight - admiring the views, descovering hidden cafes and swiming spots perched on rocks outside the city walls, and contemplating how over 2/3 of the tiled roofs we saw had to be replaced after the war and bombings of the 90s. Still, the city walls have got to be the most impressive I've seen.

Being a holiday, we decided to spend our last full day making the most of the hot weather and island and beach hopping... So we headed out to the Elafiti islands by water ferry, and spent a couple of hours on each lolling in the beautiful clean clear water, before heading on to the next island to find more beaches... and even a few sand ones! Feeling a bit sunburnt we headed out for our last croatian dinner, in the area of Lapad, a bay suburb known for its hotels and restaurants and relaxed vibe.

Split, Trogir and Brač island

From cold and wet lakes, we headed for the coast and found the coast hot and sunny... back to shorts and t-shirts.

Split is a thriving city with a beautiful old town right on the waterfront. Its a walled city, built and paved with beautiful white stones, and the Diocletians Palace dates back to Roman times. The old buildings are now mainly full of shops, cafes and restaurants, and with the narrow roads and no cars, its kind of maze like but in a good way. And being on the waterfront, with boats and ferries heading everywhere, its got a real pleasant buzz of people doing their stuff. Certainly helped that we had a room right in the heart of the old town... look out the windo and you find a cafe.

Trogir was just an hours bus ride away, and its another beautiful medieval town (Unesco listed) made of white stone, with narrow alleys winding between buildings. We climbed to the top of the cathedral and admired the rooftop view of the island town, and ate icecreams.

Brač Island is the biggest island, an hours ferry ride out from Split. We followed this old man from the ferry to rent a room, and found ourselves proud owners of a kitchen too... so home cooked pasta meals for a few days, as its nice not to eat out all the time. We spent a few days relaxing exploring the various beaches on the island. The one on the other side of the island was probably our favourite... a pebble beach that sticks out like a sand spit, with a shady pine promenade leading to and from it.

Plitvice Lakes - Wendy's view

Hi everyone! Karen has let me loose on her blog (watch out Kaz...ha ha!). Well, after we checked out Varazdin, Karen - in her usual style - wanted to check out everything else within a 10km radius of where we were, so we tried to get to this castle (apparently the most impressive one in Croatia so definitely well worth the effort...hmmm) but the bus timetable didn't work out so we headed straight for Plitvice national park instead. Woo hoo! This was high on my 'to do' list having seen some impressive photos taken by a colleague (which actually compelled me to visit Croatia in the first place!)

Anyway, we arrived in Plitvice at around 3:30pm, just in time to do our first walk around the national park. The park is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains 16 lakes. They are an amazing blue and green colour and contain numerous waterfalls - seriously, you cannot imagine the colour and photos cannot do it justice. Apparently the colour is due to lots of scientific things which I cannot explain but have something to do with limestone, calcium, algae, minerals and organisms...

The park is fantastically well set out - there are board walks and trails snaking all around and connecting all the lakes for tourists to walk on. These are well set out - they do not impact on the environment, but allow you to still closely inspect the water, waterfalls and fish! There are a number of different routes you can do throughout the park. The main ones are amongst the 'upper lakes' (which we did when we first arrived), and the 'lower lakes' (which we did the next day).

Anyway, our first impression of these lakes was that they were spectacular and definitely a highlight. This remained so despite the fact the next day the weather suddenly turned from a balmy 30 degrees to a freezing cold and wet 10 degrees. Karen was happy as she suddenly had a reason to use her cosy Kathmandu raincoat which kept her nice and dry...while Wendy had to do with her 3 ringgit (ie, A$1.50) shower coat thing which resulted in her being drenched within the first 15 minutes...nice going Wendy.

Despite this lacklustre weather, Karen and Wendy, the ever-intrepid, ended up walking for 7 hours in the cold and rain. This is because the views were so fantastic, and the walks were well planned (even giving you access to bus and boat services where necessary). We both agreed it was the best walk we had done since Cappadoccia...(well, yes, it has been the only one but that's besides the point Karen).

Croatia - Zagreb and Varazdin

We were a little sad to say goodbye to Turkey... nice place and well worth a visit. We will miss the food, friendly locals and turkish vibe. Wendy stayed an extra night in Istanbul and made the most of it checking out the nightlife, while I had an overnight stopover in Budapest... so found myself breifely exploring yet another fantastic city. Stumbled upon a orchestral concert happening infront of a cathedral... see photo left.

Zagreb

Well after Turkey, Zagreb felt very European and uncrowded. Lovely buildings, beautiful parks and gardens, and well dressed locals. None of the real hussle and bussle and street life that we've been accustomed to, but a much more refined and elegant place. We stayed in a noisy YHA (when do those teenager students shut up?! (*WW - stroppy karen...! I slept really well as I went to bed 5am the night before...ha ha!*) wandered the streets visiting cathedrals, churches, town squares and well known shopping and eating streets. It's definitely a street cafe society with cafes with umbrellas set up in the middle of some pedestrian mall areas, and we sampled local food (pastries, noodle/pasta thingies).

Varazdin

The lonely planet hails this place as a stunning baroque city and as the "mini prague with out the crowds or the prices". Well it certainly is pretty, but thats a lot to live up to! We arrived mid day to find the streets deserted with the locals hiding out where its cooler, inside or at the river apparently. Anyway we strolled around, visited the castle, ate icecreams and admired the pretty buildings. The locals emerged in the evening, giving the place more of a hum. And we each enjoyed a huge meal of Veal Zagreb (even though that wasnt what I ordered!)

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is the land of "fairy chimneys" - those wierd mushroom, eroded rock formations that feature on nearly all Turkey tourist brochures. And with houses, churches etc all carved into the rocks it can be a bit flintstonish too... We stayed in Goreme, a small town built amongst these formations, and stazed in a hotel decorated extensively with turkish carpets and with a lovely roof top terrace with views of the surrounding town and formations. Of course we visited the open air museum - an old religous complex carved into the rocks by hand (you can see the pick marks)... nunnery, multiple painted churches, and a refractory where food was eaten and wine made. We climbed up on the hill overlooking the museum and valley on the other side where the view was awesome, and this is where we met Mustafa, a 70y old Turkish man who loves to show tourists round and practice english. So we ended up visiting another church and discovering the rock stairs and passageways firsthand that have been cut like honecomb into the rock to link up different levels... dusty but really interesting climbing and exploring. We visited another monastery and hospital complex, then Mustafa took us to his farm plot (grapes and apricots) and small hut and cooked us dinner, chatted, and gave us massages! Wierd!

We decided to visit the underground city of Derinkuyu, an underground complex with 8 levels carved into the rocks as a protective refuge for the villagers. Its really harrd to understand the fear these people must have felt which compelled them to go to this effort to carve out rocks and have supplies to live hidden away underground, with rolling stone doors to seal off access from above. Its all lit with electricity now, so its a pleasure to explore, but living with lamps and candles and no visible facilities for showering or toilets... tipping it wasnt so pleasant then. I guess the rooms / houses carved into the cliff faces in the valleys with no easy acess are similar in that respect... built in a very different time when security was a real concern.

We also went for a few walks along 2 of the nearby valleys. I would have to say that they are some of the most interesting short hiking trails Ive done because of the amazing rock formations from erosion, and various carved rock windows high above in the cliffside (inviting you to explore if you can find a way up and in!), and scenery which kind of unfolds as you walk around bends in the valleys. Our last walk along Rose Valley brought us out into the town of Cavusin, with its old town cut into/ built onto the side of the hill but abandoned after earthquakes. More climbing through ruins and cave houses, but the standout here was the 360 view from the top - breathtaking.

So if you havent gathered by now we really enjoyed our stay in Cappadocia, and think its definitely a highlight of our time in Turkey.

More beach and Whirling Dervishes

Chirali

We thought we´d vısıt Chirali brıefly, a beach town know for the Chimera (burnıng gas seepıng out of the mountain ın spots), and the nearby Olympus Ruins. It was a stunnıng beach, even if it is a pebble beach, and we stayed right on the beachfront in whats known as a treehouse. They are actually raised wooden huts not houses in trees as you might think. We were befriended by two guys who gave us a lıft to the Chımera - nıce enough guys but a lıttle odd. The Chimera were odd but with tourists crowdıng round takıng photos and roasting marshmellows it felt more like campfires all be ıt wıth no wood!

The Olympus ruins were overgrown wıth trees whıch was a nıce change from other ruins we have seen - you felt more lıke an explorer clımbıng over stones and thru the undergrowth... not seeing what was comıng next untıl you are close. But the clımb up to the Acropolıs and the vıew out over the beach were what really stood out- picture postcard vıews.



Antalya and Konya

We skıpped thru Antalya, just spendıng a nıght and wıth just enough tıme for Wendy to enjoy a Haman (Turkısh Bath), whıle Karen couldnt face steamıng ın the already 35+ temperature! Then on to Konya, home of the Whirlıng Dervishes and supposedly the Turkısh equıvalent of the 'bıble belt'. We were lucky to catch a free Dervısh 'demonstratıon', and while its certaınly worth seeing and hearing the accompanyıng music an hour was enough. We spent the next day vısıtıng the Dervısh museum and varıous mosques and sıppıng tea wıth everyone else ın the park or maın shoppıng street whıle watchıng the world go by.