25.

Homewards bound

So far, fingers crossed, things are looking good for the start of our return leg. A very civilised 3.5hr flight to Doha departs Larnaka at 1.05pm, meaning we have time for one last raid on the breakfast buffet before Ellena returned to drive us back to the airport.

Waiting in the cool of the hotel lobby, it was easy to let our minds wander to reflections on the last few days, and the whole trip. Ellena and Andrew’s hospitality and generosity have made our Cyprus stay even more special – not just the fantastic accommodation they found, but the little jewellery shop (where Justine bought earrings) and her local bakery (where we got snacks and iced coffee), the places we would never ever see as unguided visitors.

Spending the first week or so with Margaret and Lindsay was also fantastic, the first time the four of us have ever had the chance to spend an extended time in just our own company, and going back to St Gilgen with them was just delightful in so many ways.

The weather has done us well throughout. The most important days have been clear and blue, and while it’s been hot in Budapest and Cyprus this last week, it’s not been too hot to be able to enjoy our stay. It will be a bit of a shock to get back to Canberra, where it was -3 overnight, but that is also part of the delight of international travel. We’ve actually been surprised by how unbusy Europe has been. None of the places we have visited have felt overpacked, which has been nice really.

We woke this morning to the news of a major IT problem that was affecting some air travel. However, we’ve checked in all the way to Canberra and boarded the first flight to Doha, so fingers crossed we get there without too many delays… let’s see. My Gold Frequent Flyer status has def come into its own on this trip, with just the two of us being able to use the lounges at every stop, and even getting to use the fast-track security line at Larnaka. Time for home.

Time for home.

Twenty Five

And so we come to the end of 25. Yep. That’s it for the first 25 years. It’s fair to say they have been a big quarter of a century. Certainly when I think back to the 17th of July 1999, it would have been hard to predict anything but the most sketchy outline of what we’ve done.

This trip has been a major success so far, and at this stage all that’s left is the return journey, so even if it goes badly from here, let the record show we have had a great time up to this point!

For the record, today we went for a bit of a hike down to Konnos Beach, had a very long massage, and then a very large dinner. Fitter and fatter. But mostly just fatter… We are finishing off the last night with champagne in the spa and a bit of TV in bed, and there is not a lot to complain about. Except the b*****y bazooki player downstairs!

Time passes

It has a way of doing that I guess. It’s now about a day and a half later, meaning that a lot of things have happened in between then and now, and they have all been good…

After yesterday morning’s hike, we went back and checked out of the house we’d stayed in, which was a little sad, because it was a delightful place. We’d talked to Ellena and Andrew about trying to find a place that was authentic and typical of Cyprus, and they well and truly delivered on that! The little restored house in a hilltop village was spot on, and there are many aspects of the house and courtyard that I’ll long remember.

From there we made our way back down to the coast, to the shipwreck of the Edro III. It really is just right there on the point, and then a little later someone put a restaurant there, so it’s a very civilised attraction!

From there we drove through to our next accomodation, in a village closer to Limassol, on the south coast. It turned out to be a charming hotel in an even smaller village, with a little pool and a town square that was packed with people and cats for dinner. It was a different form of the delightful Cypriot experience we’d hoped for, and sitting back in the pool in the evening was a superb way to end the day.

Today we made our way to the south east corner of the island for our last, but arguably most important stop. These last two nights are the whole reason we are here – because 25 years ago today we got married! It’s hard to imagine that when you say it, but also it’s seemed all very logical and doable along that way – and the presence of a 21 year old and a 17 year old make it all seem very real!

The place we are staying in turns out to be an all-inclusive package arrangement, so it seems like this won’t be the start of the post-holiday diet!! We tried to upgrade the room, but it turns out we’d already booked the best one, with one of the few front rooms and its own spa on the balcony (where I will likely shortly be moving to!). It’s been nice to have a pretty low key afternoon, and the plan tomorrow is basically to do a walk, then have long massages and a final dinner, before commencing the homeward journey… always a bittersweet moment. For now though, we are enjoying ourselves here!

Morning hike completed

Early morning hike in Avakas Gorge. Getting in required making the little Toyota perform like the big jeep tour vehicles – but thankfully we beat them there. I was kind of frustrated by having two other people walking with us, but on the way back out we passed a good hundred+ people walking in! No idea how they would all fit in there, but the call to go early was a great one (if made for totally different reasons!)

24 hours in Cyprus

Jump forward a day and a half, and we are in the western part of Cyprus. Here it is still hot, but it’s also supposed to be hot here – unlike Budapest.

We had a taxi booked for 4.15am, and happily it was waiting for us when we snuck down to the foyer. It was already showing 30 degrees outside, and there were a surprisingly large number of people out and about, and the airport was in full activity mode when we arrived. The tour guide yesterday had claimed the government had taken over the airport and that nothing there would work properly, but we found it clean and organised, and the flight left exactly on time. We comfortably made the connection to Larnaca – probably the last transport step that we really cared about on the trip. The flight down came over Romania and then across the Gallipoli Peninsula, which was fascinating to see from the air.

Arriving into a place when there is someone to meet is always so much more exciting than just walking out into another new place where you have to figure it all out yourself. Elena and Andrew were waiting at the arrivals door, much to everyone’s excitement!

After a quick meal, we hit the road for the Paphos region to the west. They had rented a very cool renovated house in a village called Kathikas, and it was an absolute delight – two old stone buildings with an interior courtyard and covered area. Spectacular.

Dinner was a meze for four at a local tavern, which was of course enough for 20! Very tasty, but waaaaay more than we could / should eat!

This morning, after a lovely breakfast in the cool of the courtyard in the early morning, we headed north for a 3-hour cruise to Aphrodite’s Bath and a swim at the Blue Lagoon. The water is a stunning colour and so clear – reminds me of the water in the Adriatic, for obvious reasons.

Lunch was at a place called Noma. We’re not sure if it was formally associated with the famous Noma, but the food was impressive, so maybe it was…

David: “What’s the actual date today?”

Justine: “I don’t know that!”

Fair enough.

Food tour

Experience has shown us that the superficial experience of being a complete tourist in a place – no matter how exotic and nuanced and delightful the place itself might be – is a surefire way to feel underwhelmed, and probably a bit let down. A few times we’ve done tours in places, and despite my initial scepticism about them, it turned out that a good tour can be a fantastic way to get beneath the surface of a place. We did Morocco that way, but the tour we did on the last full day we had in Lisbon very clearly thought us: do the tour as soon as you arrive!

We only have this one day in Budapest, so we decided to do a food and drink tour, hoping it would unlock an experience we’d never have on our own, and so it was. The tour was three Australians and three English weekenders, and one humorous cynical Hungarian tour guide. We spent three hours going to half a dozen food and drink venues, as well as getting a potted version of the tour guide’s interpretation of the last 150 or so years of Hungarian history – taking in two world wars, multiple occupations, uprisings and corrupt political eras. It’s a pretty complicated history, and while I’m not sure how complete or accurate all of the reflections on the country’s leadership was, I think someone who grew up in the Russian occupation behind the Iron Curtain is entitled to form his own views.

The food part of the tour was very tasty – starting with apple and poppyseed strudels (Hungarian strudel has paper-thin pastry – literally a wrapping to hold the filling in); langos (think – flat doughnuts with cheese and savoury toppings, pizza-like, but not pizza at all); a strawberry soup (literally!); a fabulous crepe with slow-cooked chicken and a paprika sauce; and a choice of veal or mushroom goulash with handmade nokedli (a kind of gnocchi / dumpling / pasta). It was all very good actually, and a great way to spend a few hours in an unfamiliar city.

Salzburg to Budapest

Since we flew into Zurich, some 9-10 days ago, we’ve made our way steadily eastwards to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It’s not been the most direct route possible, but here we are for 36 hours, about 1,000km due east.

After the endearing alpine and Tyrollean beauty of our last few stops, it was apparent as soon as we crossed into Hungary that this place has a somewhat different recent history. There was a functionalism to the architecture that stood in stark contrast to where we were travelling even this morning, and it’s a bit salutary to realise how easily it would fit into any rail corridor in an Australian city.

Unlike Australia though, this view from our hotel room window goes in some part to explaining the reason for contemporary Hungarian architecture…

The train trip from Salzburg to Budapest was something of an anticlimax. The train was modernist and smooth, but the route was fundamentally uninspiring. I know rail corridors need to follow the terrain, but it was flat and without feature the whole way, which was a bit of a surprise.

Arriving into Budapest it was 36 degrees, and we opted for being ripped off by a very polite taxi driver rather than repeating this mornings forced march for 3km. It was 35 euro very well-spent! The hotel is a quirky thing that we found – called the Cotton House Hotel, it is some sort of art deco glitz sort of theme – but with high ceilings and air con, it’s cool in every sense.

Even the bah fittings, where the shower is a handheld phone replica!

After arriving, we wandered 10 mins towards the old part of the city in search of a cold drink and some dinner. Compared to where we’ve been, there was a tawdriness to the place, a grimy juxtaposition of a modern city on an ancient footprint.

Over the years I’ve come to feel like all these European cities have a sameness, for good and obvious reasons, and suddenly I felt like a lost tourist for the first time on this trip. There was something oddly familiar and decidedly amusing about feeling a little unsafe and sliding across the surface of a place, but the amusing aspect was mostly because it will only be for these couple of days this time.

That said, the afternoon then took a decidedly unexpected turn for the better. We found a bar where a friendly waiter improved our first impressions, and then had one of those serendipitous moments of terrible service. We’d been recommended to a particular traditional Hungarian restaurant by the hotel, but when we went there we sat for 10 minutes being ignored by the staff, and having to deal with rowdy singalongs with a piano player… while across the road was another, more ambient looking restaurant. After the waitress chose to ignore us another time, we switched sides – and you could not have had a more different experience.

As we walked into Kismezo we were greeted by a good looking and very polite and friendly waiter, offered a table and a menu and a wine list. We weren’t regretting our choice – and that was even before the food and the wine. Finished up being a contender for best meal of the trip – and a no-brainer for best decision of the trip!

Back in the hotel now, writing this update from the window nook, with my feet up on the air con vents. Pretty nice end to the day!

Salzburg HBF

We chose last night’s hotel specifically to be walking distance to the old town, but more specifically to be easy (or at least practical) walking distance to the train station this morning. Well that proved prescient and valuable, with us lugging the stuff packhorse-style to the Salzburg HBF train station comfortably on time.

On board now, and waiting to get on the rails.

At the other end it’s a 2 1/2km walk from the station to the hotel. Given it’s supposed to be 34 degrees, not sure whether we might be experimenting with an Uber at that end!

All good things, part 1

Every travel blog has an “all good things…” post at some stage. Usually it’s the very end. But this time, it’s called part 1 because it the end of part 1 only.

After 9 fabulous days across Liechtenstein, Italy and Austria, this morning was time to say goodbye for now to Margaret and Lindsay, and the Hollweger. It’s lived in our memories for 16 years, and I’m sure it will for 16 more. It is always bittersweet saying bye to your travel companions, but neither they nor we are suffering much over the next two weeks… so there is no need to feel too sad for us.

A short drive had Justine and I dropped at our hotel in Salzburg. This is the ‘bonus night’, because in our original itinerary we actually ended up with an unplanned night between leaving St Gilgen and the train to Budapest. So sad, we have to have an extra night here. Well, we filled that day in ok.

We went up the fortress:

We found matching anniversary rings:

And Justine managed to get tickets (the cheapest, but with the best view!) to a Mozart concert at the Mirabell Palace ballroom.

All up, it’s been a pretty good day – and made no worse by writing this update from a skybar with a view of the fortress lit up and hanging in space, and nursing a negroni. Yes, not a bad day at all.

And tomorrow, Budapest, by train.

Reputation intact

Going back to something special is always a risk, especially when you make an exception to do it. We’ve generally avoided going back to places, though more for always chasing the next new one, more so than an unwillingness to go back somewhere. When there are more places than you can possibly ever see, we are always drawn to something new.

St Gilgen, and the Hollweger Hotel in particular, has always been an exception to that rule. Since coming here as young parents in winter, Justine in particular has always wanted to see what it was like in a different season. Well, it looks pretty good.

We came hoping that we wouldn’t feel let down, or spoil the impossibly perfect memory from that first trip, but we needn’t have feared. The place is even more spectacular than we remembered, and all the more so for being able to get out and see and experience it. It was stunning as a setting for a white Christmas, and if anything, even more so for a summer anniversary!

The whole place is impossibly, perfectly picturesque. All the stereotypical images of this region are all around us, but even then you can still just be overawed by specific spots. Yesterday evening we walked home from Fürberg, 3km around the lake, and at one point there is a little bend in the track and a private village that is just like a movie set, it’s so heartrending in its beauty. Pictures can’t do it justice, because you never find a frame that captures the immersive experience.

These are the best I’ve found, but still only a sampler and an aide memoire for the real thing. (We had lunch at the white place in the top photo today – my venison hazelnut gnocchi was right up there in the list of best meals ever – it was stunning. Ser güt!)

This is our last afternoon with Margaret and Lindsay, before we head our separate ways tomorrow. It’s been a heap of fun travelling with them, and I believe there is still the small matter of a cognac in the bar to be had at some stage. For now though, it’s time to go and enjoy one last afternoon and evening in this place, whose reputation has only been enhanced in our memories by coming back here.

Optimism well-founded

Well, that was pretty remarkable. The cog railway was kind of fun, but packed and we had to split up and get mostly middle seats. In the end that wasn’t bad, as it gave us at least partial access to both side views.

But the real magic was definitely up the top. Something over 1,700m, and well above the tree-line, the top of the track was a peak that gave views across the Wolfgangsee, but also the next lake, the Attersee.

It’s definitely quicker on the way down! Must be something about the slope…

And now, there is enthusiasm for lunch and refreshments. Aperol Spritz is likely…

Morning optimism

Well, this is the second day of the trip with booked events, and on cue the blue skies are back! From the breakfast patio we can see the mountain we are soon to ascend (civilisedly today, by railway rather than by foot!).

We walked down to catch the 10am ferry, and it is beyond stunning. Can’t wait to see the lake from the top in a few hours!

It’s hard to believe the water colour here. It was glowing yesterday in the murk – today it is like green liquid fire.

A hike and then a walk

Apparently, according to Justine anyway, a hike has an off-road vibe, while a walk is more on paths and roads. If you accept this definition, and it’s mandatory for me to do that thing, then this is definitely what we did today.

Well, we did that this afternoon. In the morning we had a buffet breakfast followed by massages, so we had that going for us, which was nice.

The afternoon was decidedly more active and visual. First we took a ferry across to Fürberg – just a 10 min ferry ride, but it takes 2-3km off the walking leg, which was useful. We quickly picked up the signs to St Wolfgang. This one sent us on our way:

This one caused us to do a translation, and then a bit of revised navigation:

Anyway, once we got on the right path is was a simple 40-min hike straight up the side of the highest mountain for hundreds of metres in any direction. At least it was pretty.

Once we got to the top, it was all downhill from there. Literally. I’m not sure if the mountain bikers we constantly passed / were passed by looked like they hated it more on the way up or the way down – but they did at least make doing it on foot look by far the best option either way!

Getting to the bottom made us happy.

Finding a Seeterrace (a terrace overlooking the see [lake]) not much later also made us happy. (Spoiler alert: the ferry home stopped pretty much next door, enabling a much better photo than was possible from the shore.)

By Justine’s definition, this was the end of the hike, and the walk into St Wolfgang was sedate and picturesque. St Wolfgang was a bit busier, but not crazy. We had a drink and a snack and generally killed an hour pretty easily.

The ferry ride home made it clear why a) the hike part was very “up” and then very “down”, and b) why there was no lakeside track. This is the bit we climbed over:

It’s about 220m higher at the top of the track than the lake itself, and falls in a sheer cliff to the water. Pretty spectacular. Once the ferry dropped us back to St Gilgen it was a short stroll to the Hollweger for dinner, chats, drinks and trivia. We got 65/90 on a random West Quiz from the weekend before the women’s soccer World Cup final, so we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be better again. Sunny and warm, we hope, as we have tickets to take a cog railway to the top of a mountain thus far shrouded in clouds since we arrived… let’s see what tomorrow’s update holds on that front.

Merano to Sankt Gilgen

After a few days of perfectly suited mild and mostly sunny weather, today was supposed to be the rainy day, and boy, was that forecast on point. We had a 320km drive to cover, from Merano to St Gilgen, on the Wolfgangsee in western Austria, not far from Salzburg.

It rained.

It rained the whole way there. It rained so much that the automatic windscreen wipers didn’t even turn off when we went through tunnels more than a kilometre long.

Justine pulled out a full day hard driving marathon, with it taking us a good 6 hours, much of it in stop-start, constant lane-changing conditions on the autostrade / autobahns. Between the tunnels and descents and the traffic, not to mention the nervy unpredictability of toll roads, it was a draining day, and she fully earned the cup of tea at the end.

While it was a tough drive, it did have some highlights – at least for those of us not having to do the driving. We stopped just over the Austrian border to get fuel, a vignette sticker (that lets you drive in Austria, but we aren’t sure exactly what it pays for), and some lunch. Make a good note – the gulaschsuppe is MUCH better here than you would get at 90% of Australian servos. It was also pretty spectacular in places, with the clouds both above and below us a lot of the time.

Our route took us through Germany for an hour or so, before we got out of traffic. We were finally racing east towards Salzburg when Justine, with the uncertainty of someone concentrating on the details rather than the big picture, suddenly sat up straight and asked “what country is this? Are we still in Germany?”. I have to love any day when you aren’t exactly sure what country you are in!

Anyway, we finally got to the Hollweger about 4pm. In many respects, this part is the whole basis of this trip. We came here for Christmas 2008, a memorable trip in many ways. It’s long been one of the few places Justine has always wanted to go back to, rather than always seek out the next new place, as is her wont. Coming here for our 25th anniversary was the start of our itinerary planning, and even though we won’t be here on the exact day, this four-day stay is a centrepiece of the trip.

Stepping out on the balcony for the first time, the view is instantly familiar from the photos of a light Christmas Day snowfall in 2008. Even though it’s not very summery here today, the forecast is 29 degrees and sunny by Tuesday, and we are optimistic that these photos will be repeated over the next few days with blue skies and us splashing around in the water.

The day ended with a walk around town, dinner and a wine or two (the local white is Grüner Veltliner, but they also have a fabulous rosé), and now I’m sitting out on the balcony – once again writing this as the late last light imperceptibly slips from the sky to the floors of the nearby valleys, and then fades completely.

Simply the best

It is of course impossible to ever pin down the best in any field that includes a qualitative aspect, and I’ve always said that simply being in the discussion is the outcome in itself.

And so it is with this week. Maybe there have been better travel experiences, and maybe there haven’t – but none of us is certain that this hasn’t been the best place ever, and that’s about as good as reviews can realistically get.

We just got home from the Saxifraga Stub’n, about 600m along a walking trail that goes from here to Portugal, and we are all fully satiated. The combination of food, languages, laughs and the view encapsulated beautifully the joy of these last few days. It was just fun, and light and great.

Tomorrow we leave here and head to St Gilgen in Austria. The last time Justine and I were there it snowed on Christmas Day 2008. Margaret and Lindsay have been there 8-10 times since, but it’s one of the very few places in the world Justine has been and wanted to go back to – so that is a high bar!

In the morning we are going to go back to a konditorei in town that shut today before they could sell me one of these:

I hope that tomorrow both they and I are luckier.

Then it will be a 4-6 hour drive through 2-3 countries, depending on the route and the weather. It’s the classic bittersweet moment. I really don’t want to leave – but we are going somewhere also very special. And as a wise man once said – it’s better to leave the party slightly too early. It helps that the wise man will be in the car with us tomorrow.

Layers

Life is layers, travel is layers. No matter how closely you look at something, you can always zoom in, and you can always zoom out.

Yesterday was something out of the box, just a series of outstanding moments one after the other, and at the end of it you sit there trying to catch your breath, wondering how such an audacious plan could come to be real. It’s still kind of breathtaking.

Today was the slow-burn version. Aside from an early morning run to the DeSpar and the delight of standing in the queue at a German-speaking bakery and discovering that landbrot (or at least, this landbrot) is amazing, the day was done on foot. It was the slow, local version, but finished with as many highlights and layers that it’s worth thinking about how the two compare.

In the morning we wandered down the hill to Merano centro, and the walk was just stunning. In the old town we bought some things that will always be from Merano. A belt, some jewellery. A kitchen knife – all things that will remind us of today for decades to come. It was just gorgeous down there.

Below the apartment is a restaurant. It’s not easy to get a booking. It’s quite popular, but the challenge is more administrative. Anyway. We did a walk-in for lunch, and few Aperol Spritz can have been as highly anticipated, and then lived up to the expectation. Hyper-local restaurants always hit differently, and it was fun to banter with the staff in some blend of four languages, and try to say “we will see you this evening for dinner”!

The afternoon was slow. A few video calls to check in, a family quiz, and some chilled Pinot Nero on the balcony while writing a few chapters for Kiss the postman goodbye, and then heading downstairs for Süd Tirol staples for dinner. Gulasch, worst, dumplings, a version of lasagne… it was exploratory, surprising and tasty. The delight of dinner downstairs cannot be overestimated.

Now we are back upstairs, and watching the layers of the sunset merge into black and pinpoints of light, just to complete the metaphor. It’s impossible not to look forward to tomorrow, but at the same time, there is no hurry.

Best travel day ever? Maybe.

It’s not impossible that today turned out to be our best travel day ever. We’ve had the good fortune to travel a lot and we’ve had good days before, but today just might have pipped them all. There have probably been bigger highlight moments – but not sure there has been a full day like today.

It was one of the big days of the trip, with the only two booked activities on the one day, because availability was limited. Last evening we walked along the path to a nearby restaurant, and it was great and mizzling the whole time. It’s was beautiful in its own way, but today we really hoped for some good weather to sparkle, and boy, did it do that thing!

Looking out the window in the first light was a delight, the crisp blue and warm early light was everything we hoped for.

Then the winery tour turned out to be visually spectacular, both the drive and the tour. The wine was interesting and tasty, and the bistro an ideal place for lunch.

We then dropped Margaret and Lindsay back to the apartment and headed back to Bolzano to meet a guide we’d hired to take us for a hike. In the end it was more along a stroll than a hike – but he gave us some really detailed and insightful history and background to the Sud Tirol region, and as a semi-professional photographer, he was really attuned to the visual splendour of the region. I took hundreds of photos, but a few stood out to me.

Gianluca also took a rather nice one of J and I, that I love.

And to top the day off, he recommended a pizzeria for dinner near the apartment. Turned out to be on a cantilevered deck overlooking the valley where Merano is – we could see the apartment from the table.

Crazy stuff. What a day. It’s hard to switch off from all that, but I guess I’d better try. Tomorrow we have plans to do not much, so I’d better rest up.

When in / near Rome

Stunning morning here. Already we have seen several moods of this valley, and breakfast on the balcony with “fruit juice” is just breathtaking. Nothing else to say. Off on the day’s adventures soon.

Day two is done. I’m done. We’re all done!

Wow, it’s been something, these last few days. From sitting on our deck at home, to boarding a plane in 35 degrees at 8am, to a snowy mountain pass at 2,400m, to dinner in a fancy restaurant with wine made on site, to sitting out on a balcony at 9.30pm in the fading dusk looking across vineyards and medieval structures and watching the lights of Merano come alive in the valley – that’s a lot to take in over something like 56 hours. A lot.

It really has been a stunning example of the luxury of modern travel. For most of human history that journey would have been a lifetime’s work, but instead tomorrow we are going wine-tasting and for a photography-themed guided hike. It’s nice to stop each day and look at the photos and reflect on the experiences, so they embed in my memories more strongly, and so they don’t melt into each other.

I won’t sit out here too much longer I guess, tomorrow beckons, and there is still the small matter of trying to decipher the impossibly complicated lighting system in this apartment, such that we can all sleep in the dark. It is very fancy, but also super quirky, and even the guy who showed us around didn’t know how they all worked…

Day one is done

So, all in all it’s hard to be unhappy with how the travel day went. Now it’s 9.30pm and I’m on the balcony in Lichtenstein listening to the crowd getting into a Euro 24 game. It’s cold and rainy – so not at all what we came here for, but it’s hard to be unhappy. Here’s a few shots of Iraq, Switzerland and Lichtenstein, as my day’s body of work.

Zurich! Bang on time too.

Scurvy

If I die of scurvy on this trip, it will be because Justine stole all my fruit salads on the flights!

It’s a long way here

So we are on the descent into Qatar, with the longest leg just about done. Well, for the outbound journey anyway.

This leg has gone pretty well. The plane did indeed turn out to be bigger, an A380, and we finished up in the little upper deck economy area in exit row seats. Not a terrible way to do the longest leg!

All of that was something of a change from the first part, which seemed to go out of its way to be the longest possible version of itself. The flight from Canberra to Sydney went from the far gate, did a weird extra loop over Sydney and then landed at the furthest runway, before the bus dropped us at the furthest point of the international terminal, and then our Qatar flight went from the furthest possible gate as well. The final part was having to walk the entire length of the plane to climb the stairs to our seats. Funny. Anyway, was good to have some extra space and we both got some sleep. Feeling optimistic. Let’s see how the transit goes!

Setting a low bar

So, we are the Qantas club in Sydney. The food and the wine aren’t bad, but I have to say that if this ends up being the best meal of the trip I’m not going to be happy!

From little things, big things grow

That could be a metaphor for the whole of the last 25+ years, but also, and more literally, in this case we are hoping that the plane for the intercontinental legs odd quite a bit bigger than this one for Canberra-Sydney.

The next time we sleep properly…