Saturday 14th August

After a bad nights sleep (time zones were taking their toll) we had a late breakfast and caught then bus into the city. People very helpful. A man showed us a day pass so we have been in and out to the city twice.
Just after arriving in town we had a phone call from Kath and Sam saying that Sam had proposed. What a great way for us to start the day. Very exciting, and no more traveling next year – apart from the trip we have already planned, oh then there’s the trip to Queensland and …. We are very happy and excited for them.

We wandered around the centre of town and through the local Saturday markets. Saw what we thought were the typical European style flats, house and shops. Visited the local cathedral but we couldn’t actually go in as Mass was in progress – we will go back there tonight at 6pm. Went to mass. May have been a high mass as we had lots of incense and singing. The altar servers all wore the red long things with white surplices. The cathedral dates back to 780 and little of it was damaged during the war. Most others buildings were destroyed but have been rebuilt using old postcards. A very pretty city. People live in the city and lots of flower boxes everywhere. We are very close to the city with the bus stop straight out front.

Today the hotel sponsored some sort of sports event and there were people doing a type of absailing down the 24 storeys of the hotel.

Once again we tried to do an email to congratulate Kath and Sam on their engagement but the email here is not working properly.