Lunch

Today Peter and I joined Jean and Gordon and some of their friends for lunch at the old Coast Rd Breweryto celebrate Jean's birthday. Its about a 30 min drive from Bunbury and tucked away off the main nroad surrounded by olive trees...

With such a yummy menu to choose from it was a hard decision. I decided on the antipasto platter which was beautiful and very filling...

And Peter couldn't resist the steak burger...which was also delicious but he couldn't eat all the chips!

Italy Part 2

Nicole is still enjoying everything about Italy and these photos are from the wonderful Florence and Tuscany area. Overlooking Florence...

In Florence...Still enjoying Italian food and Gelato...They did a wine tasting tour (yes Nicole has become a wine drinker!) in beautiful Tuscany...

Did a day trip to Pisa...

And lots of socialising with fellow travellers...

It was then time to move on to one of Nicole's all time favourite places ...Rome where she visited all those wonderful ancient places....The Colosseum...Ancient Forum Ruins...My favourite, The Pantheon...

Spanish Steps...

Every Wednesday the Pope comes out for a service so Nicole and Ant went along to St Peters and the Vatican...Zoomed in on the Pope...They also climbed to the top of St Peter's, what a fantastic view of Rome and Vatican City...They also met another great group of people at the hostel and spent a few days sight seeing and partying with them...

Onto Sicily next.

Weekend Getaway

Peter was kindly given a voucher for 2 nights at the Busselton Mercure Appartments nearly 12 months ago. We finally got around to using it this weekend. We dropped the dogs off at High Trees boarding kennels (much to their disgust!) and continued on to the Mercure. Janelle travelled down from Perth and met us there. We had a 3 bedroom appartment overlooking the pool area...Janelle and I went for a lovely long walk along the beachfront on Saturday morning. Peter hobbled along behind us slowly after having a mole removed from his leg on Friday...Then we went for a drive down south first having a look at Yallingup then heading to the Olive Oil and Soap Factory. The driveway into this is stunning with the trees and the grapevines with their autumn colouring...We spent quite a bit of time (and money) trying all the products and tasting all the olives and oils...We then called into a few wineries and admired the views...And had lunch at the Duckstien Brewery...

We then moved onto some more wineries and tastings. There are so many pretty places - loved the vines on the wall here...This is called Brookland Valley and has lovely gardens. We had a bit of a wander and Janelle and Sarah took some nice photos...We think Janelle may have had one too may tastings as she suddenly did this...Yes she became a "Planker".

The fallen leaves off the trees everywhere were very pretty...

We eventually made it to Margaret River and looked in a few shops before heading to Cowaramup. Here we went to the Candy Cow and found another Cow from the Big Cow Parade from a few years ago...With our candy supplies to chew on we drove onto Providore where we had a yummy afternoon tea overlooking the vineyards...And checked out all the goodies in the shop...More tastings followed at the Chocolate Factory and Sandalford Winery before we made our way back to Busselton. Checked out all our goodies we purchased ...Janelle and I went for a swim in the heated pool and spa - Janelle had fun with her underwater camera...

We had some Chinese for tea and spent the evening relaxing. We had to leave early on Sunday morning to collect 2 very excited dogs and Sarah had to go to work. Janelle had water in her ear from all the swimming - which despite trying all sorts of acrobatic moves wouldn't come out, so we tried ear candling... Lots of ear wax but water remained! Janelle went back to Perth after lunch and was happy to report that night that the water had gone. It was a nice - if very short - weekend escape.

Italy

Its been nearly two weeks since Nicole and Ant left to backpack around Europe...




They landed in Milan and spent a few days recovering from the long flight and expoloring. One of the main attractions is the Duomo...Which they climbed...
They then travelled by train to Verona to visit Romeo and Juliets balcony...And the Love wall...Then onto Venice...And some fantastic views from the Bell Tower...Nicole has been enjoying lots of "Gelato"...And Italian food...Apparently this is her best meal EVA.....I am insulted....Trying all sorts of different drinks (turning into a wine drinker)...And meeting lots of people...Having a great time.