Sunday Adventure: Bristol Balloon Fiesta

One of Bristol's most well known attractions is the annual international balloon fiesta. A free event (although if you want to park at the site, you pay for that) that attracts thousands of people from all over the world. And creates a dilemma for us - a must see and do for sure, but we really HATE crowds and heavy traffic - both of which the fiesta is very well known for. A lucky compromise for us is the morning mass ascent, which is scheduled to start each morning at 6am. An early morning yes, but so worth it to still see the balloons but avoid the traffic and chaos. And Sunday this year was a picture perfect morning for it as you'll see below.

 One of the first up and away was this special shapes balloon. And I love that the moon is captured in the photo as well. It was probably about 6:30am at this point and this was the second balloon to launch.

Around 104 balloons launched over a 75 minute or so period that morning and all from a relatively small field. They would lift in batches so you saw continuous launches for more than an hour - just incredible.

 If we get a chance to go up in one, we figure this would be the best choice!

Another special shapes balloon from Longleat Animal Safari Park (on our list for Sunday road trip adventures).

 Yep, there's even a minion balloon. The thing was HUGE and took forever to inflate.

 

 All shapes and sizes, this was one of three that we saw that were piloted by a single person sitting in what looks like a harness chair of some kind. These are a little smaller and didn't rise as high or go as far, but still pretty impressive.

 Even a square!

 And a round one.

The Royal Navy showed off their skills by having a hang glider and a sky diver take off from their launched balloon. Unfortunately, my photos didn't turn out of the jump or the hang glider, but here's their balloon taking off.

An amazing morning and worth getting up so early on a Sunday! And there was very little traffic to contend with. Yes, there was a crowd but not really bad at all and plenty of room for everyone there. So glad we decided to go and I expect we'll make this a yearly tradition.

Tales of Malta: Blue Lagoon

Out last Malta post takes us to the south west corner of the island and the Blue Lagoon. You can only see it from a boat so after a very steep walk down to the water, we got in one of the small boats and headed out to see the lagoon.

 Unfortunately, a rocking boat means blurry photos!

 The attraction is the bright blue color of the water. Hard to capture in photos, but really amazing in person.

Tales of Malta: M'dina old town

Yes, I know, I've been rubbish at keeping up to date - too many fun things to do and not enough time to blog about them. :)

So, continuing on with our Malta adventure, these photos are from M'dina old town, which is a medieval town perched on one of the hills in Malta - a good defensive point. There are people still living here, but for the most part, it's a tourist attraction with shops and restaurants.

 One of the side gates into the city.

 A larger main gate in.

 Beautiful sky but it was hot hot hot that day.

 More old buildings.

 View from the ramparts.

 A good idea of the streets - and this one is actually pretty wide relatively.

Tales of Malta: Buggiba

Our hotel resort was in a town called Buggiba, which seemed pretty touristy and quite crowded. Some nice restaurants and some nice views as well.

 We had dinner here one night and were treated like part of the family that runs the place. Excellent food and really nice service.

 This is the view from our room - not too bad, huh? The pool water was freezing, but just the right amount of shock to combat the hot sun. It was pretty warm during the day.

Tales of Malta: Gozo Island by Quad

Our next Malta adventure was a full day tour of Gozo (neighbor island) on Quads. Super fun experience and something a bit different than our traditional segway tour. We got to see the full island and really enjoyed the day.

Getting ready to ride!

Yes, the water really was that blue. Unfortunately also very cold or we would have done some scuba diving.

Tales of Malta: Valletta

The May bank holiday provided us with a few days of paid vacation so we decided to use our time share condo and venture to Malta. Pretty easy 4 hour flight, but once there we had some fun challenges navigating the roads and construction. Lots of wrong turns and a little profanity, but eventually we would find our way.

First day was spent in the Valletta area.

 The two photos below are from St John's Co-cathedral (don't ask me what the co is for). I renamed it "gaudiest cathedral ever". Every inch of wall is covered in gold leaf, painting or sculpture. While it has some wow factor, we both felt it was just too over the top.

The real draw is that it houses some of Caravaggio's best paintings including 'the beheading of John the Baptist' (for whom the Roman Catholic cathedral is dedicated.  The paintings were amazing and worth the price of admission in my book - but of course, no photos were allowed!

We then took a cute little train ride around the city. The architecture is interesting - has a middle eastern feel to it, but also European.

After some heavy duty walking, we decided to have a glass of local wine at this place below. Super cute and the wine was pretty good too. The waiter suggested one that went really well with the local black olives - biggest, juiciest olives I've ever seen - and they did go really well with the wine.

A Year in Review - 15 July 2017

A year ago today we landed in Bristol going from the heat and humidity of Dubai to the cool damp of England. I can't believe it's been a year already! Here are a few highlights of our UK adventure.

August 2016
We moved into our rented house - a 3 bedroom bungalow with a lovely garden for the kitties to enjoy. While our lawn hasn't improved, we've spruced things up with some nice flowers.

October 2016
I started my new job with the University of Bristol. What a change from the frenetic fast pace of a competitive airline. I went from a 55-60 hour work week to a 35 hour work week and still feel like I'm semi-retired!

December 2016
We actually saw some snow! They told me it never happens, but never underestimate the power of hope! Thank goodness I was up early enough to catch it as it all melted by 8am.

January 2017
One of the perks of living in Europe is how quickly and cheaply we can visit other countries. In January, we took advantage of an amazing RyanAir deal and spent a long weekend in Dublin.

March 2017
By March, the UK is already into full blown spring, which means lots of budding, colourful trees and lots of rain and mud. We went for a nice walk along the Frome Valley trail and saw drizzle, sunshine and a downpour in a 60 minute window.

April 2017
The Easter break holiday provided a chance to explore - this time Venice and Croatia. Venice was beautiful but crowded and crazy. Croatia was also amazing and bit more laid back and quiet.

May 2017
It's not our fault these holidays are so close together! End of May took us to Malta - not a place we plan to return to but an interesting adventure nonetheless.

July 2017
July's focus has been on getting our UK driving licenses. We're allowed to drive legally on our US license for 12 months, but then need to apply for a UK license. I'll post the full process soon, but suffice to say, it's as stressful and annoying as it sounds, but I passed yesterday - just in the nick of time, eh?

Here's to year two!!