HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So we´re in Barcelona for the New Year with Alex and Joey, who are ensuring that we enjoy the Spanish nightlife to its fullest! We´re really just happy to be somewhere that you can wear a t-shirt outside (though the locals are rugged up like it´s about to snow!). Stay tuned for some photos in the next few days, but in the meantime here´s a dodgy new year´s greeting from our Spanish pad!

Merry Christmas (from Amsterdam)!!

Our first winter Christmas, celebrated with a (largely) successful roast and much red wine! Ho ho ho!

Christmas in Amsterdam - Flickr slideshow

Welcome to our Ikea world!

A few photos of our apartment, this time with furniture! A work in progress...

Westermarkt apartment - Flickr slideshow

Mum and Dad and Haarlem

So the main even tof the week has been Mum and Dad (Buckridge) visiting - they'd been in the UK since just before we left Australia, so this was a sidetrip just before they headed off back to Australia.

As well as looking around Amsterdam, we headed (briefly) out to Haarlem, which is another town not far out from Amsterdam (about 15 minutes train ride). In the centre of the town is a spectacular cathedral, though we also managed to stumble onto an old natural history museum and Haarlem's own little red light district!

Anyway, Mum and Dad have headed off back to Australia now, having apparently missed the worst of the UK's fog problem, and we're preparing for a quiet Christmas, followed by a boisterous Barcelona NYE!

Happy Christmas!

Haarlem etc. - Flickr slideshow

Day trip to Utrecht

A few photos from my work team's "summer" outing to Utrecht, a small town about 45-minutes train ride south of Amsterdam. One of my colleagues describes it as a miniature Amsterdam - same canals, same old streets and buildings, just all on a smaller scale. True for the most part, except for the cathedral bell tower, which is the tallest in Amsterdam (about 110 meters). The canals are also a little different, being much further below street level, with cellars on canal level, many of which have restaurants and other businesses - can't wait to go back when it gets a bit warmer!

(the slideshow also includes a couple of b&w photos of the Westermarkt and the Homomonument, across the road from our apartment in Amsterdam)

Utrecht etc. - Flickr slideshow

A few more photos

Well, work has started for me, and Amber's job hunt has begun in earnest, so things have begun to settle into a bit of a rhythm. The weekend has presented a few photo snappin' opportunities though, with a trip across the water to Amsterdam Noord with my cousin Michael (visiting from the UK for the weekend). A very different atmosphere to the old center that we're slowly coming to think of as home...

Old & new - Flickr slideshow

Bikes from the Black Lagoon

...so apparently a lot of those care-free, helmet-less Amsterdam cyclists are ending up in the picturesque canals. I'm guessing these bikes are back on the streets within a week!