Leaving the 4551

6 months missing?!

2010-04-06T14:38:00.013+01:00

Has been a bit quiet on the blog, but not for lack of action- too long, so it will be brief, from last September, until Easter in Trier

Frankfurt Motor Show

Hamburg

More Budapest

Months of Snow in Frankfurt

Volklingen

Damuls

Taunus- the end of snow, and return of mountain biking

Trier

Adriatic Adventure

2009-09-30T18:46:00.000+01:00

Third time lucky was the theme for Croatia, there has been an attempt to get there every year since 2007- and the wait was well worth it. Sun, sailing and salt water for six days. After a drive across Germany, through Austria, Slovenia and finally Sukošan, Croatia. From here it was onto a 32foot Bavaria which was more than enough room for the 4 of us. Emese and Bee took care of the sailing while Pali and I looked busy and pretended to tie nautical knots. First stop was the Kornati Islands which are almost devoid of vegetation and have the most devoted sheep herders / stone wall builders on earth. After a great night of serenity in isolation we ventured North for a quick peek at the Cliffs of Dugi Otok, where the girls let me steer the boat under full sail, do some tacking and a bit of a jive (I'm basically ready for the Sydney to Hobart!) The port for the night would be a little harbour town a bit north of Sali, the name escapes me, but it was charming, the food was great and a German fixed our power cord. We journey south from here with a few over night stops on the way to Skradin, a fantastic 2000 year old port city located far up the Krka river, along deep gorges (over 80m in parts) reminiscent of the the Top End of Australia. Skradin is the gateway to Krka National park and it's famous waterfalls. Our final port was Tribunj the clearest water in Croatia and by far the clearest water I have ever seen. Best trip yet!

Kornati diving

Balaton

2009-08-24T21:02:00.005+01:00

Please refer to the original entry on Budapest- Jager chased with Goulash - Hungary is good. Not much needed to twist my arm into a visit of the Summer time get away, Lake Balaton. Popular amongst wine buffs and sailing fanatics alike, seeing an expanse of water like this almost satiated my appetite for ocean. The food, as anticipated, was fantastic, the weather was superb and the company was splendid. Lovely part of the world!

Copenhagen: By Land and Sea

2009-07-20T20:56:00.003+01:00

July 2009

While the German government will not allow a straight swap for an Australian license, they do not mind me driving a hire car from one side of the country and right out the other, as fast as possible, once again. This time it would be a recovery mission for Bee's possesions in her Copehagen apartment, the new occupant prefering it baren. Without any preconceived ideas about what to find in Denmark, and having never had a plan to even visit, I found Copenhagen quite pleasant, not as expensive as I'd heard and reminded me of a blend between Dublin and Amsterdam... stay away from the pickled fish

Nordschleife

2009-06-23T12:12:00.008+01:00

Generally, having the hire car upgraded to a brand spanking new 2010 E Class would be a good thing. However when the destination, Nurburgring's Nordschleife, is arguably the most gruelling production car test track on earth, this isn't good news. It would be an under powered, 4.8m and 1.7 tonne battleship that Andy C, Andy F and myself would be pushing around the 'ring. The car was indeed built for the cruise up the Rhein Valley, and had plenty of legs for the Autobahn (2400rpm at 180km/h) getting us to the accomodation at Altes Forsthaus in style and good time.

In their own words Altes Forsthaus was established 1924. Briefly after the opening, Daimler Benz noticed the advantages which this house offered: Direct proximity to the racing course, infrastructure to maintain race cars and simultaneous accommodation for the team. Until today nothing changed! The facilities were spot on, the menu had more meat than an abatoir and a well stocked bar that stayed open until the early hours. This is the closest accommodation to the entrance of the 'Ring.

Saturday morning saw further exploration of the Rhein Valley, with all of us getting a chance to settle into left hand drive. By the afternoon, we returned to catch the tail end of the days racing and get ready for the track to open for public laps. The massive Merc stood out in the car park amongst a sea of roll caged Beemers, Porsches and a surprising amount of R35 GTR's. I opted to take first lap, and suitably scared the boys- but their revenge would be at hand very soon.

In the Saturday and Sunday sessions, nothing short of a race ready BMW over took us, and many a 'superior' vehicle had the ominous grill of the E Class in their rearview mirror, before seeing our tail lights for the last time. Andy F put down a 9min55sec lap only 3 laps in- 170HP 1.7tonne, impressive. With the brakes seriously ready to combust, and the ABS retired, Andy C's climatic last lap was met with rain, but he persevered with some awesome moments, including overtaking a Caterham and finding some reverse lock out of a few tight turns; showing that the fateful day on a lonely Iluka gravel road is well behind him.

A modern pilgrimage. Nordschleife, I will be back.

Light reading in Subway?

Sausage Sizzle in the car park

Back markers meeting the E Class / GTR overtaking all of us.

Berliner ohne zucker

2009-05-06T12:08:00.002+01:00

It became painfully obvious very early that 2 days would not be enough to even scratch the surface of Berlin. Fran did have the bright spark to hire bikes, which allowed us to cover vast distances, and was fun to boot. However, every little nook and cranny along the way needs exploring too. This post will be as brief as the weekend stay and as superficial as the experience. How long would be long enough? Comparing to time spent in London, possibly an ‘Active’ year to get the full spectrum and give it a fair shove, at least a week to form a more conclusive opinion.

waiting in Terminal 1 Frankfurt am Main

Luck of the Irish

2009-04-28T11:58:00.007+01:00

Finally a trip to the mother land, still not as far west as Galway, that will have to come later in Life. Dublin is a lovely little city made even better by the outward friendliness and understated optimism of the Irish. They like a drink too... with accommodation right on Temple Bar, Dublin's infamous bar area, the level of drunkenness was quiet astounding for how early in the evening it was, even for a Friday, no rowdiness, just a lot of staggering and singing. On route and on time to rendezvous with Andy F and meet his lovely French girlfriend at THE Temple Bar. Saturday was a self guided walking tour, Tea with my new friends Tammy and Lindsey, Football with Fez (Hull City v Liverpool 1-3, Man U v Tottenham 5-2) and - of course- NOFX!!!! This was a fantastic gig, hard to believe they just get better- added bonus, they played 'The Decline' in it's 18min entirety!

Coffee Break

2009-02-01T18:47:00.004Z

January 2009

After one week back in some of the most depressing weather on earth, I booked a weekend trip to Amsterdam to see the Vidlers. With only a days forethought, and a short amount of time there, I just went with the flow and had a total tourist experience. There were various highlights, including the Van Gough Museum and a chance to help out on stage at Casa Rosa.

Summer Cliche

2009-01-26T11:58:00.005Z

December 2008 / January 2009

Having just made the brutal mistake of reading lyrics for The Waifs “London Still”. It’s now right up there with "Flame Trees" on my list of “Songs Not To Listen To While A Long Way From Home”. 5 weeks at home was not enough.

Brisbane
Jo's place was visited quite often, including a massive first night and equally unhealthy finale. After an almost 2 year hiatus from Brissy, the place seemed strangely inviting...

Gold Coast
A night out with Jo, Tea and Cake with the Wynn's, 6am casino entrance and a chance meeting of Haddo. Standard Goldy fun!

Byron Bay
Mum and Dad are in Byron now. Could not think of a better place to be for Xmas and New Years. Most people came and checked out the new pad. Fun was had by all!

Dyl on his hand-made, traditional, all wood, no fin slider.

Rock Around the Clock

2008-06-29T18:21:00.006+01:00

June 6th 2008
Rock Am Ring

It was The Misfits 'London Dungeon' I found paused on my MP3 player as the Shuttle Bus pulled away from the 'Ring. This reminded me of exactly how much had transpired in the last month, and how good it felt that summer was here.
Rock Am Ring had been fantastic, 3 days and 3 nights of Rock and Roll, something that is totally absent in the electro/funk/hip-hop pre-disposition of Frankfurt. 100 000+ like minded revelers- in fact walking through the 4kms of tents was like having my ITunes on shuffle, if interspersed with terrible, terrible German pop (terrible).
By Lunchtime Friday the perks of traveling Solo had revealed themselves several times. My single man tent fitted snugly (smugly even?) into a prime position that may have attracted animosity from surrounding campers if I were a loud group of English speaking blow-ins. At the wrist band counter, and the main gate, queue jumping failed to gain any acknowledgment. Pushing through the 60 odd thousand at Incubus to be at the front for Rage Against the Machine would be the real kicker, I left behind my new found friends who just couldn't keep up and were met with resistance while trying to follow me. Even on my own this still took some aggressive maneuvering and the entire Incubus set plus 3 Rage songs!!
If anything could take away from what was about to happen, it would be the huge advertising billboards all around Centre Stage. As the Stage darkened and a huge glowing Red Star was raised into placed all ambiance was totally annihilated by a flashing white signs that revealed the band long before the intro had finished. I was insulted and could/would hope the band felt the same; although after the riff over Zach's political bent and the rest of the guys just wanting to play music this was in doubt. 'Bulls on Parade' started things off and social pondering would be left aside until the mid set rant about how they had been misquoted after last year's Rock Am. The speech went on for quite some time, with a large portion of the crowd taking a seat. Complex Ideologies in Fast Angry English to a predominantly drunk German audience bought on the yawns rapidly. 'Know Your Enemy' and 'Killing in the name of' saved the day. 'Killing in the name of' had a comical ending where the whole crowd (around 60 000) chanted something that loosely translates to 'shit rich people' at the corporate boxes along the side of the stage. The VIPs really should have sipped lattes somewhere else. Exit stage right, and back down to the Alternastage just in time to hear "We're Mötorhead, We play Rock and Rock" -indeed.
Saturday morning would be a chance to see the other camp sites; the ones people had arrived 4 days earlier to procure. Utter Squalor is an understatement. While I was on a tree lined hilltop with a view of Nordschleife's front straight, these people where camped on the gravel remains of the old F1 tracks car park. Concrete had been busted up into fist sized rocks and each 200m square allotment had a 6 foot chain link fence surround. Add to this; burnt/burning tents, endless rubbish, puddles of human waste and, finally, the lowest elevation of the whole area (no wind, no shade, hot days) -the scene could have been any African border camp. Live in excrement for 6 days OR cruise in at lunchtime Friday and walk an extra kilometer, hmmm.
Today would be a Metal Fix with a hint of Aussie Flavour. Checked out Pete Murray first up (just to be patriotic), then Disturbed, followed by Inflames. Inflames where phenomenal leaving no doubt as to why they have been sighted by Metal Hammer as one of the 10 most influential metal acts ever. Made a mad dash to see those Victorian Sheep shearers, Airbourne, only to find out the Tent they were was at capacity, with a huge line up of hopefuls that wanted In. With 5 hours until Metallica you would be forgiven thinking that now would be an OK time to get a good position, Wrong. After Rage last night, Everyone had the same Idea, except today the crowd would be up 30,000. Yes, at least 90,000 people standing around waiting for Metallica, an amazing site. When the Metal Lords finally took the stage it was everything anyone could ask for, finishing the third encore with 'Die My Darling'(when am I ever going to hear 90,000 sing a Misfits song again?), 'Whiplash' and my all time favourite 'Motorbreath'. Emotion ensued.
The Final day would be easy, everyone I wanted to see was on the Alternastage, and hours would be at my disposal to find the perfect spot for Queens of the Stone Age. An endless stream of good old Rock appeared on stage with a few unheard ofs impressing me, namely Disco Ensemble. The Eagles of Death Metal were awesome and very humble- apparently this was the biggest crowd they had played to.
I was fairly interested in seeing HIM, only know they exist thanks to Viva La Bam and they have quite a following; The verdict- Not Bad. Lead singer, Ville Valo is not the most unattractive man in the world, perhaps it is not going to far as to say he is the Bon Jovi of this generation. They Covered Wicked Game and Rebel Yell as well, it was awesome.
Queens of the Stone Age came on to Finish the Festival -put simply- they really rocked.
Felt fantastic to go away for a long weekend after having had to actually work for the last few weeks. This is going to be a great summer my friends.

Here is Metallica's final encore on Saturday night!!!!
(if this vid isn't loaded, press refresh)

Frankensteiner Platz

2008-06-29T17:49:00.005+01:00

May 2008
Frankfurt, the promise land.

A new Job and a new attitude, it's Frankfurt where I hang my hat these days.
The financial capital of the EU, with a day time population of almost 4 mil that drops to 667,598 by evening thanks to a surrounding 'Sound of Music' villages where the Bankers and Stock Traders retreat after a hard day globalising. It stands to reason that Friday nights in the city are a bit more lively than Saturday. On Sunday Everything is closed except Free standing alcohol kiosks and the multitude of brothels... some hobbies will be needed. Enjoy a few pics of my street that Starts in trendy Westend, serves as a border between the financial and redlight districts, and finishes at the river.

Jager chased with Goulash

2008-06-29T17:06:00.009+01:00

March ? 2008
Mayrhofen, Austria
It's been a while and this post has been a long time coming so details are vague. I will try and keep it short.
Snowboarding in Mayrhofen. 6 days of REAL powder, a few nights of hard drinking and a deep sense of satisfaction. Photos are scant as most of the time Hewy and myself were too busy boarding.

Vienna, Austria
After posing as Argentinian playboys for a week it was onto the Austrian Capital. Home of many influential figures over the last few centuries (including Gustav Klimt, Freud and Mozart) The lack of things to do possible harboured their creativity and propelled them onto the world stage. Nice looking city, not a hive of activity.

Budapest, Hungary
This is a place with a great vibe, an intangible quantity that cant be described. Like it a lot. Hungarian Food is excellent and cheap, the people are friendly and speak all the useful languages. Great City with heaps to do and see. Recommendations?- Stay at The Loft backpackers, eat at The Hungarian restaurant with the life size fiberglass waiter outside, find this in the side street of the big food market near the river- sounds like vague directions, easy to find. Have a few hours at the Turkish Baths, pick any of them they all seem about the same. And visit the House of Terror, the museum is the former headquarters for the secret police of both the Nazi and Communist governments. More photos of me than usually thanks to traveling with Hewy.

Belgian Waffles

2008-02-26T16:02:00.010Z

Brussels: Done and Dusted in 2 hours flat

The Eurostar is undoubtedly the best way to travel. From St Pancras station to Brussels in 1hr 50min. Getting through customs is about as complicated as hopping on the tube and when you disembark at the other end you simply walk out of the station, no unnecessary lines, forms or waiting around for a a chance to land.
After a diabetes inducing breakfast of authentic waffles and triple choc hot chocolate it was time to see what Brussels had to offer, it was 9am by this stage, the city must be buzzing, surely? it is the capital of the European Union afterall...
WRONG!
Adam quickly pointed out upon leaving the station that although I had not yet been to Eastern Europe, this was as close that it made no difference. We crossed onto the aptly named Stalingrad Drive and realised the scale of the town was substantially smaller than you would think from perusing the tourist map, today's adventure would be swift!
Within 2hours we had seen the Grote Markt (the center of any Belgium city), taken photos in front of the famous Manakin Pis (the orginal 'little boy urinating' staue) and walked the breadth of the city into the new district. Ieper, we will see you for lunch!

Advancing on the Menin gate
Iper/Ypres pronounced eep-air is an eerie town in the middle of a 10 sq mile area where roughly 1000 000 people died over the course of both World Wars. The soil is incredibly fertile with Maize being the crop of choice. This is what bought Mooney and myself to Belgium, a tour around the battlefeilds of the Ieper Salient.
The town itself was destroy totally in the Great War, then subsequently rebuilt at great cost to the German government. This rebuilding of continental europe,paid for by the Germans of course, encourage the climate which led to WW2.
There are so many directions to head in while pondering the signifigance of Ieper that I am not going to attempt to get into detail. To quickly breeze through a few things of note-
The official remeberance poem 'Flanders Fields' was written by John Mcrae here and inturn lead the Poppy to be the flower of remeberance.
38,000 (yes thirty eight thousand) Australians died here during the battle for Passchendaele.
Hitler was injured and commended for his bravery here a few short years before entering into politics.
There are 176 cemetaries in the Ieper Salient region
Ieper was bitterly cold, Im glad we were not knee deep in mud.

Brugge
With the futlility of war behind us, we headed east for the coast. This city comprises twin rings of canals to aid fortifiaction, a Michaelangelo scultpure and the Basilica of the Holy Blood, where a vile of christ's blood has been protected since the crusades. Food and Beer, here, was easy to come by.

Antwerp
Diamonds, Beer, quite, possibly save it for the weekend...

Nigeria V Socceroos

2007-11-27T13:52:00.000Z

First footy game in England, we had good seats, Australia won and the Stadium is a couple of hundred metres from our place. It was freezing though...

Valencia

2007-11-09T13:59:00.000Z

Valencia was a pleasant surprise seeing that we booked it 7 months ago. It was a break away from the cold, although still freezing during the night. The city had a great blend of old and new.
Eve caught up with some German friends that she went to high school with in the States- while Hewy and I headed out to Ricardo Tormo Circuit for the last MotoGP race of the Year!!!!

The Old City
Our hostel was in the old quarter, we arrived on a public holiday during siesta, so the city was like the set from a zombie movie, very quite. The spanish have a sleep every day from about 2 til 5pm, so everything is closed. It's a great idea. The architecture is awesome in the old city, everywhere you go in Europe makes Australia seem like a very young country.

The Beach
while Valencia is on the Mediterranean the waves still looked big enough to surf. No bikinis or swimming but Eve was still very happy to see a real beach.

The New City
Valencia's new city IS the future. Really modern huge buildings. Exactly 50 years ago Valencia was flooded, they diverted the river and built a series of sports fields, parks and museums in the old river bed.

MotoGP
Last race of the year, Aussie Casey Stoner had already wrapped up the championship- 135,000 still turn up to cheer on the race. Absolutely amazing.

London Town

2007-10-03T01:11:00.000+01:00

Finally a London update, we have been here for almost 4 weeks now and have gotten through most of the touristy stuff. Read on to see what we've been upto

Hammersmith

We live in Hammersmith. Our house has had a long procession of 4551 migrants in it, it is near the tube station, next to the Apollo Theatre and right on the Thames.

Out and About
Highlights of sigt seeing so far have been The Tate Modern Gallery, Dirty Dancing the stage show (it was an absolute classic, there are some real fanatics out there), the British Museum (were you can see how the poms stole from developing countries before the Yanks even had Thanks Giving) and we have been on the Jack the Ripper tour, which is at night in Whitechapel and its great. Also Camden was cool, Maybe not as cool as in the 80's but worth a few more visits at least.

British Museum

The Theatre district
Tower Hill

Camden
...these were all the punks I saw...

Guangzhou

2007-09-16T19:42:00.000+01:00

Hong Kong to Guangzhou.
Mitch came to Hong Kong and took us back to his place in mainland China- Guangzhou. In mainland China this blog is banned and that is why I am way behind on updates...
Mitch lives about 40minutes from the centre of the city. The central population is 10 million with a floating population of the greater Guangzhou area standing at about 25million- this is a big city. The estate my brother lives in is a massive gated community with over 100 000 people and a better bus network than Sunny coast Sunbus

Food
The Cantonese are known to eat anything- and yes they really dig dog, but there are mixed opinions about cat. Dog is actually on the menu at most restaurants and even 7 -11 has Dog in their hot pots (a stock broth that you cook balls of meat in), ironically, right next to hot dogs. While in GZ we had Yo-Yo cooking for us, she is an amazing cook and I don't know why my brother and Bull aren't fat. I skirted around the edge of the meat markets where even as late as 1994 you could apparently still get FRESH tiger penis, the cops have cracked down on it now. Even at some supermarkets the meat section has live turtles, frogs, jellyfish and a few other things I wouldnt class as staples.

White Cloud Mountain
When diving between Hong Kong and GZ you will notice the terrain is fairly flat, this is not natural, the government really loves flat cities and blowing up mountains. As you get further away from HongKong you will see half excavated full size mountains, it is crazy. They have left at least one mountain behind in GZ, it is very touristy and groomed at the bottom and gets a bit more natural towards the top...

White Cloud was followed by a touch of karaoke

Hong Kong

2007-09-15T14:15:00.000+01:00

After a very sad, and busy, last week in the Philippines it was time to say good bye to the kids and go to China.First stop was Hong Kong, it is a wild looking Metropolis right on the water. We hadnt booked ahead and I was worried we would have to walk the streets. But Eve was right, we stepped straight out of the bus from the airport into downtown Kowloon and had someone ask if we wanted somewhere to stay, after a trek into the middle of the maze that is Chungking Mansion and a ride in a freight elevator we came to the Lucky House and it was good; free wi-fi, private bath room and 1/4 price of anywhere else we had seen on the net. I highly recommend staying in one of the guest houses here if you visit Hong Kong, globalisation in the flesh
Here is a nice vid I found on youtube that shows what its like inside Chungking.
and click this link for the whole story-
Click This>>>Chungking Article

And Eve also had Cup Therapy on our second visit

River Rafting

2007-08-12T08:15:00.000+01:00

7 am wake up call,and we're off to the Cagayan De Oro River, for river rafting. We start off at the top of the mountains, then down stream. Since the day before we had a crazy storm, the next day was full of excitement, as the current was going fast as ever. If your ever in Cagayan De Oro, this is a MUST DO!

Around our 'hood

2007-08-06T12:41:00.000+01:00

Scammers

2007-07-29T11:17:00.000+01:00

We arrived at Macanhan the other day to find out that most of the children have been transferred to a National Government Facility. This turned out to be great news- the new place has 24hr nurses, a doctor once a weeks, proper security, an indoor and out door playground, plus children over 5 get 'school-like' activities to do. Also they have chores and have to be polite, so they are finally getting some discipline. We also found out some interesting information about HOLY CHILD orphanage, the place we were originally going to help at.Then head of the new facility that most of the Macanhan children are now at was the investigating officer for the case against HOLY CHILD and she had quite a bit to say about Sister Celia (refer to picture of small Nun in the First Glimpse post). It turns out that the place is a scam,they get foreign charities to donate money, the former leader/priest is in jail for child molestation and misappropriation of funds, and 3 years ago they had there license to be a care center permanently revoked. What Sister Celia is doing, is gathering up kids from the area and getting them to pretend they are orphans, now I know why she stressed about 20 times that we had to call before we came, and never turn up unannounced, plus they had a look out on the road leading in , lol. We felt something was up on our first proper visit and didn't return, now our suspicions are confirmed.

Here are some pics of the kids, and conditions that are still at Macanhan. It is a solid good building, but where Eve is standing is usually under ankle-deep water full of mosquitos, the whole yard is like that...

The Old Pump Station

2007-07-26T11:56:00.000+01:00

After the caves we went for a swim at the old pump station. Only one person with us had been there before. He didnt tell anyone it was at the bottom of over 300 steps and two 5m ladders. Before hoping in the water Eve asked if there was anything in the water that could bite us, I laugh and said no. However afterwards I found out that upstream is the Cagayan Valley Crocodile Rehabilitation center, they are trying to reintroduce crocs here as they have been absent since the late 70's.Their website says this "The Philippine crocodile Crocodylus mindorensis is an endemic, freshwater, crocodilian.It is a small, shy and harmless animal that does not attack humans unless provoked." . On the bank was a pile of rocks with a peice of bamboo on it, if the bamboo moves (as this is not a tidal river) it means a flash flood is coming. There was also a water buffalo and a goat tied up I have a rough idea what it might mean if you go down to the river and they are missing..

This is a perfect Visayan dog, I have seen a few like this,but more often than not they are smaller and have black patches. Lizard (if you see this) you should breed them!

Makahambus caves

2007-07-23T12:56:00.000+01:00

We visited the Makahambus caves. This cave is where the local hid during American occupation in 1900, they dont seem to hide from the current American occupation.... If you ever visit and you are creeped out by large gecko looking lizards, dont shine your torch on the roof.

Just at the end of our street...

10min down the road...

Macanhan Orphanage

2007-07-17T11:43:00.000+01:00

This is the orphanage we have been spending most of our time at. It is state funded ,barely. And currently the staff are changing as a new mayor has been elected. So favouritism sees people shuffled around every election, I am sure this adds to the disorganisation here. The food has improved with the new council so that is a plus. The children are still sick but the medicine we bought has worked wonders.

Day at the Beach

2007-07-17T11:29:00.000+01:00

We went to the beach in the back of a truck. It was a good day, we ate heaps of cashew (casui) and Roast Chicken (Lechon Manuk, the chicken here is amazing a testament to free range and high demand) and had a swim. There are no waves here, about 8 hours up the beach is Cloud Nine :(

Fiesta

2007-07-17T11:04:00.000+01:00

Hard times if you are a pig at Fiesta. The Filippino's love pork, deep fried food and sugar and wonder why many have high blood pressure and cholesterol. This Fiesta was for Carmen the burungay we are staying in. Each Burungay has a Patron Saint that they celebrate with Fiesta. Anyone can come into your house and eat your food, and people are walking around eating and drinking all day. There are a few car crash and a couple of punch ups but generally it was easy going.

First Glimpse

2007-07-10T06:08:00.000+01:00

Final 24

2007-07-04T05:13:00.001+01:00

The 4551 less than 24 hours before departure