Christmas photo - Father Christmas on a bicycle in Munich

Shh - don’t tell, but I saw Father Christmas last week on his way to work. He was cycling down Residenzstrasse in Munich and I had to be quick with the camera or I would have missed him.

I guess Father Christmas has to get to work like everyone else, and why shouldn’t it be on a bicycle? It must be such a bother to get those reindeer all harnessed up and ready to go, it’s hardly surprising that he only does it on Christmas eve. The rest of the time, when you have to pop down to the elf factory to see how the Christmas presents are coming along, I suppose the bike is much more convenient.

If he’d lingered I might have had time to give him my Christmas wish list, with the I-phone (so much easier for all the Tweets) and the new Panasonic HD video camera (for super quality videos). But he was just too quick for me, so I’ll have to hope my husband took the hint.

Here’s wishing that your Christmas will be all that you hope for!

Munich Resources

• We stayed in Munich at Hotel Falkenturm, a comfortable, 2 star hotel which is well-located for sightseeing
• The guidebook I used on this trip was the pocket sized Dorling Kindersley, Eyewitness Top 10 guide to Munich, which I found ideal for sightseeing if you are there for a short time.
• Official Munich Tourism Website

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Photo Friday - the mystery of the blue bike in Bristol

Last week I passed a blue bike leaning against some railings outside the University in Bristol. Luckily I had my camera with me. Half of me said, “you’re late for work, come back and photograph it later”, the blogger in me said “Snap it now, or the opportunity may be gone later”.

What was the blue bike doing there? My first thought, was it didn’t seem very road worthy that it was a variation on the ghost bikes that are left to commemorate someone who has died while riding them - read my article about the ghost bikes here.

Then I thought perhaps it was a student bike and someone had thought it was a great idea to get out the paint pot and cover it with blue paint after they’d had a few too many cheap beers in the pubs of Bristol.

Then I noticed the sign beside it that said “Do not chain bikes to these railings” and throught someone had a sense of humour and defiance against the university authorities, and found any old bike to chain there in protest.

Anyway, I took my shot and hurried on to work. When I passed back a couple of days later, the bike had gone. So the mystery remains - What stories do you make up about the strange things you see as you go about your daily lives?

Mystery revealed

Thanks to Chris Hutt from for sending me the answer to this mystery in a link to this post (It’s good to find someone in Bristol who actually reads my posts!) In this post, I learned that the sky blue bikes are part of a project by Students to tackle Social Problems - read about it here.

This photo is pasted as part of Photo Friday over at Delicious Baby - check out all the other photo Fridays here

My Istria Travel Diary - Podcast Episode 2

In my Podcast Edisode 2, I’m taking you to Istria in Croatia with an audio diary of the four days I spent there with my family. You’ll hear about the Plava Laguna resort where we stayed, the cycling, swimming and sailing that’s available in this area as well as the fortified medieval hill towns and old coastal towns of Porec and Rovinj which we explored and the local specialities such as truffles and seafood.

To download Istria Travel Diary podcast, right click here 19 min [mp3]

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If you enjoy this podcast, do take a look at my other articles, photos and videos for more detail of the things we saw. There’s so much to enjoy in Istria and as a self-contained region it seems to have something for everything, whether it’s swimming, sport, relaxation, heritage or the gourmet experience. I hope you also enjoy the slide show below that’s designed to accompany the podcast and covers the places I talk about in the podcast.

Show notes

Istria Tourism website
Istria Gourmet website
Istria Bike website
All my photos of Istria on Flickr
Read all my Istria articles
Video of Plava Laguna Resort
To subscribe to all my podcasts in ITunes click here

- Music on this podcast was Venus as a girl by Andy Mckee on Music Alley
- I was hosted on this 4 day trip by the Istrian Tourist board to blog about the things I saw in Istria

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