Day 15 - London to Newcastle Upon TynejawaproTue 03/02/2009 07:33 AM
Today we woke up to a snow covered London. We went for a wander and found some breakfast.
From here we caught the tube to Kings Cross, and from there used our Brit Rail Passes (which we bought earlier in Tas) to catch a train to Newcastle.
I’d upgraded our tickets to First Class - which is quite nice. After 2 weeks on a rather cramped bus, it’s very nice to have some room to move - and a table and free coffee and things.
The train trip started quite well - and the scenery was quite pretty.
Unfortunately the train broke down. A window broke in another carriage, and somehow the brakes kept coming on - so the train couldn’t run. I can’t quite work out how the 2 were related - but they happened at the same time.
The train driver and crew spent a while playing with the workings of the carriages (we could see them out the window) but each time we tried going again, we had to stop within a few minutes because it still wasn’t working.
Eventually, a rescue engine arrived and towed us to the next station, where we had to change trains. We were 3 hours behind schedule! And it wasn’t even due to the snow.
It didn’t really fuss us - but some of the other people on the train missed meetings etc - and were quite angry.
The train also has free Wi-Fi - which is awesome. Not sure how many of the trains will have that.
Using the net - we booking a room at a cheap hotel in Newcastle, and then had to find it when we arrived. We had instructions to get there by bus - but we’d missed it by a few minutes, and it wouldn’t be back for an hour - and it was dark, wet, and cold - so we caught a taxi.
The hotel was one of Emma’s choices - called Roselodge house. It’s pretty umm cheap. The room is small and odd-shaped, and the bathrooms are over the hall somewhere. The rooms come with a TV, but ours didn’t have one - so the guy who showed us the room had to go and steal one from somewhere. Good thing too - we got to watch the last half of Top Gear. It was only a Best Of show - but still, watching British Top Gear in Britain - that's pretty cool.
Another positive note - free wi-fi again!
It’s not too bad - but it’s lower quality than the ones we’ve had in the Contiki tour.
Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have more interesting stuff to report.
By the way - Newcastle is officially called "Newcastle Upon Tyne" becuase it's on the Tyne river. Strange - we don't have "Hobart Upon Derwent" or "Launceston Upon Tamar" - but that's the way it is.
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Day 13 - London (part 2)jawaproMon 02/02/2009 09:45 AM
^ Me with the Queen. Explanation to follow.
Today we got to sleep in - bliss! No rushing off for a “bags to coach” time, or even a group trip into town. We are on our own again.
Eventually we did get going - and made our way to Victoria station - where we’d arranged to meet up with Maryanne - and friend of ours from way back who’s been living over here working as a Nanny.
The tubes are a little chaotic today - as lines are closed for maintenance for on the weekend - but it’s still far better than the French system. At least here the tube maps are the same - you don’t get a different one each station you go to.
Maryanne took us to Covern Garden’s for a look at the market stalls. There also this small band downstairs that were hassling people for money. They were quite good - and able to keep up with a song while chasing people with the big violin thing (double bass?). Quite entertaining to watch.
The three of us went to take a look at St Paul’s.
From here we went to Baker St. From the station (about #180) we headed down to number 17, which Emma assured us was Sherlock Holmes’s house - and now a museum.
After quite a walk, we reached where 17 should have been - but it had been knocked down.
Assuming they wouldn’t have knocked down a tourist attraction, we asked someone.
Turns out he lived at 221b - not 13. So much for our Sherlock Holmes expert.
I never said that I was a Sherlock Holmes expert. I have only read one or two of the books - Emma.
Maryanne was a little disappointed when she found out that we’d gone all this way to a house that Sherlock Holmes never even lived in - he’s a fictional character.
After this, we said goodbye to Maryanne - and headed to Madam Tussauds - where all the celebs hang out.
Emma finally got a chance to hang out with Johnny Depp.
And Orlando Bloom. Don’t think she could choose between them.
Robin Williams was working there (must be doing it tough lately) - and I had to show him my ticket.
Apparently it wasn’t valid - so the bouncer tried to throw me out.
I came back with reinforcements. Nothing like a Terminator at your side when things get tough.
Meanwhile Emma was hanging out with Shrek - and hadn’t noticed I was missing.
After the Terminator killed the Hulk, the Queen herself offered me her apologies for the mistake.
I finally caught up with Emma - who’d been chatting up Prince William.
While I waited for them to finish, I chatted about wormhole theory with an old bloke that happened to be passing by.
And discussed plans for World Domination with someone who’d tried it before. Will probably have to use different tactics - his didn’t do so well in the end.
I tried asking advice from a fellow Aussie - but he wasn’t much help either.
I had a chat with Winstone Churchill - but he said he wasn’t too impressed with the way I’d posed in front of his statue on Day 1 of the trip (trying to replicate his stance) - so I didn’t get much help there either.
My plans for World Domination may have to wait a while.
At least I know that MI6 are on my side.
Now - for those who don’t know, Madam Tasaud’s is a museum where they keep wax models of people. Some are dead, and others are current celebrities. It’s quite expensive - but very cool. Some models are a little poorly done - but others are so lifelike it’s scarey.
After leaving the Wax Works - we headed for Paddington Station to go hunting for bears - but we couldn’t find one.
From there it was back to the Hotel through the lightly falling snow.
Tomorrow we head north on the trains. I’ll blog again next time I get a chance.
And as a final note - how about this? It’s a vending machine of books!
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Day 13 - Paris to LondonjawaproSun 01/02/2009 07:56 PM
The Contiki tour is now over! We'll have to make do with just ourselves from here on.
Today wasn't overly interesting - so I won't waste your time with heaps of pictures (only took 25 today!). Basically we drove from Paris to Dover, took the ferry, then drove to London. That was it.
Interesting points - the area of France we drove through was the Somme (WW1 battlegrounds) so that was interesting - even though it wasn't obvious - just looked like farms. We did an illegal photo stop so the Canadians could take photos of a monument in the distance on a piece of France that belongs to Canada. You see - back in WW1, the first main Allied advance was a Canadian effort. The war was fought between the trenches - and little progress was made for years - but the Canadian's managed to catch a large portion of land (relatively) which was the start of the German retreat. In return, the French goverment has given Canada some of that land. On the one hand, it's nice gesture. On the other - there are apparently a lot of unexploded bombs still in that land - so if anything happens now, it's Canada's fault. Lovely French hey.
On the ferry we got to see the white cliffs again - but still no Toybotas.
Heading back into London we made good time, until the road ahead was closed (probably an accident) so Derek, our driver, took us down tiny little backstreets which the bus really shouldn't have fitted down. Quite nice to see more of London though.
Then back to the Hotel and saying goodbye to our mates from the tour. The hotel here has free wireless!
According to the news, England is about to have a cold snap - while back home there's a heat wave. I think I prefer it here.
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Day 12 - ParisjawaproSat 31/01/2009 09:08 AM
Today was a day in Paris. Possibly the shortest recap post to date - as we didn’t do all that much.
First stop was a perfumery called Fragonard - which was as boring as expected. Even Emma wasn’t really interested.
Next stop - the Louvre. After having an argument about how to find the Inverted pyramid and the sneaky entrance our tour guide suggested (no queues) we gave up and went in the main entrance - under the glass pyramid. Turns out I was right about the inverted pyramid being inside and under the ground - but don’t mention that to Emma, she gets mad because she was sure it was outside somewhere.
We went to the Louvre because Emma wanted to - and because it’s famous. Apparently if you spent 1 minute in front of every item on display, you’d be there for 6 months or so. We didn’t have that long - and to be honest, weren’t that interested. Emma just wanted to see the famous parts.
First up, it’s an armless statue of Venus. Not sure why it’s so famous - but apparently it is.
And then there’s a painting of a girl called Lisa.
Not sure why this one is famous either - it’s just a painting...
This Japanese tourist seemed to be confused, and was taking a picture of... nothing. Just an empty wall. So I took a picture of him.
Next we braved the insane French Metro system (stupidly complicated - even the Italian one looked easy in comparison) and made our way to the Eiffel Tower - so we could take photos in the day time. Sadly it was still just as tall, so we still didn’t climb it.
Surrounding the tower are these guys. They sell mini Eiffel Towers. They carry them around on a large metal loop - and you can hear their jingling as they approach. Last night, as the bus arrived, we were swarmed by at least 4 of these guys trying to flog light up towers. I did barter with 1 of them and get some souvenirs a lot cheaper than the legal shops. Apparently it’s illegal for them to sell it, but you’re ok buying it. Stupid French legal system.
After another mind-bending trip through the metro - we went to Notre Dame - but as much as we tried - we couldn’t see any hunch backs.
We went back to the Arc De Triumph to see it in the daylight too. Traffic was a little more sane today (no strikes on the Metro).
This arch was made for the victorious French soldiers to march through on their way home. I wonder if it’s been used yet?
By the way - apparently "sortie" means "exit" in French. All the metro signs and things talk about ‘sortie’ as being the way out. I find it amusing that in English, a sortie is a minor battle. I suppose if you’re French, exit and retreat mean the same thing.
We found some lunch in the Latin Quarter (nice Baguettes) and disproved Mum’s fears about French public toilets (they aren’t just a communal hole in the ground).
We also found the largest department store in France - and headed to the toy section. Being France - I wanted to find some Asterix and Obelix figures. Asterix and Obelix predate France (they were Gauls) but they come from what is now France, and the comics are made in France etc. I wasn’t disappointed either - lots of Asterix and Obelix stuff. Spent quite a bit of money here....
They also had some absolutely brilliant model dinosaurs - if only I had more room and weight to play with in my suitcase....
We made our way back to the hotel via the metro (starting to get our heads around it a little) and spent a quiet evening doing some laundry at the laundromat and getting some stuff at the supermarket for tea. Half the tour is off at Moulin Rouge - but at 130 Euro a pop - we weren’t at all interested.
France might not be terribly exciting - but they do have an awesome toy shop.
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Day 11 - Lucerne to ParisjawaproFri 30/01/2009 05:25 PM
Welcome to France - land of the boring scenery.
Today we left fantastic Switzerland - and crossed the border into France. Not all the scenery was boring - but a lot of it was. Eventually it got a little bit better, and I got some photos (such as the above).
Today was all about driving. We left Switzerland early (7:30 on the bus) and drove something like 800k to Paris. We had 3 ‘service’ stops this leg.
The most interesting thing that happened would be Cindy and Derek messing about at one of the service stops.
We eventually arrived in Paris - which didn’t seem very interesting as we drove in. We were actually early thanks to light traffic, so we had a few hours to kill before dinner. I got my first chance to watch some TV since we started - and discovered there’s another war on. Also - Paris is in the middle of strikes, so the metro system is currently in chaos. Great timing!
This evening, Derek took us for a drive to see Paris by night. We took a look at a number of interesting buildings, including the Arch De Triumph (built to celebrate one of France’s rare victories - but the person it was built by had died (and thus France had lost) before it was finished).
Around the Arch - there’s a round-a-bout. It doesn’t have any lights, lines, or apparently - rules. Traffic is insane. Makes Rome look downright sensible. They apparently have an accident every 6 minutes.
Driving a Tour Coach across lines of stalled traffic must be difficult - but Derek managed it.
And of course - we got to see the Eiffel Tower.
Some of our number decided to climb it tonight. I’m not sure I could manage it - so I only took photos from the ground.
Tomorrow we’re taking a proper look around Paris.
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