Maybe in Oz

I've been supporting New Zealand as part of my job for almost seven years now and just finally travelled there for work a couple weeks before Christmas.  Normally I would have jumped at the chance to go, but we had our house electrical appointment scheduled for that week so I tried to get out of the trip.  Unfortunately, and fortunately, I couldn't and found myself meeting a coworker from the US there for a couple days in New Plymouth.   Auckland from the plane Auckland from the plane Phil and I had driven past New Plymouth while on vacation - enough to see the Mount Taranaki Volcano that stands out from the surrounding green fields.  A good way to get through jet lag is to go for a walk, so after meeting up with my coworker we took a short drive to the base of the volcano and had a nice walk along the base.  The top had been covered with clouds, but for a few brief minutes the clouds parted and we finally got to see the peak. The clouds finally pa...

I was fortunate to spend two weeks of June in Prague for work.  The Czech Republic hadn't been on our radar of places to visit, but when the opportunity came up, and considering we had to reschedule our vacation for this, we decided to make the most of it.  I flew over on the weekend and after the 14 hour flight to Dubai and then the 6 hour flight on to Prague was ready to explore.  A few coworkers and I took the train into town, walked up the hill to the castle, and had dinner by the river.  It was a good way to get oriented and start to understand how the city works. Moody Skies over Vltava River  Colorful buildings near Charles Bridge Czech beer My work has an office in the suburbs, so every day we would ride the train to and from work.  We went into the city a couple evenings during the week, and when Phil arrived on Thursday we went into Old Town for dinner.  We had a nice dinner outside on the cobblestones with a view of the Astronom...