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This Week In The Loft

Berlin in Autumn


It’s actually my last day in Europe today so I thought I’d quickly update my blogs before I make the journey south to Thailand.
The first thing you will notice when you leave Tegal Airport in Berlin this month is the beautiful trees.   The autumn colours are amazing!   The air is very cool and fresh.   Just the day before we arrived in Berlin the weather forecasted the possibility of snow.   So here I am in Tier Garden, one of the most beautiful inner city parks in the world.  We walked from Zoo Station to the Brandenburg Gate, which is pretty much the entire 7km length of it.   We spotted a lot of wild life in the park….  and not just of the animal kind!
I thought Berlin was going to be about a lot of clubbing, but on this visit we actually spent most of it touring, shopping and eating.   This is my 5th visit to Berlin and I will never get sick of coming here.    I’ve found a great little guesthouse in Schoneberg where I can stay for very little money.    I would like to come back when the snow is falling here.

Here you can rent the vehicles that were once only ever found in East Berlin.

A myth?   Under this residential courtyard is where Hitler’s bunker was built and where he later died.    The position of this children’s playground is where the body was taken and burned.   Pretty grim stuff.   My travelling buddy Chris is very sceptical.

I’ve become a Ka De We department store food court frequent flyer on this visit to Berlin.    Ka De We dedicates it’s 2 top floors to food and wine from all over the world.   I could spend a day there alone sampling the yummy food.

Here I am with Kylie in an east Berlin flea market on a brisk Sunday afternoon.    It is not far from here that we found a long stretch of the Berlin wall still standing.

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This Week In The Loft

5 Days to the European Vacation

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It’s just 5 days to go now until we take off to London, Paris and Berlin.   I still have so much to get done this week before we leave.   Today I am taking the scooter out for one last ride, gymming, tanning and laundry.   It sounds like an episode of Jersey Shore.     I can’t wait till Friday night and Chris and I head to the airport.   It’s going to be so much fun!

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This Week In The Loft

European Vacation 2010


Here we go!   After much discussion and planning we finally decided on Europe for our October vacation this year.   I will be travelling with my mate Chris to London, Paris and Berlin before heading home via Frankfurt.   We were originally meant to visit South America but amazingly it ended up being cheaper to travel much further to Europe.   I’m really looking forward to seeing all these 3 cities again.  I have not been to for almost 10 years.   So far we have booked all the the accommodation except Paris.   Paris is proving to be a little more complicated than I had thought.   But I’m sure I will find something soon.   In the meantime…  bring on October!

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This Week In The Loft

Missing New York


It was a very quick and rushed trip to New York.  It seems that I never have enough time there to do everything that I would like to do.   I had a great time hanging out with my mate Jim there and running around Manhattan.   I included New York in this trip for what some would say was a bit of a silly reason.  I wanted one last ride on the Qantas 747 before they stop it’s service between LAX and JFK airports in July.   It will be replaced with a smaller A330 plane (a continuation service from New Zealand).   These 747s are getting quite old now and I would imagine that Qantas will start getting rid of them soon.   This was the last 747 service from LA to New York.   Sadly the crew operating this service were not a happy bunch.
Now that I am at home and back at work I am trying to work out how I can getting another long break to travel the world.   I have very few holidays left at work, so I may have to be a little creative.

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This Week In The Loft

All Booked for the USA!

Well this is very exciting news.   I have been holding off talking about this until all the bookings were actually made.   The last time I tried to book a trip to the US this close to the departure date it all fell apart because I could not get all the bookings I wanted.
I’ve booked to travel to San Francisco 7th May and New York 13th May.   I’m staying at the guesthouses where I stayed on previous trips.   They both have a really nice feel about them.   And since I am travelling alone it’s always nice to meet other travellers which rarely happens in a big hotel.   Both cities are very exciting and I have friends in both places.   It will be my 8th visits to San Francisco and my 5th visit to New York.
Now I’m hoping this huge collage of my previous visits to the US will load okay.  You may have to download it to see the full size.

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This Week In The Loft

Travels for 2010


With everything happening in the post above I’m trying to think about happier things…  like when am I going to travel again.   It’s seems that since taking 7 weeks off work last year I have finally ran low on vacation time.  I’m actually thinking about possibly buying more time off from work.  I only get 5 weeks off a year at the moment.  I’d like to have 7 or 9 weeks off.  That would allow me to travel more often.
For this year I have already bought a return flight to Buenos Aires.  I just have to work out when I can take it.   It was meant to travel in April but I am delaying it because of the surgery.   And May is the beginning of their winter, so it will most likely happen around October now.   So that means I should fit in a trip before that…  and why not visit my old favourite…  San Francisco!   I’m thinking about an end of summer thing there would be nice.   Perhaps another trip to the Folsom Street Fair again?   The above shot was taking in SFO in Mel’s Diner last year just moment’s before I met Armistead Maupin eating there.