Gamla året ut och det nya året in…

Tags

2018, 2019, Aktier, Resor, Släktforskning, Trädgård

Det har varit en lugn och bra jul- och nyårledighet. Vi firade jul hemma hos oss med mamma och brorsan med familj. Vi lekte en julklappslek tillsammans. Alla köpte en klapp var för 40 kronor och sedan körde vi med tärning i 15 minuter. Alla började med sitt eget paket och sedan slog vi tärning och den som fick en etta eller en sexa fick byta paket med ngn annan. Om någon hade fått en sexa eller etta precis när tiden gick ut så fick den personen göra klart bytet och sedan var spelet slut. Det var jättekul. Vi köpte inga julklappar mellan familjerna, för att hålla ned mängden julklappar lite. Det var bra. Mina enda tillverkade julklappar var några syprojekt. En broderad (frukt) tygkasse till mamma, två “slabbedasker” (googla på det ni) i mörkt lila, även de till mamma och sedan 1 handduk och två grytlappar var till Robin och till Jossan och Davron.

Nyår firade vi i Gävle, hos Einy och Göte och sedan hade jag tre “ensamma” aktie- och släktforskardagar hemma i mellandagarna när Mr J jobbade för fullt med inventering och produktion. Har hittat några nya släktingar, ganska nära faktiskt och som jag inte haft med tidigare i släktträdet. Så häftigt!!

Släktforskning

Augusta Albertina Lindqvist, född 1892-12-02 i Hillsta, Svedvi, Västmanland
Dels min farmors mammas Ida Charlotta Lindells halvsvster Augusta Albertina Lindqvists många barn och barnbarn, boende bland annat i Köping, Stockholm, Hallstahammar, Västerås och Dingtuna.

Erik Edvard Lindell, född 1873-03-18 i Svedvi, Västmanland
Och dels hennes, Ida Charlotta Lindells, bror Erik Edvard Lindells hela familj. De är födda i Helsingborg och Stockholm och bor numera bland annat i Skåne och i Sala.

Jag skickade även in ett nytt bidrag till Disbyt 2019-01-04.

Snabbsummering av 2018

Aktier
Jag nådde mitt utdelningsmål om att få 1000 kr i utdelning/månad i genomsnitt. Woooohooooo!!! Är jättenöjd.

Huset
Inte mycket hände. Dörrarna på förrådet blev målade (av mig). Vi rensade ut det framtida kontoret men sen tog det stopp. Jo, vi stylade faktiskt lite också. Vi köpte 8 nya svarta stolar till och en (snart två) ny matta (nummer två är beställd). Gråa, härliga, långhåriga ryamattor till vardagsrummet.

Trädgård
Köpte ett parasoll till Franska trädgården och planterade klart min “låda” med rosor och lavendel. Jag planterade även tre syrener på framsidan, två ädelsyrener och en vanlig. Alla rosa/lila. Jo, jag fick också lite växter från Robins trädgård som jag planterade bredvid forsythian. Hoppas allt överlever.

Barnen
Robin sålde sin lägenhet  och köpte hus i Kolbäck i januari, på Eva Janssons gamla gatan. Och Robin och Elin gick skilda vägar i november, efter drygt ett år tillsammans.
Jossan sökte en chefstjänst på Avanza och fick den. Jättekul! Hon och Davron bor kvar i sin tvåa i Sthlm på, ja vad nu området heter, jag glömmer jämt bort det. :-O

Resor
GC i mars, vanliga designhotellet som vi älskar. Avslutade med Lejonkungen i London. Superbra.

La France till Bennströms över sista april, Krister låg på sjukhus alla dagar utom dagen vi kom. Det var synd, annars väldigt trevligt, som vanligt, hos Bennströms.

Sommaren tillbringades i Barkarö i sällskap av Jossan och Davron den första veckan. Vi tog det bara väldigt lugnt och njöt av friheten. Vädret var GALET. Sol varje dag och 28-32 grader mest varje dag. HELA SOMMAREN. Man orkade inte göra mycket faktiskt.

Klämda fingrar
Jörgen klämde båda händerna i körsbärsstegen samma dag som Jossan hade sin födelsedagsfest här hemma hos oss. Det blev akuten och lappa och laga. Som tur är var inget brutet, bara köttskador, på två olika fingrar, ett på vardera handen.

 

Vad kommer 2019

Aktier
Nytt mål satt, jag ska få minst 1300 kr i utdelning/månad i genomsnitt. OCH det gör ju absolut ingenting om jag slår mitt mål.

Kropp
Några kilon ska bort, precis som vanligt, hahaha.

Arbete
Ja, ett år till som ABBare ser det ut som just nu. Hitachiaffären går igenom (steg 1) 2020.

Världen
Vi har två resor bestämda, varav en bokad. Vår standardresa till GC. Samma vecka, samma hotell. Börjar känna mig som Igge! :-O Den andra resan ska bli en vin- och kortspelarresa till Champagne med M&P. Så himla nice.

Huset
Nytt kontor
Nytt gästrum

Trädgård
Sälja lekstugan
Köpa ny Aperitifgrupp

Och det är väl ungefär det vi orkar med skulle jag tro.

GOD FORTSÄTTNING! ❤

Bye, bye Iceland…

Tags

Home sweet home, Hot, Iceland, Summer

Up, up, up! In the middle of the night. The alarm was set to 02.30. Off to the airport and then back home to good old Sweden. The flight is around 3 hours from Reykjavik to Stockholm, so not that long flight.

All went really smooth and before we knew it we were back in the warm Swedish weather of 2018. Back to this summer every day temperature of 28-33 degrees C. Yes, every day!! It is really crazy.

Rushed to the backside of our house once we were home to check on the cucumbers and tomatoes that had been without any water for 6 whole days. The were not looking good but they were actually alive. AMAZING and a BIG surprise to me. I was sure they would be dead, gone and finito. So happy!

And so this Iceland trip has ended and I say the very same thing I always say:

Borta bra men hemma bäst!

A jeep tour out in the wilderness…

Tags

Arnarhvoll Center Hotel, Driving through water, Iceland, ISAK, ISAK 4x4, Jeep, Landmannalaugar, Landrover, Lupins, Mountains

Today was Jörgens day. His dream day. But the day did not start that well, we had a misunderstanding on the pickup spot. The girl in the Arnarhvoll Center Hotel reception said to stay at bus stop 5, but the pickup bus stopped at the hotel entrance. And even though the driver went into the reception, he was not informed that we were waiting at bus stop no 5. So we missed one hour of our tour dy right from the start. Not a great start when you have only a one day tour, it is important to be able to use every hour of that day.

We are on our way

ISAK 4×4

We came to the company ISAK 4×4 and there the car was waiting for us. At first they did not have the GPS ready for us, they wanted us to go the old-fashioned way, just by map, WHAAAAT????, but it was all sorted out eventually. And off we went…

Lupins, lupins and yet again lupins

The beautiful lupins are EVERYWHERE. Like oceans of lupins. I think it looks really great but what will happen in like 20 years. Will the lupins be exactly all over the place. I fear that is what will happen.

Our goal for the day trip is Landmannalaugar and I can just recommend you all to take this trip. It was magnificent.

Our route

 

Some serious Landrover happiness

The roads were great and sometimes we came to waters we had to cross. Real highlight sessions for Jörgen! 🙂

Beautiful mountain flowers

 

More flowers

 

So cute mountain flowers

 

Jörgen is checking the depth of the water

 

The Fjallur ku

 

The old mountain throw a snowball tradition

When I was small we (my mother, father, brother and me) often went to Norway for summer vacation. In two cars together with my aunt and uncle and my two cousins. These were great trips. And back at that time, whenever we came to snow (and you always come to snow in Norway, even though it is summer) we always stopped to play and throw some snow balls. So, this is tradition. Important stuff. So I forced Jörgen to stop here. 😉

Beautiful sceneries where ever we look

 

This is how you live at basecamp Landmannalaugar

All together, we had a wonderful day in the Landrover, a real adventure and I cannot do anything else but to recommend you do the same. Rent a 4 wheel drive kind of vehicle and head up in the mountains, if you ever visit Iceland. And ALL of you should drive, it is GREAT fun!

And I think you should visit Iceland. At least once in your lifetime.

Lazy day…

Tags

Eldfell, Eyjafjallajökull, Hard Rock Café, Ice cream, Lazy day, Nachos, Volcano, Volcano house

Today we had a whole day off. Resting. Relaxing. Reading. Chilling. Resting. Relaxing. Yea, you get the picture…

The Volcano House

The only thing we actually did, apart from relaxing, was that we went to the Iceland Volcano House. This was actually really interesting. We watched two movies, one was from the eruption from Eldfell in 1973. The eruption came without any warning, but luckily there had been really hard wind the day before so the complete fishing fleet was still in the harbor. Hence they were able to evacuate everybody from the Westman islands and they were then given temporary help with shelter during this time. The guide said that Sweden also helped and built a number of wooden houses and these wooden houses are still very popular, so they go for really high prices whenever they are sold.

The second movie was from the latest volcano outburst in Eyjafjallajökull, 2010. And yes, you all recognize that one. A lot of people got stuck all over the world, since all flights were cancelled for several days, due to the volcano ash cloud. People had to find alternative ways to get back home then. By train, bus, hitchhiking, boat? Yes, whatever vehicle they could find that still were able to transport people.

Finally some Mexican food

Then we went to Hard Rock Café for lunch, and OMG, that was good, as always.

Nachos El Grande, my favorite

And we also managed to squeeze down an ice cream as dessert. Super yummi!

BIG ice cream at Hard Rock Café

In the evening we went to the hotel restaurant. Jörgen had a very nice burger with french fries and I had a sea food soup that was heavenly delicious, with warm, gluten free bread. And then of course we had also one glass of wine each, not to forget.

So, you see, not that much happened this day. Food and movie time and complete relaxation. 😉

Time To “Tölta”…

Tags

Eldhestar, Håkan Juholt, Horse back riding, Iceland horses, Irish Coffee, Pub, Tölta, The Cadillac Band

Today it was Time To Tölta or as we say in ABB, TTT. All expressions that are even worth bothering about should have it’s own three letter shortening. That is ABB standard rule and regulation. 😉

Here we are again, the same procedure as every morning, standing at busstop number 5, waiting for the pickup.

The cowboys are ready

The Eldhestar ranch

Only a short ride from Reykjavik, around 30 minutes in the bus, we arrived to the farm Eldhestar. Once here, everything went very smooth. We got all the necessary gear like helmets, rain coats etc. Our guide was Kalle, a guy from Sweden, who has worked at the ranch every summer for the last five or six years ( I think). We were seven in our group, us four, then a couple from Las Vegas and then our guide, Kalle.

Soon Time To “Tölta”

The Icelandic horse has one or two extra paces (way of walking/running). It is called “tölta” in Swedish. So the fifth pace is “tölt” and the sixth pace is “flying tölt”, which means tölta but really fast. All our horses were very calm and relaxed. And Kalle told us to let them walk right behind one another. They are used to that and they do not get irritated, like other horses might. My horse was anxious to keep connected to the horse in front of him so he was very easy to get to “tölta”.

All are so happy thinking: I got the best horse!

Here we are, the whole Icelandic Riding Eldhestar Team. We had a really great day, I love going horseback riding. The funny thing is, we NEVER do it at home, in Sweden. But we close to ALWAYS do it on vacations. How come?? We could do it in Sweden as well. They even have Icelandic horses quite close to where we live, at Ängsö. At least they used to have tours there earlier (I googled it and the home page seem to be “gone”).

The Tölt Team

Our tour lasted for around 2,5 – 3 hours and then we got back again to the farm. No-one had fallen off and we were all very pleased with the tour.

Yeey, we survived the adventure

Strolling in the city and some pub crawling

The rest of the day we had nothing special planned. We booked a dinner in the hotel restaurant, which we later on cancelled.

You might think this is from The Muppet show, but it is just Rebecca and Jörgen

Since it is so chilly in Reykjavik you can any time, any day go visit a pub and have an Irish Coffee (as if an excuse really is needed to do that)!? 😉

Irish coffee, warm, strong and tasty

Next stop was at another bar/pub and there we had the happy hour red wine. Happy hour price was the same as in our hotel bar, 900 IK instead of 160 IK.

All of a sudden we felt hungry, looking at all the burgers the waitresses carried around in there, so we decided to stay for dinner. We cancelled the hotel dinner reservation and had a pub burger dinner experience. T’was GOOD. 🙂

Håkan Juholt and the Cadillac orchestra

Walking through town, back towards our hotel, there was this man that all of a sudden came out of a building where music where playing, asking us to please come in and listen to an old rock’n roll band. Some famous guy that had played in Elvis band was there. I told the guy he did not have to speak English, that we were from Sweden, so he switched to Swedish. He invited us to come in and listen for a while, no fee needed, so we joined. Then Jörgen said to me: You see who this is right? And I said, he looks familiar and Jörgen said: It is Håkan Juholt, former party leader of the Social Democratic Party. The Cadillac Band from Sweden were playing some good old rock’n roll music so we stayed for around half an hour. Very nice actually.

Ted and Rebecca leaving

This evening was Ted and Rebeccas last evening in Reykjavik, they were smarter than us and left after 4 nights, which means saving at least 8000 SEK which would have been the extra fee for the hotel only. Visiting Iceland is expensive, OMG, I could have bought some good old stocks for that amount of money! 😉 But we had a plan so we stayed two more nights in the hotel so we waved them off and then went to bed.

What the plan was? Well, just continue reading…

 

The Golden Circle…

Tags

Fish Company, Gullfoss, Strokkur, The Golden Circle, Thingvellir

Today was the day of Golden Circle. We had an early breakfast at the Arnarvholl Center Hotel, btw, the breakfast is OK, a 3 out of 5, but could easily be made a 4 with just a few improvements. A 5 is hard to accomplish, the restaurant is too tiny for that. These are the only things they would need to add:

• Brie
• Blue cheese
• Better salami, and served ALL morning, not only for the early guests
• Mini yoghurts
• Warm eggs
• Today’s surprise (7 different variants, then repeat)

But I need to praise them for their gluten free bread, like a french baguette. It was VERY tasty.

Þingvellir national park

I think The Golden Circle is one of the most popular tours on Ieland. First stop was Þingvellir national park, in English called Thingvellir. Þingvellir is associated with the Althing, the national parliament of Iceland. The Althing was established at Thingvellir in 930 AD. Sessions were held at this very location until 1798. So here you could actually hear the “wing flaps” of history (as we say in Sweden). 😉 In English “the wings of history”.

This stop was like walking in the middle of a huge cow herd. Cows (poeple) all over the place. You could just move if the other cows moved. Way to crowded for me. Our guide said that this morning they had 3 cruse ships in the Reykjavik harbor, which means A HUGE amount of extra tourists. Mainly Americans, I guess. He tried to re-plan our tour due to this, to be able to avoid main part of the people, busses, queues etc. I am very uncertain that he succeeded. :-O

Þingvellir national park

Strokkur, well, I have had better

Next stop was Strokkur, a geyser that evaporated quite often, so we got to see 2 or 3 bursts/outbreaks. But having seen the The Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, this was not that spectacular.

The geyser Strokkur evaporates every 6-10 minutes

Lupins and vikings = Iceland

The powerful waterfall Gullfoss

Since the geyser Strokkur did not impress me, but did successfully splash me, haha, I did not expect to much of the next stop, the Gullfoss waterfall. Well, that was a big mistake by me. Gullfoss was both powerful and magical. Not as huge as the Niagara of course, but anyway, this fall was amazing and well worth the walk down. If you get the chance, please go visit. It is a completely breath taking experience.

Gullfoss completely change character depending on your view spot

Cheering for our 30 years of marriage

After the tour we had a short stop in our rooms and then we met again in the hotel bar. The main reason for this trip is actually that both Ted & Rebecca and me & Jörgen celebrate 30 years of marriage in August 2018. We got married with just a weeks difference. T&R on August 20 and us on August 27. HURREY FOR US!!! 😀

Married for 30 years

Married for 30 years

 

 

 

 

 

Restaurant of the evening, the Fish Company

This night we visited the Fish Company, a cosy restaurant not far from our hotel.

Villa Lucia Pinot Grigio

Plaice with some nice garnish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Went to bed in reasonable time (as always) sine tomorrow is another tour day (as always). This time we will go horse back riding on those special kind of horses they have here on Iceland, named Icelandic horses (what, they are, what a surprise)!

Nighty night!

Blue Lagoon…

Tags

Blue lagoon, Concert hall, Essensia, Essensia restaurant, Harpa, Iceland, Island, Italian restaurant, Mud mask, Nordic light

Chilly. OMG, it is really chilly in Iceland.  One of our tour guides said to us that the joke of this summer is that “Summer is cancelled in Reykjavik”. 😉 But at least we did not have a lot of rain, only cold, cold weather and wind.

The wonderful Blue Lagoon

Here we are on our way to The Blue Lagoon, fully dressed with a lot of warm clothes, as you can see. So if you go to Iceland, BRING WARM CLOTHES!

Happy but cold

We took the offer which included a towel, a locker, a drink and a mud mask. Not sure what the price was, we also had transfer so it was a complete package offer.

The Blue Lagoon was really nice. A very large pool. There where a LOT of people there but that was no problem since the pool was so big. Nice and warm in the water and then freezing every time you needed to get something or go to the bathroom. We went over to the “mud mask bar” and got our masks, me and Rebecca. The guys are apparantly happy about their age, so they skipped the mask. But us ladies took a very thick layer of white mud and hoped for at least 10 years off. Luckily, the REAL bar was also in the water, so you did not have to leave the pool to get your drink. 🙂 We ordered three “sparkling” and a beer. And there we were, enjoying the water, Iceland, Blue Lagoon and sipping our drinks. Felt really good.

We stayed in the pool for around 1,5 hours and then we also had a stop at the café to get something to eat. I can put it this way: I’ve had better!!

The Lagoon Team

Me and Rebecca soon to be 10 years younger

The house of Nordic light

We lived right opposite the Reykjavik concert hall, a very special building. Also, when googling it now at home, I realize that it is named Harpa. The building is all made out of glass. During night time it shifted in different colors, I assume that it should represent the nordic light, and I think they succeeded. It looked like you would expect the nordic light to look. But then again, what do I know, I have only seen it in Västerås and that is far from the real thing.

Jörgen checking out the construction of The Reykjavik Concert Hall

A wonderful Italian restaurant in Reykjavik

In the evening we had booked a table at the Essensia restaurant.

Essensia restaurant ❤

The food there was DELICIOUS. OMG, I had a risotto and it was MAGICAL and the wine, Chianti Gouverno, was sooo good. The very best restaurant visit during the whole Icelandic trip, according to me. If you have the chance, GO VISIT! 🙂

Essensia seafood risotto

A delicious Chianti to go with the risotto

Off to Iceland…

Tags

Iceland, Island, Semester, Vacation

Today we started our Iceland adventure. We packed a LOT of warm clothes and then off we went. Norwegian Airlines from Stockholm to Reykjavik (I never know how to spell that).

Arnarvholl Center Hotel

Arrived to the Arnarvholl Center Hotel at around 17.45, threw our bags into the room and went straight to the bar to meet our friends, Ted & Rebecca. They started their journey from Gothenburg super early this morning and had already been on a whale watching tour. I have already been on two different whale watching tours, one in Boston and the other one somewhere else in the world. Two is enough for me. You just get to see the tail anyway. 😉

On the roof top of Arnarvholl Center Hotel

Bar time and great to meet with friends. A glass of rosé. Happy hour in the hotel from 16.00 – 18.00. Yeey, we just made it. Until we got the bill that is, the happy hour was only for the white and the red wine. And the beer, of course. So my glass of rosé was 1600 IK (Icelandic Krona) and the red and the white ones was 900 IK. 900 IK is approximately 80-85 SEK, which is the normal price for a non happy hour glass of the “house wine” in Sweden, so yes, Iceland is expensive. Very expensive. The hotel room was around 3000 SEK/night. And the room was super small. But nice and modern. But small.

First night we had dinner at Matur og Drykkur. OMG, the words in Icelandic are really spelled and pronounced the way us Swedes joke about it. Just take the Swedish word, shorten it and then put -ur at the end. Yep, there you go, you can speak Icelandic. 😉

A restaurant with a menu of Icelandic flavours

We had a really nice evening at Matur og Drykkur and we had some lovely food and wine. The menu was quit small = not that many dishes (just a clarification for you guys that right now was thinking menu measures), and typically Icelandic. You could even have horse steak (if you, as the waiter said, do not mind to eat your best friend).  😉 BTW, they have 70.000 horses on Iceland, yes, Iceland horses, their own special rase. No wild herds as in UK, all horses are domestic. They have also exported 220.000 horses so there are a lot of Icelandic horses around the world. A very nice and robust kind of horse.

36 hours of travelling…

Tags

Arlanda, Australia, Doha, Frozen, Qatar, Qatar Airways, Stockholm

Our first flight was a 14 hours flight from Melbourne to Doha. All went well and I entertained myself by looking at 3!!! movies:

• Frozen (I have just seen it once)
• Intern (a new film with Robert de Niro and Anne Hathaway, it was a good movie)
• Pitch Perfect (I have seen it once, but since it includes a LOT of singing it was no problem for me to see it one more time)

I guess I slept around 5-6 hours on that flight.

Doha airport
We came to Doha Airport, Qatar, on schedule and there we had to wait for 8 hours until our next flight. What an airport! It seemed brand new, they even had train in there, so silent, that went on a schedule but it was probably just test drivning since no persons were on the trains and the seats were still wrapped in plastic. 🙂

Some Doha Airport snacks and drinks

We relaxed, had some sparkling wine (of course, it is a daily habit by now) and a banana milkshake, twice and did some small shopping. I bought a vase in silver and rosé and Jossan bought a silver vase with white stones and a silver plate. Very beautiful things.

Qatar Airways
Our flight from Doha to Stockholm left on time. Qatar Airways are really reliable, not like Jet Star, we never saw a plane from Jet Star actually leave on schedule. They were always late. But Qatar Airways, so good. Not as fancy boarding cards as Etihad (they had boarding cards in black and gold, OMG) but excellent service, great condition on the airplanes and great structure and routines at the gate. They actually divided the gate seats into zones and you saw on your boarding card what zone to wait in. And then they boarded the plane in zone order, from the back to the front. Just great for a Swede to experience (Swedes like good structure and control).

When speaking about Qatar Airways and great, their website is also excellent, at least what I have seen of it. So easy to mange your booking through it. Good work!

Stockholm Arlanda
The flight to Stockholm went really smooth. I looked at one episode of Friends and then slept the rest of the trip. :-O

In Stockholm it was a freezing -13 degrees. Brrrrrrrr. But I love it. But it was freezing when coming from a lot warmer temperature. We missed the 19.30 bus, saw the back of it, and had to wait an hour for the next bus. Jossan and me had a hot dog each and time really went fast. I promised myself Not to sleep on the bus to Västerås. It only takes 1h 45m so it should not be a problem. I slept the whole trip, hahahahaha.

Robin picked us up at the bus station, so very nice of him. And great to see him again. I froze right into my bones, I know, not an English expression. 😀

We came home and Robin stayed for a while and chatted a lot with Jossan. I unpacked close to all my stuff, did some blogging, took a shower and went to bed at 02.30.

WE ARE ACTUALLY HOME!! 😀

Leaving Melbourne – Going home…

Tags

Australia, Dishonest driver, Dishonest taxi driver, Doha, Going home, Home sweet home, Melbourne, Silvertop, Silvertop Cab, Silvertop Taxi, Sweden, Taxi, Taxi driver, Windsor, Windsor hotel

Today is our last day in Australia. We are leaving and we are bringing our daughter back home. Feels great. It is always the same, it is good to be away exploring other countries but then it is SO GREAT to come back home. Home, Sweet home!!

Breakfast at The Windsor Hotel
We had breakfast at the hotel, since it was complementary. The breakfast surroundings was great, with nice, calm piano music flowing out the speakers. Very relaxing. The breakfast though was not the best we have ever had. They had gluten free toasts, nothing else. But they had cappuccino and that I do like. 😀

After breakfast we followed Jossan to the bank. Her landlord finally got home from her trip and was able to look for Jossans disc drive AND she found it. Wohoooooo. So she is going to send it to Sweden and therefore she needed to transfer the shipping fee to her. Perfect, everything works out.

To the hairdresser and the movie theatre
Then we went the big shopping centre, Melbourne Centre, to the hairdresser and Jossan got a haircut for only 28 dollars. That is really cheap. After that we went to the movies at 14.00 and looked at the movie Dad. It is a comedy and we had a few laughter. I would give it maybe 5.5 on a scale of 10. My plan was to have a glass of red wine at the movies (since you can do that here) but at this very movie we were not able to buy wine, buhuhuhuhuhu. My plan cracked!

Our Melbourne favorite, the City Wine Shop
When leaving the movie we felt for having some wine so we visited the City wine Shop, our favorite, one last time. There we had wine and cheese. Mmmmmmm, so very good.

Some good wine from The Wine Store, our favorite in Melbourne

A selection of cheese

And some very tasty gluten-free crackers

Taxi to the airport
Spent the last hours at the hotel, surfing, until 20.00. Then we took a taxi to the airport and this time the price was 54 dollars (we gave him 60). We talked to the concierge at the hotel about our first taxi trip in Melbourne on December 30, from the airport to the Hotel Windsor and told him that we had to pay 82 dollars and that the taxi driver actually stopped to get gas and soft drinks while we were still in the car. The concierge said to us that they have a HUGE problems with some dishonest taxi drivers, tricking Melbourne newcomers to pay a much higher price than normal. The taxi company name was Silvertop Cab. So if you use Silvertop Cabs in Melbourne, look out. All the drivers are not honest.

Our flight leaves from Melbourne to Doha at 23.55 so we spent a few hours at the airport, as well. Had Nasi Goreng, read, surfed and blogged and then we entered the airplane.

WE ARE GOING HOME!