Saturday 31 March 2012

Turkey - 2011 - an incredible experience

The beautiful Blue Mosque in Istanbul - a highlight of a friendly and welcoming city - a couple of days is nowhere near enough time in this amazing place.
Just outside Ankara is the ancient site of the city of Hattusus - an incredible experience realising that this site is dated at pre-5000BC.  The city must have been enormous - the site is many square kilometres in area.
Our accomodation in Urgup (Cappadocia) - MDC Cave Hotel - carved into the limestone of the hillside.  Very new hotel and quite luxurious.
Some trepidation but the balloon ride with Royal Balloons was fantastic - an experience not to be missed and the Fairy Chimneys National Park is amazing.  Over 40 balloons were launched on a beautiful September morning.
Our favourite photo of our balloon experience - sunrise over Cappadocia from 2000ft.
The Fairy Chimneys showing a shadow of our balloon.  The chimneys are a result of many thousands of years of erosion in a previously volcanic area.
Roman ruins - an agora (market place) at Perge near Antalya on the Mediterranean coast.
Our hotel at Kas overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
We spent a week cruising the Med in a gulet - sharing with Canadians and Germans was a great experience.
Sunset on the Mediterranean
At Ephesus - it is incredible how many Greek, Roman and even earlier ruins there are in Turkey - such a rich history and a wonderful society which values these sites and puts such tremendous resources into preservation.
Roman ruins at Pergamum overlooking the modern city of Pergama
Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli - a moment we won't forget
On the way home we stopped over in Abu Dhabi - this is the Grand Mosque - completed only a few years ago and the second largest mosque in the world.  Incredible riches!!!!!

Saturday 24 March 2012

Wilpena Pound and Lake Eyre - May 2011
Flinders Ranges
Flinders Ranges
Wilpena Pound
Lake Eyre - water as far as
the eye can see!

Sunday 18 March 2012

Back in Paris - Place Concorde


Good friends
Let's meet in Paris
L'Opera
Notre Dame



Incredible Fountainbleu - Napoleon's summer palace
Library at Fountainbleu

Market day in Dijon
Rhone Valley in Bourgogne region
Our apartment in beautiful Beaune in the Rhone Valley

Dry stone walls in the vineyards










The Jungfrau shrouded in cloud
The Wounded Lion - sculpture in Lucerne.  A very moving monument.
Beautiful Halstadt in southern Austria
A performance of Mozart in the Concert Hall - Vienna
Opera House in Vienna
Hapsburg Palace in Vienna - amazing riches
Lucerne in Switzerland

Saturday 17 March 2012

Evocative sculpture in the Botanic Gardens in Prague - symbolising the emerging nation of the Czech Republic
Market in Rothenburg
Wenceslas Square in Prague


Well recognised symbol
Helsinki - Austere but welcoming
The Old Town - Stockholm

Wurzberg
VIEWS OF EUROPE 2010

Beautiful Cologne Cathedral
Cycling in Amsterdam








Burg Elz


Cochem in the Mosel Valley

Rhine Valley - spectacular