Explore. Dream. Discover.
We stayed at the Castelo Monastero, in Tuscany about 20 minutes drive from Siena where we enjoyed walking around taking in the sites such as the Duomo of Siena, Il Campo, and the Palazzo Pubblico and enjoying an incredible bistecca and seasonal truffle dishes at Osteria La Taverna di San Giuseppe. The highlight however was the beautiful picturesque Tuscan countryside as you can see from the photos below.
On our way to Tuscany, from Portofino we stopped by Pisa so our kids could see the great ‘leaning tower of Pisa’. Other sites to see in the city’s Piazza del Duomo is the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and the Campo Santo (the monumental cemetery).
After a morning spent wandering the sites and museums, we discovered a great little panineria called ‘L’Ostellino‘. It’s a tiny little shop, in a small square about 10 minutes from the Tower of Pisa. There’s not a lot of sitting room, so get your order to go and enjoy a picnic in the many beautiful gardens around Pisa.
There was a lot to choose from and we ended up with their porchetta panini, platter of local salumi and cheeses and salad – plenty for a family of four!
We found it easy to get to Cinque Terre for a day trip from Portofino. After a quick 10 minute bus ride to Santa Margherita Liguria, it was only an hour by train to get to Monterosso. Monterosso is the largest of the five coastal villages collectively known as Cinque Terre. Upon arrival, we enjoyed a scenic walk along the only sand beach in Cinque Terre with its orange and green umbrellas before starting the hike to Vernazza.
We purchased a family Cinque Terre Card just at the entrance to the hike between Monterosso and Vernazza, which was classified as ‘medium’ level in difficulty. Good shoes are recommended given the terrain can be quite steep and narrow at certain points. Those taking this path will be rewarded with a spectacular panoramic view of Vernazza, which is probably the most ‘iconic’ of the Cinque Terre and is classified as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.
The streets were packed with visitors – all enjoying the beautiful town and the fantastic food. We grabbed some supplies from the local deli before it closed for the daily riposo and enjoyed a picnic of freshly sliced salami, ham, mozarella, vine ripened tomatoes and cheese before a refreshing swim with the locals in the harbour.
As we were only visiting for the day, we decided to take a train to Corniglia, which is the only town without access to the sea before moving onto Manarola which was built high on rocks 70 metres above sea level. We found Manarola to be incredibly charming but with no real beach, we especially enjoyed jumping off the many rocks, near the boat ramp.
After an afternoon rock jumping with the kids, we decided to take a ferry to Riomaggiore and then ferry hopped back to Monterosso. We found the ferry a beautiful and relaxing way to enjoy Cinque Terre with the kids – tickets can be purchased in each town (except for Corniglia) with costs dependent on how far you want to go. The ferry schedule, was pretty flexible.
Men Playing with Birds by Wang Shugang
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Overconsumption by Kerrie Argent
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We stayed in Portofino on the Italian Riviera, known for its picturesque harbour and during our stay enjoyed exploring the harbour, admiring the many beautiful boutiques and luxury stores as well as enjoying the restaurants in Portofino. One of the main cultural attractions in Portofino is the Castello Brown, a fortress built in the 16th century with incredible views of Portofino and the Ligurian Sea.
If you have the time, it’s also worth visiting the neighboring resort destinations like Santa Margherita Ligure and Camogli.
When we visited Cambodia, we stayed at the Hotel de la Paix, one of Siem Reap’s classic hotels. Since our visit, the hotel has been renovated and is now called the Park Hyatt Siem Reap. The central courtyard swimming pool and water garden, is still the focal point of the hotel and we were fortunate to stay in a room that had a private entrance and stairway into the pool.
We found the easiest way to get to Angkor Wat and the other temples was to arrange for a local tuk tuk driver to take us there. We made arrangements directly with our tuk tuk driver who spoke a little English to transport us around for our entire stay. It was a lot easier to get around all the different temples, knowing our driver would be waiting for us each morning at the entrance of the hotel.
Tidal Pools by Elaine Miles
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Ornithopter by Sam Deal
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Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara. Located approximately one kilometre east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray, it was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university.
We found the combination of trees growing out of the ruins nestled amongst the jungle and the Buddhist monks visiting made for an incredible atmospheric and photogenic visit of one of the most popular Angkor temples. UNESCO inscribed Ta Prohm on the World Heritage List in 1992.
The conservation and restoration of Ta Prohm is a partnership project of the Archaeological Survey of India and the APSARA (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap)
Angkor Wat was first a Hindu, then subsequently a Buddhist, temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.
Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture.
The modern name, Angkor Wat, means “Temple City” or “City of Temples” in Khmer; Angkor, meaning “city” or “capital city”, and Wat is the Khmer word for “temple grounds”.
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Wentworth Falls is a historic town in the Blue Mountains, about 1.5 hours by car from Sydney. It is a good one-day trip to experience and see Australia’s unique bushland with a number of well-maintained bushland paths and tracks suitable for walking, climbing, abseiling, canyoning and hiking.
The photos taken from this day trip, were from the National Pass trail a medium grade bush walk that can take up to 3 hours. It is very popular so it’s best to go early to beat the crowds and heat and enjoy the spectacular views. The highlight of this pass, is the gorgeous Wentworth Falls – make sure to pack a picnic lunch, plenty of water, snacks, hat, sunglasses and sunscreen. It’s probably a good idea to bring a light long sleeve shirt or top as it can be quite cool beneath the tree top but incredibly hot when above!
Every year, the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk is transformed into a 2km long temporary sculpture park called ‘Sculpture By The Sea‘ which features over 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and across the world. Below are just a few of the featured artists in this year’s exhibition. If you’re in Sydney, it’s definitely worth a visit. Sculpture By The Sea is open from 23 October to 9 November 2014.
This year, the 2014 Macquarie Group Sculpture Prize was awarded to Peter Lundberg (USA), for his work ‘ring (2013)‘ – see below.
‘Sea Anemone’ by Rebecca Rose.
‘Evidence Based Research’ by Julie Collins and Derek John
‘Permanent Sunrise’ by Alejandro Propato
‘we’ by Andrew Hankin
‘Coastal Totem’ by Carter Williamson Architects
‘The Figure in the Landscape’ by John Petrie
‘House of Mirrors’ by NEON
‘Stone Baskets’ by Greger Ståhlgren
‘The Last Resort’ by Frank Veldze & Suzanne Donisthorpe
‘The Folly’ by Stephen King
‘My House is Your Home’ by Ken Unsworth
‘Overconsumption’ by Kerrie Argent
Details of the many bottle caps that were collected and used in ‘Overconsumption’
‘The Boot Pool’ by Ian Smith
‘Look Who’ by Janaki Lele
‘Morning Star’ by Ayako Saito
‘Dark Night Shine’ by Takahiro Hirata
‘To Take Care Of’ by Hannah Streefkerk
‘The Chase’ by Elaine Sykes-Smith
‘Tidal Pools’ by Elaine Miles
Permanent Sunrise with the lifesavers in the background.
Sailing is great fun but when you can combine natural beauty, a tropical climate, a barrier reef, azure waters and a group of islands that are the Whitsundays, the experience becomes quite unique. The Whitsundays Islands are part of the Great Barrier Reef, a Unesco World Heritage site in Northern Queensland, Australia. It has one of the most diverse coral ecosystem making it one of the most beautiful scenery above and below the water.
We rented a boat for a week in Airlie Beach, stocked up the boat with food and set off. You need sailing experience if you want to go on your own with your group, otherwise you can hire a skipper for the trip. Exploring the Whitsundays national park lives you a lot of options such as like mooring in clear blue waters for lunch, snorkelling, swimming, island hopping, soak up the views from Hill Inlet and picnicking on Whitehaven beach, one of the most untouched, beautiful white sand beach in the world. You can also hire kayaks, stand-up paddle boards (SUPs), snorkelling and fishing equipment to board onto your yacht. We sailed around Hayman island, a hotel resort, Hook island, Whitsunday island, Hazelwood island, Lindeman island and Hamilton island.
San Pedro de Atacama is a town in the northeastern part of Chile. The town is at an elevation of 2,400 m and has one of the driest climates on earth averaging 312 days a year without rain. There are many things to do from exploring the rich natural landscape, archaeological sights and sand boarding on dunes. We hired a 4WD and drove up to 5,500 m in the mountains – the snow capped Cerro Toco mountain (5,604 m) near the Bolivian border standing majestically in the middle of the desert was an incredible sight to see. We also explored the Salar de Atacama in the middle of the Atacama desert, which are big salt flats that had many pink flamingos when we were there.
Walking on a glacier is an amazing experience and doing it in one of the most rugged parts of Argentina with snow covered mountains during the Argentine spring highlighted the sheer natural beauty of this UNESCO World heritage listed national park. The Perito Moreno glacier is part of the Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz in Southern Argentina and is the Argentine part of Patagonia.
We took a boat on the Lake Argentino, which is 160 km long, to approach the glacier and along the way, we could hear the cracks and massive chunks of ice falling off.
We then went onto the glacier itself, using crampons to hike around the glacier. We probably saw every single shade of blue throughout the day as the sunlight refracted onto the glacier. Walking with crampons was not as hard as expected – going up the glacier with ice axes would have been a different thing! Just walking around, we saw crevasses, toboggan slides, little mini rivers forming around melting ice, making the whole adventure like walking around on a blue moonscape.
Located just over 100 kilometres west of Sydney, Leura embodies the spirit of the Blue Mountains, with stunning streetscapes, heritage buildings, glorious gardens, luxury accommodation, spectacular scenery and a beautiful main street lined with restaurants and cafés.
Jervis Bay’s famous white-sand beaches and clear turquoise waters are amongst the most beautiful in the world. The many bay and ocean beaches, lagoons, secret coves and hidden creeks are perfect for swimming, kayaking, boating, fishing, standup paddle boarding and surfing and the coastal, marine and hinterland National Parks offer fantastic bushwalking, cycling tracks, Indigenous culture, camping spots, cliff-top lookouts and maritime heritage.
Jervis Bay is central to all the South Coast has to offer and country villages like Kangaroo Valley, Berry and Ulladulla offer a great range of local produce markets, boutique shops, art galleries, cafes, restaurants, pubs and wine bars.
As far as natural beauty goes, the Iguazu falls are certainly up there – the sheer size, sounds and its surroundings make it a very mesmerising place. The Iguazu Falls are part of the Iguazu national park, a UNESCO World heritage listed site, located in the Misiones region, in the Northeastern part of Argentina bordering with the Panana region in Brazil. The falls are up to 80 metres tall and span nearly 3 kilometres – the magnitude, size and power of the cascades can only be truly appreciated in person. The lush subtropical rainforest surroundings are host to varied wildlife birds, caymans and monkeys and several thousand plant species.
We went on a speed boat tour and the sprays of water and roaring sounds were unbelievable. There are great hikes as well around the national park. The falls are one of the largest and certainly one of the most amazing waterfalls in the world.
