Steve-H's VirtualTourist Home Page

CLICK ON THE WORLD MAP AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE AND TAKE A LOOK AT MY PICTURES & TRAVEL TIPS. YOU CAN SEE WHERE I'VE BEEN, FIND OUT WHAT I GOT UP TO AND FIND OUT ABOUT ALL THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE I'VE MET ON MY TRAVELS.

STEVES LATEST TRIP - NEW YEAR IN BRUHL, GERMANY - EXPECT PLENTY OF FESTIVE PICTURES

If you look in the bottom of your sock drawer and find loose change from at least thirty different currencies, then you, my friend, are a traveller indeed....mind you, the Euro has put a stop to this sort of collecting.

Remember, you can`t make a comeback if you haven`t been anywhere.

Check this out, it will change the way we travel by opening up the barriers caused by language and orientation.... http://www.xs2theworld.com
City maps to your phone and useful phrases to help you get around, it will display them phonetically for you and it also speaks the phrase for you too. Currently this useful little piece of software is limited by the small number of cities that it covers but I'm sure all this will change in the near future. If like me you can only remember "Hello" or "Thank You" or "Two beers please" in most languages then this will save you (and me) a lot of headaches.

What`s next for our intrepid traveller?...... I will be working hard, earning the money I need to feed the travel bug.
In August, I will be at the Bulldog Bash in Warwickshire as usual.
I hope to be racking up the miles on my trusty old Yamaha and visiting as many friends and places as I can, just as soon as I rebuild the damn thing and having done that I look forward to late summer and that's always the best time to visit France, I keep threatening to take friends so let's hope I can pull that off this year. They will have to meet me there as I plan to ride the 600 mile trip non stop in one day to maximise the amount of time I spend in the hammock under the trees. I did this last year and had a great time, the freedom I got from having my bike with me was a definite bonus.
A short hop to Ibiza could be on the cards and of course there is always the desire to return to Australia (especially Tasmania) and after last years short but sweet visit I'd like to see more of New Zealand, perhaps in the autumn of 2009.
While I'm waiting for all this to happen I can explore London where there is always something happening although I often don't seem to be able to get past my local - cheers!
LATER IN 2009....
Well it looks busy from here, plenty of work on the books to help my application to emigrate to Oz which should happen in September.
I'd like to take 3 weeks out to visit New Zealand and Australia again and I enjoyed my ride to the south of France so much that I will definitely be doing it again in 2009.
I'll spend as much time as I can on my bikes and try to get out of London more often than I did in 2008. I can't promise any of these things will happen, I've done them all before and posted plenty of tips & pictures somewhere on this site but I will try my best to enjoy myself and feed the travel bug.
I may return to Germany later in the year despite writing off my little van on my last visit a few months ago, I managed to get it out of the ditch, repaired it with the tools I had in the back and drove it home again (350 miles of very dodgy motoring) an adventure not worth repeating unless it's over a few beers - see my Bruhl pages to find out what happened.
A brief foray back into the music biz (my old job) will happen in late May, I'm going to treat this as a mini break from my regular work, I'll be touring the midlands for a short while.
Regular rides to the heart of Kent for parties and reunions with old friends are a constant feature of my life right now and I feel all the better for them. Roll on summer!

Why the face pulling and where were we? During our trip to Switzerland we decided to take the tourist train to the top of the Jungfrau ( the top of Europe ) but the weather was always against us. Fortunately we could see the mountain from our rooms, when it wasn't obscured by cloud, on the very last day of our holiday we awoke to see the peaks bathed in sunlight so off we went with all haste. After a few hours on the trains, enjoying the spectacular scenery, we made it to the Jungfraujoch via Lauterbrunnen and Kleine Scheidegg. At 3454 meters we were as far as we could go without a guide as the summit is actually 4158 meters, Rod was annoyed as he wanted to go to the summit but couldn't get a guide to take him. The route from the train to the plateau on the snow covered mountain is via tunnels of ice made from almost pure water, the glassy surfaces invited much touching and in places they were a bit small so i was rubbing against the walls as we made our way through the ice caves to the open air and despite the cold and lack of oxygen (run a few paces and you are out of breath) i did it all in one shirt and a pair of shorts, Rod of course looked like Scott of the Antarctic, Sheila just stood around looking cool.

My first trip of 2009 was to Bruhl in Germany for the new year celebrations and to visit friends, while there we went for a hike around a local nature reserve. It was freezing cold, cold enough for the lakes to ice over, so off we went and walked all over them, another first for me.

My 1978 Triumph Bonneville is proving reliable and economical, it's lighter than my big Yamaha and quite good at dealing with London traffic if you plan your braking carefully. It draws the sort of attention that Harley owners would give lefty for.

I put this here as it seems to sum up how i feel at times, are these people going home or going away? There is no light so full of hope as the dawn.

I still have plans to emmigrate to Oz so some of my time will be spent researching property and the job market, if there is anyone at VT who can offer advice about this ( Proper, been there, done that advice ) don`t hesitate to contact me.

The view from the top of Sydney harbour bridge in 2003, a fantastic view of a fantastic city. Take a look at my Australian pages to see what I got up to & all the wonderful people I met on my travels. Hopefully I will be going back to Australia in 2009, I'm really looking forward to that. It will be great to see all my friends again as I move around the country, Melbourne,Tasmania & Perth are all on my list, as is Dan's new pad just outside Sydney and a visit to Queensland to catch up with some old friends, John & Jan - watch this space!