bernie and mon's europe trip

Brisvegas that is! . Well i don't think it has stopped raining since I got home. humid, hot and wet.. love it!!! Much better than snow. Had a super long lfight home. Had someone sitting next to me from Rome to Hong Kong who thought that putting his elbow in my side was ok. Had a nice long sleep on my 5 hour stop in Honkers on the not so comfortable seats. But the sleep was nice. Had 2 seats to myself on the Hong Kong - Brissy flight and flew thru customs in Bris. Bog home just after midnight last sunday. Can't believe it's been a week already.

Nic & Jack came over on Monday ans we went to lunch and did some grocery shopping. All fun stuff of course. Came to work on Tuesday and have been here ever since pretty much. Doing 10 days straight. Nothing better than coming back from holidays and working the next 10 days!!!Oh well. Have 5 days off over Chrissy which will be nice.

This entry is pretty much for Bernice and for the rest of you who want to keep up with my terribly stimulating life in Brissy .

Roxy has gone to the cattery now, so Mon mon is really home alone now. It's been very peaceful and relaxing. Which I agree with BP is nice after having spent 3 weeks in each other's pockets (literally). You should have seen the size of some of our rooms.

Anyhoo, only 6 sleeps til Santa comes. Hope he finds you in HKG BP. I'm sure he will.

I"m off to Toowoomba on Friday and then down the Coast on Saturday for a couple of days. Can't wait.

Chat soon!
Mon x

Lucern was just brimming with the feel of christmas! Lots of lights, trees, carolers, christmas markets and one of the hotels had even made the outside of its windows an advent calendar. The only thing missing was snow. There was snow on the mountain tops and sign that it had snowed in the last week or so but no snow. That was until I woke up this morning and it was snowing! I was like a kid at well christmas and all those that know me know how much I love christmas. Which pretty much translates to I loved Lucern.

I went and did all the touristy things as well - walked around the old town, went and saw the old town wall, the lion and even went for a quick boat ride on the lake. Unfortunately most other things were closed as it was Sunday. Oh well had enough to keep me busy anyway.

Took the train this morning to Interlaken but decided against going up to Jungfraujoch or Schilthorn as the weather is not so good so really would not have been able to see too much and wasnt really going to be doing any adventure sport. Guess I will just have to come back to Switzerland. Even not having had the chance to do this the scenery on the train journez between the two has made it worth the trip.

Off to Zurich tomorrow - my Europe trip is too quickly coming to an end. But I guess that means less sleeps till xmas.

See Ya
Bernie

Our last full day in Rome we decided to do a tour down to Pompeii. It took about two and a half to three hours to get down there and included a tour of Naples which was about another hour and a half on the bus just being driven around Naples in the bus having the sights pointed out. The word boring does jump to mind especially as they are currently building an underground metro system so most things had big construction going on around them or were partitioned off. After a tour to the shell factory where they make beautiful shell jewellery (am I in Thailand) and lunch at a local restaurant we finally made it to Pompeii. We spent an amazing 2 hrs with a local guide taking us around the site he seemed like he knew what he was talking about, although Mon did think we were making most of it up! All of this was 2000 or more years old - makes my life seem a little bit insignificant at times (I did think this often in Rome). The trip back to Rome took four and a half hours thanks to some horrendous Rome traffic. 14hrs after we left the hotel we were back all for two hours in Pompeii.

The next day with great sadness we parted ways, Mon headed home to brisvegas as I made my way to Switzerland. Ok no tears were really shed - we will see each other in 4 wks. Silently we are both looking forward to some time apart (Mon if you are reading this and thinking what the hell - you werent then neither was I :-).) After 3weeks I know I was definately looking forward to not sleeping in a single bed!

After reading this you will probably understand why Mon had done most of these - I tend to put in too much detail and not enough funny!

Anyway Lucern awaits.

See ya

bernie

Going to try do this blog entry on bp's iPhone. Very slow going.

So we've made it to Rome and got a nice taxi man from The train station, he did take a detour thru town to pick up his wife and just stopped in the middle of traffic to let us out at our hotel. Crazy roman. have finally got the sunshine we've (mon's) been craving! It's been a warm 19•c since we got here. We did a dodgey hop on/hop off and figured out it was a public holiday here yesterday. Do the Italians have a public holiday every week? We made our way to the Colosseum, made a wish at the Trevino Fountain and climbed up and down the Spanish Steps a few times. Did a tour toVatican City, unfortunately, we missed mass and the pope was taking a nap.

Tomorrow we've got a full day to Naples and Pompeii planned and then I make the long trek home while bp goes on to Switzerland for more cold and snow. Glutten for punishment I say.

Alrighty, I'm done with this mini keyboard. More from Bernie from Switzerland. And from me in hong kong and brissy! I bet your all looking forward to an update from brisvegas!

Holiday is nearly over for me.

Mon & BP x

Venice is awesome!!! Have just spent 2 nights here and rather than snowing, we have had the pleasure of rain and flooding. All good tho. Gave the credit card a bit of a beating today. There are so many beautiful hand bags.. oh yeah and they are famous for glass. of course they are. We have been into no less than 20 glass shops today looking at pendants and pretty things made of the famous glass.

Got a water bus here. so much cheaper than the transfers we sell and super easy!!!! Staying at the Rialto Hotel, which is literally next to the famous rialto bridge. so easy to find. Although easy to fine and apparently 4 star our room has padded pink walls, the hardest beds in the world and the smallest bathroom and shower ever seen. we have walked thru the little 'corridors' of streets, shopped like there's no tomorrow and eaten lots of pizza and pasta. yum!! I am in heaven. Had salami and cheese for brekky. Bernice has come to the conclusion that she just has to suck it up as thereìs not a huge alternative to bread, bread or more bread. She's doing ok though.

We went for a long walk yesterday and walked over more bridges than I think we've walked over in the last year. Today was raining, but we still did a lot of walking and a lot of shopping. Did i mention that I love Venice? Even when it is flooding.

So weàre off to Rome tomorrow by train. Only 5 more nights for me. And hopefully no more snow. BP still has Switzerland and a lot more snow. She is dying to do a snow angel, but can't do it til i leave as she hasn't got waterproof clothes and I don't want to hear her whinging about how cold she is after she snow angels it up. She can do that in Switzerland.

Had a nice bottle of wine out at dinner tonite. The nice waiter pointed out in his broken english. no water allowed, as there is already too much water in Venice. He so funny.

Nothing else really. I'm going to go admire my new handbags while BP surfs the net. And then fall asleep in the hardest bed in the world.

More soon.

Mon & BP x