Our Travels

A typical Austrian house with flowers overflowing from the balconies and window sills. A wooden canoe on the lake. A beautiful visitor near the restaurant on the lake!

Alex, Colin and I at the centre of the Halstatt square. Enjoying the peacefulness of the lake! My model... A view of Halstatt from the restaurant! All that sightseeing made us hungry. Grun Restaurant on the lake side. Beautiful... to say the least.

Alex posing at the entrance into the village of Halstatt. Halstatt cathedral. Halstatt BeinHaus. The bone house in Halstatt. This village is built up the side of the hill next to the lake. Due to scarce land space their cemetery is so small that a couple hundred years ago they built the bone house and put all the old bones in it. The bones are dug up after 10 years and transferred to the bone house in the event of death in the village. However due to the popularity of cremations it has not been necessary to do so unless it was specially requested. A side view of Halstatt village.

The railway for the cable cars to get to the mines in the background. In the cable car on the way up. Alex, Fleur and Colin. Beautiful view of the Halstatt lake from the top. Fleur and Colin getting ready for the trek up to the mine.

The entrance into the mine. Everyone had to be dressed in these ridiculous suits to go into the mine. Inside the mine by the salt lamps on display. Fleur, self and Colin. Mine truly goofing around with the salt lamps... Never mind we did buy one there and Alex hand carried it back. Its supposed to soothe and emanates good luck! Ia ua lelei. Fun part of the mine is sliding down two slides. One slide was 20 metres long and the longest one was 60 metres. Good fun indeed. A pic Colin sliding.

Alex and Colin, our friend Nicole's son We caught the cable car from Wolfgangsee, the nearby lake up to the mountain called Zwolferhorn which was more than 1500 metres high. The cable car started off as a beautiful ride on a sunny day soon turned cloudy, windy and rain started to pour down at 6oo metres!!! We were engulfed by clouds and fog and we couldn't see anything outside anymore. A photo of Fleur and I and behind us is all white while we were in mid-air half-way up the mountain! Ok I must admit I was a bit nervous just then. Ten minutes later we finally made it to the top safely but there was no visibility of anything from up there. Moreover the cable cars stopped running until the rain and the clouds had cleared! A beer to calm the nerves... So we sat in the bar/restaurant where the cable landed and forced the waitress to serve us as they didn't have a choice we were all stuck up there. (They were closing due to the storm but as the cars stopped they were obliged to...

A picturesque view of Mondsee Lake. After our four awesome days in Belgium with Fran we caught Ryanair back to Salzburg into my sis' Fleurs arms and spent another exciting week with her at Mondsee. Mondsee means Moon Lake. We did quite a few things around Mondsee. We went to nearby Wolfgangsee another lake nearby and rode the cable car up a mountain which turned out to be quite an adventure in itself. We also went to Halstatt and visited the Salt mines, the oldest there are and still in use. The Lake festival was scheduled for that week-end but unfortunately it rained so much that a lot of activities were cancelled so what do we do, we had our own festival at home - Austrian/Samoan style. Our friends in Austria came over and we had one heck of a party of course. The view from the pool!

The lovely Samoan Ambassador and his good lady invited us on Sunday for brunch. Tuala Farani Chan Tung is the new Ambassador for Samoa in Brussels and was appointed last October. "I gan't bulieve it!" It's pisupo(Samoan food). Had pork chops too.Hmm Tasting the fuefuesaiga (cough medicine) served by Madame Luisa! Alex shares a beer with the big man in the garden. Nothing like beer as an ice breaker heh heh! Samoa House in Brussels. It is not far from where the Battle of Waterloo was fought!

Fran is the first secretary to the Samoan Ambassador in Brussels. We went in to visit the embassy and see if Fran was really working..heh heh! Hmm...It looked like she was working... So we pose by the flag and the picture of Malietoa..never mind heh heh! Coffee break and drinking lots of water...very warm in the office a Fran ha ha! Alex with Tung Pio Chan. Its actually Pio Chan Tung his dad is the Ambassador. Pio was telling us that when he went on a tournament for his new school he and his sister both won medals and the funniest thing was when they announced his name they said it Tung Pio Chan!!! Only when others nudged him did he realise it was his name choo hoo nice one! all da way from Sa-chick.

Belgium is known for their chocolate, beer and lace. Samoans in the Chocolate shop: "I want dis-order, dis-order and dis-order...! Lace shop - when ya can't afford it just take a picture.. heh! Background a cathedral in Brugge which dates back to the 15th century (I think)!

Hoeergarden beer takes it all! Love the super-sized glass for Samoans maybe!?! Cheers! Salut! SohmBol! Manuia!

Brugge according to Binoit is "Venice of North Europe" and this is why. This picture of Fran by a lamp post on the bridge reminds me of this old war song "Down by the lantern By the barricade Darling I remember The way you used to wait... ...Wie einz die Lily Marlene...

Our friends were so keen to take us to Brugge a nearby city in Belgium an hours drive. Binoit(bless him) drove us there and back...never mind he was missing a pole volting tournament on the same day! He did try to practice the night before at O'Reilleys but a day with the Samoan tribe was too much to resist heh heh! Brugge here we come. The Cathedral in the Brugge square where some of Jesus' blood is said to be kept! I think its time to eat...

Visited one of the monarchy's palaces. The Royal Palace is where they receive overseas dignitaries! (like ourselves heh). The limo didn't show up though ha ha! The Palais Royal gardens. Grand-Place downtown Brussels! Gothical place with very interesting buildings that give the place a unique touch! Batman in Gotham City...