Our first activity of the day was a visit to the beautiful Schönbrunn Palace. No photos allowed inside so these will have to suffice!

No words required.

We met back at the Spanish Riding School for our walking tour (the one that left early without us the day before). It was kinda fun to see the same scene but this time with snow.

The tour guide told us a funny story about this fountain so I swear there is a reason why we went in for the money shot.

The mix-up with the walking tour somewhat screwed up our plans for the short time we had in Vienna. As such, we only had a very short amount of time to visit the Belvedere (so short, in fact, that the lady selling the tickets was like, uh, are you sure you want to buy a ticket?).

We visited Klimt and friends (one of the best displayed exhibitions, The Man and I concluded) but sadly not much else.

After closing time we did have some fun outside with the long exposure + tripod.

Til we meet again, fair Wien!

We headed out of the big smoke of Berlin to the small city of Dresden.

Another day, another Christmas market…

The town square with the beautiful Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), sadly destroyed in WWII but since faithfully reconstructed in the 90s with donations from the townspeople. The interior has been authentically reproduced in the Baroque style with pastel frescos and gold cherubs aplenty, while the crypt is a stunning contemporary design – truly inspired if you ask me.

It wasn’t just the church that was destroyed during the war; virtually the entire old centre was reduced to rubble, as well as tens of thousands of casualties.

Therefore what we saw were new buildings recreated in the original style. It’s impossible to resist the charm of cobblestones and row upon row of ornate buildings, however it did have a feeling of being a bit too perfect and neat, almost Disney-fied.

Alas, we didn’t have time for a tour of the art gallery (it looked excellent) so we instead had a look at the medieval Festung (fortress).

We finished the day with a meal at a lovely Italian restaurant near the Semper Oper (Opera House).

I would be remiss if I didn’t share photos of our hotel in Dresden. Since we were visiting in winter, we were able to score some surprisingly affordable room rates at some really interesting hotels. This is one of the Art’Otel chains, each of which has a different resident artist whose work is featured exclusively throughout the hotel.

The Man testing out the opaque-ify switch (yes, I totally just make up that term) on the bathroom window.

After exhausting the novelties of the hotel, we took a short stroll to the Zwinger (fortified palace), now the home of an impressive collection of art and porcelain.

And then many…

many…

many…

… more beautiful buildings.

One of which was the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault), a collection of all kinds of precious artefects arranged by material, such as silver, gold, coral, ivory, mother-of-pearl and gemstones. The detail and craftsmanship (not to mention obscene wealth!) were mindblowing.

And with that, we said goodbye to Germany – for the time being at least.

It’s a public holiday here today (for a horse race, would you believe) so I wouldn’t normally post but I have so many trip posts to get through that I need to throw in some bonus posts or we’ll be here til Christmas!

Anyway, another packed day of sightseeing around Berlin, starting with the very impressive Berlinerdom.

One of the more tasteful Baroque interiors I’d have to say (they can sometimes be a bit much!).

The art on the remaining section of the Berlin Wall (known as the East Side Gallery) and the stories behind them were fascinating. It really hit home how recent these awful events were, so recent that in fact when I was here as a child (1991) the city had been reunified less than two years earlier.

The Man and I were getting really irritated at all the people who thought that it was okay to deface the murals their own scribbles – nothing political I might add, more of the ‘Scott was here’ variety. *shakes fist*

While the history of Checkpoint Charlie is very interesting of course, I have to admit that actually seeing it in person didn’t really add a lot to the experience. Maybe we were just tired after a long day of sightseeing but it was a little underwhelming compared to some other places we saw.

We finished our time in Berlin with a visit to the Bauhaus Archiv. The work of the Bauhaus featured heavily in my studies at uni, so I was a bit disappointed that there was only a single example of graphic design in the exhibition (it was mostly architecture, fine art and product design – which I love, but a couple more posters would have been awesome).

On the flipside, I did discover how much my degree course was actually based on the theories of the Bauhaus, with many of the basic colour and shape studies being exactly the same as what I did as a first-year graphic design student.

Adelaide friends, I hope you’re having a great long weekend. Everyone else, happy Monday!

We arrived in Berlin at about lunchtime and what was the first thing we checked out: The history? Art? Architecture?

No, we did what any twenty-something would do and went to LegoLand.

The photos make it look like what we were expecting, that is, an exhibition of lots of cool themed Lego sculptures like they used to have in the big department stores when we were kids. But in actual fact these were just tucked into corners and 95% of it was like the biggest playroom you have ever seen, teeming with hundreds dozens of children at Lego-filled tables as far as the eye could see.

Yes, there we were, a couple of childless adults in a children’s play centre. With a camera. NOT CREEPY AT ALL.

In case that wasn’t strange enough, we saw a 3D movie aimed at 5-year-olds.

Back outside in the ultra-modern Potsdamer Platz, there was a row of Berlin Wall remnants with a bit of historical information.

It was a funny accident that the hand in the iPad Mini billboard in the background looks like it’s reaching out to grab the wall.

Cheers to our first night in Germany!

We started our first full day at the Reichstag (parliament).

Tip for young players (thankfully told to us by friends): it’s free entry but you have to book a time slot and bring your passport.

It was a rainy, misty day, making the view out onto the bare winter trees look very eerie.

I’m a big fan of architecture that mixes old and new, especially where there is some kind of necessary reconstruction as with the dome here.

Memorial to those who were killed trying to cross the border between East & West Berlin (above) and a haunting memorial to gypsy Holocaust victims (below).

After visiting some more outdoor sights, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Gemäldegalerie (Art Gallery). I have to admit that it was a Plan B after finding that the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Applied Arts) was closed for renovations. Nevertheless, it was a very impressive collection of classic art.

The Philharmoniker building (above) and the many, many consulate buildings (below) were stunning at dusk.

By this stage we’d been overseas for two and a half weeks, all of which had been spent staying with friends and family, so we treated ourselves to a nice cosy dinner out at a traditional Prussian restaurant. Thankfully The Man can speak German so he could decipher the menu for me.

The owner was this typical European grandma type, she kept coming over to make sure we were eating all our food!

Next up: more Berlin.

We didn’t fly halfway across the world to sleep, so we were up bright and early on New Year’s Day to make the most of our last day in London.

The friends we were staying with live near Hyde Park, so we took a morning stroll amongst all the joggers with their new years resolutions.

The main attraction for the day was the Victoria & Albert Museum, which I’d been really looking forward to. Its focus is mainly on design/applied art (such as furniture, architecture, textiles, ceramics and fashion) so it’s right up my alley.

The one thing I was most eager to see was the collection of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

It was closed.

Devastated, we consoled ourselves with lunch in one of the tea rooms designed by William Morris.

For a change of pace, we headed to Lord’s Cricket Ground. I haven’t the slightest interest in cricket (not very Aussie am I?) nor in any sport to be honest.

But The Man does put up with an awful lot of my gallery-hopping so what’s a good wife to do but take photos while our tour guide is regaling us with two centuries of cricket trivia.

We then made our way to the Camden Markets. Sorry, my arms were too full of shopping bags to take any photos.

London has so many amazing shops I would have loved to explore, but we did more of the touristy stuff so there wasn’t a lot of time left for window shopping.

One must-see that we had to squeeze in though was a visit to Liberty of London. They had these simple-yet-effective festive garlands and fairy lights in the multi-storey central atrium. Pretty huh?

Goodnight London!

There’s no Day 13 wrapup as we were in transit from San Francisco and arrived with only enough time to catch the tube to our friends’ apartment, have some pizza and fall into bed. So it’s straight into Day 14 and guess who we saw?

I kid, I kid. We spent the morning at Madame Tussauds.

I was a bit underdressed for the black-tie occasion but Leo didn’t seem to mind.

The Man having it out with The Greatest.

I’m not really that into celebrities but it was very well done and I ended up having loads of fun!

Chamber of Horrors.

More ticking off of cliche touristy sights, this time with a spin on the London Eye.

Despite the drizzle we managed to get some decent views. It’s actually a great way to start your visit as it gives you a great overview of the city layout to orientate yourself.

Our friends continued to show us around some of the main streets…

We were lucky enough to score tickets to The Twelfth Night, featuring (amongst other excellent actors) Stephen Fry, who The Man and I are huge fans of. Okay, maybe I lied about the not being into celebrities thing.

Anyway, despite our nosebleed seats (no joke, we were like row ZZ) and serious jetlag, the show did not disappoint. In the spirit of authenticity, it was done in the traditional style (i.e. an all-male cast for both the male and female roles) and with only the types of costumes that would have been available in Shakespeare’s day.

We finished the day in true British style: with a pie and cider (me) and sausages and warm beer (The Man).

Our penultimate day in San Francisco was packed from morning to night, so be warned: there are lots of photos in this post!

We began at Lombard Street, which was absolutely teeming with tourists, but ya know, it’s one of those must-sees regardless.

Plus there were great views from the top!

We moved the car to a parking station and were rewarded with some unexpected stunning views of the city and bay.

We stopped in for coffee at the really cute European style Cafe Zoetrope, another of Francis Ford Coppola’s businesses (we had already been to his winery in Napa).

I recall watching the movie Mon Oncle with my dad when I was young so I had to take a snap of this – how great is the poster art?

For lunch we went to the famous Tony’s Pizza in Little Italy. Uh-mazing.

We took a post-prandial stroll (yes, I totally just used that in a sentence – that’s one to tick off the life list) and admired the adorable colourful terrace houses.

(Is this like Platform 9¾?)

It was a gorgeous sunny day (finally) so it was perfect to enjoy Pier 39.

It was now time to catch our cruise to Alcatraz Island.

The tour was quite interesting and thankfully not terrifying like it was the last time I was there (age 6).

It was wonderful to watch the sun set over the city skyline.

We returned to shore and enjoyed all the twinkling lights.

We finished our day with an indulgent dessert and coffee at the Ghirardelli chocolate shop – our Christmas gift to the family. I certainly didn’t remember everything from our trip here when I was little, but unsurprisingly this was one place that had stuck in my memory all these years!

After our couple of days relaxing indoors we were ready to head back outside and enjoy nature (even if it was raining – AGAIN).

First stop was the beautiful Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. I’m a terrible gardener myself, but I adore Japanese gardens. So sculptural and serene, don’t  you think?

We had a tour by an excellent volunteer guide. Thankfully the rain eased up for a while so we could see the gardens at their best.

Amazingly, we had been in San Francisco for a week and a half and hadn’t had a proper look at the Golden Gate Bridge (you may remember we drove over it in the evening on our way to Napa but it was dark and we didn’t get out of the car). So we had a brief stop where we battled through the crowds to take in the famous view.

It was not foggy as it so often is, but the morning glare did wash out the iconic colours. It was also a tad windy – can you tell?

From there we took a scenic drive to the beautiful Muir Woods National Park. Words cannot describe how awe-inspiring the ancient redwoods were.

I had stupidly forgotten to put the spare camera battery in my bag, so the camera died while we were at the Japanese Gardens. My brother, who had been to Muir Woods before, kindly lent us his camera for the rest of the day.

He is a very good photographer (much better than me) and he also has a way better camera than I do. The Man (who started to really get into photography on our trip) and I had so much fun with his camera and lenses. It made for a slow walk, that’s for sure, but we ended up with some shots that we were really happy with.

Of course now I’ve come home wanting to upgrade my own kit.

A tree had fallen overnight and taken down a fence and other trees in its path. We were impressed that even though it was Boxing Day, a team had evidently been in to cut a piece out of the trunk to clear the path.

After our long walk, we stopped off at Sausalito, an utterly charming seaside town.

We have very few timber buildings here in Adelaide (blame the termites) so when I see them elsewhere they always seem so exotic and pretty to me.

We ended our day with some long exposure experiments and a delicious Italian meal.

At the beginning of our second week in San Francisco, we laid low for a couple of days and had some relaxing family time since it was Christmas Eve and Day. In between the last-minute Christmas grocery shopping, the girls (Mum, my sister-in-law Jane and I) managed to sneak away for a visit to Anthropologie.

Being Christmas Eve afternoon it was quite busy so I’m surprised I managed to snap a photo with no people in it!  The interior displays were gorgeous as expected, but, well, my hands were quickly full so that’s where the photo taking ended.

I’ve already shown you the lovely mismatching bowls, but I also bought a cute top and skirt plus a small gift for a friend. Very restrained of me I thought; I was coveting half the store.

My dear northern readers will probably laugh at this, but we were So. Excited. to spot some squirrels in my brother’s backyard.

We spent the rest of the day chilling out, reading, watching movies and preparing some food for the day ahead.

On Christmas morning we packed up an entire fridge full of food (and seemingly half the kitchen) and headed down to the apartment block’s communal pool house. It looks like a pleasant day in the photos but in actual fact it was cold and raining. The room itself, though, was delightful and cosy.

It was quite a different Christmas meal to our usual sparkling red with crayfish and salad followed by pudding. Our splendid hosts embraced the traditions of their new home (and climate) and served seared scallops for entree (that’s ’starters’ for the US readers!) and barbecued beef rib-eye and veg for main.

My brother, wanting to be authentic, even served it with candied yams (that’s mashed sweet potato with marshmallows, for the uninitiated). I think the general consensus was that it was a fun experience but not one that needs repeating.

Palette cleansing sorbet*.

*We are not normally this fancy.

We finished off with an insanely delicious pumpkin bundt cake. Banana cake had better watch out, I think I have a new favourite partner for cream cheese icing.

It may have been a non-traditional Christmas for us – Winter! No crayfish! No presents! – but it was definitely up there with the most memorable we’ve ever had as a family.

Another wet day in Napa Valley!

A local eccentric began building a reproduction medieval Tuscan castle here twenty odd years ago (as you do). I’m not normally a fan of fake theme park-y type attractions, but I have to say Castello di Amorosa was quite well done. Everything looked fairly authentic and the attention to detail was impressive. Plus, the wine was good which is a sure-fire way to win my family over.

Despite the lack of regal attire, The Man and I made ourselves at home. (Don’t worry, we were allowed to sit on the furniture – remember it’s not actually from the 13th century!)

Did I mention it was WET?!

We returned to Yountville, this time walking past Bouchon (where we’d had our fancy dinner the night before) to the adjacent Bouchon Bakery where we picked up some treats to take home for dessert. (I had a giant macaron, just in case you were wondering.)

It was a really charming town, especially with all the festive decorations. We were particularly taken by the real Christmas trees outside every shop. They’re there overnight – decorations and all – and nothing seems to happen to them.

After that we made our way to the Hess Collection. Despite the country gardens and historic stone buildings, it is home to an impressive contemporary art gallery inside a stunning new interior.

Oh and yes, it is also a winery. (Cool Christmas tree huh? Evidently made of wine barrels, it could have made it onto this roundup.)

At dusk, we bid farewell to the wine region and made our way back into San Francisco.