Liam’s Blog
Our last day in Grindelwald!
Weather forecast.... not great. Wee bit of clear skies in the morning... and then rain, rain, rain. Don't get me wrong, not complaining!! The reason we came to the mountains was to get away from the relentless sun and heat of the south. But one last great hike would...
Switzerland Day 6 (or as I like to call it, the day we didn’t speak)
I had big plans for Day 6. Forecast was calling for sun in the morning, rain in the afternoon... so let's take a gamble and head up the Eiger Express for a hike! The Eiger mountain is one of the most recognisable peaks in Switzerland. It's just shy of 4000 meters high...
Switzerland Day 5 (still in Grindelwald area)
Another spotty weather today today... so we've decided to drive a half hour into a different valley and explore the Lauterbrunnen area. When I was looking at where to stay, I was torn between Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. Pickings were quite slim as I booked so...
Switzerland Summer day 3/4
So keeping an eye on the weather... rain and cloud are imminent in the forecast. So our third day in Grindelwald (the Monday) was going to be 'adventure day'.... up the mountain behind the town is an adventure playground called 'Grindelwald First' You take the cable...
Switzerland Summer day 1/2
Well.... travel by air at the moment is rather disastrous -- I spend most of my days trying to reschedule or find lost luggage for my boss and his family... so I figured it would be best for Liam and I to do a driving holiday again this summer. We've been deep into...
A weekend in Allos part 2
We had planned on exhausting Lola on the Friday so that she would be more content to stay behind in the cabin for Saturday's hike. We were going to head up into the heart of the Mercantour to Lac Allos. The mercantour is our local national park (in the mediterranean...
A weekend in Allos, May 2022
We are lucky that May is chock full of bank holiday dates -- and as it happened there was a bank holiday on Thursday 26th of May, and the schools would 'take the pont' as they say and take the friday off too, to make it a great 4 day weekend. As it was Monaco Formula...
Day 5, the afternoon — Murano!
This was what I was most looking forward to... and must admit... I am a wee bit disappointed. I mean Burano was just SO charming that Murano couldn't make such a strong impression. But I was still so keen. The other problem was that by the time we arrived in Murano it...
Day 5 (last day) — off to Burano
We had decided to spend our last full day exploring the two islands of Burano and Murano. Hayley and I had both been to Venice before, but neither of us had been to the islands. Burano is the smaller of the two islands... known for it's colourful houses, and it's...
Venice Day 4
Today is our only 'full day' in Venice now that Hayley and Tom have arrived. We have plans to spend our last day in the islands of Murano and Burano... so we will make the most of today, despite the complaining of two very uninterested teens. We took a wander through...
Easter Sunday (day 3, Venice)
Today's the day that Hayley and Tom arrive!!!! Not sure that Hayley was technically recovered enough to travel... but we sure are happy they are on the way! If all goes according to plan they would arrive just in time to drop their luggage at the apartment and then...
Easter Getaway, VENZIA (Day 2)
Another day with just Liam and I! Not what we were planning... but I'm going to make the most of it. Who knows how long Venice will be around with rising water levels and climate change. It's such a unique and fragile city as it is... and it is PACKED for easter...
Easter Getaway, VENEZIA (day 1)
Now that the world is coming out of it's covid haze, and opening up a little bit, I've got itchy feet. So I wanted to plan a long weekend away either somewhere new, or somewhere I haven't been in a long time. And a short flight away. I was hemming and hawing about...
Kitzbuhel part 2
Despite the daily arguments about getting Liam off of his computer and onto the mountain, the second half of the trip was pretty good. The weather had cleared. The food was good. My legs were a wee bit less sore... All in all a good holiday. I'm very well aware that...
Ski holiday 2022 — back to Kitzbuhel
I was SUPER EXCITED for our first proper ski holiday in 2 years. The slopes were closed last year because of Covid, and Liam had lost his love of skiing. I think he had forgotten how much he enjoys it, especially as he's hitting his pre-teen 'I don't want to do...
Skiing in Valberg
Well this is definitely going to be the shortest and driest ski season since we've been here. The local mountains (1,5 hours away) haven't had any snow since Christmas day... only 18 out of 56 runs are open, and most of the mountain is exposed. Snow is all manmade....
Kayaking
So Liam has made it abundantly clear to me that he HATES sailing. Despite moving up to catamarans, and despite his friend Tom enjoying taking sailing lessons, Liam hates it. He says maybe one day he'll give it another go... but he does not want to take sailing lessons...
A very Woolley Christmas, the final days
As Grandpa's trip to see us wound down, and we were getting ready for the back to school, back to work hectic schedule that was looming, we had time for one last great daytrip. But where to go? With the all of the covid restrictions in place, I didn't feel that...
A very Woolley Christmas part 2
Most of the two weeks with Grandpa Woolley was just 'hanging out'. I still had some work to keep up on, although it was fairly quiet. Grandpa's hip was really causing him a lot of pain, so I kept the walking plans to fairly level and short outings. And Liam, of...
A very Woolley Christmas, part 1
2021 may have started fairly crap... and been fairly crap throughout with all of the covid restrictions, but for us, it was ending on a high note. Grandpa Woolley was coming over from Canada to spend Christmas with us. It was touch and go until the VERY last minute,...