Bergman Travel Diary

This morning I awoke to the gentle nudge from Matt, telling me it was 5am.  Yep, 5 am!  While we are on holidays anywhere near the coastline it is our tradition to get up at least one morning and see the sunrise.  Thyroid medication time or not (not until 6:30 so no kick start for me) I had a tradition and promise to keep.  There was no tucking me back into the comfort of bed.  I was up and ready in a heart beat!  You only get one life and I am determined to LIVE it! Was it worth it?  You tell me???  I say:  YES!!! We got across the road with Zane (leaving Daz snoring in bed), camera gear ready and eagerness at it's peak, just in time to set up and start capturing what turned out to be a STUNNER of a sunrise.  A true Morning Glory in our eyes! We watched as a group of canoe riders headed out for a morning tumble on the waves, and as the world slowly woke to this glorious day. Once we were back at the apartment Matt put s...

After everything that has been going on this year, Matt and I knew that a family getaway was needed.   Such a crazy year, dealing with selling a house, buying a home, moving out of a rental .... and then there was the cancer issue.  Seems we have had our hands full of stuff that could cripple a family quite easily, but we kept rolling with it. When our yearly getaway to Kawana, for rowing with Mr D, fell through, we decided to reschedule these couple of days and turn them into a true holiday.  Normally we don't have the chance to explore Kawana and are too busy at the lake with rowing to even wander past the Surf club and see the beach.  This time was different.  We packed up the house, left Trinket in the care of her beautiful grandparents, and headed off to kick off our shoes and PLAY! How we are feeling right now!!! This is our fourth year visiting Kawana and we finally got to ENJOY it!  What did we think of Kawana?  Loved it!  We h...

We had a bit of a close call with authority today.  Really must remember to check where we are going before we decide to bring our lovely Miss T along.  It seems that there are still places in Australia which are very 'Dog unfriendly'.  After our time living in the UK and traveling throughout Europe this still surprises us. Our destination today was Wellington Point in the Redland City, a lovely area to be sure, but beware if you are visiting with a dog.  Due to the Redlands area being considered a conservation area residents voted to have dogs not alllowed during certain areas.  They are ok at some hours but not others so be sure to check this before heading out for a day in the sun with your beloved pooch. All that aside, we had a magnificent day.  Luckily for us we had managed to enjoy a 3 hour stay before the lovely (and I do mean lovely) ranger came and had a chat with us about why we should get in our car and drive away from the area with our...

Today was a typical 'at sea' day: relaxed and easy going.  I woke at just after 4am (home time) to the sun shining in the window of our cabin.  Sleep called, but the chance to surprise Matt by meeting him up on the running track was too tempting.  I rose, got dressed, left both boys sleeping soundly (or so I thought) and headed up to the top deck to meet my man.  Despite my best efforts to sneak up on Matt, he spotted me straight away.  Before we made another lap of the top deck we found Zane waiting for us.  The wind was quite crazy so we all headed down to the Gym. After a great wake up work out Mat and I headed into the Aqua Spa for some rejuvenation.  What a way to start the day!  I could seriously get used to this. We had a nice early breakfast outside on the Adult Only deck, followed by chilling out in one of the lounges for a while.  All seven of us enjoyed the chill time. Matt, John, Carol, Daniel and I headed to the ...

We loved our first cruise, two years ago, so much that we booked another one for this year.  This time we are set to experience the 9 day Christmas Cruise with P&O on board the Pacific Dawn....... Here starts our daily account of our latest Travel adventure.  Bon Voyage! ********* Today is the day we set of on our second family cruise.  With butterflies in our stomachs, we were all awake well and truly before we needed to be.  Miss Trinket was dropped off with the lovely people from the Pet Motel at 8.00am and we then set off to meet Matt's mum, dad and brother Dan, before heading off to the Port of Brisbane. Excitement was high as we boarded the Pacific Dawn, after a quick stop at the TRS counter to claim back the taxes on our recent pre-cruise spendings.  Once on board the first stop for Matt and I was the Aqua Spa.  Here we quickly signed up to take advantage of their couples package again.  Then it was off to Plantation for a quic...

Wow!  We have been really slack with the travel blog lately.  It occurred to us that we are simply not getting out as much as we once did.  Time to change that right now …. and give this blog a much needed bit of love. Those of you who have followed us since we took off on our adventures across the sea to the UK would know that Matt and I are absolute lovers of COFFEE.  Well, that's not quite right.  We are lovers of GOOD COFFEE.  Who isn't, right?  Many of us go ga-ga over a great cup of coffee or tea …. or both.  Or, for those who love something sweeter there is always great hot chocolate to be found. Now, if you have ever found yourself in the UK you would quite likely have ended up stumbling across Costa.  Oh my, the memories!  Costa Coffee is pure heaven in a mug.  If you haven't tried this amazing franchise of coffee, and happen to find yourself in the UK at any time, be sure to give them a go.  Pure decadence ...

With the crazy busy schedule of term time almost done for the year we decided to head out for some adventuring today. The sun was shining, despite the forecast of rain, and our schedule cleared for the day so we headed off to Manly. Our aim was to meander around the Manly crafters market. We love a good market but were a tad bit disappointed on that account. Despite all the advertising on TV these markets were rather scant of interesting (and affordable) crafty items. Bit of a fizzed for our style. Manly itself though was quite lovely. Quiet and peaceful with a sea breeze... and lots of lovely boats out on the water. Very picturesque indeed. The boys found some washed up jelly fish too...cheeky Zane decided to throw one on Grandmas lap (she joined us for the morning) but that did not go down too well...lol. Funny boy! It seems that the crabs were enjoying the fine weather too. They sunned themselves on the rocks bordering the waters edge. A fine way to spend a Sunday morning...