Panda at Large: 2009

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Munchen

Paddy had a whistle stop visit to Munich yesterday for hopefully his last visit to his German dentist! All the mercury fillings he had forced upon him by the lovely dental nurses at the Hornby Dental Clinic are now gone and he is the picture of health!!

December in Munich of course can be quite cold but that is why they invented Gluhwein! It was -10º, but dry and crisp and a good rehearsal for Milwaukee in a weeks time!!

I was intrigued by this stall at the Christmas markets offering Hot Honey wine laced with "Tullamore Dew" and I was not disappointed, though the service could have been a tad more enthusiastic!!

and this stall was offering genuine smoked salmon.

The Germans do Christmas well and even these displays in the airport were capturing the spirit.

I made a stop at the Mercedes Benz shop in Munich for the boss's Xmas present and was captivated by this car on display...

An Mercedes SLR "Stirling Moss". Unbelieveable! Only 75 manufactured and all pre-sold @ over £800,000 each!!

Specs:

Engine: 5439cc, supercharged V8Power: 650bhp @ 6500rpm

Torque: 605 lb ft @ 4000rpm

Transmission: Five-speed automatic

Acceleration: 0-62mph: less than 3.5sec

Top speed: 217mph

Price: £815,000

Verdict: The maddest Merc you’ll ever see

Monday, November 2, 2009

Island in the sun

On our latest visit to Mallorca, we couldn't decide whether these sheep were sunburnt or just had a bad case of the trots!!

And we had never seen the sea running so high on the Med!

Venice revisited...

Venice is a special place. It can be over-crowded and smelly and we delayed our visit until October, but it was still over-crowded and smelly!

The weather was still pretty good though so we made the most of it and tried to avoid the "masses".

There is a constant sense of dis-organised mayhem on the Grand Canal but I guess it just gives the visitors something to talk about.

A trip out to Burano and Murano gave us a sense of tranquility one day.

And we thought the 24 hour clock was something special.

The Venetian food is something special, and we enjoyed a couple of favourites plus a couple of new "finds".

You wouldn't think she was AQUARIUS, would you?

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A lifestyle block to die for............

Now is the time to secure your future.
http://www.realestate.co.nz/1163819

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Il viaggio di strada bello Italiano

There is something about the Italian Lakes, but when we decided to include a detour into the Alps, it really did make for a special few days.

First stop Veranno, on Lake Como

Which gave us the opportunity to take a ferry to Bellagio for the passeggiata...

and we had a nice lake view to wake up to

From there we headed north towards Bormio and up the Stelvio Pass

A great drive, with dozens of motorcyclists and pushbikers

then down the other side

"The Stelvio Pass is one of the highest Alpine Passes of Europe with its 2758 m. The original road was built in 1820-1825 by the Austrian Empire to connect the former Austrian province of Lombardia with the rest of Austria, covering a climb of 1871 m. Since then, the route has changed very little. The 60 hairpin bends, 48 of them on the northern side numbered with stones, are a challenge to motorists."

From there we drove through miles and miles of apple orchards (just at the start of harvest) and couldn't believe Italy could produce so many apples in one spot. We stayed at a little Gasthof in Terlan, this area was once Austrian and a lot of the locals still think that it should still be Austrian! Next day we detoured into the Dolomites and stopped at Lago Carezza...