29 - 31/10/2010

29/10/2010 ....

The train took us to Visp where we changed to the last leg up the Alps, it took bout an hour and had some of the most beautiful scenery I had ever seen but what was really amazing was that as we got higher there was snow. The higher we got the more snow there was, we certainly weren’t expecting this, as the travel guide had said there would be snow on the top of the Alps.

We arrived in Zermatt with the worst map for directions to get to our hotel ever, so seeing the tourist office was closed for another ½ hour we went & bought supplies to await there opening. Once open, we got directions & a short walk found us at the hotel – Le Mazot. There wasn’t anyone there, but a phone directed us to dial 4, which I did & a lovely gentleman told us we were in room 4 & he would see us for breakfast in the morning, strange. Room 4 was great, full bathroom, TV, but best of all we had the biggest balcony of the hotel & it had snow on it, so we were set, an esky on our verandah. We also had the perfect view of the Matterhorn unfortunately with a crane disturbing the view, but still impressive.

We were told by Pete in Paris that it always snows or rains in Switzerland but it is never fine, how wrong could he be, we sat on our balcony admiring the full height of the Matterhorn, with sunnies & hats on and only a t shirt, it was so lovely to enjoy some heat after 2 weeks of cold.

As we sat on the balcony the bell tower went off & we had to laugh, as it chimed the first 3 bars of ‘Three Blind Mice”  -  so European. After enjoying a couple of drinks we had to find somewhere to wash our clothes, we hadn’t washed since London. So we went for a walk, and heard a guy that was obviously a shop owner talking in English, so we went across and he directed us to the appropriate place. She washed ALL our clothes in 3 hours, and we were out of pocket $50, but the best $50 we spent the whole trip, it as great to finally have clean clothes.

We then went for a walk around the small village & realised very quickly that this was yet another tourist mecca, or in our terms a tourist rip off, but to sit on enjoy such an amazing view we weren’t the slightest bit concerned. We found a reasonably priced, if not still expensive restaurant & had Chicken Snitzel & Apple strudel for dinner.

Being primarily a skiing village there really wasn’t a lot to do, so we made our way back for the night.

30/10/2010

The morning was nice & slow, with breaky provided, the typical European breakfast of rolls, bread, cereal, ham, cheese, coffee & juice. We then headed out & booked our train tickets for the following day to Florence. That organised we headed to the other station for the ride up the Matterhorn on the Goltengatz train. Yep, right, $70 each return, that made me laugh, as if we would want a one way ticket to the top. Considering the weather had turned really foul and it was unlikely that we would have had much of a view anyway along with the exorbitant price, we opted not to do this attraction, so headed for the Matterhorn museum, which didn’t open till 2 pm, well that is Zermatt, if you don’t ride the Goltengatz, and don’t see the museum there isn’t anything else to do, except sit & look at the Matterhorn.

We wandered around a bit more and came upon a DVD rental store, so hired some DVDs & spent the day basically watching movies. It was great, very relaxing and as I said to Marty if we were down the coast we would spend days like this doing nothing.

We had dinner that night at an Italian restaurant – 2 glasses of wine each, small pasta for me & normal size for Marty, & I had Tiramisu, for the grand total of $75. But hey it was fantastic – probably the best meal we have had so far, bar the Beef & Ale pie in London.

On our return to the hotel, I rang reception to tell them we needed to pay as we were checking out early in the morning, she just took my credit card details & kindly informed us that daylight saving stopped that night, so we had to wind our clocks back an hour. So I did, and set the alarm for 6am and that is where the fun started.

31/10/2010

I was awake at 2.30 am, so read for a while & then eventually managed to get back to sleep, confident that we had the right time & the right alarm time set.

Then Marty wakes me & says that his clock says 8, which makes it 7, but my clock says 6, so who knows what time it was, but we knew we had to get going quickly, so we packed, dressed & walked very quickly to the train station, with about 15 minutes to spare, not bad seeing we only had 39 minutes to get from the hotel to the station, fortunately it was only a short walk.

The first leg took us to Brig, where we changed for the SBB train to Milan, and had the best coffee, it is obviously Italian, an espresso & much nicer drunk black, I think I am going to be converted to a proper coffee drinker after this trip.

Next leg was from Milan to Florence, once again very comfortable train, and only a short 1 ½ hour journey. The weather however was not looking good. I had written down detailed instructions on how to get from the station to our B&B by bus, but when we walked out of the station and were encountered by hundreds of people & cars & buses, and its was raining, we opted for a cab.

This B&B is family run by a young couple. Their parents live ground floor, our room is on the 1^st and they live in the rest of the place. It is actually a huge property by European standards.  The room is gorgeous with a long entry with single bed, lovely room and ensuite. Elena our host is especially nice, gave us all the info on how to get around and where to go etc. So we once again dropped off our stuff & headed out for supplies. It was much easier to start with, to walk as that way we get our bearings, and eventually after memorising land marks, found a little shopping area with ATM’s. Now you would think it easy but we went to 3 different ATM’s & tried both our cards but they kept refusing us money.

So we went to a shop to see if they took cards – no – but he advised us to go to the Post Office ATM, which we did & it worked.  So back to the shop & made our purchases, then back to the bus stop, oops forgot cigarettes, so Marty went back to the shop, to find that no tobacconists were open today or tomorrow, but we could get smokes from the automatic dispensers, if we had an Italian over 18 card. Now this is getting challenging, so we hijacked a guy at the machine & he was happy to use his card for us.

We then caught the bus back to our rooms, had a couple of drinks etc, then headed out for dinner. We walked once again, in the rain, back to the same area, and found a lovely looking Italian restaurant, but they didn’t start serving till 7.30, so we kept walking and came upon & bar, had a drink in there while listening to Pavarotti on his TV, then back to the restaurant.

We knew we were onto something good, because as soon as it opened the locals piled in. And was it good, the best pizza I have ever eaten, and 1 litre of nice wine for only 20 euro. We then tried to catch a bus home but being Sunday night it seemed they weren’t going to run too frequently so we hiked it back on foot. No mean feet as it was up hill all the way. 


Unfortunately tomorrow is a public holiday but regardless, most of the attractions are closed on Mondays anyway.

25 -29/10/2010

25/10/2010

We arrived in Paris at Gare de Noord, one of the major stations in Paris & found our way very easily to the B&B, it was only a few hundred metres away. However, we had to punch in a code to open a massive great big door that led us into the courtyard, and then we couldn’t find how to get up, but eventually found the buzzer that opened the door into the building, and then were met by Pete, our host. We had a beautiful room but unfortunately no balcony & no ensuite, I think we were spoilt in Amsterdam.

After dropping our bags off, we headed back to Gard de Noord & booked our next leg onto Montreux. On the way back we stopped at a café for a drink. Now you have realise this was our first minute/hour/day in Paris & we knew it was going to be expensive, everywhere you look there are little cafes with chairs & tables lined up outside, so we sat & Marty asked for a large beer – what he got was a 1 litre mug of beer (and we had forgotten the camera) & I had a scotch. Because I had asked for a scotch, then ice & then coke, when we went to pay the bill we found out that you pay for everything, the glass, the ice, the scotch & the coke so the total came to 32 euro = $40. The one & only large beer Marty I am sure will ask for.

We returned to our room to have a rest as we were both a bit exhausted from the early start & travelling, I had a snooze & Marty slept in the chair.

When we woke it was time for dinner & Pete had a small book that listed cheap eats in Paris, so we managed to find one near by that looked good. We walked there and here again was another café. Paris has very limited space but millions of people, so to accommodate everyone they crowd as many people into restaurants as possible. We were seated, then given the menu, of which we couldn’t understand anything. The young waitress sort of helped us out by trying to explain in bad English, but we winged it and ordered something. Marty ended up with beef patty with an egg on top & I got Comfit of Duck & chips. They are not big on salad or vegies in Europe.

By this time it was really late, so headed home to get ready for the next day.

26/10/2010

We were up early & headed off to find Paris’s version of The Big Red Bus – Cars le Rouge, it was a long walk to the end of our street Rue La Fayette & we sort of had an idea of where to go but got lost, then stumbled on the bus stop by luck.

We were off – my god, every single corner you turn in Paris is another massive building, and with each look I would gasp in awe. The Palaces, The Louvre, The Arch de Triomphe, Museums, Squares, Bridges, and not to forget the Eiffel Tower, which although is the symbol of Paris, the city has so much that without the tower it would still be a memorable place.

We stopped off at the Arch & would have walked up it but unfortunately it was closed that day, so back on the bus & I had forgotten to charge the camera so ran out of camera for the day.

Next we got off at the Trocadero, this has 2 large museums that border a square that look over the gardens that lead to the Eiffel tower. Strangely I always thought the tower was silver, but its actually bronze. An amazing site.

We got back on the bus & went down to the base of the tower & then walked through the Champ de Mars to the Military Palace.

Next stop was Notre Dame, we had a walk through this massive massive structure and saw huge leadlighting. It was actually free to enter Notre Dame – must be the only free thing in Paris.

We stopped at a café and had French Onion soup – yummy, the French version comes with toasted bread & parmesan on top.

The complete tour also took us past the Musee de Louvre, the largest museum in the world, so that was a must to see.

We went back to our room, after a long walk and some shopping, and got ready to go out for the show. 

Pete then told us that he had put us in the wrong room, so we moved to a room with a balcony, this was much better to be able to just open the verandah doors to have a smoke, but especially to be able to see the city and how busy it is. The street we were on Rue La Fayette was mostly a carpark because of the road works, and they love their horns & sirens. Not that any emergency vehicle could get anywhere in a hurry as there wasn’t anywhere for the cars to move out of there way.

Marty is always more comfortable leaving early for appointments or transport bookings & I have learnt that this is a good move, so we headed off early to get to the place to meet the bus tour. Pete had advised us to walk up Magdelan Boulevard & catch bus 42 to the Rue De Rivoli, so off we walked & walked, and didn’t find bus 42, so got a cab, and I am sure we circumnavigated Pairs, but got there eventually. We were very early so found a Chinese restaurant (only because it was cheap) and had dinner.

Then onto the bus for the Illuminations Tour, basically a closed in bus tour of Paris at night & I must admit it was especially good to see Avenue des Champs-Elysees & the Eiffel Tower sprinkling with lights. Marty almost missed it as he had fallen asleep beside me.

We were then driven to Moulin Rouge, where we were ushered in along with 1000 other people to our table & free glass of champagne. We had shocking seats, & couldn’t really see much well at all, but fortunately a couple that were on a really good seat behind us left & we asked if we could sit at the now empty table. This gave us a perfect view of the show. We asked to buy & drink & was provided with a poor bottle of Chablis, and then given the bill – 60 euro!!!!!! Nearly $75, and to top it off the show wasn’t all that good. The juggler & the ventriloquist were excellent but the dance show was more like the happy lucky wish show we saw in Thailand. Oh well that was an expensive night. We eventually got back to our room & to bed at 2am. For me because I woke at 4.30 am it was nearly 22 hours awake.

27/10/2010

But not to be slowed, we were up again the next morning at 8.30 breakfast & off again. I had managed to book our tickets the night before for the Eiffel Tower, but stuffed up and ended up booking 4 tickets instead of 2 (this place was getting beyond a joke money wise), so thought I would offer the other 2 tickets to someone else staying at the B&B but unfortunately they had all been.

We headed off to catch the Cars le Rouge again, stopped at the Arc de Triomphe & bought tickets to climb it, then back on the bus to meet our booked time at the tower, this was stressful on its own, because for some reason the traffic was horrendous, but we made it to the Trocadero again & walked down to the tower. We walked along the massive queue to offer people the extra 2 tickets, but understandably everyone thought we must have been running some sort of scam because no one took up our offer of 2 free tickets.

The other bit of interesting info was that I booked the tickets on line & they sent the ticket to my iPhone and at the tower they just scan the bar code off the iPhone – love my phone.

We met an American couple and chatted with them for a while and he had travelled the world as the CEO of the USA gymnastic team, nice guy & I felt like I had met a celebrity as the American gymnastic team is quite famous & I have always loved watching them at the Olympics.

So we did the full ride up to the top of the tower & took lots of photos, then back down, back on to the bus & off to the Louvre, a bit hungry by this time so found a café & had French Onion soup again, then bought tickets for the Louvre. We probably did the fastest tour of the Louvre in its history because we went straight to the Mona Lisa, fought the crowds to get some pictures & then found our way out again. Once again we weren’t impressed with the hundreds of pictures of Christ &/or Mary, or the sculptures that we saw on the way to the Mona Lisa so were happy with our decision to just see her.

We then got back on the bus & made our way back to the Arc, and got straight in to climb to the top, it was wonderful to be able to see The Arc from the Tower & then visa versa. When we got down from the Arc, they were performing the re igniting of the flame of the Unknown Soldier so watched that for a while.

While up the top of the Arc I located a Metro station, so instead of getting back on the bus and having a 2-hour trip back to our rooms we decided to brave the underground. It ended up being a lot easier than we thought, but took us to a station that was near Gare de Noord, & poor Marty was totally disorientated. Its amazing that we always manage to have one of us that knows where to go when the other one is totally lost.

Once again another huge day, it doesn’t sound like much but it takes quite a while to get around in Paris & to see each attraction takes a coupek of hours, so by the time we got back to our room it was 8 pm. We were too tired for a meal out so managed to find a takeaway salad & roll for dinner, and a chocolate éclair!

We packed as we had an early start in the morning.

28/10/2010

Marty wanted to be Gare de Noord by 6.30 am & we made it, & lucky he planned it all to be early. We managed to operate the ticket machines (no people serving at the ticket counters this early) & find our way to the right station to be met with thousands of people waiting and no idea which direction to go in, so when in doubt – ask. I went along the train till we found someone that understood us & told us this was the correct train, but alas all good plans go astray. Paris had been hit with strikes all over the place because of the raising of he retirement age, and there we were standing on our train to get to Gare de Lyon to catch our train to Montreaux, when nope sorry, this train not going anywhere.

Fortunately the guy that had told us it was the correct train was also going to Gare de Lyon, so he offered for us to follow him. 30 minutes later after a slow jog, up & down stairs, through corridors & gates & down & few more stairs & a couple of train changes we made it to Gare de Lyon. We couldn’t thank the very kind man enough for his help.

Marty likes to do things the safe way, he wanted to catch a taxi to Gare de Lyon, but for me that is too easy, no challenge & too expensive. So after that little adventure, he said that from now on he is catching a cab, if I want to catch the train/bus/camel/air balloon I can go by myself.  J

So I am now on the train to Montreux, via Lausanne, and I have agreed to catch a taxi to the Hotel on arrival, only because I haven’t been able to work out public transport from the train station.

We arrived at Lausanne and changed trains with out any drama, but one thing we noticed at all these stations is that smoking (otherwise known as defume) is allowed on the station and they have a special room for the non smokers to sit in. Ha Ha, had to laugh at that and how all the anti smoking campaigners would be up in arms in Aus.

When we got to Montreux, we bought our tickets for the next day to Zermatt, and then caught a cab to the hotel.  This gave Marty an idea of why I don’t like to use cabs to get to & from places and would much rather use public transport. The hotel was approx 1 km from the train station and the taxis charged us over $10 to take us that short distance. Maybe it was so expensive because it was a Mercedes.

Anyway we couldn’t check in at the Hotel, we had to traipse across the road to the much more glamorous Royal Paradise & check in, then make our way back to the hotel. Not a bad room, at least it had an ensuite. But once again, no balcony, it did however have a large window that opened onto a ledge. So when we wanted a smoke we perched ourselves out on the ledge & laughed ourselves silly at how odd we must have looked.

We went for a walk to suss out the place & discovered that it was horrendously expensive & there was no way we were going to eat at any café’s or restaurants, so we found the local grocers & bought ourselves a French bread stick, ham & cheese, and croissants & OJ for breakfast. We decided at this point that we would use Montreux for some well-needed R&R. We had been on the go non stop since leaving Australia and thought at about the half way mark we deserved a rest.

So back to our room & we watched a couple of movies on my laptop.

29/10/2010

We had a really good nights sleep, then I had the luxury of washing AND blow-drying my hair. I had been able to wash it in other places but not blow-dry it and for about 3 days I didn’t even brush it as I had lost my brush, so just went a la naturale.

The other problem we have had is laundry. We managed to find a Laundromat in London but haven’t seen one since, so have been hand washing the smalls and just rotating the other clothes. We are hoping to find a Laundromat in Zermat.

We had our breaky of croissants with ham & cheese & OJ, then made our way over to the Royal Paradise, used their free internet, then checked out and made our way to the station – by foot this time. 

Amsterdam to Paris

Last night we went for a stroll through the Red Light District, this required us to catch a bus not a tram, but it was a good practice run for us as this was the bus we had to catch to get to Central Station in the morning.

The district is a maze of lots of little streets, with heaps of restaurants and shops intermingled with tall windows surrounded by red lights, and guess what, there are scantily clad women in the windows. Behind them is their workroom with workbench and in one I saw stains all over the sheets. Marty commented that it couldn’t be what I thought it was because they would have to use condoms, but I reminded him that we weren’t in Australia anymore and that may not be the law over here.

We stopped in for a drink at a local and Marty didn’t notice the bar tender wash his used glass in a trough of water before filling it with beer. Of course once he had finished the beer & I told him, we quickly left that one.

We stopped for a piece of pizza, yuk, worst pizza I have ever tasted, couldn’t eat it. Then we wandered past a massage shop, and it looked like a massage place not the other kind. So I stopped in for a shoulder massage while Marty found a cleaner establishment to have a hopefully untainted beer. The massage was very good done by an Asian woman, but unlike Asia where you pay about $5, this cost 20 Euro (about $25), but what the heck, we are on holidays.

This morning we were up really early, packed & cleaned up and made our way in the dark, to the Train Station. I had booked & paid for this leg of our trip a few months ago so was feeling very pleased with myself that I was so organised. Well that got shot out of the water. When I went to the counter to obtain our etickets, it turned out that we could only get those tickets from Brussels. Well there was $166 down the drain. Oh well, we had to get to Paris, so paid 263 euro (about $328) to get another 2 seats. We had to change trains in Brussels, so would have liked to have had the time to go and abuse someone for the stuff up, but only had 15 minutes between trains.

Its always stressful having to find platforms & trains in a country where everything is in another language, but we rush around like mad things till we find what we need, then take a big breath and relax when we have made it safely onto our next leg. I will say though, that even though they speak another language, most people speak English & everything is announced in Dutch and English & even sometimes in French. They are not the friendliest people but they are all willing to help when asked.

So here I am on the train from Brussels to Paris, updating my diary.  Looking forward to meeting the 2 gay blokes that run our next B&B called fittingly ‘A Room In Paris”. This train is certainly a new experience, more like a plane ride. Big seats, drop down table, power point to use my laptop, and a bar! What more could one ask for when travelling between countries. Supposed to have free WiFi too but as yet I haven’t been able to access it.

Amsterdam

We had a lot of fun on arrival watching the bird life in the canal in our back yard. So we filmed a segment of these unusual birds walking on water, and the huge seagulls while we fed them. The little black ones don’t quack, they toot. So funny.

This morning we were a bit late getting up, but headed out about 9.30.  We had planned the Van Gogh Museum, the Rembrandt House & the House of Bols. We caught a couple of trams to the Van Gogh Museum and joined the queue. This was 3 stories of paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Israel and various other famous artists. Unfortunately we weren’t impressed with the Van Gogh’s but found a painting by Izreal that we just adored. Not bad, that we found one painting in the whole gallery that we liked.  Below is the link if you are interested.

http://www.thuisinbrabant.nl/beeld/verhalen/_800/93433_israelsb.jpg

After we left the museum, we walked across the road to the ‘House of Bols’.  Bols makes liqueurs, and has done for over 400 years in Amsterdam, we had a tour and tried a cocktail and a couple of shots, I tried the weirdest one of course, the Natural Yoghurt, and it is just so wrong, alcohol flavoured yoghurt – bizarre.

We decided not to go to the Rembrandt House as one cultural event in one day is enough, so made our way back to our rooms and I caught up on my diary & Marty watched some tele.

Crossing the road in this place is even more bizarre than Asia, because they have so many bikes, they have bike ways, so to cross the road you have to cross over the bike path, then the car track, then the tram track, another tram track, a car track & another bike track to get to the other side. AND they are on the wrong side of the road, so it is challenging to say the least.

On our way home this arvy we noticed pink flamingos. We weren’t sure if they were real or not so hopped off the tram & sure enough they were real Pink Flamingos.

We were up early again to get to the sights as we have heard that the crowds really roll in around lunchtime.  The tram stop was right outside the B&B so we rugged up and waited for No 14 tram. Tina had said that if we get on this one, the tram driver will tell us when we arrive at the Anne Frank Museum, so we sat patiently on the tram while we went for a 30 minute trip to the end of the line, only to find out that that is one attraction they don’t mention on their announcements. We had a laugh and got back on to retrace our steps to find the museum, this time we had the conductor clued up and she told us where to get off.

The queue was relatively short so we were in after only a 20-minute wait. I had read this story as a youngen and always remembered how touching the story was, Marty however had never read it, but said at the end of the tour he was almost in tears.  When we left, it was raining so bought a couple of umbrellas & a new beanie for me; mine just wasn’t covering the ears well enough. We made our way to the Heineken Brewery and this time there was no queue.  We had a great tour, it is very comprehensive but I would say that the XXXX brewery tour at home is just as good.

We came out of that tour & were right in front of the Canal Cruise office, so bought tickets & jumped straight onto a ferry & spent the next 1 ½ hours touring round the canals. Amazing, amazing place, there are buildings still standing from the 17^th Century and some that are on an incredible lean. Cars are parked all along the canal edges, they have to be really good at parking otherwise they end up in the canal, which apparently happens quite a lot. At one stretch there is an iron railing along the edge, apparently this was put up by an insurance company that got sick of paying to fish cars out of the canal. They dump everything in the canals, including washing machines, cars, shopping trolleys & the city spends quite a bit of money cleaning the canals of all this stuff.

After we finished our cruise, we caught a tram back to the room for a quick relax then out again to find a restaurant that Tina had suggested. We were getting good at working out the trams by now, get a 10 or 14 to Dam square, then get on a 24 to the restaurant district. We had a bit of trouble finding it but it was worth the effort, this was an Indonesian Restaurant and Tina had suggested we try the ‘rijsttafel”, otherwise known as Rice Taffal. It was absolutely delicious, a first for both of us.

On the way to the restaurant we had seen a ‘Smokey Café’ and it wasn’t hard to work out what it was, so we stopped in and participated in the local joint smoking. Marty got a ‘White Widow” and it was mild enough for me to not make me too stoned, but strong enough for him to get a real buzz, and for only 15 euro.

22/10/2010

We didn’t expect a ship almost as big as the Pacific Sun when I booked this leg of the trip, but here we were boarding a huge ‘ferry’, we went straight to our room with 2 beds, a nice big one for Marty & a single above for me, complete with ensuite.

We dropped our bags and made our way to the bar and smoking area, oh how civilised.

A couple of ales/wines later and we were ready for bed, although only a short trip it was good to be able to sleep comfortably for the crossing of the English Chanel.  On waking early this morning we went to the restaurant and had a lovely cooked breakfast (included in the price), then packed & made our way off the boat, straight across to the train station, where the train was patiently waiting for us.

Our journey from Paddington included

·      Train to Liverpool Station

·      Change to National rail to Harwich International

·      Boat/ferry/ship across the Englsih Chanel

·      Train from Hoek Van Holland to Rotterdam CS

·      Change trains to Amsterdam CS

Once again I am writing this on the train from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, there is so much to do & so much to see that I have little time to keep a diary, so take the opportunity while in transit.

We arrived here in Holland at 7.30 and it was still dark, the sun didn’t rise till 8.30.  At the end of each day/evening we are usually exhausted & foot sore, but I feel pumped all the time with the excitement of seeing so many different things & places.

We caught 2 trains & a cab and made it to our new B&B, this one is awesome, a huge room with lounge, fully stocked kitchen, bathroom complete with spa, which I have already used and the back door leads out onto a garden that then leads down to the canal. Across the canal is one of the last remaining original windmills. Our host Tina is from the USA & very pleasant and informative. We had bought a 3 day public transport pass at the train station on our arrival so had all the gaff on how to get around.

The room hadn’t been cleaned yet, so we left for a walk and a drink, loaded up on supplies then returned feeling we just couldn’t  keep going today. So we both had a snooze then had our dinner of bread roll with ham & cheese, how Mediterranean. Tomorrow we are off on another full day.  


I just need to add this little titbit for when my memory fails me, we were in the local grocery store getting supplies & we were looking at cheeses, suddenly Marty turned and said “oh Pilsener”, it took me a couple of seconds to realise that he had just wafted off in the direction of the beer, totally oblivious to the fact that we were trying to choose a cheese

21/10/2010

this was to be our last day in London, and so took our time in the morning, slept in a bit a& had a late breakfast (8.15 instead of 8), packed and left our bags at reception.

Our plan today was to see Windsor Castle, which getting there involved an underground train then a National train to Windsor. We had some fun trying to find the right train to catch, but eventually were directed to “upstairs” from the underground. When we arrived “upstairs” we found a whole other train station on top of & larger than the one we had been catching the underground from. It was a bit like Harry Potter and platform 9 ¾.

We weren’t really sure what to expect of Windsor Castle, because it wasn’t on my suggestions of things to do, so I hadn’t really researched it, but once I read a brochure about it I really wanted to see it. On the train from Slough to Windsor, we were met with this amazing Castle sitting high on the hill as the train came into the station  & both of us looked at  each other in awe.

The train station of Windsor and the village itself is full of shops, eateries, restaurants and most of the buildings are heritage listed and over 500 years old.

We bought our tickets for the castle and received another free audio set that guides you through the castle. We got to see Queens Marys miniature doll collection, her dolls, and most importantly the state apartments. This place even out did Westminster Abbey, and once again I cant put words to describe the opulence, grandeur and hisitorical significance of this place. We both felt priviledged to have been able to see this place and I even had tears in my eyes at times with the emotion of the place.

There is also St Georges Cathedral within the castle surrounds and we saw the crypts/tombs of King Henry VIII, King George v, The Queen mother, Princess Margaret & many many more. This tour also took over 2 hours so once we left the castle we stopped at another local pub and had Steak & Kidney Pie while Marty had the beef & ale pie again.

We had a slow walk around the village, down to the Thames and back through a beautiful park, back to the station where we made our way back to the B&B to collect our luggage.

We then made our way back to the station where we caught several trains & at present I am writing this one of these trains on our way to Harwich International to catch the overnight ferry to Amsterdam. We have a sleeper with ensuite & breakfast & arrive tomoroow at 7.30 am where my our journey will continue.

20/10/2010

We had our first taxi ride in a traditional London Cab, they are the only purpose built taxis in the world and the cabbies are very proud of them ‘know what I mean’.

It took us to West End where we saw Les Mis and thoroughly enjoyed the performance, they are young amateurs but some exceeded performers we have seen in other more professional performances. We had seats 10 rows back smack in the middle, so as far as we were concerned the best seats in the house.

On our back we were hungry as we hadn’t had any dinner & stopped & got a sandwich. By the time we got back to our room it was close to midnight and we quickly went to bed.

This morning we had decided to got to Madame Toussards to see the original wax museum, so once again, up early and as it was reasonable close by we walked. We found it without any problems and then joined one of the many cues to get in, an hour later we were still in the queue and it looked like we had another hour to wait. This wasn’t something that we desperately wanted to see so jumped ship & walked out. So off to our next destination – Westminster Abbey, by underground, but first we needed a toilet and an ATM machine. Now in Oz these are easy things to find as they are everywhere, but not so in London, rubbish bins are as hard to find also. We ended up asking a bobby who directed us quite a long way down the way. But we found both, and then decided to have some lunch before going into the Abbey. We found yet another quaint little pub with an upstairs restaurant and enjoyed Irish Stew & Beef & Ale pie, with of course the obligatory ale for Marty and wine for myself.

So tummy’s full we headed to the Abbey. I really cant describe this building other than to say that you have to see it to believe it. They have an audio recording that you listen to as you walk around the massive & ancient structure, and this gives you a really good history of the building and all the people, including Kings, Queens, politicians, artists, poets etc that are buried there. The unknown soldier is the only crypt/tomb that you are not allowed to walk over.

This took us a couple of hours and we were getting a little foot sore, so back on the underground to our rooms. I was keen to do the Pub Walk of the Thames, so after a hour or so rest we headed out again to meet the guide. Once again on the underground and to Mansion House station, where we stood in the freezing cold wind until Kate (the guide) and others joined the group, this walk cost 8 pounds and lasted 2 ½ hours and took us up one side of the Thames, over the Millennium (otherwise known as the wobbly bridge), a walking bridge that doesn’t allow bicycles and is the newest bridge built to cross the Thames.

On the other side we went to various historical sites that were accompanied by an enjoyable commentary from Kate, but most interesting was the story of the 2^nd pub we went to. IBM wanted to buy a large strip of the waterfront to develop it and all bar this pub agreed to sell. The pub flatly refused and stated that they liked it there and weren’t going to move. IBM had to go back to the drawing board & discuss their options. The returned and offered the pub owners the best site on the newly developed strip of waterfront and free rent for 1000 years. The pub owners thought about it and returned to agree but asked for an additional 1 million dollars for good luck, so IBM agreed.

The walk ended at a fine old pub, but we were too tired and way too cold to stop & enjoy another ale (Marty at this stage was wearing a jumper & a jacket, & beanie, but was still cold), so we headed back to our rooms. On the way back we decided we were hungry as once again we were just too busy to stop for dinner, so stopped at an Italian Restaurant and enjoyed some great pasta. We obviously crashed on our return to the room.

19/10/2010

We were running short of clothes at this stage & decided we needed to do some laundry, so promised ourselves we would get back in time to go to the local Laundromat. So we headed off again at 9am to the Big Bus, (we had a 2 day pass) and travelled to The Tower of London, bought tickets and headed for a really good look at London’s history. We saw

·      The 20 towers

·      The Crown Jewels

·      The armour including from King Henry VIII

·      The torture chambers

·      Where the 2 young prince’s were murdered

·      And much, much more

We then headed to the Thames and jumped on a ferry for a tour up the river. We landed at Westminster and walked across one of the many bridges to the London Eye, where we saw a 3D film first that was as good as ‘The Blue Man Group’ we saw in Las Vegas. While we watched the show, they had snow & raindrops & all sorts of amazing real sensations happening.

The London Eye is a 30-minute birds eye view of London – cant compare with anything we have seen so far. We then caught the underground back to our room, to head off to see Les Miserable’s; needless to say we didn’t get any laundry done. But who cares, it is cold enough that we can wear the same clothes for a week and no one would know. Marty loves the weather, cause he can walk all day (and we are) and not get overwhelmed by heat & sweat. He evens wears a jumper a lot, which is something I don’t think I have ever seen him do, except maybe at Niagara Falls.

We took the underground back to our rooms, we are getting good at getting around  because the rail system is so extensive, and there a double decker buses everywhere & for the most part they don’t have many people in them, not sure what time is peak hour because there is always traffic everywhere. Apparently the average speed for the centre of London is 11 mph & has been for 400 years.

The end of another full day, there are so many things to see here, and we have so little time. We have had to settle for the few things we really want to see & promise ourselves we will come back another time to see the remainder. To do that we would have to give ourselves a year. I heard 20 – 30 years ago that London was dirty and unfriendly and full of drug addicts. Maybe it was back then, but it certainly isn’t like that now, it’s so full of history & culture and it is clean and full of pride. We will return.

20/10/2010

London 18/10/2010

18/10/10

Wow what a day, and how long can you sightsee? We left the B&B at 9am after having a lovely breakfast of toast, bacon & eggs, OJ & the best coffee I have had yet.

We started by buying tickets for the Big Bus, which travels all over London with commentary and you can hop on & off at your leisure. We stayed on for quite a while & then got off at Trafalgar Square, mainly because we wanted a smoke. We had a walk around and were looking at the map when a charming gentleman came over and asked if we were lost. We explained that no we weren’t but he explained that if we walked down the Mall we would see the Changing of the Guards.

I really wanted to see this, so we headed off down the Mall. We arrived at Buckingham Palace, (otherwise known as Buckinghuge Palace with Queen Bessie in situ) with plenty of time to get a prime spot, in front of the other few hundred people, to see the Grenadier guards and horsemen &  big fluffy hats march past us and not to forget the band. It was such an awesome sight.

We then made our way back to the National Gallery, to see some original fine art, well as Marty said, it’s a good thing it was free cause you wouldn’t pay to see it. The art work is extraordinary but the subjects leave a lot to be desired, lots of Christ & nudes & morbid scenes of murder & beheading. Not our cup of tea.

By this time it was about 1pm and we were a little on the thirsty side, so we found a local & dropped in for a pint. Marty then rang his old mate Paul, who worked with him several years ago but returned to England.

We then got back on the Big Bus and made our way back to the B&B, I was exhausted by this time as it was close to 6pm, we had been going since 5am and hadn’t had anything to eat other than breakfast, there was just too much to see and stopping to eat didn’t seem a priority. And Marty was a little lost, so it took quite a bit of walking and looking at the map before we got back to our room.

We then headed out for dinner, a place just down the road called the ‘Monkey Puzzle’. Lovely local restaurant with traditional English food, however the garlic bread was the strangest I have ever seen. It was a slice of bread smothered in cheese with a mild taste of garlic – yuk was a compliment. But the roast pork belly with mash and the Chilean wine were certainly enjoyable.

We struggled back to the room & I crashed straightaway, the journey and the day caught up with me, and Marty was asleep not long after me. This was not necessarily a good thing cause both of us were awake at 1am, I managed to have a chat to Matt on Skype, read for a while and eventually we went back to sleep for a few hours.

Kl to London 17/10/2010

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Marty & I in KL LCCT

Premium seat, laptop & Scotch on Airasia

Liverpool St Station

View from our B&B Sussex Gardens

Our room at Hyde Park B&B Sussex Gardens

Marty got cold on our balcony

We couldn’t have asked for a more cruisey morning, up early and down to breakfast, then up to the room to pack. Our last experience of catching a taxi to the airport from the Dorsett was stressful to say the least so this time we opted for the hotel car, which although pricey guaranteed a safe and stress free journey.  Checked in and made our way through customs etc, then went on the hunt for a camera. Found a cute little Olympus that has the same extras as our old (now broken) one so we could use all the same charger & batteries.

The flight to London was once again as good as the previous one, albeit longer (13. ½ hours and 11,000kms), but we did it in style, a bottle of scotch, 2 movies, a book & a few hours sleep and here we are in London.

The train station is below the terminal, and the trains to Liverpool St leave every 15 minutes, so we drew out some pounds & hopped on the first leg of our train journey. Amazingly fast train, that got us to Liverpool St in 45 mins, then ferreted our way around underground till we found the orange line to Oxford Circus, then ferreted around again till we found the brown line to Paddington. So far so good.

It was then that I realised that I didn’t have the address for our B&B anywhere, but no biggy, as soon as we climbed our way out of the underground, we were met with a McDonalds, so bought a coke and sat down to log onto their free WiFi, got directions and headed off again. Should have been easy except that I zigged when I should have zagged, and eventually rang the B&B to get directions. We arrived at about 10.30pm, met by Carol the owner who quickly gave us the key to our room & said we could check in in the morning. We had booked a room with an ensuite, but it wasn’t available till the morning, but the room we got has a huge balcony looking out onto Sussex Gardens, so we are hoping to stay in this room. We have a split level bed, a basin & cupboard, shower is on the top landing, toilet on the bottom landing.

Got up at 5 this morning, have no idea what time zone my brain is geared to, but it suits here just fine. Went to have a shower, but no hot water, ah well, when in London, do as the Londoners do, a birdie bath.

One thing we found strange was that when we arrived, I had on only jeans, T shirt & light cardigan, and it wasn’t that cold, but everyone here is rugged up like they are expecting a blizzard. It got a bit colder by about 11pm when we had to put coats on outside, but not anywhere near as cold as I thought, and there seems to be no clouds as we spotted stars, maybe we are in for good weather. Couldn’t be any worse than what we left at home.