The Italian Lakes - Lago Maggiore

Lake Maggiore is one of the lesser touristy lakes nestled in the foothills of the alps, north of Milan. From west to east there is Lake Maggiore, Lake Como and then Lake Garda. Each is quite different. Lake Garda is like the Surfers Paradise with theme parks and lots of holiday parks, Lake Como is swanky, good looking and very expensive but probably the most idyllic. Lake Maggiore is the poor mans alternative but is still pretty nice, way less busy but the towns are still interesting the very traditional Italian.


We spent a day to the north checking out Cannobio just short of the swiss border. We were going to go the next 10km to Locarno on the swiss side, but you need to buy a permit to drive in Switzerland which costs $40 Euro. We had no other intention of heading to Switzerland so reckon will save it for another trip. We also went south on a different day, checking out Orta which is a tiny lake behind Lake Maggiore and then the town of Stresa on the shores of Lake Maggiore. Stresa was nice and another spot for an afternoon gelato, this time Chocolate and Banana and Blueberry and Lemon. Stresa is flanked by some huge french styled hotels and loads of private villas. Rachel spotted perhaps half a dozen, castle like villas that had been abandoned and left to ruin. Probably the effect of hefty inheritance taxes like in parts of France.

We also headed up to the top of the hill behind Stresa, which had some nice views and not much else. The cable car needed a bit of the work and the restaurant we found for lunch was run by three grandmothers who struggled like Faulty Towers. Today we drove into the alps to a huge waterfall. It must be a bit of a local attraction as there was lots of italians there in the car park. I underestimated the length of the drive and also the altitude. It was only 70km but took 1.5 hours up this windy valley, and at nearly 2000m high it was a little bit cold. We did a bit of a walk around tried to find a toilet with no avail and just headed back. The valley was really pretty with lots of old stone houses that were left to ruin scattering most paddocks, some good photograph if you had the time to stop, and were without a child who was getting bored.


In a few days we head to Chamonix to stay with friends for a bit, and that we be the end of another jaunt through continental europe. We then head to the UK for two weeks mainly staying with friends and family. We both reckon the strategy of staying in a place for a 5-7 days at a time whilst having a child in tow. We have left most mornings for an drive whilst Finn is grabbing his morning sleep and drive home in the afternoon after which he quickly falls to sleep. Campsites are better than hotel, as you at least have a kitchen, plus also playgrounds, swimming pools and space to entertain a kid. Three days in a hotel in Verona was just enough, so seven days in a central London apartment will be interesting.

The problem is spending seven days in a place is choosing the good locations in the first place. Most places have a few days of excursions but not many can stretch to a week. Tuscany was great and we did seven different things throughout the week. The alps was good as it was such a change and the accommodation was felt homely. Lake Maggiore is nice but think we should have done five days here and spent more in the Alps.

The excuse of the long post, is that the Tour de France is on TV, plus Diamond League Athletics and Finn is having a big afternoon sleep :)

The Italian Alps - Vale di Sole

A couple of years ago we spent a great week in Chamonix, France up in the alps. The weather was so good and not so hot, plus there was lots of outdoorsy things to do. So this trip we decided to find the Italian version of the Alps. We headed towards the Dolomites which are two separate ranges of peaks located in Northern Italy towards the Swiss Border from Verona. We scored some good chalet styled accommodation in some campground and luckily were in a nice valley. Vale di Sol is an alpine valley that is famous for mountain biking and skiing. Therefore there we lots of good trails for walking and running, a free train that went up and down the valley and a dedicated asphalt cycle path linking everything together. It was rather devoid of tourists; maybe we were a bit early.

We spent the first day on an adventure to Lago Tovel which is perched in a amphitheatric type valley surrounded by the Brenta Dolomites. The drove in was a bit traumatic, skinny and steep but the walk to the lake was easy and revealed the most spectacular view. We had lunch by the lake and dragged a sleeping Finn around the remainder of the lake for another half and hour.


The next day dawned with mint blue skies, so we went up to one of the skifields and up a chairlift to the snow to check out the view. Not everything was open, but we decided between the Pasole Tonale lift and the Peio Skifield. Both at the top of the Vale di Sole. Pasole Tonale would have been a bit more spectacular as it accesses a glacier at the top which is used for summer sking along the border with Switzerland. In any case Peio was pretty good and went up to 3000m so, a cold Finn could have a quick play in the snow. Chairlifts to any peak in Europe seem expensive, this was a pretty simple ride up two lifts for $19 Euro or $40 each.

Later in the week we did a long drive out of the valley to the city of Bolanzo which is the last big city in the Trento Valley before you hit the Austrain Border. We were trying to find the Mountaineering Museum in the Firmian Castle dedicated to Reinhold Messner. He became famous in the 1980's for being the first person to summit Everest without oxgyen and then went back a few years later to do it again solo. He is perhaps the only person to summit all 14 peaks over 8000m without using oxygen. Anyway we finally found the castle and museum, we could see it from the motorway but couldn't find the signposts within the labyrinth of on ramps and off ramps in the spaghetti junction. It was a very good museum and slightly different, it was a labyrinth of staircases, ramps and paths within the castle that was supposed to make you feel part of his journey. In any case it was a good was to spend the day and had a great cafe for lunch. Finn was a hit with the bus loads of tourists as I think we were the only English speaking people around.


We spent the last day driving lazily up and over the hill from the campground to the big ski resort town of Madonna di Campiglio. It was a bit of ghost town but would certainly hum in winter. About four sets of chairlifts leave from the town up into the hills. We decided to check out another lake which was perched above the town. There was a huge school group walking around the lake, which made us glad we were on holiday.

Verona and the italian city life

From Siena we had a few days to kill before heading to the Alps. To break up the long drive we opted to stay in Verona for three night with the intention of doing a side trip on the train to Venice. Our enthusiasm was started to wane and Finn was having trouble sleeping and having some reaction to the milk formula that we had dragged all the way from Singapore. In any case Verona was a little gem of the place that was not very touristy, modernly developed yet historic and full of hundred of good shops, cafes and gelato vendors. We splurged on the nice hotel that was located between the Roman Arena, which is the main attraction beside the Romeo and Juliette balcony and the main shopping treat.


We grabbed the hotel the week before on booking.com at under half price which was good. Pity the cost to park the car was so extravagant. $20 Euro a day but we didn't have any alternatives. We did manage one excursion around Verona looking at a castle above the town but other than that kicking around town was entertaining for a few days and we finally visited Shakepheres inspirational veranda on the last day.

Siena and some luxurious accomodation

We arrived at a stunning B&B that was more suited for a honeymoon than a family holiday with a 7 month old baby, just on the outskirts of Siena. Any closer was stupidly expensive. Our place was a very modern and stylish and even had Kartel designer furniture, like Rachel had seen in Singapore. We spent the first afternoon walking around the old city streets after spending an age finding a carpark. The highlight was a nice lazy Italian lunch on a street off the main square away from the crass pizza places, Rach had some great ravioli and me some fancy courgette flowers stuffed with cheese.

The next day we adventured back into the old town and checked out the main church. Included in the ticket was chance to climb to the top of one of the old walls to check out the panorama. Back in the 14th century they had some ambitious plans to build the world largest church in Siena by adding a long wing to the existing church, they got as far as building the grand end wall before the plague killed off their ambition. Siena was a nice place and the accommodation, breakfast spread and swimming pool all very nice. Siena would be a nice base to explore more of southern Tuscany if it wasn't so pricey.

Florence and the hoards of tourists

Last time Rachel was in Florence she was accompanied by 26 St Mary's College students. It was nice for Rachel to finally see this city on her own terms and at a lazy pace. Who thought she would next return with husband and child in tow, five years later. We drove to Piazza Michaelangelo that overlooks this spectacular city and parked up the car for the day, the drive in wasn't too traumatic despite the warning of the crazy traffic. The GPS in the car was a good send again, makes travelling around so easy, Andrew took some fantastic panoramic shots of Florence. We then walked down into the main tourist area. Hoards of tourists!!

Anyway we toured around the usual spots including the Ufizzi Museum, the Cathedral and down and across the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. We didn't spend any time in the galleries, and will save it all till next time when it will be a bit easier. Reckon it would be nice to come during one of the quieter months and wander around and stay in the city.

The hometown of Leonardo de Vinci

Vinci, is a very cute little town that was the birth place of Leonardo De Vinci. I think this was my favourite places to visit so far. This entire town is devoted the Italian master and most of his inventions. The museum was interesting and it was located in two parts, the second being situated in the castle tower. So, you could climb the tower then be rewarded with some of the most spectacular views of Tuscany. Then we stopped for a drink at cafe Leonardo which was right next door to the information centre. To be honest it barely needs an information post as the town is very well signposted and it is very little. Andrew and I have taught in schools that are bigger!.
Anyway it was a nice slice of Italian life without many tourists in sight. The view from the tower was really spectacular and a hidden gem among dozens of other tuscan villages. Funny that Vinci is not mentioned in the lonely planet.

San Gimignano - the tuscan town of towers

This was a must see as the brochures had said the the world champion gelato makers are situated on the main piazza, plus there are some famous towers that rise above the tuscan countryside.

As we drove on the twisty italian roads, a lovely little town situated on a hill appeared. We manage to find a park and walked up to the piazza right in the top of the village. So walking up allows you to work up an appetite for gelato. This town is famous for having over 70 towers which demonstrated wealth and power, prior to the plague but now only 14 remain.

It is a bit touristy, large tour groups again, all lined up to buy gelato of course. This town had a Harry Potter village feel to it with the narrow cobblestone streets some which looked out to some amazing views. I am pleased to say that it was also stroller friendly. We walked up then down the other side with no problems at all. The only real problem we had was trying to choose which flavour gelato to have. I ended up with Pastasio and Chocolate but I had gelato envy when Andrew got The Pink grapefruit/champagne and passionfruit. yum!

Lucca - the tiny walled city

Well, what a stark contrast from yesterday. Lucca is a very pretty walled town with only a few tourists in sight. It was a bit closer to the accommodation and down the same motorway as yesterday.

We walked the 4 km along the tree lined wall around the city before venturing inside to check out the shops and find some lunch. We were not disappointed. We strolled through the narrow cobbled streets and looked at all of the quaint shops, we got a little disorientated and had to get out Lonely Planet to find our way back to the car, fortuitously we stumbled across a bakery just as Finn was falling to sleep. We bought some tasty morsels including some canolli's. I have wanted to try one of these Italian sweets ever since I saw them on the Cake Boss TV programme. A deep fried hard shell containing a chocolate mouse like filling, what could be wrong about that?! A really lovely day. Culinary high of the day - a spinach feta quiche/pie thing with short crust pastry, yum!

Off to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa

I never thought that I would ever see the famous tower, as it is a bit off the beaten track. It was a short hours drive from the holiday park where we are staying.

We parked the car and headed towards where we thought it was, then we saw the tour buses and tour group so we guessed we were headed the right way. Who thought finding to tower would be difficult. Then I looked up and I could see the top of the tower. It really was on a lean. That first sighting of such an iconic feature always surprises me, it is almost magical. it is a bit like 'wow it really does exist!' We knew we were getting closer as there were more and more crowds. We then had to run the gauntlet of tacky tourist stalls before entering the grounds where this beautiful building stands.


The tower is magnificent but the hoards of tour groups is very unpleasant. This is the reason why I try to avoid tourist hot spots if at all possible. It is not the tourists that I dislike. (actually that is a lie, I really dislike the stereotypical loud brass American tourists) But it is the tacky tourism stalls and the guys who hunt you down to try and sell you fake watches and sunglasses. I hate it! So to be honest, I am glad I got to see this iconic cultural feature but I wouldn't have been too upset if I had missed it and the tacky tourism either. Pisa really is a one hit wonder town, the remainder to the town is as unremarkable as the leaning tower is remarkable. Culinary high of the day - dinner including the yummy tomatoes and feta.

New house

We have moved apartment recently, to a new place out in the suburbs. Our old place at the Beacon was a very nice pad in the city but didn't really have the space for the impending arrival of junior. So for a little more pain in the wallet, we have scored a three bedroom place with heaps of room to spread out. I think Singaporean's are a bit adverse to older condos (old: read about 15 years) but this suits us fine. All of the new developments around town offer far less floor space and you are usually perched on some high floor, with few other other skyscrapers.

Here are some photos of the new place and neighbourhood.

Hanging in Hong Kong

After three weeks of recovery, we booked a short week trip to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a reputation as being the big competing brother to Singapore so we thought we better go and check it out. Plus it is only a short and cheap 3 hour flight from Singapore on Jet Star.

As usual we scored a good last minute accommodation deal on http://www.wotif.com/ in a nice part of town. We stayed in Hong Kong Island in a area called Wen Chai. About two MTR stops from Central Hong Kong and the business district.

The first few days were a struggle with torrential monsoon rain, we didn't do much exploring. We did find a nice mall with a series of great restaurants which kept us occupied for the first few nights. We didn't manage to eat much local fare, but did try a ribs place, gastro pub and trendy Vietnamese place.

We did a few touristy things including Ocean Park and a trip on the Cable Car up to Victoria Peak. Ocean Park is a local version of Disneyland, but with a wildlife slant. We saw a few pandas inside big enclosures, a big aquarium with a good array of tropical fish and then rode on some of the rides. The park is perched on the end of a mountain, which juts out into the ocean. The rollercoasts are perched on the edge of the cliff which makes both of them a little more exciting.


The view from the Hong Kong waterfront is one of the most amazing urban vistas in the world. We are lucky to get two clear nights. On the Wednesday night we rode to the top of Victoria Peak, along with a few thousand Chinese tourists from the mainland. On Thursday night we caught a cab across the harbour to Kowloon and the tourist mecca. After a nice dinner in some burger place we caught the night light show spectacular.

View from Kowloon across the harbour to the Hong Kong skyline.

View from Victoria Peak down and across Hong Kong, towards mainland China.

Overall Hong Kong was a chaotic, steroid pumped version of Singapore. The main difference is that is feels like a city of the edge of booming China, with lots of wealth and luxury cars. The shops and transport all seemed pretty similar but the city is crammed onto the coast of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island and it feels dominated by the skyscapers. Singapore has a nice and accessible waterfront which Hong Kong is currently building in the midst of a new reclamation project.

Hanging in Vietnam

We are on school holidays at the moment so enjoyed a quick trip to Vietnam last week. We found cheap air tickets with Tiger Air a few months ago so headed away with four other friends. We began with a few days immersed in the chaos of Ho Chi Minh City, whilst staying in a small guest house in the centre of town. Ho Chi Minh is a bustling place with around 7 million Vietnamese people and about the same number of scooters. With recommendations from our work colleagues, we found a few excellent places to eat. A French/Moroccan place, an alfresco barbecue restaurant and a one very vietnamese place with authentic local cuisine. The tourism side of the city was a bit disappointing, we visited the historic centre of town where a tank busted through the gates of the palace to reunite North and South Vietnam in the late 1970's. On the last morning we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels to the north which was a little dull.


We then moved on to a quaint place called Hoi An in central Vietnam, via a flight to Denang and then a 30 minute taxi ride south. The coastline from Denang to Hoi An is a long line of newly built resorts, Greg Norman golf courses and other foreign owned investments. It is a unique juxtaposition to see the poverty and traditional long houses on the opposite side of the road to the glam and manicured lawns of the resorts. Nevertheless we dived off the main road to the ancient town of Hoi An, which was once a trading village with French, Japanese and Chinese influences. The town is now a protected UNESCO site with little traffic and renovated buildings. We enjoyed lots of great food in different styles alongside the river (Cargo, Mango Mango), plenty of art galleries and the ubiquitous tailors.



We spent plenty of money on tailored clothes at about $20 a piece and struggled to bring it all back to Singapore. It was good to spend a substantial amount of time in one place. We managed to spend 6 days in Hoi An with friends which was a nice contrast to travelling every day from place to place. Will definitely be back to Vietnam at some time and try to do some of the northern parts, Halong Bay, Sapa and Hanoi.


The rest of our photos are here... http://picasaweb.google.com/ajmccarthynz/Vietnam2010

A preview of our wedding photos

After a long time searching...

After a long time searching we located the piece of art that was the one! This is it’s story:

Andrew saw a picture he liked in Greytown only a few days after the wedding. He apparently showed me it but I didn’t remember a thing, I was still stuck up on cloud nine also know as wedded bliss. When I had finally come back down to earth Andrew and I started our serious hunt for the right piece of New Zealand art. We both knew this was going to be a challenge, as it had to comply with a list of criteria. A= has to the work of a New Zealand Artist. B=It has to be an original C=It really should show a landscape or something New Zealandish. And finally for the hardest criteria of all. D= we both have to like it!

So the hunt began, Andrew searched the internet and I, well….. I went shopping with mum to Queensgate. However, I did suggest that we go the Gallery over in Eastbourne at Days bay on our way to visit some friends. The Van Halen Gallery always has a variety of artwork on display. And there it was…….I saw the picture that I knew we had to have. The only bugger was that it was a print. With all of the generous contributions from friends and family we could hardly buy just a print. Or could we? I called Andrew over to show him, fingers crossed that he also liked it. That is it! Yelled Andrew. I know it’s perfect isn’t it! I am so glad that you like it.

So to cut a long story short. The Gallery rang the artist Debbie Hoare, an Eastbourne local and asked if she still had the original for sale. She said yes but it is in a gallery over in Greytown. So it turns out that Andrew had seen the original over in Greytown. They arranged to sent the painting over to Eastbourne and we managed to take it with us to Singapore all with a day to spare.

Today this wonderful scene of Wellington looking from Eastbourne hangs proudly in our home in Singapore. It reminds us of home and all of our friends and family that shared the best day of our lives with us. Thank you all so very much. xxx

The Singapore Zoo

We have just enjoyed a long weekend so decided to head to the zoo. Rach was keen to see the animals and I was keen to try out my new birthday present camera.

The Zoo is a very polished tourist experience and rather humane for a Zoo. Lots of the animals are wandering or climbing around without fences. The monkeys were all free to roam around, with I guess some well thought out strategies to keep them from straying too far. The orang-utans where handing out on this island where you could walk through on board walk.

Its taken us nearly a year and think we have finally done most of the local attractions. We need some more long weekends to explore a little further towards Indonesia or Malaysia. Lots of friends headed off to resorts over the weekend, and to nice beaches a couple of hours north in Malaysia.

It is now exactly a year since we moved out of our place in Claremont Grove and began our shift. How a year flies by.

Teaching with laptops

Since moving to Singapore, Rach and I have both been teaching in a full laptop environment. Each kid in our Grade 9 and Grade 11 classes have laptops which are linked to the wireless network. The laptops have sure altered the way we both teach. Rachel is now a convert to you tube and enjoys finding geeky videos for Geography. I now use a variety of blogs and school ICT stuff to make the learning a bit more interesting.

For both of us it has been an excellent opportunity for developing our craft as teachers and will be a nice string to our CV's when we eventually move on. I have recently presented a bit of research on the effectiveness of laptops. The conference was for all of the Singapore schools and it was a great chance to network, and to also begin the path towards maybe beginning my masters.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Laptops In The Classroom

View more presentations from Andrew McCarthy.

Cross Country racing

I took my gaggle of cross country runners to the Singapore International Champs this week. It was held at the American School of Singapore which was a bit too urban for a cross country race. Nevertheless heaps of kids from the other schools competed. The race was dominated by the kids from the American School. The school has about 3,000 students and a very modern and bling campus. Wouldn't mind having a full athletics track, Olympic size pool and artificial turf at our school. We didn't have many kids running. Our school has about 550 students, which is tiny compared to the seven big schools here with between 2000 and 3500 students.

Our Under 14 girls team with their 3rd place medals (plus random Curtis sneaking into the pic)

A weekend workshop in Bangkok

A few week ago we headed to Bangkok for a weekend of curriculum training for the International Baccalaureate. Both Rachel and I are now teaching a middle years class ( Grade 6 - 10) so spent three days in a workshop learning about Humanities / Social Studies, assessments and or sorts of other dull teaching material. This is about as close as we will ever get to a business trip so we made the most of it.

Our workshop classroom at the New International School of Thailand, boring.

We stayed in a great hotel in central Bangkok in the district of Sukhumvit, about a 10 min walk from the school where the course was run. The hotel was amazing value compared to the some of the hotels that was stayed in whilst in Europe.

Our hotel suite, huge lounge, kitchen and the king size bedroom.

We enjoyed the chance to network with some other teachers from around Asia. We met teachers who work in Beijing at a rather prestigious international school, the Western Academy of Beijing. http://www.wab.edu/ We also befriended people from Laos, Thailand and Indonesia. The growth of international schools in Asia is exponential at the moment especially in India and China with more multinational companies setting up in those parts of the world.

Lumpini market and food courts, the girls are out shopping.

We didn't get a huge chance to tour the city but did escape on Saturday night to the night markets in Lumpini. On the same afternoon, 30,000 red shirt anti government protestors where heading into central Bangkok a year after the riots when the airport was closed for week. We managed to get across town on the subway system which is brand new and very efficient. From what we heard Bangkok is not quite the wild west of Asia that it used to be. Still plently of interesting stuff that contrast against sterile Singapore. Think we might head back for a long weekend soon to do some shopping and check out the temples and attractions.

Formula One Night Race

Along with a mate from school, I headed along to the Formula One last night. Friday was the cheapest of the three nights so we grabbed tickets. At $38 for a walk-about ticket it was a bargain. For the same privilege, a walkabout ticket on race night is $128. A seat in a stand begins at $300 up to $1,200 per seat along pit lane.


The atmosphere was electric and the city spectacular under lights. The 5km night circuit loops around an area called Marina Bay which contains numerous attractions such as the Esplanade theaters, the Singapore Flyer and the grandiose Fullerton Hotel. We happily walked around during the first practise session and found plenty of good spots to watch the cars rush past. The bridge across the harbour was a good place to see the cars hit 300km/hour and then brake for a 90 degree corner. In between practise sessions everyone congregated in the central Padang cricket ground for live music and waited for the late session to begin.

The highlight of the late session was a crash by a Renault driver in the same spot as the now infamous accident when Nelson Piquet Jr crashed on team orders to help Fernando Alonso, another Renualt driver win the 2008 race. An unexpected part of the race for me was the live music running throughout the weekend. Friday night was headlined by Katy Perry, who incidentally didn't turn up to the stage. We could figure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps she was stuck in a bar kissing a girl or trying to find a F1 boyfriend. On Saturday night, Travis is playing.


I didn't have my camera, as Rachel took it back to NZ, so have borrowed a few pics from Flikr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimiraikkonen/

Reminiscing about summer holidays

We have been travelling heaps lately, think Rachel is on first name terms with the taxi drivers at the airport. Our summer holiday in Europe was still pretty amazing and a great break. Can't think of anything better than driving around, camping and eating far too much food. Here are some favourite pics of our June/July trip around France then the UK.

Exploring the walled city of St Malo on the northwestern coast of France. The city was destroyed by allied bombing in the Second World War but has been put back to its original form and style, piece by piece.The American war cemetery at Ohama Beach. A place that is famous for just one day in history, when the allies captured the beach on D Day and fought to break the German's hold on France.

Out walking in the French Alps with Mt Blanc forming a backdrop. Fairytale forest and majestic mountains.

The late evening summer sun playing on the buildings in central Edinburgh .

Rach at Euro Disney outside of Paris... who would have guessed?