Europe
weekly photo challenge: extra, extra
The Daily Post challenge was to “share a photo that has a little something extra.” Michelle said: “A beautiful photo is one thing, but a photo with an unexpected detail has personality and pop” and she suggested possibly sharing something with a humorous element.
We tend to not post photos of ourselves on our blog but we just had to share this photo of us on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh back in 2006 with a “cheeky photo bomb” (pun intended) that we never noticed until we were revisiting our travel photos recently.
Hope this is not in poor taste… and you find it as funny as we did! Certainly, a little extra on the side in this photo! 😉 (Thank goodness for photoshop)
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re-visiting venice: another unesco
Looking back our photos from when we were in Italy, we ask ourselves: how did we go to Venice and NOT take a single photo of the tables which act as walkways when the tide comes in? The answer is simple, because we were busy taking photos of everything else around us.
It’s a city that is bound to get you pinching yourself and saying, “Can’t believe I’m here!” Venice, in every direction, is photogenic, even if it is a square full of pigeons: over-fed by tourists.
Walking through the over-crowded streets, the aim is almost to get lost rather than not to. Up and over those little bridges with gondolas gliding along the canals, it is just breath-taking (as cliche as it sounds, as cliche as it looks from the photographs and as cringeworthy as it is for us to write that). Venice is what it is and that is beautiful!
Everyone is entitled to their opinion about Venice and we’ve heard that its smelly, that its over-crowded and over-priced. Heck, call it a tourist trap! It’s a trap that we didn’t mind getting caught in.
Described by UNESCO as a “unique artistic achievement”, Venice was one of the greatest capitals in the medieval world. Built centuries ago, it took some incredible engineering and architectural design to build such a floating city that we still get to see today. We were so glad we decided to add Venice to our itinerary back in 2006, it’s one of those places that we would like to explore again in future. Maybe actually go on a gondola ride…
Have you visited Venice? What did you think?
Venice and its Lagoon was listed as a
UNESCO Heritage site in 1987.
To see the other UNESCO sites we have visited,
visit our unofficial bucket list
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walking to raise awareness and money for angelman syndrome
It’s official and now in the open. Le has resigned from her job so we can go travelling for several months! But our bigger news is that we are planning to also embark on the Camino Walk.
To some of our fellow blogger followers who have walked the Camino or are walking the Camino or planning to walk the Camino, you probably already know this news. But what we are revealing for the first time is that we are walking it for charity amongst a few other personal and spiritual (non-religious) reasons!
The walk starts in St Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees in France and will end 800 km “down the road” in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Yes, you read it right, we are walking 800 km – it will be over 7 or so weeks.
The Way of St James has only recently been on our radar to do. It began in 2008, when we first heard someone was doing it. It sounded intriguing and sounded like it would be an astounding achievement. Then not long after, we heard of another person doing it and it just sounded too daunting. A few years on, David read “The Pilgrimage” by Paulo Coelho which sparked our interest and before you know it, everyone around us seems to have done it. So last year, we made a pact that we would do this pilgrimage before we turned 40 at it is also on the UNESCO Heritage List. You all know how much we love our UNESCO Heritage List 🙂
After a few highs and lows of the past year, it dawned on us – we needed to do it soon…. So we decided that we would do it in September!
Now to share with you about the charity we have chosen to walk for:
Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) Australia
Why these guys?
David’s oldest brother has Angelman Syndrome. And we want to raise not only money for research but also raise awareness about the condition. It really is as simple as that!
So all we ask of our readers and followers is to read up about Angelman Syndrome at the FAST Website: http://www.cureangelman.org.au/ and then do ONE of the following (of course more if you like):
- Share what you have learnt with someone, have a conversation about it,
- Share something about Angelman Syndrome on your social media,
- Share our fundraising page (https://give.everydayhero.com/au/wise-monkeys-abroad) amongst your family and friends
- Support us on the 800 km walk by donating – proceeds go directly to FAST (except for transaction fees taken by the banks),
- Reblog this post or share on your various social media to spread the word of what we are doing, OR
- Encourage us through your comments on our blog, Twitter and/or Facebook as we prepare and face the 800 km.
Thank you in advance for you helping us spread the word and raising money for Angelman Syndrome!
More posts to follow about the Camino itself.
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the giant’s causeway: a natural unesco
Before we actually travelled, we would pseudo-travel: after work, as we channel surfed, we would always end up watching travel shows. And it was on one of those shows when we first saw and heard about the Giant’s Causeway. So when we were in Europe back in 2006, we added Northern Ireland to our list of countries to visit – and we didn’t regret it one bit.
There are 6 km of this unusual geological formation; polygon-shaped rocks piled on top of one another into columns. Formed following volcanic activity many million years ago, there are similar formations as well on the coast of Scotland – just across the body of water.
As the myths and legends go, Finn McCool, the giant had something to do with this hence the name. 😉
Admission gives you access to the visitor’s centre and pedestrian access to the Causeway. There are regular shuttles down to the Causeway but there is a small additional charge. There was the option to see the rocks from “bird’s eye” view by walking along the cliff track up above. Beware on windy days!!
The Giant’s Causeway is about an hour’s drive out of Belfast. And not far from it is Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. The day we went it was so crazy windy, that we were not allowed to cross the bridge.
Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast were UNESCO Heritage listed in 1986.
To see the other UNESCO sites we have visited, visit our unofficial bucket list
wise monkeys abroad 