Not strictly the Nic and Graham world to tour, but Nic and Gemma jetted off to Venice for the weekend and I think it's worth writing a few lines about.
The weekend almost didn't happen at all, as the normally highly organised Nic, forgot to check and double check the time of the flight. Saturday morning was meant to be a relaxing start to the weekend, but as Nic went to print the flight confirmation, she discovered that the flight was two and a half hours earlier than she thought! Nic jumped out of bed faster than ever before whilst the air turned blue. Thankfully Gemma had decided to leave Oxford early enough to miss the traffic (not like the Gemma we all know and love...) so arrived at Graham and Nic's just in time to jump in the car and arrived at Liverpool airport 20 minutes before check-in closed - sorry guys, we didn't make it on the telly this time!
On arriving home Graham asked "What did you get up to this weekend?" The answer to this was "Not a lot!" We wandered from bar to bar with a small, cultural diversion to the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery. Gemma was so amazed that she was doing something 'arty' that she spent the whole time taking photo's of exhibits and texting them to her friends!
We also took a boat trip to a neighbouring island to escape the crowds of Venice. This was also a highly entertaining trip, ogling the locals as they raced around the lagoon in their speedboats - check out those speedos!!!
Unfortunately, on arriving on the neighbouring island we discovered that everyone else had the same idea, so had to settle for taking a few photos and drinking a couple of glasses of prosecco.
Thankfully we made it back to the airport in time having double and tripled checked the flight time. Hopefully we'll have time to squeeze in one last 'girl's on tour' fling before the Midgley's leave the country for Australia.
nic and graham world tour...
So here we go with the first installment of the Nic and Gray world tour part 2...
I'm afraid the location is not quite as glamorous as Thailand or the Cooke Islands, but as a last minute cheap deal it did the job. So we hopped on the Eurostar and spent bank holiday weekend in Bruges (or Brugge, depending on whether you speak French or Flemish).
When I say "hopped on the Eurostar" it makes it sound easy, but it was a bit of a marathon journey...
We left Manchester around 6:30 Friday evening arriving at a Travel Lodge in Maidstone just in time for last orders. A short nights sleep followed as we couldn't miss the 6:30am check in for the train.
It took precisely 26 minutes to cross the channel, but once we arrived in Brussels we had to change trains for the final hour to Bruges. Initially we weren't sure which train we had to catch, but once we located the platform with the 90 other 'Brits on Tour' we were pretty certain we had the right one. We finally arrived at our destination at 11.34am local time.
Saturday afternoon involved getting our bearings and finding a place to eat and drink. We checked into our hotel (another variation on a Travel Lodge) and returned to the centre for dinner.
For those that know us well you will realise that most of the weekend was spent walking between cafe, bar and restaurant. As always, we found ourselves in a local's bar for local people. It was a smokey drinking den where the old men were playing a strange game of pool except the table had no pockets and they only used three balls. If anyone can enlighten us as to what game they were playing we'd be interested to know.
I couldn't tell you what museums, galleries or other top ten tourist attractions you should visit, but I do know that Gruuthuse Hof does a good local dinner and Het Bruges Beertje is a pub with over 300 beers on the menu.
Even Nic had a beer (the first and last she'll ever try) although it was only a fruit beer that tasted more like fizzy blackcurrant!
We did do something other than eat and drink for some of the weekend. On Sunday we managed to hire bikes for a couple of hours (the first time we've ridden bikes in nearly ten years) and ride round the edge of Bruges, at least that was the plan, until we checked the map and realised we were nearly half way to Zebrugge.
For those who don't believe we actually hired bikes here is a short video clip... Unfortunatley Graham hasn't quite got to grips with using his camera phone yet so you have to turn your computer on it's side to appreciate it fully... click here
I think we cycled around 12 kilometers, and believe me, we felt every centimeter the next day when we tried to walk to the station.
On the whole Bruges is a beautiful, medieval city set on a small system of canals. The average age of the visitors was 63, but it was a very pleasant start to the next phase of our world tour. If you want to see some photo's check out the galleries page. Those of you that have been to Belgium will notice that we managed to have a quick tour round Brussels on Monday morning whilst waiting for the train. There's a prize for anyone who can tell us what we photographed as we haven't got a clue!!!
once upon a time...
So this is where it all began. Back in 1998 Graham and Nic planned a world tour with a little help from STA Travel and our trusty Lonely Planet guides. The internet had barely been invented - how on earth did we plan a trip without it?!
20th June 1998 was the day a teary eyed Nic boarded a plane for the first time ever with a bewildered Graham (wondering what on earth he was letting himself in for).
12 hours later we arrived in Bangkok and from that day we haven't looked back. In the two months that followed we traveled through Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, with a quick hop to Sumatra. Looking back now I wonder how we lived to tell the tale. But it didn't put us off...
We spent the following 8 months living in Melbourne, Australia. This was interspersed with the odd trip around the state of Victoria and a quick trip up the East Coast.
Unfortunately we didn't make our fortune in Oz so had to cut short the trip home. One night was spent in New Zealand followed by a week in Fiji, a week in The Cooke Islands, 3 nights in Hawaii and 3 nights in LA.
Unfortunately the trusty digital camera wasn't commonplace in the 1990's so we cannot document our initial travels with photo's. But if you're ever lucky enough to visit our home we can show you all 6 albums (that's if you haven't seen them already of course).
Now following this action packed year you would think we'd had more than enough of each other's company and would go our separate ways. But alas, we couldn't live without each other and ended up getting married in July 2000 (again no digital evidence to share).
And this is where part two of the world tour began. Having spent our Honeymoon in sunny Dorking, we continue to use this as an excuse to have great holidays. As Mr. and Mrs. Midgley (although Nic still hasn't changed the name in her passport) we have been to Greece, Prague, Italy (more times than I care to mention) Egypt and Thailand (to name but a few) and of course we went home to Oz in 2004. You can see photo's from these travel's in the gallery.
So now we look forward to our new life 'down under' and the whole new world of holidays this open's up...