Hi from merrie olde England. I have adjusted to two different languages with email and it is wonderful and fast to be using the old qwertyup system. Great to get all your comments and I have just looked at the news on line to read about the storm in Auckland and northern environs. It is down to a mere 20 degrees today and everyone was in jackets, cardigans or jumpers, oh how quickly we forget. Got back from emailing yesterday evening only to turn round to go out to go and see the Eiffel tower up close and personally. It took three changes of station and then a smallish walk to the said icon. We queued of course just as very dark thunderous looking clouds swept in with an amount of precipitation falling. Out came the umbrellas but the queue carried on (of course). I only went up two levels as the third was closed due to affluence (french for too many people wanting to go up there), however, if you did want to wait until you collected your pension, you could buy another ticket at level two and carry on. I didn't have any yearning passion to go right to the top and was more than satisfied with a partial walk around the edge of level two whilst clutching at the railing thinking two high places in one day was enough out of the comfort zone. Paris was spectacular from that height I have to say and I am pleased to have said I have done it. Angela and her daughter wanted to go right to the top but I decided to go on back to the hotel. By now it was about 7.30pm - 8.00ish which seems to be rush hour on le metro. I got stuck in a corner after a woman got on with a pushchair with small child and another two small ones with her! You have a very small amount of time to get on and off so I did the only thing I could and pushed my way near to the door just after the stop before I had to get off. As this was 3 changes and new territory and the time of day, I was a tad nervous but walked through the underground as though I owned it, glaring and not making eye contact LOL. I was not harrassed once by the beggars that lurk about nor the hustlers selling their wares along the way so felt quite Parisian by the time I got back to the hotel at 9pm for dinner. (the others did not get back until 11.30pm).One of the things I forgot to tell you about yesterday that had me smiling (for a brief moment) was when a bloke got on the train, standing just inside the door with his accordian and he started playing it - shades of ello, ello! Again a very Paris thing as there was a guy playing pan pipes along to recorded music at one station and someone else singing at another. You almost expect Maurice Chevallier to pop out from behind a corner LOL.
After dinner I did a repack of the bag in readiness for today. I have been using up things like shampoos etc that I took with me and threw out containers and packaging to lighten the load. I have managed to zip the extension part of the bag back up and put more heavier stuff in my back pack.
Catching the train over to England was interesting. We had a bus to take us to the station and then we had to lug our bags hither an yon to the right area, be checked by the French on our departure and then the English (at the same station) for entrance! to England. We then lugged our baggage through the station to the train and off we went. I promptly fell asleep and missed the whole chunnel thing. I was amazed at how much of France we went through before the chunnel and then how much England we came through to get to Heathrow. Thought I would put the MP3 player on that Mathew gave me and lo and behold another sign, you will not believe it but the song that was first up was 'London Calling'. I burst out laughing (as you do) and the others enjoyed my 'sign 'as well. I don't even remember Julian downloading that one for me so it was a very nanoo, nanoo moment.
Mercifully we were met by yet another bus that took us on a jaunt round the high spots of London for a couple of hours. My first impressions of Heathrow were not flattering at all. Busting to spend a penny and first hurdle, a queue out into the station! half way down there was a sign (not one of mine I might add LOL) 20d to go to the loo and I had no flaming pounds only euro!!!!!! Uncivilised country!!! Crossed everthing and off we set. Its hard to describe what it was like seeing so many places that on one level you know - another mona lisa moment in a way. It was so like being on a live Monopoly board. First stop was St Paul's for a pit stop and a very quick look around. The guide we had was very good with his patter and kept pointing out all sorts. Didnt take many photos as everything is too big from the bus and on a level, I already know what this stuff looks like. We ended up at the Tower of London just before lunch and the Tower bridge was just up the way crossing the river - this I did enjoy and did take a photo of a couple of ravens on the wing. We were stopped for lunch there and wandered around not seeing anything that took my fancy when around the corner I walked and there was (small drum roll and a text to Laura to read this next bit) Wagamama!!! Hein and Uri were just behind me and as I was squeaking away with surprise they decided they wanted to go there for lunch and Laura, just for you, I went too. I can not remember the name of what I ate but it was a vegetable salad with cashew nuts and the house dressing, a huge bowl full which was absolutely delicious. (N0 61 on the menu if you have a photographic memory Laura). I had to have a desert as well and chose the mango and lychee sorbet which I ended up by having to take with me as the bus was ready to go.
Next stop was St James Palace where the palace guards lurk and the horse guards. We started to notice all these very posh people walking past in tophats and tails (men) and woman dressed like Melbourne cup day (in a posh way, EVERYONE with a hat. We walked on a bit further through St James's park to Buckingham Palace and what was a small stream, turned out to be a tidal river of posh people travelling by London taxi, on foot or in cars that would be the equal of the National Debt...... we had just walked into Garden Party afternoon at Buck House!!!!! Forget the cars, the clothes that were being worn to said occassion were worth more collectively than some third world countries would have in their exchequers. There were people from the forces amongst the crowd and I saw one church person in a red outfit ? cardinal????? Did take photos of that and video footage. Also of the lamp posts. Why you might ask??? I have noticed that each different country seems to have a different motiffe for their lamp posts. In England it is three dolphins, I will have too look back out my photos to remember the others.
We finally got to the hotel about 5pm and have landed on our feet for the last few days. It is a trillion miles from London (45 mins by underground) and we are directly under Heathrow's flightpath but first impressions are all good. I have ended up with a double room- double bed and a single bed, a bath and room enough in the bathroom to change more than your mind LOL.
I plucked up the courage to order a coffee downstairs as I have had bad experiences in Italy and Paris - both times I ordered a coffee out came something the size of an eyebath. I decided to ask what size the cup was before I got the guy to make one. Hallelujah, a recognisable, Edmonds cookbook, good amount, size cup!!!! I went giddy and ordered a cappucino and it was perfect - yay. I have been remarkably coffee free while I have been away, have drunk enough water to empty a small reservoir though. And then there is the loos- I have been neglectful in telling you all my loo stories - the one downstairs here is not only clean, with a seat and free - it has soothing music playing at the same time!!!! This one wins the prize - and not a queue in sight - almost a pavement kissing moment LOL. Forgot to tell you about the one in Paris the day we saw the pet market - the one that cost .40 to spend a penny, but it gets better, the woman sitting outside the loo taking the money was tucking into a plate of spaghetti for her lunch!!!! I have come to realise that travel is not so much about seeing new and wonderful things, it is about how much punishment a body can take and survive to see the sights LOL.
The thing that strikes me about London immediately is how expensive everything is when you muliply things by three. Water that I could get in Italy for .46e at the grocery store a bottle is $1.60 here (read pounds for $ sign as there is no pounds sign on this computer). Internet here is $5 per hour or $10 for 24 hours - in Rome it was .20e per hour and in Paris it was e3.50 for two hours. I am writing this because one of the group has a lap top and has got 24 hours worth and is sharing her lap top around. Post cards here are .60 each instead of .30 in Paris and so it goes.
One of the most bizarre things is that we have travelled from Greece to Italy to France with no customs or boarder checks and the briefest check and stamp of the passport to get into England today. I should think that for criminals it must be the easiest thing in the world to move freely about as it is no more than going from Waiuku to Pukekohe to cross boarders - very bizare after Singapore and NZ. Have yet to get out of Heathrow airport though and that is reputed to be a toughie and of course then it will be getting back into Singapore and NZ.
We are setting out tomorrow for the British Museum at 9.30am when the price for the underground drops. I am heading for the Egypt section and I want to see a dinasaur. Of course not knowing what there is to see, I am not sure what else I will want to view. My thoughts are at this stage of going to the Tower later in the day and then there is a sung evensong at St Pauls at 5pm. Am trying to do as much as possible within reason. Jill Ohlson is looking at us going to see the Merchant of Venice at the Globe the following night but there are lots of ifs and buts yet. I really would like to see Hampton Palace, home at one time of Henry VIII but it is a bit of a cut lunch and a map to get to. Thursday is Oxford and Windsor Castle and Friday am working around Phil and Kath (Mcfaddyen) who are coming to stay in the same hotel to catch up with me which will be a buzz. Phil has talked about going up on the London Eye so will wait and see. There are more museums here than you can poke a stick at: Pollocks toy museum, London Canal museum, Museum of London, Science Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Foundling Museum, Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum, National Army Museum, and Museum of Garden History to name a few. On a level all of London could be regarded as a Museum. We passed Wellington's statue today in the bus and there further around the war memorial is the New Zealand memorial which I think is stunning. From one angle all you see is black pole like things and then as you drive around the memorial the poles come into relief as crosses when you look down on them. There are korous and other NZ symbols within the 'poles' am not explaining it well but do remember reading a bit about it in the paper a while back. Saw in no particular order Trafalgar Square, Cleopatra's needle, Admiralty Arch, Eros, Wellington Arch, Baker Street, Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Royal Courts of Justice, Fleet Street, Downing Street, Covent Garden, Cunard building, Baden Powell building, St Martin in the Fields church, Westminster Cathedral, New Scotland Yard, Statue of Florence Nightingale ....... at that is off the top of my head at 1am. (Also saw the buildings that John Cleese hung ???? out of in the Fish called Wanda movie.... Dirty Dancing, Fiddler on the Roof and Phantom of the Opera are some of the shows that are on and Harry Potter opens tomorrow night at the movies. Yay for LONDON! Will sign off for now and will see if I can catch up again before the week is out. I think we are all going to chip in for the internet costs and get 24 hours each day. Will wait and see. Good night chaps and chapessess from jolly olde ENGLAND.