Italy beats France in the 6 Nations

Patrick Travel

I can’t seem to get enough travel in lately. Despite being in Berlin every week, I flew to Geneva to get to France for skiing only to return to the UK for a conference I was presenting at. Before flying to Berlin for the weekend, I ended up in Rome for the weekend to watch Italy versus France in the six nations. It was a good opportunity to try out the travel lens I bought which is both wide angle and had a really long zoom. Despite being quite far back into the crowd, I was quite pleased with some of the shots such as the one below.

Going with a number of Italians was a great way to go to Rome. Firstly it’s good because they know more places than I would ever. We went to a couple of great place for the evening aperitif before settling in for the very Italian style (i.e. late) dinner at 10pm where we indulged in some really awesome Italian food and wine.

Here’s Toni, Luca and Simone as we walk around town.

And me outside some of Rome’s amazing historic buildings.

Although Italy isn’t well known for its talent in rugby, plenty of people turned up. The French supported turned up wearing berets and other costumes (like the pink bunnies below), and a number of scotsmen made themselves visible dressed in kilts.

The game was really quite tight with Italy the first to score. Although I wouldn’t say it was the best football played by either side, it was a great match because it literally went down the wire.

Even more surprisingly, Italy beat France by a single point with only a few minutes to spare.

The crowd went wild and everyone celebrated into the night!

We stayed in these really nice apartments, and ate at some good places including La Cabonara as recommended to one of our party and Giggetto al Portico at which we ate a lot of Roman cuisine. Surprisingly this includes a fair number of fried things including Carciofo (Jewish Artichoke) that turns out nice and crisp. Another different thing we ate a lot of during this weekend was a strange looking green called Puntarelle that turned out to be some sort of chicory root. It’s hard not to enjoy Rome. Surrounded by good food, wine, plenty of history and a good atmosphere from the winning 6 nations, it was definitely a worthwhile trip.

Ski Trip to Les Gets

Patrick Sport, Travel

A few weeks ago I ended up in Les Gets where fourteen of us ended up in a nice little chalet to enjoy the snow. Many of us were concerned the skiing wouldn’t be so good given the little snowfall around Europe however someone must have smiled upon us with a long fresh snowfall the day we arrived. It lasted for the good week and provided us excellent conditions.

One of the nicest parts of European based skiing is the on slope facilities including lovely restaurants with outdoor BBQs and French food for lunch. We ate well. Almost far too well on the slopes. Here’s a picture of a few of us at lunch where we managed to hoard a table for almost the entire fourteen of us.

Although the snow was good, we did have quite a few days of fairly cloudy days. It’s kind of surreal plowing through a cloud bank and trying to find your way down. I found out brightly coloured ski gear really helps!

Below is a picture of the chalet that we stayed at. We went through a good company who organised all of our transfers, ski hire and ski passes and had half board (breakfast and dinner) meals prepared by a really friendly Welsh couple. It was three course meals almost every night (except for the one where we ate out) and carafes of wine that went down a treat with everyone after a hard day’s slope. The best part was the heated outdoor jacuzzi where we could unwind and relax our tired muscles from the day’s activities.

I said we had a lot of snow. At least we got some pretty nice views.

One evening we went out to a nice restaurant that focused on regional cuisine. Our group ate loads of cheese, both in the form of a mushroom fondue, but also this swiss style, melting cheese raclette.

And after!

The new goggles went down a treat and worked out really well considering we had plenty of sunshine all the time we were there.

Les Gets has some awesome runs and its pistes are connected with eleven other ski resorts. We tried at least eight of them out, even making our away through three of them to get “across the border” into Switzerland. Here’s the proof:

Jo and Nathan beaming after the crossing.

Our ski host took us out one day skiing. This turned into a really great day run despite some of the cloudy conditions including some really good runs. We managed to find this again, crossing through Avoriaz, Portes Du Soleil, Morzine, to finally get to Châtel. This long red run was definitely one of our favourites, and a good thing that our guide showed us it. We didn’t know the name of it, but it’s one of the longest continuous runs that has some very decent speeds. For the record, the run is Le Linga.

A tiring and extremely satisfying ski holiday. It really shouldn’t be that long since the next one. It was great to be in a mixed group of skills. A number of people came up to speed really fast, and most people got away with out any injuries.

Nighttime mini golf in Kreuzburg

Patrick Berlin, Travel

Berlin’s got something for everyone. Our latest social outing to this blacklit mini golf course held underground is just a perfect example of it. It took us a while to find the place. It was that underground. For those looking for its location, it’s found in the basement of Cafe Mitz Isa, next to Cafe Edelweiss downstairs.

The course is made of 18 holes, each increasing in difficulty. Some had fun loop the loops, some fairly straight forward ones, and the necessary frustrating holes that take forever. Great value for only €4.50. I think it took our two groups of seven people about two hours each to finish the course.

A great evening out.

See the rest of the pictures here.

New Crumpler Possession

Patrick General, Travel

Crumpler’s are kind of like the Apple’s of the bag world. They have one of the toughest, best well made bags and although I still have one from over seven years ago going strong, needed something that wasn’t a messenger bag and much better for the back. The result…

Inside it…

And finally…

I really like this bag because for once, it’s a great compromise between the tough exterior I’m so happy with without all the excessive padding that often make their bags appear much larger than they actually are. I’m quite happy with the crazy number of pockets inside and I’m sure will serve me well for at least the next five years.

Long night of the museums

Patrick Berlin, Travel

Every year, Berlin has an evening where all the museums open until the wee hours of the morning. Or at least until 2am. They call it, the Long Night of the Museums. It’s great value, costing only €15 for access to all museums including transport.

We started our evening visiting Berlin’s townhall located near tourist-central, Alexanderplatz. Like many European central cities, Berlin’s townhall is majestic, housing plenty of art work and, on this evening, a number of performances, including a weird dance-performance art troupe that blocked the stairwell to the exit/entrance for sometime.

Admission to the townhall was free, and we ended up diverting for dinner and drinks at a bar making it not really worth our while going out to the rest of the museums with only a couple of hours to spare. I’m still keen to go and visit the awesome looking Computer Game museum (yes I’m a geek), and a handful more but I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to see.

Although I felt a bit disappointed not being able to make the most of the evening, we still had great fun with great company (see above!)

Afternoon at the Reichstag

Patrick Berlin, Entertainment, Food, Travel

One of the most impressive buildings around Berlin and one tainted with plenty of history is the German Reichstag, or the home of their parliamentary system. Whilst currently closed to the public, they do have a roof top restaurant you can book ahead and visit. It’s well worth it whilst the rest of the public are not allowed to go up.

We went for a lazy Sunday afternoon tea, where we indulged in cafe and kuchen.

The menu comes in both English and German versions although the best way to choose the cake is to go and take a look at what you’d like from their extensive selection and then try and remember what it was.

Here’s the entire gang that came along for our wonderful experience.

Felix pondering diligently over the coffee selection.

Nigel, hot chocolate fiend, enjoying the bright and airy atmosphere.

Jo pondering the menu.

And Rachel, aficionado of caek (sic).

Cheesecake was ordered by some.

A coffee cream cake by others.

The dense, Viennese classic, Sache Torte.

And finally a different crumble slice filled with a tart fruit.

Afternoon tea is best followed with a spectacular sunset and what a sight Berlin held for us with an astounding view from the Dome.

Both inwards towards the parliamentary seats.

And outside to the bitterly cold winds.

Only to finish off the day with an astoundingly red sunset.

A view to remember for a while.

And a eerily made elevator that makes it look like an infinity space.

“Gadget” of the month

Patrick Sport

Whilst not technically made with electronics, this gadget arrived in the mail for me this week in anticipation of my skiing trip later this March.

The reflection is pretty strong in this one though still provides excellent visibility.

TV Tower in Fog

Patrick Berlin, Travel

Alex was kind enough to lend me his tripod as he went on holidays to Boston. I didn’t really get a chance to use it, although I tried braving the minus 5 degrees weather to take some pictures of the impressive looking buildings around Alexanderplatz.

My favourite was this one above of the TV tower brightly glowing in the shroud of mist.