Canada, Cambridge and Cornwall!

Wow it has been a while!! It has been been a very busy 2 months!!! 

I had a great visit home in March/April. I was able to see all my friends and family! I mostly relaxed and enjoyed being at home.

Such a cutie. 

After returning to England, we started our new topic: Going For Gold. This is focused around the Olympics- ancient and modern. Half of my room is Greek and half is Rio! The children are enjoying this topic and love learning about myths.

Two weekends ago, Josh and I took a day trip to Cambridge. It was about 1.5 hours drive through the countryside! So beautiful! We spent the day wandering through town and exploring the old University buildings. It was graduation at Cambridge University so there were a lot of people dressed up in their fancy gowns and holding degrees. It was rainy to start and then we got some sunshine! We ate at a pub right on the river and looked at all the punts (kind of like a gondola). It was a lovely day out and great to experience some of England. Cambridge had such an old British feel to it.

Favourite college building. 

Cows!

Since I am passport less, Josh and I spent our bank holiday weekend exploring another part of England. I have always wanted to experience Cornwall, as I have heard amazing things.  It is on the west coast of Britain. Josh and I looked to find a hotel right near the sea and found The Ship and Castle hotel. It was in St Mawes, a little fisherman village. Our hotel was right near the harbour. It was such a cute little town! Very quaint and peaceful. They had a few pubs, some seaside shops and lots of ice cream(Cornish cream ice cream!!!). After our 6 hour drive (tons of traffic), we checked into our hotel and drove up to the St Mawes Castle. It was a beautiful sunny day. The castle was closed so we ended up going for a 1 hour walk right along the sea. We didn't even have to wear jackets!!! For dinner we went to the main pub and settled there for the night.

Pit stop on the way there.

Our hotel on the far left. 

St Mawes

St Mawes Castle

On our walk

On Sunday, we woke up and it was so cloudy and rainy!! Quite cold as well. We woke up early and started our journey. After about 1 hour of driving, we arrived at St. Ives. St. Ives is another coastal town (more North). It was bigger than St. Mawes but had a similar feel. Lots of ice cream shops and Cornish pasties. For any body who doesn't know, they are kind of like pizza pops.... but delux. You can get a variety of fillings and it is wrapped in a pastry and baked.  It still continued to rain but we wandered around anyways. Then on our drive, we made our way to Lands End. This was the most westerly point of the UK. All of a sudden, it was SO foggy that we could barely see the sea!! It was a bit disappointing. We quickly snapped some pictures and continued on, stopping at a few more places (Mousehole and Penzance). As we drove farther along the coast, we arrived at Lizard Point. This was the most southerly point of the UK. Still quite foggy but we could see a bit more. Before heading back to St. Mawes, we stopped for Cornish cream tea! So delicious! Scones with Cornish clotted cream and a pot of tea. After a long day of travelling, we drove 1 hour back to St Mawes. As it was Sunday, we tried a different pub for their Sunday roast.

St Ives

Don't see any cliffs. 

Lands End

Winnipeg is on there!

Lizard Point

The drive back on Monday took about 5 hours and we arrived back to sunshine in Camberley!! No more trips planned in the near future. Just waiting for my VIP guests to arrive soon... and my passport to come back!!!

Rome.. full of pizza, pasta and gelati!

Last weekend, Josh and I set off to Rome. This was his birthday present from me and I was happy to get away as well!! We took off from Terminal 4 .. our usual terminal now it seems! Al Italia was actually a really nice airline! After a 2 hour flight, we landed in Rome and took a cab to our hotel. We were near the Trevi Fountain and close to other main spots!! Our hotel was really nice- only about 6 rooms but offered the most amazing breakfast!

Saturday March 5th

We started the day with a 9am tour of The Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Josh had never been to Rome before, and I barely remember it so we needed to go see these places!! Our guided 4 hour tour was amazing! There were only 5 of us and our guide. We started at the Colosseum, then the Forum and ended on Palatine Hill. It wasn't too cold out but it wasn't sunny either. We learned a lot and were amazed by all the history!

After our tour, we walked towards the Pantheon. We stopped to have a pizza lunch - delicious! We ended up at Piazza Navona - a gorgeous square near the Pantheon. I bought some paintings and grabbed some lemon gelati. After eating our gelati, we made our way to The Pantheon. There were a lot of tourists but we still went inside. As we continued on our way, trying not to get lost, we went to the Trevi Fountain. It was just as pretty as I remember. We decided we needed to see it lit up at night. After a short break back at our hotel, we walked to The Spanish Steps. I was so excited to see them again... but they were under construction!!! Scaffolding everywhere! It was sad , so I bought a painting of them instead- just like last time I was there! We ventured to another Piazza to find a restaurant recommended by Kar. It did not disappoint! I had rigatoni carbonara and Josh had Gnocchi with fresh Buffalo Mozzarella. We also had some appetizers and a bottle of prosecco. It was a great dinner! After a quick stop to see the Trevi fountain at night, we headed back to the hotel for bed.

Where the gladiators walked in!!

Closed Spanish Steps :(

Ahhhh so amazing! 

Sunday March 6th

After eating our delicious breakfast, we set off on the underground to The Vatican. It was hot and sunny today! Everything was closed there so we couldn't go in, but we did have a good look around. We couldn't get into the main square, as there were chairs everywhere. We figured something must be getting ready to happen. There were still tons of people!! We wandered back towards central Rome to the monument to Victor Emmanuel II. Our guide from the day before told us that you could take an elevator up to see views of Rome. She was right! It was a great view and we could even see the Colosseum and Forum. After seeing Rome from a different view, we wandered back to Piazza Navona for one last Italian meal. I had pasta and we both had more gelati for dessert! Our flight was at 5 so we had to start making our way to the airport around 2.

It was a great trip away and Josh really enjoyed himself. I love Rome!

The Vatican 

Some hot weather!! 

Where we went to the top of! 

Forum and Colosseum in the background! 

Piazza Navona- cappuccino for you mom! 

Outside the parliament buildings 

Berlin

Over half term break, Jess and I went to Berlin. We left on Saturday the 13th and arrived early evening. Neither of us wanted to go into city central, so we just had dinner near our hotel. It was a massive hotel that was right near an underground station!

The first day (freezing) we went on a 4 hour walking tour!  We were given a crash course in Berlin history and all the famous buildings. We had a delicious German lunch and continued exploring the streets and shops. After grabbing some snacks and some drinks, we went back to our hotel. We attempted to go out dancing, but ended up at a bar. The train system was so easy in Berlin that we had no problem finding our way back!

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate

Concert Hall with a demonstration for refugees

Reichstag made of chocolate!

Berlin's famous bear! They had many different designs across Berlin.

On the Monday, we went to the East Side Gallery. This is where artists from all over the world painted on sections of the wall. It was amazing to see the variety of art styles and famous paintings! In the afternoon, we wandered to Museum Island. We chose a free museum to go into (Humboldt) and also went in the Berliner Dom. It was a gorgeous famous cathedral. We even climbed all the way to the top!!  We had dinner at this restaurant in Alexanderplatz. It was such a cool restaurant! Basically, you ordered your meal through a tablet and collected it when it was ready. It didn't feel like a fast food plate though because the food was amazing!

Trampolines in the ground!

Berliner Dom

Inside Berliner Dom

Top of Berliner Dom

On Tuesday, we went on a whole day trip to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg. It was about a 30 minute train ride to the little town. Our guide took us around the entire concentration camp and told us the history. It was sad to see and hear the stories that took place not that long ago.
After arriving back in Berlin, we went to Potsdamer Platz to try to find a place for dinner. We were surprised to see tons of red carpets and paparazzi! It was Berlin's Film Festival. We saw some actors and actresses but had no clue who they were.

Monument at the Concentration Camp

Where the building would have been. There are few left standing.

Three days were enough to see Berlin so on Wednesday we decided to hop on another train and go to Schloss Sanssouci. It is a park with 5 or so palaces on it. They all used to belong to King Frederick. The town that is was near was so adorable!! We walked through the grounds and went into the actual palace called Sanssouci. It was a guided audio tour.  We went for a late lunch in the city of Potsdam (where the train took us) and grabbed some souvenirs. After a long , cold and snowy day, we decided to eat dinner at the hotel. We had a relaxing night of Currywurst, sparkling wine and paprika pringles.

Half frozen lake!

Steps leading to Schloss Sanssouci

I am happy I went to Berlin, as I had always wanted to experience it!

Other updates: I went on an Edible Garden course and absolutely loved it! Josh and I were dog sitting his family's dog so spent the night at their house. We took Lexie on a walk behind the house and it was like being in the countryside! So pretty. I said goodbye to a good work friend as she headed back to New Zealand, but we had a really fun night!

English adventures!

New foster cat- Marble