Lovely Lucca

Rounded off food in Pisa with a repeat lunch at L'europeo, later delicious dinner at Ristorante Galileo. I am now a semifreddo fan.

Botanical garden was tired and not much cared for, had some lovely flowers.

A very interesting visit to Palazzo Blu, free entrance.

While I found museum with Icons and such not so interesting, also expensive at 5€, and the pottery section was closed.

Some nice shopping.

Now to Lucca! With our dream of a wine & opera trip in mind -

Just a short 30 minutes away from Pisa by dependable nice train, the intact old city walls define a lovely center with cobblestoned streets and alleys - glad I don't use high heels! There is always music here, just then a music festival going on, so we got our opera, and violins later. We found a nice wine bar/pub, and also a delicious wine tasting recommended by our delighful hotel.

Lucca is not so busy as Pisa. While full of tourists it has a very cozy feeling, lots of small good shops, oozing with delightful food and ditto coffee. The birthplace of Puccini was delightful.

Some pictures of course:

 

 

Trip back was ok except Norwegian was delayed so all trains had left the airport when we arrived :( The plane direct from Pisa to Oslo really runs way too late, arriving at midnight IF on schedule.

One major warning: We found all beds to be very hard, in the three hotels we stayed in.

Besides that, happy to return anytime, especially to Lucca.

Bon giorno Italia

A week in Pisa and Lucca will pass very quickly I believe. The weather is lovely, the bed way too hard, and the tower extremely wrong angle.

Norwegian airlines flew us here with no trouble at all. Gardermoen airport seems much calmer after it was expanded. Food still quite expensive there.

Restaurant L'europeo has, as I was warned, very good food. I had wild boar papardelle. Their wine is the real thing too, and the cappuccino yummy.

I have a new necklace, an easy mark for a friendly lady seller. Did bargain some at least :)

It's Sunday, calm and friendly. Lots of shops open, found a present for my sister.

Happiness is a top mattress.

Year End

This to all the lovely people who have made me happy by reading my blog this past months. Thank you for feedback and comments, if you find something more or something in error, I'm happy to hear about it indeed!

I have finally fixed the picture from Delhi hotel garden that had a wrong link, added a comment with link on the Taj Mahal page for the rest of the pictures from Agra, and edited in a link for more pictures from Hong Kong. I took about 3700 pictures on the trip in total, not counting tons of discards. Digitial photography is the thing for me, and a single-handheld camera with zoom just what I needed.

Have bent the ears and eyes of some friends and family after I got back home, which have helped me digest the experiences. It will take more time, that was eight eventful weeks. Very lucky to have no serious injurys, sunburn, illness or accidents. Was quite lucky with the weather too.

Most beautiful: Taj Mahal
Most awesome: Remarkable Rocks
Cutest: Quokkas
Want more: Napier and Hong Kong
People I'd like to see more of: Very many!
Regrets: NONE

December meant a totally new job, it's very interesting and lots of new things to learn. Living in my own apartment again is great. The weather has been cool but not cold, plusminus 3 C. No snow yet. A few sessions with my Personal trainer already, will continue that + dancing + Tai chi kineo next year. Weight loss goal cough cough. Looking to maybe have a trip to Italy for opera and wine, who knows I might continue this blog then?

Gaming is back to Normal or maybe a bit more:
Caught the tail of Diablo3 season 8 (level 91), will play season 9.
Resubbed to World of Warcraft, got my healer to 104 so far and should be ready to raid casual style three nights a week when the new raids are out.
Fallout Shelter is full at 200 inhabitants and is getting slightly boring.
Seekers notes is definitely getting boring, some days I don't drop by at all.
Got Shenzhen for xmas present, it's a bit too much like programming aka work, maybe later...
Wordfeud with my faithful four.

Wish you all the best for the years to come 💖

Mellow Mauritius

Mauritius is east of Madagascar. Can't say I know the island now - my stay was spent relaxing at the hotel.  La Pirogue Resort & Spa is on the west coast, a one hour drive from the airport, it's a small island. The hotel is a lovely place with delightful cabins, good food and a fabulous pool. I may possibly have been the only single person staying. Very good for couples, very few children.

My cabin to the right

Morning tea outside my cabin

Service was good and the wifi outstanding. There was sunshine and solid rain, a clean good beach protected by a reef from sharks, nothing dangerous. I did see a snake rolling across the walkway one evening, according to Wikipedia they are not dangerous, very much unlike Australia! This little fellow tried to climb my leg first, a bit scared when I shook it off so took a while to get a photo - it kept slipping around to the other side of the chair.

 

Birds came visiting for lunch, the views were great, and the local songs and Sega dancing on Mauritius theme night very interesting. 

   

Those white frangipani flowers were everywhere: Dropping from plants overgrowing the pool, and used for decoration in the cabins - refreshed every day. You might be tempted to go all inclusive, since it includes the minibar. But said bar contains only beer and soft drinks, nothing for a wine lover like me. Wine at the local supermarket was awful, buy at the hotel - you are allowed to bring the rest of the bottle to your cabin. Found my favourite lunch bar on the last day - a pizza with lovingly made tomato sauce, and Mango Colada from a Coconut! Yes. there are frangipani on that coconut too. Here are all the pictures from Mauritius.

That was the last stop on my trip this time, next a 17-hour flight to cool Norway. As I write this it's around 0C and it's been raining. Great to be back home, and the new job is very interesting. 

I'll make another entry tomorrow maybe, with some more photo albums for those few hardy souls that actually look at all the pictures 😊Traveling done - for now.

Games: Have upgraded WoW and Diablo but not started playing again yet. Seekers Notes 55/40, probably not going to play that much more. Wordfeud with four regular opponents. My Fallout Shelter has 186 inhabitants.

Perth and Rottnest

Met gaming friends Anna and Paul at the train station, and we hit it off at once. Wonderful people, giving me a great time with them, their friends and showing me around. Liking people when gaming online has so far been a good basis for liking them in real life 😊

Perth and surrounds is very warm and dry, flat and stretched out along the coast with just over two million people. Consider that Australia has just over 23 million in total.

Visited Freemantle which is the port city of Perth. A lively market, fun historic statues and delicious fish & chips. Snapper is extra good for this. The best doughnuts ever from the market, very messy eating.

Elizabeth Quay is very new and lovely, and the cow festival got us hunting cows 🐄 found eight plus us.

Lastly coffee at Kings park, what a view!

Tuesday I spent on Rottnest island. Quokka are the cutest, they are all over the island. These beauties were close to the Wadjamup lighthouse. Photogenic and very very curious 😄 It's quite hard to take a close shot of something that wants to inspect your camera. They didn't bite.

Glorious view from the lighthouse, 155 steps up, went outside on the landing (!) and (with stops to breathe and swallow) 155 steps down. Fear of heights/open steps took a beating!

West End is just that, the west most tip of Rottnest. Good walkways, a 40 cm (estimated) lizard that wanted my lunch - we swapped places inside the shelter 5 times. Birds the size of a matchbox and sweating seals. And flies while you wait for the bus 😯

Rottnest is windy, tie down your cap/hat, the boat from Hilary made the passage very smoothly. Hop on/off bus or bikes on the island. Last glimpse of the island was from the flight to next and last stop - the mainland is not far off, just visible at upper left.

Anna was the best part though, hard to leave her. Here's us two cows at the airport with its Christmas decoration.

Games: Fallout shelter 55 inhabitants! iPad.