"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

Holidays

In the starting chute for the 10K

A couple of weekends ago we went to Noosa. It’s our annual work trip where we enjoy some warmer weather, eat lots of good food and run in Runaway Noosa races. This year I planned to do the HM but forgot and when I remembered it was already sold out. I had to settle for the 10K which I don’t like doing because it starts so late it is always hot. As it turns out it was lucky because I had COVID a few weeks before and would not have been able to do the HM. G and his business partner had also had COVID (caught on a flight home from China we think and then passed on to me). So we all had pretty ordinary runs. Luckily the weekend is about more than just running. G and I did our favourite walk in the National Park, we had some excellent food. I also had a couple of naps.

Saturday afternoon after my nap I sat on the beach for a while doing nothing
Amazing rays and a giant Groko sand sculpture
Looking out over Alexandria Beach. It was super windy most of the weekend.

We also did what we often do while on holidays—plan our next holiday. If it’s a holiday with lots of down time and time to chat we often make future plans. While in Kangaroo Island we made plans to book a hike in New Zealand to celebrate our 30th anniversary. This time we booked the accommodation we need for our road trip to the Gold Coast Marathon weekend that is fast approaching. We’ll have three nights in Sydney and one night in Port Maquarie on the way up and three nights in Yamba on our way back to Sydney for the City to Surf.

Speaking of holidays we finally pulled the pin on our flights to the Berlin Marathon. From Australia we usually have to fly through either the Middle East or Asia to Europe. Unfortunately this time we had booked with Emirates (our first time) and since Dubai is currently on our government’s do not travel list and who knows when the war in Iran will end, we decided to book flights with another carrier. We wanted to start booking accommodation so we needed firm dates. First of all we confirmed that we were able to get most of our fare back from Emirates. Then G contacted Qantas to see what options they had and they offered us Melbourne-Perth-Rome for an extra $10,000 on top of what we had already paid. Ah … let me think … that would be a no. We ended up getting a good price flying Finnair, so we have to go through Helsinki then back to Frankfurt, but we fly Milan-Helsinki on the way out which is more convenient if G visits his clients in Italy. To get the cheap flight we also have a night in Singapore on the way and an extra few nights on the end of our trip. That means we are away for five weeks instead of four. It also means that we will spend the last weekend in Venice. Elisabeth’s recent trip to Venice reminded me how much I loved Venice so I’m not disappointed that we “had” to add this on to our trip.

Does travel and the down time involved find you making more travel plans?


Comments

10 responses to “Holidays”

  1. I like to think about my next vacation while on vacation but my husband firmly DOES NOT. Plus we travel so infrequently that we would be planning for so far off that it isn’t very practical. On our anniversary date night, we did talk about trying to do something as a family for spring break next year so hopefully we can make that happen. It’s tough though because spring break nearly always falls over a time that my husband can not be off work and I am not keen to take my kids out of school for vacation (I know many families do – it’s a you do you type of thing but I don’t like to make it appear that school is optional…).

    Your New Zealand Anniversary trip sounds amazing! A trip with hiking is my kind of trip! Phil and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage next May and I am really hoping we can go on a little hiking trip in June. Fingers crossed we pull that off.

    1. Oh no, that is a shame that you are not both on the same page. You guys are at a completely different stage in life to us. Now that the kids are out of the house and we are more financially secure, we can travel more frequently. Plus G travels for work, and since I work for his company, I usually just get our Finance manager to take over most of my work so I can go with him (we pay for my travel though). In Australia, we also have more paid holidays, which help (but not me because I work casual hours)

      I do love hiking holidays, being outdoors and having some good physical activity, often in beautiful setting really recharges the batteries.

  2. That’s sounds like a perfect holiday to me, Melissa. Runnning a race followed, then a hike with good food and then planning the next holidays!
    What’s happening on your trip to the Golf Coast Marathon? Is anyone of you running it?

    The interruption of the Dubai hub has brought a lot of headache to many travellers here in South Africa too. But hey, if it means getting a stay in Venice out of the alternative route, it isn’t so bad after all!

    Have you booked your accommodation in Berlin already?

    1. G,S and I are running in the Gold Coast HM on Saturday, then we’ll watch the marathon go past on Sunday.

      We are going to Berlin with a Travelling Fit so they look after everything.

  3. I can’t wait to live vicariously through you as you visit Venice.

    It wasn’t a spot I ever felt particularly drawn to visit but now that we’ve been… I’d love to go back. It was incredible. A relaxed vibe, so many charming little alleys and quaint bridges every few minutes. A very unique experience, for sure.

    At this point, we have zero future trips planned which makes me a bit sad?!

    1. We have seen a lot of the major sites, I even went to the mass at St. Mark’s and saw the golden mosaics all lit up, so this would be an eating, wandering type weekend, although I want to go out to Torcello this time. We will also have a few days at Lake Garda.

  4. Oh so it all takes shape. How exciting.
    Flight prices are ridiculous these days. Don’t ask what we had to spend for the funeral trip to the Dominican. Sigh.
    I am happy for you to have to add a stop in Venice.

    1. We are fortunate. I’ll email you soon re Berlin and catching up.

  5. Ah, I see I’m going to have to live my running life through you, since I can’t run (at least until after I have a knee replacement… and get a surgeon/physio to agree I’m allowed to run again).

    Next time you come for the Noosa event we should catch up for a cuppa or something! Super hard agree with you on the 10k starting so late. I hate it last time I did it (I never ended up doing the HM there though). I love the City 2 Surf, but due to the tendencies of going out the night before for dinner with friends that we’ve all travelled from around Australia…I’ve never actually run that race entirely sober. Oops.

    The Berlin trip would be amazing. Travelling Fit do some incredible events, have a wonderful time! I’ll definitely be keenly reading all the posts and cheering you on.

  6. I live (travel) vicariously through you – I feel like most of my travel is visiting home (Germany) and my husband is not a big travel guy, so it’s hard to get him to do anything. (Sad face.) I am super-excited for you that you’re heading back to Europe!

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