John and Shari's Christmas Vacation, Version 1

Ok yes it is overdue. We had two camera's with us and I only have the pictures from one of them with me at work (the crappy one) so I'll do one quick one from here and do another - better - one from home when I get round to it.

So we started in London to see Shari's Sister (Kylie) and her flat where we enjoyed the bright lights of Reading, and a trip into London to see Sally for a couple of very cool pubs and some lovely spanish food.

Then to Manchester over night to see two Cousins and their brand new Kids ;) on the way to my Grandpa's house (picture below) to see the rest of the Family (Mum's Side)

After that we started 'our bit' Switzerland, Verona and Venice.
In Switzerland we woke to a beautiful view,

The first day we spent at top of Europe, -11 degrees with a strong wind. Man it's expenive to go up there ($300) but it was a perfect day and well worth it, where I got to play with snow for the first time (Shari will show you the embarasing photo's of me enjoying it a bit too much I'm sure)

Day two was a tobogining and it started snowing very heavily. They do have a 15km run but the heavy snow had closed it. So we settle with a smaller one (that still took us most of the day). This was definitely the most fun, scary and beautiful day. Disappearing into shoulder high snow and off the edge of hills on tiny paths surrounded by trees.
Day three was skiing. The weather, if anything, was worse, really heavy snow. So most of basic runs were closed which we found out the hard way by spending half the day traveling up two mountains to find a run we could do. In the end we were so tired we only got a few runs in but it was alot of fun. Below is a pause in the snow, so we could see the trees out the window of the gondla.

Then we were off to Verona to get there in time for Shari's Birthday. The highlighted were the Arena (from 50AD) which you can still walk all over, it's quite weired to think off all the people that have died down on the stage.
And all the Romeo and Julie stuff. This is Shari under 'juliets' balcony (yes we know it is just a story but for the sake of tourist dollars they all go along with it like it was fact). In reality I heard it is an Inn from the 14th Centry.


Then to Venice, which is both beautiful and stinky. There we walked, ate, drank then walked, ate, drank then walked, ate, drank then walked, ate, drank then walked, ate, drank. We bought some nice glass and floated round the canels and sampled all the local produce and ... bottle of water 2-4 Euro, 1/2 a litter of wine 1.4 Euro, it's much cheaper to get drunk than hydrated. Our hotel here was funny. We had Canel views, which mean that with our windows open you could give people on the street a high five and people on the bridge a kiss on the check. And the lobby was by far and away the stinkiest place we found in Venice, I would be surprised to see an open sewer if you lifted up a rug. but it was cheap.


italy all in all is very nice, but the people...... you have to fight for everything. If you think your in a queue, forget it. If you are not pushing your way past to the front you are going to be waiting there forever. Getting out of planes is fun. You know when they land and everyone gets up to get their hand luggage, then you wait for the doors to open. yes you should wait because there is nowhere to go. Watching people push past everyone to the closed doors... interesting. They are some of the most pushy people I have every met. I love stero types, there such a time saver.

For Christmas we were at Shari's Mum and Dads house in Brussels (Shari's Mum and Dad with us at the local markets).

with her brother (Dean) and Sister (Kylie), at Shari's parents house on the couch.

where we enjoyed too much food (This one is in Bruge, a big pot of mussels each watching extremely heavy snow fall onto the main square)
and snow (A walking track a few minutes away from Shari's Mum and Dad's house). I'm definatly not used to snow and ice. I think I slipped over at least once a day.

For New Years, as you all know by now, we headed to Paris to spend it with Jen and Alex. Were we enjoyed the sites (thanks Jen) and saw my Aunt and Cousin and his 3 kids. New years was Fantatstic. It was on of those times when you go off plan and something weird and lots of fun happens. I would have never guessed I would be dancing in the new year with a male belly dancer and a drunk scottsman in a tiny french-north african restraunt but it was heaps of fun.


That's about it. I'll put some of the better photo's up soon.