tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66174341184828916332024-03-13T05:32:47.426-07:00HeroUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-84340886204957869942012-07-03T00:53:00.002-07:002012-07-03T00:53:48.319-07:00The End...?My last post, folks. How sad! I have really, really enjoyed doing this blog, but alas the adventure is over and it's time to jump back into the somewhat more mundane adventure of everyday life in Australia...<br />
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So I left you after our first full day in London.<br />
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On Wednesday we did head in to the city of London, taking the tube to Blackfriar station before wandering over to Fleet Street to check out the Cheshire Cheese pub, a pub that is pretty much unchanged from how it was 200 years ago, and regularly played host to one of my favourite fellows, Charles Dickens (it was across the road from his publisher). It is very, very, very cool! It's pretty dark and dingy inside, and the tables are worn from people sitting and leaning on them for so many years. There isn't much room around the old-school bar, but you can go down some very narrow, steep steps into the basement where there is more seating - watch your head! Mads and I just had a coke and mused on the fact that we were in the place in which Dickens used to hang!<br />
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Cool building near Blackfriars Station</div>
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Dickens' old watering hole, the Cheshire Cheese. Very cool little place.</div>
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Heading back out and in to the light, we wandered along the standard route, over the Millennium Bridge, along the Thames on the Southwark side, then back across the Westminster Bridge before wandering up to Trafalgar Square. We stopped in to a Tesco Express to try and find some elusive Starbars for Mads (there weren't any), and when we were crossing the road to get to the Square Mads spotted Andy Lee, of Hamish and Andy fame (a very funny Aussie radio-to-TV duo). Oh my gosh. There was Andy. Ever since we heard they were in Europe filming for their show I have been thinking 'oh that would be so cool if we ran into them!' And there one was, in a Sherlock Holmes hat with a pipe out the front of Waterstones. Should we go up to him? Should we say hello? How does one do this, this is so awkward! I tend to be extremely shy, often finding it hard to even walk up to people I actually know in the street, and Mads is a bit too, so for a while we sort of stood behind a pillar stalker-style checking that he was still there and trying to make a plan. We decided to walk up, getting closer and closer before losing our nerve and ducking in to Waterstones, pretending to be very interested in the books on the bestsellers wall. So we walked out again, deciding that we didn't have the guts to talk to him, I took a stalker-style picture of him from behind before Mads finally got up her nerve, grabbed my camera and we went up and asked if we could have a picture with him. And he was so nice!!! I mean, really nice! He seemed really happy to see us and was conversing with us, where are we from, what are we doing in London, where's Mads living there, etc. He got his cameraman to take a pic of all three of us and that was that, we met Andy Lee! Talk about a rad dude. We also saw Hamish coming out of Waterstones, also wearing a deerstalker hat (hilariously being asked for directions by an old lady), so we said hello but he was carrying coffee and seemed to be in a bit of a rush. But we met Andy! We walked around in a bit of a daze after this, partly excited that we'd actually met him but also (for me at least) feeling a bit odd from the adrenaline racing around my body after walking up to a person cold to chat to them - completely out of my comfort zone! I'm really glad he's a really nice fellow.<br />
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Wandering around London.</div>
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The beach by the Thames - ebb tide.</div>
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Mads drooling over a book stall by the Thames.</div>
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Creepy stalker photo of Andy.</div>
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Yay! We love Andy! Nicest bloke ever...</div>
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Finally pulling ourselves together (ugh, what a couple of losers, honestly) we went to Cecil Court, another of our favourite spots in London, basically a whole street of gorgeous little antique book shops. Mind you it's a bit torturous being there when you are poor, because there are so many gorgeous first editions and vintage posters and antiques in the stores there. A quick look around and we decided to head back to Walthamstow for a very late lunch and ice cream for dinner (Ben and Jerry's - Cookie Dough for me and Phish Food for Mads). A bit of a theme for the trip, ice cream meals. I personally would like to eat nothing but ice cream for the rest of forever, but I'd probably get scurvy or something.<br />
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Cecil Court</div>
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Trafalgar Square</div>
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The National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square</div>
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More wanderings...</div>
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On Thursday we went to Greenwich. We got the Tube to Westminster and then went to get a boat up the Thames. Unfortunately we only just missed the boat that was at the dock (they started pulling out just as we got there), and it was pretty much empty, so we sat and waited for the next one. Naturally we were soon swamped by about a gagillion American students, all crammed into the waiting room on the dock. Feeling somewhat claustrophobic I opted to stand outside. It was a really nice day! The boat finally came, and we decided to get on with the whole of America, sitting downstairs in the cabin - it was actually a really nice trip! It took about an hour or so to get to Greenwich, and when we arrived we headed to the Cutty Sark, an old tea ship that has recently been beautifully restored and re-opened to the public. The cool thing about it is that they've presented it as if it was floating in the sea, with a glass roof that comes up the sides of the hull so you can walk right underneath the ship. It was quite fun, I like old ships. There were some blokes there working on the rigging too, which was cool to see, and because it has only recently reopened the whole place smelled like new paint.<br />
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Cruising down the Thames</div>
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Cleopatra's Needle... I think that's what it's called at least. </div>
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According to our 'not tour guide but waterman so don't blame me if I get something wrong', this place contains 3500 important old manuscripts and documents. I want in!!!!</div>
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A fish weathervane on top of the old fish market. Love it!</div>
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Thames entrance to Traitor's Gate at the Tower of London. </div>
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An old pub on the Thames.</div>
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Arriving at Greenwich</div>
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The Cutty Sark</div>
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Inside the hull of the Cutty Sark</div>
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I love this - a wooden tea chest made by one of the crew on Cutty Sark</div>
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Yeah Australia... Cutty Sark used to bring wool from Sydney to England</div>
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There's someone up there! Not really... I mean, there were fellows working on the rigging but this is just a dummy...</div>
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Love a good storm hat...</div>
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Showing the way to Sydney...</div>
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We went to Nando's for lunch, which was tasty but a funny experience because they actually seated us at a table with a menu properly - in Australia Nando's is mostly your standard fast food place. It was a nice restaurant on the water. We headed to the Maritime Museum next, which was quite interesting although they seem to be doing some pretty major renovations so it was a bit hard to look around. But we saw a section on explorers which was quite interesting, and we saw the jacket Nelson was wearing when he was fatally shot.<br />
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The Navy college at Greenwich</div>
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Woot! Tudors!</div>
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When I can read Latin I'll be able to tell you what this is...</div>
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The maritime museum. The signpost in front of it points to the Maritime Museum. I figure if you haven't found it at this point, you're probably not going to find it...</div>
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Nelson's jacket, with bullethole in the shoulder. The missing braid and bit of the epaulet actually went inside him - apparently it was pulled out of his body and given to Queen Victoria. I believe it's in the Windsor Castle collection now. </div>
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The flag from the Victory</div>
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A bit of a ship in the Maritime Museum</div>
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We had to head back to Walthamstow as Mads had to get her passport before going to meet her new landlord in her new flat. So after having a little look around Greenwich, which is very cute, we hopped back on the boat, back to Westminster to tube it back to Walthamstow. Mads flat is in Peckham, so we went to check it out: it's a really nice flat! Her new flatmate is also very nice, so I think Mads is excited to move in and will enjoy living there. Back in Walthamstow we had chicken again for dinner and that was that day.<br />
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Cute. Shop in Greenwich.</div>
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The Queen's Stairs. Apparently Elizabeth I descended these stairs to board the ship on which she knighted Sir Francis Drake.</div>
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Sparkly Thames.</div>
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It's the Queen!!</div>
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The view from Mads's flat in Peckham</div>
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Friday came, my last day in London and the last day of my trip, too soon really. Crazy considering how homesick I was in Austria, now I didn't want it to end! I want to live in Paris and have a holiday house in Italy and just spend the rest of my life between the two!! Hey, you never know what the future holds... We spent the day trying to move Mads into her new flat. We'd organised a removalist, but on Thursday he'd emailed to say he'd have to cancel. Naturally we couldn't get another mover, they were all booked up, and it seemed that every hire car in London also was also booked. So we went to the locker in Bermondsey, packed up a couple of huge suitcases and tried to roll them to the tube, to get to the National Rail station at London Bridge, and then to the flat in Peckham. What a nightmare. We only just missed the train at London Bridge to Peckham Rye - unfortunately this meant we were stuck on the platform and all the information about the next trains and what platforms they'd be leaving from was on the outside of the barrier. If we went out again we'd be charged for it! So we kept trying to ask people where to go and when the next train would be. First I was told 'there's one at 12.41 on platform 12.' So we waited at platform 12, no sign of any train. Mads went to ask, and she got told to move somewhere else. Once again no sign of any trains. Then I was told one would come in 3 minutes to platform 15. No train, but at least this time we were in the right spot because one came at 1.03 to platform 15. We finally got the stuff to her place, exhausted, then decided to go back to the Flask in Hampstead for lunch, and so Mads could go to her bank. I like the Flask. They have really nice food and it's a nice atmosphere. And I really like Hampstead. If I was going to live in London I would want to live around that area. Mads had to write some emails, so we agreed that she would go to the Walthamstow flat and I would go to Westminster to finally see the Abbey. I should have known that would not happen: after Mads got off the tube and I stayed on, I realised that I had the keys to the flat! And no phone to call her! So I jumped off one train and onto another to get to Walthamstow, praying that Mads wouldn't try and come to find me and that she would be at the flat. I managed to catch her there about a minute after she arrived, but by this time it was really too late to go sightseeing so I just got ready to go to the airport.<br />
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Dragging these through London - not the funnest thing to do I have to say...</div>
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The taxi came and off we went. It was a bit sad, actually, going through to security and leaving Mads behind... I probably won't see her until May next year! I managed to just hold it together though, and there were no dramas with the flight. On the way to Dubai I sat next to a really nice Aussie lady, who, in the last hour or so, decided she was feeling sick and needed a sick bag. 'Do you want to get out?' I asked her, as I was sitting in the middle seat and she was on the window. 'Oh no, that's okay, these bags actually can hold a lot'. Oh dear. I was praying very hard that she wouldn't start puking beside me because I don't think I could handle that... Otherwise the flight from Dubai to Sydney was a bit bumpy, but I was okay. I mostly slept extremely lightly and uncomfortably, but I managed to get about an hour at a time!<br />
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It was pretty good to see my family waiting for me at the airport. It's been a long time since I've seen them! I stayed awake most of the day, having a two hour nap in the afternoon then going to sleep from 6pm to 9am, and I'm not jetlagged at all now. I start studying for my Ancient History Masters soon, and hoping to find a job very soon so I can pay my very large credit card bill and save for the next trip! Paris, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Republic I think. Or maybe America. Who knows? But this one's been a helluva journey, I've seen some incredible things and amazing places: it feels like it was all a dream now - I can't believe I've been to Rome, and Paris! I've crossed some things off my list, and added some more, and I can't wait for my next adventure.<br />
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Thanks for sharing it with me.<br />
<br />
Check you later!!<br />
Ashxoxo<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-19073759784869921792012-06-26T16:55:00.005-07:002012-06-26T16:55:50.324-07:00Back to the Future<!--StartFragment-->
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Well I’m afraid to say that there isn’t too much exciting
stuff to report in this edition! Sunday was a wasted day – pathetic, I know,
how often am I in Berlin? But seeing as we haven’t had a day of doing nothing
for 8 and a half weeks, we decided to have a day of doing nothing. So we sat in
the hotel room all day, mostly youtubing. I have always been terrible at
youtubing, which I have never understood, people seem to spend hours and hours
and hours on it looking at random videos. When it comes to the crunch I can
never think of anything to look up, but I actually did quite well! </div>
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We emerged to go to Macdonald’s for our afternoon meal,
because at this late stage we are requiring cheap foods to consume, and it was
nice Maccasish. The staff spoke English, which has been the experience all over
Berlin. I always try German to start with, but they seem to be able to guess
that I don’t speak German and just respond in English – I have no idea how they
can tell... </div>
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We had big plans to go to the Brandenburg Gate in the
evening to watch the Euros, England versus Italy. However walking past a window
on our way to the hotel lift we noticed it was pouring. So we went back to our
room to grab brollies, and thought we should check they were actually showing
the game at the Tor. A quick google search showed that they weren’t – only
German games until the semi-final round, so disappointed we watched it on the
tellie in our room. It was tough to pick a side, while the Italian team is much
more attractive we are in London for the semi-finals and it would be fun to
watch the English semi in a pub or something. So I went for England, and they
lost. But it was the most boring 2+ hours of my life and I was reminded of why
I don’t watch Fussball:
90 minutes no one scored. So they decided to play on for another 30 minutes
(why!? They’ve been doing that for 90 minutes and it didn’t work! Try something
else!) before finally Italy took out the game in the penalty shoot-out.
TORTURE!! </div>
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Yiew! That's totally us... </div>
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My annoyingly attractive and photogenic sister watching the hopeless football game.</div>
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Anyway, Monday was a much better day. After playing the
check-out store-luggage game once again – much more difficult than usual this
time as the hotel lobby was absolutely swarming with Italian men who’d just
arrived for a conference of some kind – we wandered back into Berlin to find
some wall. And find it we did, at Potsdamer Platz. This trip has gotten me
really in to graffiti, I have to say. I just really like the colours and the
layering, and the remaining segments of the Berlin Wall are covered in it. And
I have to say that I was quite underwhelmed by the wall itself: it was
basically just looked like sections of a temporary, thin concrete partition –
I’d expected it to be somewhat thicker and more imposing... </div>
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A lego giraffe! Discovered on our wanderings</div>
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The Berlin wall</div>
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Graffiti on the wall. I love it!</div>
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We kept walking back up to the Brandenburg Gate, then down
the shopping strip we discovered off Unter den Linden the other day and came
across Checkpoint Charlie, the former US checkpoint at the border between East
and West Berlin. Naturally the first thing you see when crossing from what was
formerly part of the Soviet Union into the American sector is a Macdonalds – so
in we went for lunch (again, cheap and easy), and it was cool to ponder the
fact that the history of the Cold War, the history of the Berlin Wall, is so
incredibly recent that there were people in that Macdonalds that would remember
a divided Berlin. And I guess that’s one of the things I liked best about
Germany. I am a total history nerd – generally ancient history is my thing, so
of course I was mad about Italy and most of Europe for its Roman ruins and
artefacts. But that stuff is so far gone, no one remains who really knows
anything about it: we just have to look at the scant evidence that is left and
interpret it, and guess what was going on and what things were used for and
what it was like to be there. It’s so interesting to think of the important
history that has been in Germany within a lifetime. Stuff we look back on as if
it were so long ago – like the Nazis, like the Berlin Wall - compared to Roman
and Greek and Egyptian history it really only happened yesterday. It’s a very
cool experience. </div>
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Brandenburg Tor</div>
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The return of the pink coat! It was a little wet and chilly in Berlin.</div>
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Checkpoint Charlie</div>
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Welcome to the American Sector!! Macdonald's at Checkpoint Charlie</div>
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There’s a lot more of Berlin that I would love to see, but
we were out of time folks! So we headed back to the hotel to get our luggage
and grab a taxi, this time to the airport. We checked our luggage (Ryan Ignatius
came in at 22.8kgs. So, so, so lucky, the limit for our flight was 23!!!) and
found a spot in which to hang out: Tegal airport isn’t that great, there’s not
really anything to do or anywhere to eat or sit except in these little waiting
areas that have grills to sit on over the top of heaters. I believe they’re
getting a new airport but it isn’t finished yet. I was happy to finally get a
stamp in my passport and after the plane was late we had a pretty uneventful
flight. I never really like flying – I am more than happy being a land mammal
and I like my feet planted firmly on solid ground thank you very much! But I
did quite well. We flew with British Midlands International, sitting just
behind the ‘business class’ section: they had exactly the same seats as us, but
there was a moveable curtain partition between them and the plebs and they got
food. Funnily enough when we were landing the partition was apparently not
locked in place, so it moved quite a way forward over their heads and voila!
They were in cattle class too!! </div>
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Fluffy clouds over Germany (I guess...)</div>
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Into our taxi from Heathrow, Mads was pretty dang excited to
be back in her adopted homeland. We’re staying at the same holiday flat in
Walthamstow so for me it is a bit anticlimactic: it feels like Europe never
happened!! So basically I’m ready to head back to Paris and start over – would
anyone like to fund a perpetual holiday for me?? Mind you, it is very nice
being able to speak the same language as everyone else here: no more vacant
smiles, I can actually be polite to people and have conversations, and we can
understand signs and announcements! AND I love British comedy television: a bit
of InBetweeners to get myself settled back in. Fabulous!</div>
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Today we got ourselves all settled in to the flat: I went to
the shops to get food etc (heaven! I can read the supermarket signs that tell
you what is down each aisle!), then Mads and I went and got the rest of my
stuff out of her storage locker – there’s not nearly as much as I thought there
would be, I reckon I’ll be under the 30kgs limit for my flight back to Aus!
Huzzah! I 'cooked' dinner - and I have to say that after eating from restaurants/takeaway/cafes I have lost all practice in preparing meals. Trying to think of what to cook was impossible - I need a menu with options that require only telling someone what you want and then out it comes a short time later, all prepared for you! So we had these pre-prepared crumbed chicken things with roasted potatoes, also pre-prepared. And that is about it! Probably head in to the city tomorrow for some
good old fashioned sightseeing (nope, haven’t done enough yet!) – surely it’ll
be fourth time lucky for Westminster Abbey. Surely!</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-12671611580928639232012-06-23T11:35:00.001-07:002012-06-23T11:35:08.160-07:00Ich bin ein Berliner<!--StartFragment-->
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On Thursday we had to be a bit organised, as we were getting
an early train from Regensburg to Nuremberg (when I say early, I mean
10.30am...). It was a nice trip, only a short distance to Nuremberg, and when
we got to our hotel to leave our stuff while we went exploring the lady at
reception said our room was ready and we could go upstairs! Tops! The room was
pretty cool, like a little apartment with a kitchenette and the bed in this
weird little cubby-area behind a wardrobe (not that I’m complaining, I’ve
always loved a good cubby!). But the annoying thing was that there were
housekeeping people ringing the bell and walking in all the time. I mean, all the time! Even the next
morning before checkout! Super annoying.</div>
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Anyway we had a nap before heading out into Nuremberg, once
the propaganda centre of Nazi Germany. The main part of the city is surrounded
by a wall – this was a bit hard to find, I asked at reception for a map and the
receptionist put a cross where the hotel was. That cross was nowhere near where
the hotel was – in fact the hotel’s location wasn’t even on the map! So we
spent a while wandering around in circles trying to find a street that was on
the map to get our bearings, in the meantime being asked by a couple of
teenagers to buy them tobacco for their shisha. We declined, and finally found
the city wall! Hooray! </div>
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A tower on the city wall. Hooray we found it!!</div>
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A tor. Aka gate.</div>
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So in we went and wandered around, as we typically do.
Nuremberg is pretty cool, it feels like a really old, medieval town, which I
guess it sort of is, but it was pretty much flattened after the war so it’s
hard to tell what’s been rebuilt. I felt like the place had kind of a weird
vibe (Mads disagreed), could be something to do with the weird statues and
fountains dotted around the place: like the one that has two corpses wrestling
on the back of a giant iguana. I’m sure it means something very poetic and deep
or whatever, but I don’t get it... </div>
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Wandering in Nuremberg</div>
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An old-looking tower</div>
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Tower gate.</div>
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The weird fountain with fighting corpses on giant iguana. Creepy and super weird.</div>
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You’ll never guess what we stopped to eat: ice cream!! There
was a gelato place selling Amarena so we had to get some – disappointingly not
as good as the Italian stuff, but still pretty yummy. I really do hope that
Italy hasn’t ruined ice cream for me. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to go back
there all the time to eat gelato. What a shame...</div>
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Anyway, we wandered across the Pegnitz river, which was very
pretty, up cobbled streets (I have to say, cobble streets are overrated. Sure
they look pretty, but being the klutz I am I have nearly tripped over about a
million times! If only I had a Euro for every time that has happened!) and in
to a market square where there was a market, as well as a pointy gold sculpture
thing and Frauenkirche, into which we headed. Apparently this square and church
was built on what was the Jewish area of Nuremberg back in the 13<sup>th</sup>
or 14<sup>th</sup> Century: the Jews who lived here were driven out, and
hundreds of them burned so the square could be built. So sad! I wonder why the
Jews have faced so much persecution throughout history... </div>
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Nuremberg city skyline</div>
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A whole shop of coloured pencils!! Heaven!! </div>
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The Pegnitz River</div>
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Outside of Frauenkirche</div>
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Gold sculpture thingy in market square outside Frauenkirche.</div>
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Frauenkirche is pretty small, but it’s quite nice and there
is a medieval fresco on one of the walls that was discovered when the organ was
moved a while ago. It’s very worn, so you can’t really tell what it’s
depicting, but it’s pretty cool all the same. We then went to the St Sebald
church, which is older than Frauenkirche, another big gothic cathedral. I know
we’ve been to a lot of churches, but they are very impressive buildings, with a
lot of history and they’re generally free! Anyway, while wandering around the
church a fellow asked us if it was our first time in St Sebald’s. As it was, we
replied in the affirmative, and he then proceeded to give us a guided tour,
showing us an original painting by a famous artist from the 1500s, other
paintings that were done showing family trees of wealthy Nuremberg families,
the stained glass windows, various sculptures done by one particular artist who
depicted moving cloth in ear shapes on all his sculptures, as well as the big
reliquary in the front of the church which holds St Sebald’s bones. It was all
a bit odd, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. Having just been in
Italy, of course, I was waiting for him to hold out his hand for Euros, but he
just asked us if we would like to go to the castle across the road, and when we
declined he lost interest and just sort of showed us the exit and walked off
back in to the church. Okie dokes. Whatevs. </div>
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Medieval fresco in Frauenkirche</div>
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Cool window, Frauenkirche</div>
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The back of St Sebald's</div>
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A very German-looking doorway</div>
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St Sebald's</div>
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Inside St Sebalds</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j3hORl6aRPU/T-YImtLSIII/AAAAAAAACro/g63-BDNNfQc/s1600/DSCN4721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j3hORl6aRPU/T-YImtLSIII/AAAAAAAACro/g63-BDNNfQc/s400/DSCN4721.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K6OkUjkqikM/T-XxDjpzXMI/AAAAAAAACmY/WCC7Y4GnuAU/s1600/DSCN4729.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K6OkUjkqikM/T-XxDjpzXMI/AAAAAAAACmY/WCC7Y4GnuAU/s640/DSCN4729.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Cool street in Nuremberg</div>
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Mads wanted to be back at the hotel by 6 to watch Water for
Elephants on TV (she’s been very happy to find a channel that plays English
movies), so we started back to the hotel, grabbing some maccas on the way for
dinner. Once we got there, however, she discovered she’d been looking at the
wrong day in the TV guide, so instead of Water for Elephants we watched
probably the worst films in the history of the planet: Supernova 2012, in which
a supernova threatens earth and they have to figure out how to use missiles to
protect the world (yeah, likely!), then Masked and Anonymous starring Bob Dylan
and a few other usually really good actors that didn’t really make sense,
followed by Foxy Brown, an awful, awful 70s movie about... I don’t know what. But it was top quality. </div>
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Anyway, up and packed again the next day, we stored our
luggage and went to see the Nuremberg Trial Memorial at Nuremberg’s Palace of
Justice. The exhibition is located in the East Wing of the courts, around
courtroom 600 which is, of course, where the Nazi party big-wigs were tried for
conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the
victorious allies. There wasn’t much actual stuff in the exhibition, they had a
box in which documentary evidence was transported in, two of the benches on
which the defendants sat during the trial, and copies of the minutes of the
trial as well as files used at the time. But there was a lot of audio guide
material and it was a really interesting exhibition. You can go into Courtroom
600, it’s still a working courtroom, so it looks different to how it did during
the Nuremberg Trial, but there are features that are still recognisable from
the photos and videos: the door through which the defendants were brought into the
courtroom, the wooden panelling on the walls. </div>
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On the way to the Palace of Justice</div>
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The East Wing, where Courtroom 600 is located, home of the Nuremberg Trial</div>
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Box used to transport documentary evidence against the Nazis.</div>
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Benches on which the defendants sat in the exhibition.</div>
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The bottom shelves of this cabinet hold the minutes of the trial as well as files used in the trial</div>
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Windows in Courtroom 600. During the trial the judges from each of the Victorious nations sat in front of these windows.</div>
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In this corner is where the defendants were seated. The small door to the right of the main entrance is where they were led in to the courtroom.</div>
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The witness stand was by the door on the right.</div>
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Those men were just so evil! It’s so vile and disgusting
what they did and what they stood for, and then it’s weird to go outside again,
into Nuremberg, into Germany and think that it wasn’t all that long ago that
the people of this country, people I’ll walk past in the street, or their
parents or their grandparents, allowed indescribable atrocities to occur in
return for their own comfort and wellbeing. Don’t get me wrong, I really like
the Germans I’ve come across– they’re so nice and friendly and helpful; but
it’s incredible to think about what ordinary people, people like you and me,
are capable of doing or even capable of allowing under certain circumstances.
And that’s why it’s so important to never forget.</div>
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I would have liked to have gone to the Nazi’s rally ground,
which is also in Nuremberg, but we ran out of time – it’s a pretty fair toddle
from the Palace of Justice. After getting some lunch in a pretty flash KFC it
was off to the train station once again to catch the train to Berlin! I was
really looking forward to getting to Berlin, I’ve heard very excellent things
about it. Also very excited because Germany was playing Greece in the quarter
finals of the Euros. Unfortunately our train was getting in too late to go to
the Brandenburg Gate to watch the game, but the bar in our hotel was showing it
so we went down to watch the last half hour or however long it was. GERMANY
WON!!! Mads didn’t think I was doing a very good job of being enthusiastic. I
thought I was doing well: I said ‘oh’ at the right moments and cheered when
something good happened to Germany, like scoring. And I was outraged by a Greek
flopper. Okay, okay fine, so Fussball isn’t my thing. I like Rugby Union
personally, and other sports where points are actually made. But it was still
kind of fun... Maybe if I move to Europe I will get into soccer. I mean
Football. </div>
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Pretty flowers on the table in KFC! La di daa!</div>
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I just thought this church was cute, on the way back to the hotel in Nuremberg.</div>
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Boy oh boy our bed is so comfy here! Hooray for not moving
on anywhere for the next few days! We slept like logs, and late. I tried to
have a morning bath, but the plug in the bath doesn’t seem to do anything to
stop the water from draining out – super disappointing. Anyway we slowly got
ready and headed out into Berlin to see some of the more famous sights!
Wandering through a really nice office area, with lots of fancy glassy
buildings and water features and greenery, we managed to make it to the city
without too many dramas to find that we were in the midst of another gay
parade! Seriously guys, two weekends in a row you have hampered my sightseeing
efforts. What is the deal? </div>
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Anyway we stumbled upon the holocaust memorial, a huge area
full of concrete blocks of varying heights and sizes. It was really cool –
sombre and peaceful but not too intensely so. A nice place for reflection and
wandering. I don’t know the theory behind it, what it’s meant to represent or
illustrate, but to me it did seem appropriately large scale for such a large
scale event. </div>
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How hilarious is this sign! In the lift of our hotel. I'm not really sure what collywobbles is supposed to mean. So I guess I will be using the lift anyway...</div>
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The Spree River in Berlin</div>
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Fancy pants office building (and I think some residential too), sort of near Potsdamer Platz</div>
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In the holocaust memorial.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VFjUCKlvOUc/T-XzWnZ3lDI/AAAAAAAACow/DzZ1v6qmgzE/s1600/DSCN4761.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VFjUCKlvOUc/T-XzWnZ3lDI/AAAAAAAACow/DzZ1v6qmgzE/s640/DSCN4761.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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The holocaust memorial</div>
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We went to the Brandenburg gate, which was surrounded by
parade-attendees and stuff set up for Euros-viewing, but it was still quite
impressive. Then to the impressive and beautiful Reichstag building, with its
classical architecture and huge glass dome. We had our afternoon meal next at a
cafe with super slow service. Mads didn’t mind, she likes to sit. But I like to
move around and do not like to just sit without having anything to do. I had
spaghetti and Mads had Schweineschnitzel (pork schnitzel), then we waited for
aaaages, then I had apfel strudel and Mads had a mousse cake, then we waited
for aaaaages for the bill. Finally we got out of there and wandered along Unter
den Linden looking for Bebelplatz and the book-burning memorial. We were
somewhat confused when we arrived: no signs telling us if we were at
Bebelplatz, and for a while we couldn’t find the memorial. Idiots, you may
think, but it’s just a glass window in the pavement looking down onto a white
room with empty bookshelves outside the Humboldt University, commemorating the
day in May 1933 when the Nazis burned a whole heap of books in the Bebelplatz. </div>
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The Brandenburg Gate, formerly on the east-west divide.</div>
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I think this is the Fernsehturm, a TV tower</div>
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Outside the Reichstag</div>
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A statue on Unter den Linden</div>
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Bebelplatz</div>
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The Humboldt University</div>
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If you look carefully you can see the empty bookshelves under the glass.</div>
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Sights around Berlin</div>
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We decided to try and find our way back to the hotel, at
first getting lost as Potsdamer Platz has twin entrances to the train station
on opposite sides of the road. Tricky!! But we made it back, stopping in to get
some conditioner from a shopping centre in the fancy pants office district. First impressions: I really like Berlin! Can't wait to explore some more in the next couple of days!</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-40514955061836004072012-06-20T10:54:00.003-07:002012-06-20T10:56:07.172-07:00The Push into Deutschland<br />
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Monday was our second day in Salzburg. After a bit of a
sleep in and checking out of our hotel, we again left our bags and started with
a recon trip to find a laundromat at the train station, which was entirely
successful. We had a few hours before we had to do our washing and hop back on
the train, so we went for a wander in the old part of Salzburg for more Sound
of Music fun and to see what it was like.</div>
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It was really pretty! We started at the gardens of the
Mirabell Palace, where a lot of the Do-Re-Mi sequence was filmed. That was
quite fun to see, and if it hadn’t been so darn hot (again!) I might have been
tempted to run around and jump up and down steps and sing that blasted song
that ended up being in my head all day. As it was, we just walked like normal
people through the gardens which lead into the old part of Salzburg. We saw
Mozart’s birthplace; the Sacher Hotel, famous for inventing the Sacher Torte
chocolate cake; and the courtyard and fountain where Maria walked through after
leaving the Abbey to go to the Von Trapp’s place. I really liked the old
Salzburg. The buildings are all really pretty, and painted in lovely pastel
colours. The river is the same blue-green that all the rivers in Austria seem
to be, and then of course there is the huge castle towering over everything.
However due to the fact that we were hot, and now hungry, we didn’t really
enjoy it as much as we should have, I think. </div>
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Do Re Mi steps in the Mirabell Gardens</div>
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The fountain</div>
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I'm in love with climbing roses at the moment. I have been so inspired by this trip to get into gardening...</div>
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Picture Maria and the children riding their bicycles through here...</div>
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Dancing through the statues...</div>
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Posing in front of the fountain!</div>
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Mads does not like the heat. Plus she was still a bit homesick. I was a bit too, but less than the other couple of Austrian days.</div>
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Looking across the river to the castle and old part of Salzburg</div>
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What will this day be liiiike? I wonder.... Julie Andrews sang through this square too!</div>
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I think this picture is pretty self-explanatory.</div>
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Mozart bridge, I think. Another location for Maria and the children to run around singing. They must have been buggered by the end of that day!</div>
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Teeny tiny matches. They work, as we discovered in the hotel bathroom. Before remembering about the smoke detectors and trying desperately to make sure the smoke didn't get to the sprinkler system. But I love this slogan: no kangaroos in Austria. Ba ha ha ha!</div>
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We went to Maccas for lunch, before collecting our stuff
from the hotel and getting a taxi, which was driven by a fabulously
stereotypical Germanic woman – big, blonde and strong enough to throw our bags
into the back of the taxi: the only taxi driver we’ve had who didn’t even make
a noise about how heavy they are! Off to the laundry to do our washing, which
was a lot quicker than we’d anticipated, so we had a couple of hours to chill
in the station before our train was due to leave. A nice long chat to our
brother in Australia (sorry, mum) helped make the time fly, and we enjoyed a
nice leisurely train ride to Munich. So that was it for Austria. First
impressions: beautiful scenery, but I have never seen so many sandals worn with
socks in my whole life. It feels a bit like the somewhat dorky cousin of the
European family, particularly compared to France and Italy. But it’s still
charming in its own way and I’m sure I’ll be back in the future.</div>
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Washing day!</div>
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We arrived in Munich and found a taxi, who informed us that
our hotel was about 100m away and we didn’t need a taxi. Hooray! So off we
trotted, Ryan Ignatius behaving himself for once, and we just chilled out in
the hotel. I popped downstairs to get some pizza slices for dinner and that was
the end of our day!</div>
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I really liked Munich. I hadn’t necessarily expected that I
would – all I really knew about Munich was the Olympic fiasco back in the 70s.
I don’t know what I was expecting it to be like, but it was a lot different
than I had imagined, in a good way! It’s very charming and lively and I just
loved it! We actually got up for breakfast before the old check-out-stash-bags
routine, then we decided to do a walking tour of Munich as suggested by my
Lonely Planet guide. It wasn’t quite as hot as it was in Austria, which was a
nice start. We wandered down to Marianplatz first to see the gothic town hall
and its famous Glockenspiel carillon, and on the way found a huge store full of
dirndl, the traditional German dresses. Naturally we went in to have a
look-see, they had them in every imaginable colour! I love them, I so want one
and I so wish Australia had some kind of fun traditional dress other than
wife-beaters and cork hats. We managed to resist temptation and leave without,
and got to Marianplatz a bit early for the bells. But we waited and we saw them
chiming 12 – it was pretty fun to watch the figures parading before the king
and queen (i’m guessing), the Austrian knight getting lanced in the joust, and
the life-sized fellows dancing around. Mind you it did go on a bit... </div>
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Karlstor</div>
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How do you think I would look in a dirndl? If I lived in Austria or Germany I'd wear them everyday...</div>
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The Neues Rathaus (town hall)</div>
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The Glockenspiel</div>
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A man actually smoking a pipe!!!</div>
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After a quick look at a couple of churches around the
square, we wandered along Theatinerstrasse, made famous as Hitler and his
followers marched down it in the Bavarian Beer Hall Putsch back in the early
days of the Nazi party. Hard to imagine, it’s a pretty, chilled out street now.
We wandered into the garden of the Residenz (I don’t know what this building
was/is), which was nice, before heading toward Frauenkirche – or as Mads called
it, the Onions on account of its onion dome-topped towers. It was a pretty big
church – we were keen to climb the towers for a view of the alps, but they were
unfortunately closed for renovations. </div>
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Another statue taken advantage of, just like poor Juliet. But at least this one got flowers first, a marked improvement I'm sure...</div>
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Looking down towards Theatinerstrasse</div>
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Residenz</div>
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The gardens at Residenz</div>
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Inside Frauenkirche</div>
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I'm not sure who this monument is for but it is huge and quite spectacular.</div>
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Guarding the monument.</div>
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One of Frauenkirche's towers. You can just see the onion dome on top.</div>
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Mads was running on empty by this stage, so we went to a
restaurant for some lunch (which may or may not have consisted solely of ice
cream...), and we learned the secret to figuring out a German menu. Read it out
loud and you’ll work it out! Trying for a while to figure out what a particular
ingredient was, Mads finally read it out and I realised it sounded like
‘chocolate ice cream’ with a few extra syllables. And it was! Mind you, I don’t
know how this stacks up with other German foods, though... I really am
struggling with German. The words are all so long that they just will not stick
in my head. Even looking for street names I have to compare the map to the sign
about fifty times. And I just cannot pronounce anything either, which doesn’t
help. So I’m attempting to communicate with people using only ‘Guten Tag’
‘Danke’ and occasionally ‘auf wiedersehen,’ as well as a fair amount of vague
smiling and pointing. Thankfully mostly people speak English... </div>
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We walked through a really nice area that seemed relatively
tourist-free to see a medieval gate, Sendlinger Tor, before heading to
Asamkirche. At this late stage of the trip, after seeing about fifty gazillion
churches, I did not think I would be wowed by any more churches. I was so
wrong! Asamkirche is very small on the church size scale, but inside it is
absolutely covered in gold trim and statues and monuments and carvings and
paintings and marble – there is not an inch of space left undecorated. It’s
incredible! It is waaay over the top and so flamboyant and I loved it! It’s
definitely up there on my favourite European churches list.</div>
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Sendlinger Tor</div>
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Sendlinger Strasse, a really nice area.</div>
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Asamkirche. Don't be fooled by its exterior.</div>
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The completely bedazzled interior of Asamkirche.</div>
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Asamkirche ceiling</div>
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Richard Strauss Fountain</div>
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I was very jealous of the kiddies who got to play in this fountain. </div>
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Back to the hotel, before toddling over to the train station
to catch a train to Regensburg. This was just an everyday regional train, but
it was nice and clean and comfy – I know people have said it before but the
Germans really do know how to do trains! The taxi ride to our hotel was really
nice: Regensburg looks so nice and leafy and pretty! Next door to our hotel a
circus has set up shop. I always think circuses seem so old fashioned, and it’s
strange seeing them. This one has African elephants. I want to set them freeee!
Poor elephants.</div>
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Today we had a very, very relaxed morning. Mads slept for
most of it, I made it to breakfast which was delicious (as much as I love
Italy, they really don’t know how to do breakfast. So far we’ve found that the
Austrians and Germans are much, much better, thank goodness!), and then we
slowly got ready to go and explore Regensburg. It’s a really charming city,
that (happily) not many people, and not many tourists, have heard of. Hooray!
It is a really chilled out, pretty old city situated on the Danube river. The
people are really friendly, the buildings are lovely, there are quite a lot of
old towers, and there is a really nice, big old Gothic cathedral. After an
initial wander we found somewhere for lunch. Oddly just about every restaurant serves
Italian food, but we managed to find one serving good old-fashioned hearty
German food. Wiener Schnitzels for both of us, with the most delicious buttery
potatoes and a beautiful salad: so much food but so tasty! Somewhat over-full
we kept wandering, heading in to St Peter’s Cathedral which dates from the 13<sup>th</sup>
Century and towers over Regensburg. After so many Gothic cathedrals, I am still
awed by their size. </div>
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Regensburg</div>
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Dicken Mann, where we had lunch.</div>
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Seriously, the Germans know how to feed someone! Delicious!!</div>
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St Peter's Cathedral</div>
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Inside St Peter's</div>
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Scary looking organ in St Peter's Cathedral</div>
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If you look closely you can see Mads dwarfed by the massive columns supporting the vaulted ceiling.</div>
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One of many old towers in Regensburg</div>
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More wandering around before the heat started really
annoying us, so we headed back to the hotel feeling a bit sweaty and gross.
Honestly, what’s up with this weather? I thought I’d left that sort of thing
behind in Aus! As I write it’s actually pouring outside, so maybe it won’t be
too hot tomorrow. But I like Regensburg, it’s a beautiful place and I highly
recommend coming to see it. And after a couple of days in Germany I’m really
appreciating how nice the people here are! </div>
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A barge in a canal, being lowered ready to exit.</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-32576532759103946002012-06-17T14:46:00.003-07:002012-06-18T00:22:48.610-07:00Arrivederci Roma, Guten Tag Austria<br />
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We’ve had some trouble getting on the internet for the past
few days, so I’m afraid this is going to be a long one... </div>
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So I left you in the beautiful Tuscany. Wednesday was the
last day of our Italian tour – all of a sudden this trip seems to be winding
down very quickly! We packed our bags and left the hotel in Florence to head
back to Rome, with a stop in Siena on the way. It’s a really beautiful city,
with a lot of medieval buildings and windy, steep, narrow streets. It also has
the famous Piazza del Campo, a massive clam-shaped square that slopes downhill.
Very beautiful but also home to a famous (and arguably cruel) horse race which
takes place each year around the sloping cobbles – a lot of horses get badly
hurt in the race, but it’s the old animal rights vs. history and tradition
problem. At any rate, it’s a beautiful square. Basically we were free to just
wander around the city, and wander we did! Up the hill to the huge and
beautiful cathedral, then down the hill to grab an early lunch of giant pizza
slices. We sat in the square to eat them and I got pooped on. By a swallow. It
was very traumatic, and was a couple of inches away from landing on my pizza.
Instead it went on my skirt. After cleaning myself up with copious amounts of
Purell and tissues and pulling myself together again, we decided to walk and
eat so I wouldn’t be such an easy target. First we wandered back up towards the
cathedral via some quieter streets with amazing views, seeing stacks of scooters
all parked along the street (in these old towns they really are the only way to
get around!), and coming across the most amazing accordion-playing guy. He was
incredible! We were a bit early getting back to our last meeting point at the
Piazza, so we kept wandering and this time got a little bit lost. But we took
advice learned years ago from Blues Clues: ‘go back go back go back, go back to
where you were!’ and made it back to the group on time. </div>
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The belltower in the Piazza del Campo</div>
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Piazza del Campo</div>
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Siena's historic town hall</div>
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More cute pigeons! One is drinking out of the fountain, another one is having a shower under it. I may be the only person in the world, but I really like pigeons! I think they're funny...</div>
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Siena's cathedral with its funky stripey belltower</div>
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Giant pizza, moments before being pooped on.</div>
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A parking spot for your horse.</div>
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Scooters</div>
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Piazza del Campo</div>
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Back in the bus for the last leg of our trip, stopping at our
last truck stop/service station for a Chupa Chup (my stick came off. So it was
really just a cherry-flavoured lolly for me), before arriving in Rome, our road
trip at an end. How sad! A high-five for Luca-the-driver (I don’t know that
they do them in Italy, he seemed a bit confused and amused by it. But then I
think he’s always confused and amused by Mads and I. I don’t blame him really.
Even most English-speakers don’t know what we’re on about most of the time),
and a group photo with Brendan the Bus. We got our room allocation and ended up
being in a huge two-room suite! Rad! (Mind you I didn’t like it much, I felt a
bit lonely in my own room after having Mads right next to me for 7 weeks).</div>
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Last motorway stop</div>
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Presents for being frequent travellers (I guess it was an administrative error...) a bottle of Chianti and some local Marzipan cookies.</div>
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My room</div>
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Mads's room</div>
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Mads was pretty happy with the arrangement...</div>
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On the bus for the last time to go to our farewell dinner
near the Colosseum, at a restaurant in an ancient spa where they sing opera at
you when they deliver your food! Sooo fun! There was plenty of wine, and four
courses of delicious food, so it was rather jolly. And we were at a good table
with Jim and Becky, two of our favourites, and a nice family from Colorado. The
bus ride home was pretty fun too, Marisa playing Grease over the speakers and a
few people getting up to dance around, including Abraham (one half of the young
Aussie couple) who did a very big performance all up and down the bus to Grease
Lightning. Back at the hotel and time for final farewells. It was a bit weird –
we’ve spent only two weeks with these people and won’t see them ever again, so
it always feels a bit... false and contrived I suppose. Plus there wasn’t
really anyone in particular that we bonded with very strongly. However it was
very sad to say goodbye to Marisa and Luca, both of whom we like a lot!! </div>
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The mighty Colosseum</div>
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A little Roman laneway</div>
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Opera for dinner! So much fun.</div>
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Mads and Marisa</div>
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Luca, the best driver in the world! Nice, funny (and a bit cheeky), and a demon behind the wheel. Honestly, he could get that bus parked anywhere, down the narrowest of streets and around the tightest of corners. Not too bad on the eye either...</div>
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I love Marisa!! </div>
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Thursday, naturally, we slept in, before waking up and
feeling rather lost without Luca driving us wherever we were going and Marisa
telling us what to look at and where to eat and what was good to do. Eventually
we decided to go to the Roman Forum again for a better look around, so we had
to navigate the Roman public transport systems. The bus was fine. The train was
okay (except we had a bit of trouble finding the station), however we
discovered that the Italians are not as polite as the Brits when it comes to
the underground: trying to get off at Colosseo station the people on the platform
just started streaming in and we couldn’t get out. Thankfully the next stop
wasn’t too far away, but I had to actually yell ‘scusi!!’ before people would
get out of the way to let us off. We toddled up to the Forum and I have to say
it was much more extensive and incredible than I had realised. The site is
absolutely huge, and there are still a lot of excavations going on (I always
love seeing archaeologists at work). We had a look in the massive, restored
Senate building, which has a beautiful floor and there were a lot of beautiful
glass artefacts on display in there: amazing how well preserved these glass
objects are, some over 2000 years old! We kept wandering around, and then I saw
something that completely changed my day: in the house of the Vestal Virgins I
saw two imbecile tourists lean over and steal some tiles from the ancient
floor. Oh my goodness I was absolutely livid. I was shaking with rage. I wanted
to find someone who worked there to apprehend the disrespectful idiots who seem
to think these important, ancient ruins exist solely for their enjoyment and
have them deported at once, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. I later
lamented the fact I hadn’t said anything to them, but Mads informed me that I
did actually yell at them... Good! What a couple of nong-heads. Apologies, I’m just
really passionate about history and I really dislike tourists. Hypocritical
perhaps, but I certainly hope I’m nothing like the obnoxious idiots that go to
significant places just because that’s what you do in Rome. Anyway I’ve come up
with a system: before entering important archaeological attractions (or any
other cultural attraction, for that matter), everyone must take a simple
‘respect and appreciation’ test to determine whether or not they should be
allowed to enter. They should pay to take this test, so there is no loss of
important revenue for the sites, and if you’re successful the fee is deducted
from the ticket price. This would make these attractions much, much, much more
enjoyable places to be. I think it’s a brilliant idea, personally. Then you
would weasel out people like the fellow I heard saying of an ancient window
‘oh, and that would have looked out on St Paul’s Cathedral. Beautiful!’
Jeepers, where to start with the errors in that statement... But enough
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The Roman Forum</div>
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Mads walking in the footsteps of the ancient Romans.</div>
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Inside the old Senate building. Massive! </div>
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This plate is over 2200 years old. Incredible!</div>
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The mosaic floor of the Senate building.</div>
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Exterior of the Senate Building.</div>
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The return of the series on Mads Walking from Behind. Heading in to the house of the Vestal Virgins</div>
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Courtyard of the Vestal Virgins</div>
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We continued to wander through the Forum and the attached
sites, energy levels getting lower and lower, before we decided to head back to
the hotel to pack up our stuff and prepare to leave Rome and Italy. We got the
train just fine, however had a lot of trouble finding the bus to take us back
to the hotel. This had us crying out for our trusty tour leaders. ‘Marisa! We
can’t find the bus! Help us!’ ‘Luca, where are you? Come and pick us up and
take us back to the hotel!’ We stopped for some pizza at a little bakery/bar,
before heading back to the train station where we found a bus information desk
and a very, very, very helpful fellow who looked like an Italian version of
Tobias from Arrested Development, who told us our bus left from a side street
and went back towards the hotel a different way. Honestly, I could have kissed
that man. We got back to the hotel totally buggered, and honestly just ready to
go home. The Austria/Germany leg of the trip was looking less and less appealing.</div>
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Some of the ruins are spectacularly preserved.</div>
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The window that would have looked out over 'St Paul's Cathedral'... Actually we're in Rome, it's St Peter's Basilica and it wasn't built until about 1500 years later...</div>
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Another cute pigeon. This one apparently owns these ruins. </div>
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And for most of Friday we got more and more homesick, and
more and more desperately sad for the loss of Marisa and Luca. I know this is
starting to sound rather pathetic, but consider: for the last two weeks we have
been sheep. We’ve just been blindly following our Travel Director around Italy,
hopping on the bus, falling asleep and waking up at our amazing destination.
Getting to our hotel to find our bags delivered to our room. Being told where
to eat and when, what to see, what time to be places, where to meet and where
to get on the bus, where are the best places for souvenirs and cash and water.
I have discovered that I like to be a sheep. Independent thinking is so
overrated. Plus our bags are really, really, really heavy and we had a bit of
trouble with the trains. </div>
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We were supposed to go from Rome to Bologna, Bologna to
Kufstein, Kufstein to Vienna. We got to the first train just fine, boarded,
found places for our luggage (oh my goodness my bag is so heavy! Our arms have
lost their conditioning over these last two lazy weeks), found our seats, all
fine. But the train was a few minutes late arriving at Bologna, we had less
than ten minutes to find our platform and get our bags on. And as we got there
the train pulled away. With it went all the rest of our day’s travel
arrangements. I found a bloke who worked at the station who told us to go to
Verona to get a train to Kufstein and then to Vienna. But it was leaving in ten
minutes! So I sprinted through the station to find Mads, who I’d left with the
bags, then dragged the stupid things behind us to find the platform we needed
and we made it! But I was a sweaty ball of stress just ready to go home now.
All travelled out. So we arrived in Verona, and got a few puzzled looks from
the station staff. ‘Why did they send you here to get to Kufstein??’ Oh great!
But then we were pointed in the direction of the Germans and everything was
alright!!! The lady at the desk found us a train to Innsbruck that would take
us on to Vienna. We wouldn’t get there til 11.40pm but at least we would get
there! </div>
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Maccas for lunch, then we headed to the platform to wait for
our train, and were very excited to find that this train had real compartments!
Like in Harry Potter! It was very exciting. We found one, and managed to put
Mads’ bag up in the rack – we tried with mine but nearly squashed the poor girl
already sitting in the compartment, so I just put it on a seat. Thus we headed
north, to Austria. The scenery was so beautiful! Austria looks like a fairytale
land: huge, snow capped mountains, beautiful greenish-blue rivers, gingerbread
houses, green fields. Australia being as flat as it is, big mountains are a big
deal. They are so pretty! We had a Mr. Bean type fellow join us in our
compartment for a while. He was rather annoying but quite amusing at the same
time. He could not sit still, leaning over everyone to get brochures and
magazines, standing up to put a bag here, move a bag there, get something out
of his jacket pocket. He was also listening to his music rather loud and even
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Hooray, train compartment!</div>
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Location location location. I think this was still in Italy</div>
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Change of train at Innsbruck, to another very nice, new
Austrian train. By this time I was rather zombie-like, having been travelling
since 8.15am. Plus I finished my book (Dune. Torturous) and the battery on my
iPhone ran out so I didn’t have anything to do. We arrived in Vienna. I
realised I was out of cash, and apparently in Austria taxis don’t take credit
card. So we shuffled around the station like Zombies do and Mads found a cash
machine so we were all good. The driver had a little trouble reading the
address of the hotel, but we made it and we totally crashed into bed.</div>
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One of the best things about Europe is how late check out is
at hotels. We didn’t have to check out in Vienna until midday, so we slept in
late. It was fabulous. The pillows were so comfy! But we did have to check out,
so we got up, packed up, and got the hotel to store our luggage for the day.
The dude on reception looked kind of scary, but really he was very nice! We
took two steps outside before realising we actually didn’t know where on earth
we were, so headed back inside for a map and some directions, which were gladly
given. Off we toddled towards Ringstrasse, the masterpiece of Vienna as the
cultural capital of Europe at the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century. We
stopped in at a schnitzel place, which Mads was very excited about, for some
tasty schnitzel (in Austria. Crazy!). Afterwards we wandered around looking for
the Ringstrasse, and despite having two maps we found it a bit difficult. The
problem is that Vienna has a lot of really small streets with really long names
that don’t fit on the map. So finally we just stopped, sat down and made a
plan: to go to Schloss Belvedere, on the other side of Ringstrasse to where we
were, to see my favourite all-time painting, Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. We found
the right tram stop, we were all ready to go and then foiled!! The tram wasn’t
running because there was a stoopid gay parade on. Blast it! Normally we might
have walked, but it was an absolute scorcher of a day, even by Aussie
standards, so change of plan we decided to go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum
(which will be known now as Kunst because I can’t be bothered to write the
whole name out again). Off we toddled, Mads almost being taken out by a tranny
with a long-handled sign, before reaching the beautiful art gallery. While I
didn’t get to see the Kiss, at least I could see some Klimt in Vienna, as he
helped decorate the interior of the gallery. We looked mostly at the Dutch,
Flemish and German gallery, which included a famous portrait of Jane Seymour by
Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry VIII’s official court portrait artist; a lot of
Rubens, and an amazing picture by Barthel Beham, ‘Portrait of a Man’, in which
the man seems to be looking right at you after you’ve interrupted him in the
middle of a task. Incredible! There was also a very interesting exhibition on
the cult of wine: ‘Bacchus always triumphs!’ no matter what measures are taken
to attempt to curb the excesses of drinking and its effects. </div>
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Schnitzel!!</div>
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On the Ringstrasse</div>
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Bloody parade ruining my efforts to see the Kiss. I will just have to come back...</div>
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Kunsthistorische Museum</div>
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The building itself is absolutely stunning.</div>
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'Portrait of a Man' by Barthel Beham</div>
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Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein the Younger</div>
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A cool gallery, full of medallions mostly from the Habsburgs I believe.</div>
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Yay Klimt!</div>
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More Klimt. Beautiful, I love this painting. </div>
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Vienna. A very pretty city.</div>
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The roof of one of the cathedrals.</div>
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Courtyard of the Wien University</div>
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After this we wandered back to the hotel to get our bags and
head to the station for our next train to Salzburg. We got there a bit early,
so while waiting I taped up the holes that have appeared in the bottom of my
bag from being dragged around the place (it has wheels but has a tendency to
flip itself over like a turtle at the most inopportune moments. I’m trying to
decide if I should call it Ignatius after the obese, flatulent main character
in Confederacy of Dunces, or Ryan after the biggest contestant in Biggest Loser
Singles who seemed to always be either on his back on the floor or rolling down
hills). We also got very pestered by a guy trying to sell magazines. He didn’t
seem to get the fact that we don’t speak German and he doesn’t speak English.
We got to Salzburg at about 10pm. More compartments in this train but this time
we were awkwardly stuck in with an extremely over-amorous teenage couple. I’m
really starting to hate trains. After arriving I was a bit worried that we
wouldn’t have enough cash for the taxi. So I tried about a million ways to get
cash out – no one could point me to an ATM, so I tried Maccas and the
supermarket to no avail. Finally I found a cash machine but it gave me a 100
Euro note. What taxi driver is going to change that!? Back to the supermarket
to buy some M&Ms for change. After all that the taxi was only 6 Euro which
I had all along. Figures. We got to the hotel after 10 and reception was
closed. Luckily (for once!) a couple of nice American fellows staying in the
hotel were able to let us in to the lobby where an envelope with my name on it
and room key in it was taped to the wall. So off to bed ready for a big day
today!</div>
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Today we were very excited because we got to be sheep again
on a tour of Salzburg! Hooray for not using our brains! Also hooray for not
having to move Ignatius/Ryan (Ryan Ignatius?? Has a nice ring to it!) for the
whole day! We got up early to be picked up from our hotel and taken to the tour
bus stop. First stop: the Salt Mines! We actually drove into Bavaria in Germany
for this: the mine is in a mountain right on the border. We popped our funky
suits on and had to hop on a train that took us into the mountain. It was very
dark and kind of felt like a ride: I was expecting a big drop at any moment.
Instead we just arrived in the cathedral, a biggish room, I suppose, with a
couple of shrines to saints in there. But there was also the best part of the
salt mines: these big, steep wooden slides you get to go down to reach the
lower levels of the mines. So fun! So weird going down that kind of hill on
your bum: and it’s not like a normal slide, either, you kind of sit on these
two raised rails, I guess, that support your cheeks, and down you go holding on
to the person in front of you. I made Mads go first (we’ve already discussed my
height issues...) but it was really fun! The mine isn’t especially pretty, but
it’s quite interesting to learn about how the salt is mined today and in the
past – and kind of weird to think that salt is sort of a kind of rock that we
eat. If you know what I mean... you just don’t really think about eating
something that has to be mined. And the slides are super fun. There is one
amazing part of the mine, an underground lake that is so clear and still it
reflects the roof perfectly, initially you think you’re looking on a wide, low
passageway with a rock floor and roof, but actually it’s water! Amazing. You
cross it on a boat and it really does get ruined by a music and light show that
plays dramatically while you’re crossing. I guess that’s the problem with the
salt mines, they’re a bit overproduced. But still a lot of fun! We got to taste
some of the water: mega salty! And I kept thinking of the book Germinal by
Emile Zola which kind of freaked me out. But it was a cool tour. The mine is
still in use today, and we all got free samples of the salt they get out of the
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Me in my funky suit. </div>
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A huge mountain! With snow! In Summer! Beautiful. All the rivers are this beautiful greenish-blue colour.</div>
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The train that took us in to the mine</div>
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More mountains</div>
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I am loving the Bavarian portion sizes.</div>
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Onto the bus and we got near Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s mountain
pad/second HQ to pick up others on the tour who went there instead of the mine.
Didn’t get to see it though because the mountain was too cloudy. Then into a
little Bavarian town (very cute!) for a traditional Bavarian lunch: I had roast
pork and beer, and Mads had ribs, before getting back on the bus. The driver
kept trying to joke with us, but again we didn’t really get him and he didn’t
really get us (seems to be a theme on this trip). Then back to Salzburg to join
up with our Sound of Music tour! It was pretty fun to drive around Salzburg
with our guide in her traditional Austrian garb (you would be amazed how many
people actually wear it around! Very cool!), listening to the soundtrack from
the movie and seeing where it was filmed. We saw the mountain (from a distance)
Maria sang on and they climbed over to get to Switzerland (a bit of poetic license
here as the mountain actually leads into Germany via Eagle’s Nest); we saw the
famous Gazebo; the laneway Maria skips down to boost her confidence when
meeting the Von Trapps; the front of the movie Von Trapp villa; the palace used
for the gardens and the lake the children fall into; the abbey the real and
hollywood Maria went to; and the church in which they filmed the wedding. It
was fun, and we got to see a bit of Austrian countryside, which is very
beautiful. AND I got to have some apple strudel with vanilla ice cream which
was divine! </div>
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The famous gazebo from the Sound of Music</div>
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A palace, where the Gazebo is kept.</div>
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The lane down which Maria sang 'I have confidence'</div>
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Front exterior of the Von Trapp Villa</div>
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Mads with a dragonfly in her hair.</div>
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The lake and garden location.</div>
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Our guide, Mikhaela</div>
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Castle built in the 11th Century</div>
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How cool is this shop?? They sell Leiderhosen and everything! I really want to come back for 1st May, when everyone wears these outfits and they do the maypole dances and everything, how fun!</div>
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A nice looking lake. I can't remember what it's called...</div>
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The church Maria and Georg were married in. Awww.</div>
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We were very happy to find that our hotel is actually rather
close to the drop off point from the tour, so we toddled back and have been
fairly relaxed (albeit hot) all arvo. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-24229658841243489262012-06-12T15:54:00.002-07:002012-06-12T15:54:55.116-07:00Under the Tuscan Sun<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">Monday was another day of mostly driving,
as we made our way from Varese to Florence. The region of Luguria, which we
drove through, looks absolutely beautiful – we drove past Genova and a really
sweet-looking town called Santa Margherita Ligure – I think it’s going on the
list of places to visit next time I’m in Italy. We also drove past huge
mountains in Tuscany that look like they’re covered in snow, but actually they
are the white marble quarries. It’s quite amazing to see, but it seems like
more evidence of the destructiveness of human beings – whole mountains being
eaten away!</span></div>
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Genova</div>
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Views of the Ligurian coastline - that's the Mediterranean again!</div>
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White marble quarries in the Tuscan mountains.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We stopped for lunch and sightseeing at
Pisa, to see the famous Leaning Tower of course! A few things took me by
surprise regarding the Tower: first, I thought it would be taller; second it is
waaay more crooked and leany than I’d imagined; and finally it is absolutely
beautiful!! I also hadn’t realised that the Tower is simply one of a complex of
three buildings, as the bell tower for a Cathedral, and the baptistry at the
front of the Cathedral is there as well – all three buildings look lovely. It
was pretty funny seeing all the tourists taking their photos pushing the tower
up/over as well, very entertaining! </span></div>
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One of those little train/tractor things to take us from the carpark to the famous sights of Pisa. So weird and so uncomfortable riding in these things on the road.</div>
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Piazza dei Miracole: the baptistry, the cathedral and the (leaning) belltower</div>
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It's such a beautiful building!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had lunch at Pisa, in a cafe with this
adorable lady waiting on our table, before having a wander through the streets
of the old town. Finally it came time to meet the group to head back to the
bus, but two members had gone missing. We waited for about twenty minutes,
being swarmed by street-sellers trying to get us to buy watches, sunglasses and
umbrellas. Finally, just as Marisa and a couple of others were preparing to
send us back to the bus and stay on to look for the ladies further, they turned
up. I don’t know what happened to them... </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Anyway, back on the bus and we received
some of the best news of the whole trip: there was a pool at the hotel in
Florence! And when we checked in, our room looked out on it and it was so
pretty and blue! Most of the group was going for dinner in the Tuscan hills,
but Mads and I decided to stay back at the hotel. We got some ingredients for
ham sandwiches, as well as some fruit and choccy from the giant supermarket
next door, before heading back to the hotel, where Mads headed back up to the
room while I got a password for the wi-fi. Disaster strikes! I knock on the
door of our room and someone else in the group answers! I had forgotten which
room we were in, and couldn’t call Mads because I didn’t have my phone! The
reception desk didn’t have the list of names and rooms, so I had to wait for
Marisa to come downstairs to ask her where I was staying. Honestly, what a
ridiculous person I am! Finally getting upstairs (and Mads rather unconcerned
that I had been missing for such a long time), we changed straight away for an
absolutely delightful swim in the pool! Ah it was blissful... I actually don’t
think there is anything that feels better than simply floating in a pool.</span></div>
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Such a glorious swimming pool! Hooray!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Today was a big day, as we headed into the
middle of Florence for more sightseeing! The home of the Renaissance and the powerful
Medici family. It was pouring when we got on the bus, so we were a bit worried
about the weather. But by the time we got in to Florence it had cleared up into
a beautiful day! We met up with our local guide, who started by warning us
about all the gypsies in Florence. And she was right, there were rather a lot
of them. Then off we went for our walking tour to get ourselves orientated
around the city. Nicely, Florence is quite compact so it’s very easy to find
your way around and walk from place to place.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’d starting watching a documentary series
on the Medici a while ago (I didn’t see many episodes because it was a really
boring doco with really bad reenactments. Including the dude who designed the
Duomo sitting on the floor drawing circles on bits of paper with his tongue
sticking out like a brainless idiot), so it was pretty cool seeing the Duomo
for the first time. Apart from this fact it looks absolutely massive and
impressive on its own, and it is incredibly beautiful - covered in green, red
and white marble in different shapes on the walls, as well as amazing
sculptures of Mary and the twelve apostles adorning the facade. A very
impressive building! Then of course you have the huge cupola! </span></div>
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The beautiful facade of the Duomo</div>
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Mary with baby Jesus above the main entrance.</div>
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The golden doors of the baptistry outside the Duomo.</div>
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The famous Cupola of the Duomo</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next up we headed to the Piazza della Signoria, dominated by the huge, medieval looking Palazzo Vecchio (13<sup>th</sup>
century) and the Loggia dei Lanzi. This is where Michelangelo’s David
originally stood before being moved to the Galleria dell’Accademia, so now
there is a replica of David in his spot. But there are a lot of other
sculptures in the square, including a huge one of Neptune, who seems to be
looking right at the David and glaring at him: David was a symbol of the
government’s power, I believe, while Neptune was the Medici’s way of reminding
everyone who really held power in Florence. Observation: there are A LOT of doodies in Piazza di Signoria.</span></div>
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This arch was built for when Florence was the capital of Italy for a few years. Oh well...</div>
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The Palazzo Vecchio</div>
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Cosimo de Medici</div>
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Replica David in his proper position.</div>
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A lovely statue of Perseus (I think) with Medusa's head.</div>
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The Rape of the Sabine Women. Despite its subject matter it's actually a very beautiful sculpture, full of movement.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We moved on to Piazza San Croce next,
through what used to be the poor ghetto area of the city, to see the facade of
the San Croce church. This is another huge, colourful church. After our tour,
we had a gold presentation and a leather presentation, which are two of the
most famous products available in Florence. There really is leather everywhere.
It smells very nice indeed, and is very, very tempting. I didn’t buy anything,
as much as I would have liked to! Then it was free time! We decided to try the
Galleria dell’Accademia to see the original David. We joined the very long
line, and after nearly an hour hadn’t made much headway at all, so we cut our
losses to head to our second museum of choice in the Palazzo Pitti. On the way
we got some yummy gelato (I know, more gelato. I will soon be turning into
gelato. But it’s just so yummy!). They didn’t have any Amarena flavour, so I
had Spagnola instead, which is cherry as well and was just as delicious!</span></div>
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This used to be the home of the Da Vincis. </div>
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A street in what was the poor area of Florence, where the Franciscan monks came to do their good works.</div>
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San Croce.</div>
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Sculpture of an unhappy-looking Dante in the Piazza San Croce</div>
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A Florentine street.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Palazzo Pitti has been lived in by the
Medici family, Napoleon, and the House of Savoy who were the first monarchs of
the unified Italy in the 19<sup>th</sup> Century. The palace is huge, and now
houses a number of museums. We decided to go to the Galleria Palatina, which
has A LOT of artworks displayed in the royal apartments. Serious visual
overload. The walls are covered from top to bottom with paintings by various
important artists, and add to this the lavish decoration of the rooms: bright
walls with gold trim everywhere and painted ceilings! Too much to take in!! But
it was still pretty cool. We got a drink from the cafeteria and drank them in
the front courtyard, before going for a toddle around the streets of Florence.
The buildings are quite amazing, they are all just so old! We also saw the
famous Ponte Vecchio, which was interesting. I like Florence, but there really
are too many tourists here. I think when I come back it will be in the off
season, definitely. </span></div>
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Piazza della Signoria again.</div>
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On Ponte Vecchio</div>
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The outside of Palazzo Pitti</div>
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The courtyard in Palazzo Pitti</div>
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Possibly the best fountain statue ever! So cute!</div>
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A Florentine street</div>
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Ponte Vecchio</div>
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Just a cool building in Florence.</div>
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View of Florence and the Duomo from outside of town, in Michelangelo's Square, I think it's called. Thanks to Marisa and Luca for bringing us to see the view!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We met up with the rest of the group before
getting back on the bus. A lot of the group stayed at the hotel in the
afternoon, but Mads and I and the rest of us went to San Gimignano in the
Tuscan Hills for an explore. It was absolutely beautiful! Most of the walled
hilltop town was built in the 13<sup>th</sup> Century and it has been
exceptionally well preserved. It feels like you’ve stepped back in time! The
town is surrounded by vineyards, it has a lovely central square with a well,
and is full of beautiful shops, including wine shops selling local wine for
very good prices. That’s another awesome thing about Italy, the wine is so
cheap! You can get a nice glass of wine for the same price as a coke. We had
dinner sitting in the square – a slice of pizza for me and a hot dog for Mads.
Then we wandered everywhere. I can’t tell you how gorgeous the town is, I just
loved it. However it does have a disproportionate number of torture museums: we
found three. For a small town this is a lot. I don’t really know why there are
so many, I’ll have to look into it! Then of course there are the stunning views
over the Tuscan countryside. Mads wants to move there, even though she can’t
pronounce San Gimignano.</span></div>
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The Tuscan hills</div>
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San Gimignano, the place with the towers.</div>
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Brendan the bus coming to get us from our picture spot to take us up to San Gimignano</div>
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The main square</div>
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The well.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">More gelato from an award-winning
gelateria, which was delicious (Amarena for me, naturally!). We ran out of
stuff to do, so went to meet the group at the meeting point. But seeing as it
was getting cold and I was wearing shorts, we went for a walk around a park
outside the town walls. Finally we caught up with everyone, Marisa had bought
us all some delicious marzipan cookies which we tried even though we were
stuffed. Back on the bus then back to the hotel again! </span></div>
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Thanks to Mads, the hand model Ha ha ha...</div>
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A cool old door.</div>
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One of the three torture museums we spotted in San Gimignano. Interesting...</div>
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These sculptures are all over the town. This reminds me of the movie Signs. Super creepy.</div>
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The town's defensive wall. During the middle ages there were a lot of regional wars in Italy.</div>
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Yay I'm in Italy!</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-86018929608081534032012-06-11T15:29:00.001-07:002012-06-11T15:29:28.238-07:00Venice to Varese<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">Ah, Venice. I love Venice and really,
really, really wanna go back!!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">On Thursday morning we left Assisi and took
the long drive to Venice. We stopped a couple of times on the way, once for a
short tea break and the second time for lunch, before reaching our hotel on the
mainland near Venice at about 2pm. Most of our group spent the afternoon on the
Venice islands, but Mads and I opted to stay back at the hotel and finally do
our washing – best thing EVER, the hotel we were staying at had a laundry on
each floor. So, so good! </span></div>
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Scenery on the drive</div>
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Driving through the mountains</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had dinner at the hotel, lasagna
followed by veal and lemon cake for dessert. I was absolutely stuffed
afterwards, and we were sitting at a really good table with this one adorable
couple, June and David, who have been together for 4.5 years after they were
both widowed – they’re probably in their 70s I would guess and they are both
really lovely people. After dinner we were so stuffed, in fact, we decided to
go for a wander around the area we were staying in. It’s quite a nice place,
and it was a beautiful night! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So on Friday we spent the whole day on the
Venice islands! Hooray! We took a boat to the island of Murano for a
glass-blowing demonstration, which was so good! In about two seconds flat the
glass blower made a nice vase, and even more incredibly then made a glass
horse, but just turning the glass and pulling at it with what looked like big
tweezers, it was incredible! Into the showroom next, Murano is quite famous for
its glass and of course the items in there were WAAAAY out of our price range,
but they had some beautiful pieces and I might go back in the future when I am
super rich. </span></div>
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The Murano glass blower making a vase</div>
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Making a horse - this was so incredible! Just a couple of pulls on the molten glass with the tweezers and there it is!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back in the boat and off we went to the
real Venice!! It was so beautiful!! We noticed pretty quickly that there was
something out of the ordinary going on, there was a tall ship with sailors all
lined up along the masts, and important-looking navy people and bodyguard types
around the place. We found out that they were celebrating 150 years of the
navy, and the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano was going to be there to address a crowd
at St Mark’s Square! So after being startled by the cannons on the tall ship
being fired quite a few times, we lined up along the barricade beside the
Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s with our Travel Director Marisa, and we got to see
the president! He’s apparently about 83 years old, so he was being driven in a
golf cart, but it was all very exciting! The Italian national anthem played
(which I recognised after years of watching Rossi win the motorbikes), and the
president made his speech with a whole bunch of navy dudes lined up and a giant
Italian flag hanging in St Mark’s Square. It was very cool!</span></div>
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Boat ride to the Venice islands</div>
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There it is - Venice!!</div>
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Tall ship complete with sailors and flags and real working cannons!</div>
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A statue of Vittorio Emanuele, the first King of unified Italy</div>
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The bridge of sighs, connecting the Doge's Palace with the prison. So called because prisoners would get their last glimpse of Venice from the bridge - for a while at least</div>
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The bell tower, St Mark's Square.</div>
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President Napolitano!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Afterwards we farewelled Marisa and headed
off to get lost in Venice. We wandered down lane ways, along canals, over
bridges – the whole place is absolutely stunning! And I didn’t even think it
smelled at all, which is one thing I have heard about Venice, how much it
stinks. The buildings are just so old and pretty, the canals are a really nice
green, and there are gondolas all over the place. We came across a really nice
gelato store, so we stopped in and I had a delicious cherry-flavour, it was
SOOO yummy! </span></div>
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Yum yum yummy yum cherry gelato (and a bit of chocolate for good measure)</div>
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A street in Venice</div>
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Mads with her invisible gelato. Actually I don't think she was meant to be in this picture, so I don't know what she's doing...</div>
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Hooray a canal!</div>
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Gondolas!</div>
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Such a beautiful city. And it didn't even smell!</div>
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St Mark's Square, where the president addressed various members of the armed forces.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I was very excited to see that there was an
exhibition of the works of Gustav Klimt and the Secessionists, he is my very
favourite artist, so we went. It turned out it was held in a beautiful old
palace that is now an art gallery, but we entered up a grand marble staircase
and in through a ballroom with the most gorgeous chandeliers and mirrors on the
walls – it made me want to go to a fancy masquerade ball. But it was so amazing
to see some of Klimt’s works in the flesh!! The problem with his work is that a
lot of it consists of friezes on walls in various buildings, so it can’t really
be exhibited around the place, but they had a couple of very famous works of
his, Judith I and Judith II. I did an assignment on Judith I a couple of years
ago, so to actually see it was so amazing! I felt a bit emotional seeing just a
simple sketch study he did with charcoal on paper, just knowing that he touched
the paper, that his hands held the charcoal that made the lines on the face was
incredible. But my favourite piece in the exhibition was the design for the
Lovers Embracing, part of his famous Stoclet Frieze. Ahhh, it was so
beautiful!! It’s the kind of picture that almost makes you feel as though you
are in the painting – you can feel the warmth and the comfort and the
excitement of the embrace. Breathtaking! </span></div>
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Yaaaaay Klimt!!!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Anyway, more wandering and we came upon a pizzeria,
so we had lunch which was super delicious – margherita pizza with chips. Next
up St Mark’s Basilica. The outside of the church is very lovely – inside it is
very dark, but the whole place, as in all the walls and the ceiling, is
absolutely covered in mostly gold mosaics. It’s quite incredible! Mind you, it
was exceptionally frustrating being there – despite there being signs clearly
saying ‘no pictures’, all the tourists were taking pictures, most of them with
flash, some were taking videos – and despite the request for silence (also
signposted all over the place) there were tour guides giving their groups
information, it’s just really dodgy. Why can’t you have a bit of respect, for
goodness sake? If you really NEED a picture, buy a postcard! There are lots of
them at the gift shop! Except for the main part of the basilica you have to pay
Euros to get in to different parts of the church, for example the treasury and
some of the chapels and to climb up to... I dunno, a bell tower I guess, so we
just wandered around the main section taking it in. </span></div>
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St Mark's Basilica</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Actually, an interesting thing about Venice
is that despite the fact it is absolutely crawling with tourists, it is still
really chilled out, because I think people are just happy to aimlessly amble
(one of my favourite pastimes). Most of the time, you get a street or two away
from the main tourist attractions and you’ll lose the crowd. In Venice,
however, pretty much all the little backstreets and lanes have a steady flow of
tourists going through all the time. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had wanted to go to the Doge’s Palace,
which is meant to be a really good museum, but it costs 20 euros per person to
get in!! You do get entry to other museums around the place for that price, but
when you just want to go to the Palace it’s a bit steep. So we went on the
ferry up the Grand Canal instead to the railway station, then tried to slowly
wander back to our group’s meeting point near St Mark’s. This time we actually
did get lost, expecting to come out near St Mark’s and instead finding
ourselves and the edge of the wrong island, looking across the Grand Canal at
the church. We managed to find a bridge that got us to the right side of the
Canal, but we had to do a fair bit of backtracking before we made it to the
bridge! But the place was so beautiful it didn’t even matter. We found a really
nice handmade mask shop that we looked in, we stumbled across a fellow sitting
in a square playing a lute, and the sun was shining and everything was just
lovely. I am really in love with Venice!</span></div>
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The Doge's Palace. The screen in front was showing the telecast of the president's speech</div>
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Apparently pigeons are protected in Venice! I'm glad someone else appreciates them. I think they're cute. Look at them all fluffed up having a nice bath...</div>
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Ferry ride along the Grand Canal</div>
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I just love the rich colours of the buildings in Italy.</div>
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Beautiful red flowers - they had these all over the place.</div>
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We had sort of expected that we would come out near that tall ship in our wanderings. Instead we found this dead end on the wrong island...</div>
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Look! That man is playing a lute!!! </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Our poor little feet almost worn down to
stumps, we went to meet Marisa and the rest of the group (who had all gone for
a fancy lunch on Burano island) at the dock where the boat was to pick us up.
So we just sat on the edge of the Grand Canal watching the water. I had to go
to the bathroom at one point, so I paid the 1.50 euros to get in, which was a total
rip off and it wasn’t even that clean. Anyway the boat came, we got in, and we
headed back to the hotel. We popped across the road to get some food for dinner
from a little supermarket: on the menu chocolate cookies, cherries and
nectarines. Then once again to pack ready to leave for our next destination the
next day!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So on Saturday morning once again we hopped
on the bus early for a very full day with lots to see! As Marisa ALWAYS says
‘are you exciiited!?’ I love Marisa, she is so lovely! She speaks fluent
Italian and English on top of her native Croatian and knows a lot of facts
about Italy and stuff we’re passing on the road and the places we go to. She’s
also very helpful with absolutely everything, and she’s really nice to talk to
as well! But one of the best things about Marisa is that she’s got this fun
singsong voice, and just always has a funny way of putting things – so we’re
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<span lang="EN-US">Anyway, our first stop was fair Verona, as
you should all know the home of Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare’s most famous
play. We hopped off the bus and wandered past an old city wall, and the Roman
amphitheatre where the Opera is performed each summer – ah, that would be so
incredible to see! We headed to the famous Juliet’s house, basically an old
house with a pretty courtyard and a balcony overlooking it. Apparently they’ve
found that there really was a Capuleti and a Montague family living in Verona
back in the day, and that they were rich merchants, but I don’t know if
‘Juliet’s House’ is related to them at all... anyway, it’s a pretty little
spot, and tradition has made it significant even if it’s not historically. You enter
through an archway that is covered in chewing gum, and through a passage where
thousands of lovers have written their initials on the walls. It actually looks
very cool! There is a life-size statue of Juliet in the courtyard, and
tradition says that in order to be lucky in love men are to put their hand on
Juliet’s right breast. Naturally many, many, many men have taken advantage of
this opportunity and consequently she has one very shiny, very worn boob from
all the ‘tikky tikky tikky’ as Marisa puts it. Poor Juliet. You can go inside
Juliet’s house, it’s a museum, but we didn’t – instead we had a look around the
courtyard: there’s a couple of souvenir shops, a gate covered in padlocks
(another tradition that’s swept Europe, just about everywhere you go you’ll see
padlocks attached to famous landmarks with couple’s names written on them), and
a little shop above which Juliet’s Secretaries work replying to love letters
people have written to Juliet. I kind of wish I’d written something, but not
being particularly romantically inclined I didn’t know what to write. Also you
have to personally take it upstairs, a bit too intimidating for me! </span></div>
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Marisa with her rolled up map that she waves around for us to follow.</div>
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The Roman amphitheatre</div>
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Fair Verona</div>
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Chewy stuck on the arch leading to Casa di Giulietta. Romantics stick notes to the wall with it.</div>
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Juliet's Balcony</div>
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Poor Juliet cops yet another feelski. The lucky fellow is David from our group.</div>
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Padlocks! I love them!</div>
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Juliet's statue.</div>
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Inside the passageway leading to Juliet's House. It actually looks really cool, I think.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Mads and I had a bit of a wander around –
Verona is a very pretty little city, and there are a lot of very nice shops.
Torture when you’re a borderline shopaholic on holidays with three weeks to go
so you have to conserve Euros!! There are also a lot of really annoying/creepy
buskers! One dude dressed as a baby in a pram making awful baby crying noises, another
dude dressed as one of three heads on a table making horrible noises on a
kazoo-sounding instrument CONSTANTLY! We ran into June and David and had a
coffee with them at a bar, sitting on the sidewalk – an absolutely delicious
cappuccino for me, yum yum! And really they are some of our favourite people on
this tour! </span></div>
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Cool building covered in frescoes in one of Verona's Squares.</div>
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I really like this statue. I'm not sure what it's of, but I think it's really cool.</div>
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We have seen these dudes all over Europe! Don't know why they think they ought to get Euros for standing around in a costume that doesn't even really look like what it's meant to be - mind you, I've seen worse.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pntSUC_BJiQ/T9ZQb4uPbnI/AAAAAAAAB2k/nC-m58m_fEs/s1600/DSCN3523.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pntSUC_BJiQ/T9ZQb4uPbnI/AAAAAAAAB2k/nC-m58m_fEs/s400/DSCN3523.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The old city wall, Verona.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back on the bus, heading further north to
cross the Swiss border and visit Lugano! I was very excited, surely, surely, we
would get a new stamp in the passport here! Switzerland is, of course, mega-neutral,
not a part of the EU and super defensive about its neutrality. Alas, no! At the
border crossing Marisa and Luca just had to get off the bus to fill out some
paperwork, then they were back and we were in! I suppose it’s convenient not
having to get your passport checked, but I really want more stamps!! </span></div>
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Driving past Lake Como on the way to Switzerland</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Anyway, we arrived at Lugano not long
after, to find all the streets around the lake closed. So poor Luca had to
navigate the giant bus around trying to find somewhere to let us off –
eventually he did, and we got off to find the trials for the Tour de Suisse
bicycle race taking place! I’m not interested in bike racing at all, in fact
men wearing lycra give me the heebie jeebies, but we got LOADS of free stuff!
And cool free stuff! Mads and I each got a backpack, two hats, two flags, a
t-shirt, a weird balloon rattle thing, and a cow bell! So so so fun!! There
wasn’t much open in Lugano because of the race in terms of shops, but Mads and
I had a bit of a wander anyway. The lake is absolutely stunningly gorgeous:
such a beautiful deep, deep blue, surrounded by mountains and trees and
buildings. I really wanted to go in the water! The people in Lugano are also
really nice, and there are a lot of rather good looking men, I have to say...
We got a McFlurry from MacDonald’s to eat by the lake (a magnum one – super
delicious!) before heading back to the bus, everyone waving their flags as Luca
pulled up which I think he enjoyed. Back to Italy – I don’t think we even had
to stop at the border here – and to our hotel near Lake Varese. It was a really
nice hotel. We had dinner there, waaay too much food but rather yummy all the
same. There’s no way I could eat 3 courses on a regular basis, I have to say...</span></div>
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Mads in her free hat</div>
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The finish line, Tour de Suisse</div>
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A cyclist.</div>
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Lake Lugano. Spectacular!</div>
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Mads shows off the day's earnings. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Sunday was a very nice day indeed. We had
the option of either staying at the hotel for a free day, where we could sleep
in and relax or go to the lake or whatever, or we could take an optional tour
to Lake Como and Milan. Surprisingly enough, we chose the second option! Aaaah
Lake Como. I want to live there. It is so incredibly beautiful – the lake is
absolutely huge, and so deep and blue and surrounded by trees and mountains and
the most beautiful, luxurious villas! However devastating news: George Clooney
has sold his house and doesn’t go to Como anymore. Finally I get to Lake Como
and he’s gone! My brilliant plan to meet him there, and for him to fall madly
in love with me on the spot - foiled! Talk about frustrating. I shall have to
formulate another plan... </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LneIYPF3lK0/T9ZT3gnTfJI/AAAAAAAAB3s/jGDLr5SPs7g/s1600/DSCN3548.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LneIYPF3lK0/T9ZT3gnTfJI/AAAAAAAAB3s/jGDLr5SPs7g/s640/DSCN3548.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Mountains, on the way to Lake Como</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We went on a nice cruise of the lake to
start with, naturally Mads and I travelled on the top of the boat for the best
views, and it was very cold! While the sun was shining, the wind was sure
blowing and we were rather freezing. But we got to see the lovely villas up
relatively close. Many of them are actually hundreds of years old, as Como has
been a playground for the rich and famous for about that long. We saw a villa
that Napoleon stayed in, the villa that Mussolini spent his last night in
before being captured by Italian partisans and eventually executed, Sophia
Loren’s house, the house that until fairly recently belonged to the Versaces,
and many more interesting and beautiful places. Apparently it’s mostly Russian
oil magnates that are buying up big in the area these days... </span></div>
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Lake Como! So, so, so, so beautiful. </div>
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Mads has chosen this place as her future holiday home.</div>
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I think I'll live in this one. A nice humble, little cottage by the lake...</div>
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The place at which Mussolini stayed before his capture</div>
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Heading back to Como town</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had free time in Como after the boat
ride, but despite being desperate for a swim Mads and I decided we were a
little too cold after the boat ride, and we couldn’t find a good swimming spot
anyway, so we went back to Como town for some lunch – yummy mushroom risotto
for me! Before getting back on the bus we needed the bathroom, this took a bit
longer than we’d anticipated as we were wearing our swimmers, so we had to
sprint back to the bus which everyone had already boarded and were waiting for
us to arrive... oops. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uXKHgr-cPQU/T9ZpWqc4tMI/AAAAAAAAB84/j0y58VXyTgE/s1600/DSCN3666.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uXKHgr-cPQU/T9ZpWqc4tMI/AAAAAAAAB84/j0y58VXyTgE/s400/DSCN3666.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Me and Mads, Lake Como</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vx062M3i-s0/T9ZpwefaSDI/AAAAAAAAB9A/TIrNr5UGrbE/s1600/DSCN3667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vx062M3i-s0/T9ZpwefaSDI/AAAAAAAAB9A/TIrNr5UGrbE/s640/DSCN3667.JPG" width="640" /></a>Person: 'What did you do this weekend?'</div>
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Me: 'Oh, not much, chilled out at Lake Como, you know. The usual...' </div>
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The cathedral in Como town</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Off to Milan next! Milan is actually a very
modern city, due to the fact it was basically flattened during WWII. Consequently
it has a very different feel to the other cities we’ve visited in Italy, maybe
a bit more like Sydney I suppose. We got off the bus near the Opera House La
Scala, saw a statue of Leonardo da Vinci, and then walked through the
stunningly beautiful La Galleria shopping mall, for want of a better term. This
leads through to the main square of Milan, which is dominated by the stunningly
beautiful Duomo cathedral – its white marble gothic facade looks like lace. We
had a while of free time, so Mads and I headed in to the cathedral. It was
absolutely massive inside, but again so dark! It felt rather Notre Dame-ish, I
suppose, due to its size and layout. There were some interesting works of art,
including a sculpture of a dude with no skin, and we went down into the crypt
where they had the ‘relics’ of a saint – i.e. his body in a glass case. But it
was all covered up with what looked like a mask over the head and clothing over
the body, so it wasn’t so bad. </span></div>
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Leonardo da Vinci. I think he has an idea...</div>
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The famous La Scala opera house</div>
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La Galleria</div>
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The dome above La Galleria</div>
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The Duomo, Milan</div>
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Inside the Duomo. Massive!</div>
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The beautiful marble floor inside the Duomo</div>
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Huge pillars holding the roof up, inside the Duomo</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">When we’d finished in the cathedral we had
a bit of time to kill, so we went for a wander around the main part of Milan,
stopping in for some delicious gelato (hooray they had Amarena, my new absolute
favourite cherry flavour). More wandering... we had something to drink, I got a
postcard and finally found a little Italian flag to add to my collection, we
looked at the Da Vinci statue and a gorgeous little accessory shop in La
Galleria, before meeting up with the group again to head back to the hotel. One
thing I will say about Milan, they have the most aggressive guys trying to sell
you stuff in the street. There were a couple who were selling these friendship
bracelet things that actually chased us down the street and tried to force them
on us, saying ‘it’s free, it’s free’ – it’s never free, they always say that to
get you to take it. I had to get a bit forceful with one of them and tell him
to back off, we didn’t want it! Super annoying. </span></div>
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A cool building in Milan.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back at the hotel with a couple of hours to
spare before dinner, we decided to go to Lake Varese to swim. So we wandered
across the road to the path that goes around the lake, having to walk around
3kms before we found a good spot in which to enter the water. Despite
everyone’s warnings that the lake would be very cold (the lakes were formed by
glaciers a few thousand years ago, so they are very deep), the water was
actually really warm. There were some cute duckies with ducklings swimming
around, it was rather pleasant. However we looked across the lake after a
couple of minutes swimming to see pouring rain heading right for us – so we got
out and dressed really quick and headed back to the hotel. Not quick enough,
obviously, so the rain absolutely bucketed down on us and we were drenched. Me
in a white t-shirt, much to the delight of the handful of Italian men we passed
on our way home. Oh dear. Absolutely drenched through we arrived at the hotel.
I knew of a door that was quite close to our room, alas it was locked so we had
to go through the lobby, where everyone on the tour was watching Italy vs Spain
in the Euros. Naturally most of them spotted us trying to sneak in. Oh well. We
had fun. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">A quick shower for me and we headed to
dinner, risotto followed by yummy trout and vanilla bavarian cream for dessert.
Once again way too much food! Back to the room to pack ready to move on again
the next day. </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-67052448529014517552012-06-07T13:22:00.003-07:002012-06-07T13:22:46.800-07:00Heading North<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Once again, so much to catch up on!! So I
left you in Rome... Monday was a day that consisted mostly of travelling. We
left Rome early-ish to head to the Bay of Naples, where we were to spend the
next two nights in a place called Castellamare di Stabia on the sea outside of
Napoli/Naples. I have to say I am very stoked that we don’t have to carry our
bloody great heavy bags around for the whole two weeks of our Italy trip! They
do it for us! Hooray!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There was a bit of drama on the bus in the
morning: we were told we should stay in the same seats this morning as we had
for yesterday, and we would all rotate around the bus starting the next day.
One couple, however, got a bit confused it seems and moved seats. This caused
utter chaos. The couple whose seat they had ‘stolen’ moved (let’s call them the
Oklahomas), then the people who belonged to those seats tried to get another
seat from someone else, it was utter confusion! The original ‘seat stealing’
couple wouldn’t move, maintaining that they were in their right seats. So the
Oklahomas moved to a seat that was always free right behind us. This meant we
had to hear them all day talking about how their seats were stolen, how they
didn’t care where they sat but those seat stealers shouldn’t have done it in
the first place. What an awful situation!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We were on the bus for a few hours, but the
scenery was beautiful: we could see the Apennine mountains all the way, and
they are so huge! We saw some lovely farms and houses and an abbey or two along
the way, however Naples itself is a very, very poor city – apparently it has
something like 40% unemployment or something ridiculous like that. So there are
a lot of buildings that look like they were once beautiful mansions that are
now abandoned and derelict. Castellamare de Stabia is pretty in it’s own way,
but it’s quite run down and there are a few poorer areas. Our hotel was built
in the 1800s and seems as though it’s pretty much the same as it was then –
it’s very nice, built around a central courtyard, with a roof terrace that
looks over the sea. </span></div>
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The Apennine Mountains</div>
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Mads in our room</div>
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View from our room</div>
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Exploring the hotel</div>
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Castellamare di Stabia</div>
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The roof terrace overlooking the Bay of Naples</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Most of the tour group went for an optional
excursion drive around the Amalfi Coast, but Mads and I decided to stay back
and find a Laundromat at which to do our washing. We were, however,
unsuccessful in this attempt, unable to find the one the hotel desk manager had
suggested, then trying to get directions from a very lovely police officer
which ended up at a drycleaners, who vaguely pointed in a direction in which
there didn’t seem to be any Laundromat. So we dropped our dirty washing back at
the hotel and decided to go for a wander around the town. It’s very alive
around the beachfront (if that’s what you could call it. It’s more like dirt
that meets the sea, with grass growing over a lot of it and A LOT of rubbish
everywhere), with kids playing games and people sitting and chatting all over
the place. We wandered around some of the backstreets, which were obviously
quite poor areas – I thought it was fine but Mads didn’t like being there so
much. Also she’s a bit stressed crossing the road in Italy, as you pretty much
have to take your chances jumping out into the road. There are pedestrian
crossings all over the place but they don’t seem to mean much! </span></div>
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Castellamare di Stabia</div>
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A street in Castellamare di Stabia</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Dinner was provided for us at the hotel,
which was very nice: a pasta course, followed by the most delicious fish,
followed by panna cotta for dessert. Yum yum! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tuesday was such a beautiful day! The sun
was shining, and we all loaded onto the bus for our first day of seat rotation.
Oh dear, the seat stealers strike again!! It seems they thought that ‘rotating’
meant picking any different seat to sit in, when actually it means move two
rows in an anti-clockwise direction around the bus. Now they had stolen the new
seats of a young couple. So Young Couple didn’t know where to go, and the
Oklahomas were again outraged, so they moved back to their original seat
because it was free again, even though they ‘didn’t care where they sit’, so
Young Couple were in the old new seats of the Oklahomas. Now fear and anxiety
is spreading through the group. Whose seats will the seat stealers take next?
What will happen to the next victims? What incredible Italian destinations will
they miss out on if they are not in the correct seat?? Dum dum duuuuuummmmm –
stay tuned for the next installment of Chaos on the Tour Bus!!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Anyway, amazingly enough we all made it
through an absolutely stunning drive down the narrow streets (kudos to the
amazing bus driver who managed to maneuver ‘Brendan’ (that’s the giant bus)
without crashing or bumping anything) to Sorrento, which is just gorgeous -
built around the steep hills and cliffs leading to the sea. We started with a
demonstration/talk at an inlaid wood furniture factory which was a little
interesting, they had some nice furniture in the showroom as well, so that was
nice to look at. We had a bit of free time to explore Sorrento, so Mads and I
just wandered around to the main square and tried to get down to the sea, which
we ended up not having time for as it’s a looong way down. So we headed back up
to Brendan, stopping to look down a very deep ravine that runs along the side
of one of the roads, at the bottom of which are the ruins of a 200-year-old
washhouse that was used for washing clothes in the stream. Naturally I was
being very cautious and a bit giddy at the height, so when Luca the attractive
driver grabbed me from behind and yelled ‘don’t do it!’ I almost died of a
heart attack. He thought it was pretty funny. So did Mads. I just tried to get
my heart started again. </span></div>
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First view over Sorrento</div>
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The ruined washhouse at the bottom of the ravine</div>
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A bridge leading to the washhouse</div>
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Sorrento town square. So pretty!</div>
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A sculpture on a hotel's grounds. I thought it looked pretty.</div>
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A lane way in Sorrento</div>
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The marina in Sorrento</div>
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Me and the Mediterranean</div>
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Brendan the Bus, home for the length of the tour</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We got minibuses down to the marina to
catch the ferry across to the Island of Capri (pronounced Caa-pri, not
Ca-prii). We got on the boat after meeting our local guide Willy, a bit of a
wally I thought. The boat ride was pretty bumpy, which I thought was fun but a
lot of people got really seasick. The crew was running around handing out
sickbags to anyone who looked remotely green. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Capri was so beautiful scenery-wise but
waaay too full of tourists. It has gorgeous huge white cliffs, whitewashed
buildings and the water is just such a beautiful shade of blue and so clear! We
got the Funicolare up to the town of Capri that is at the top of the very tall
island – apparenlty it’s a mountain that was attached to the mainland until
about 12,000 years ago when the last ice age finished and the ice melted and
the sea rose, cutting it off. Anyway, the town of Capri is pretty fancy-pants,
with a lot of fancy shops and hotels along the narrow streets, with
bougainvillea and wisteria growing everywhere. We walked along to the Gardens
of Augustine to look out towards to the Faraglioni rock formations in the sea –
no wonder the Roman emperors were so drawn to this place! We had a few hours of
free time after our guided tour, so Mads and I headed back down the Funicolare
to Marina Grande to find some more pleb-appropriate food (Marina Grande isn’t
quite as exclusive and expensive as Capri). I had super yummy Bruschetta
Caprese, and Mads had fries and a banana split. Next up we went to swim in the
Mediterranean, which I was so excited about!! I have been longing for a swim
since we arrived in London and to swim in the Mediterranean just seemed too
cool! So we went to the pebbly beach, which was actually rather painful to walk
on in bare feet, set up camp next to some leathery Italian mammas in their bikinis,
stripped down to our cozzies and in we went! It was a bit like Sydney water in
that it’s always cold when you first get in, but once you’re in it’s really
nice, as I discovered when I slipped on the rocks and was in. Crikey, I’m such
a glamorous, elegant individual... The water was really salty, which made it
very easy to float, and we had a jolly nice time in the water! Another thing
that is weird about rocky beaches is not being able to gauge the depth of the
water, because you’ll be standing on a rock when you think you’re on the
bottom, take a step and it’s actually deeper than you thought. But it was just
so nice to be in!! We got out earlier than we’d have liked because we didn’t
have any towels, so we had to bake ourselves dry. We didn’t account for not
being in Australia though, so we were still pretty damp after what we thought
was plenty of time for drying. </span></div>
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Grande Marina on the Island of Capri</div>
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Capri</div>
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I Faraglioni</div>
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This used to be a monastery where they made perfume from the local flowers. Now it's a school.</div>
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The colour of the water!!</div>
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One of the huge cliffs</div>
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Yum yum Bruschetta Caprese</div>
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On the beach!</div>
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Me with the Mediterranean in my hair. You might also like to notice the TAN lines! It's a miracle!</div>
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Grande Marina</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back on the boat for a smoother journey
back to Sorrento, then back to the Hotel Stabia. Mads had a bad headache, so I
left her to have a shower and a nap and went to the roof terrace for a glass of
red and a relax in the sunshine. It was pretty blissful. Dinner at the hotel
again, pasta followed by chicken and fruit salad for dessert, and we ate with a
really, really nice couple so it was very nice indeed. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Wednesday was another action packed and
incredible day, because we went to Pompeii, one of my (and Mads’s) lifelong
dreams! And it was amazing and frustrating because we had such limited time
that we really had to rush through and missed so much! I hadn’t realised just
how huge the place is: excavations have been going pretty much since the late
1700s and they are still excavating! And it is so, so well preserved! We
entered through the Gladiators barracks, walking past their training yard into
the amphitheatre, which is still used occasionally. We walked along one of the
main streets to the House of Menander which was incredible, with a beautiful
courtyard, a little pool in the atrium, stairs leading up to the second floor,
colourful frescoes on the walls and mosaics on the floors! We saw fast food
shops with grooves in the doorway where a sliding door was used to close up
shop. We went to the Stabian Baths which were absolutely stunning, and where
some of the famous but slightly creepy casts of the victims of the eruption
were displayed, facial expressions and folds of clothing evident. We saw the
temple of Apollo, the red light district and one of the brothels with erotic
frescoes on the walls, the Forum, miles of amphorae and so much more but not
nearly enough! I could have spent all day there and crawled over the whole
place, exploring every inch, so the hour and a half we had felt a little
inadequate. But it was still incredible and Mads and I were so blown away to
have been there. Vesuvius still looms ominously overhead, and apparently it’s
meant to erupt in the next couple of years so hopefully Pompeii won’t be lost
again! </span></div>
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The training yard at the Gladiator's Barracks</div>
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In front of the stage at the amphitheatre </div>
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The amphitheatre</div>
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An Ancient Roman fast food joint</div>
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One of the streets in Pompeii</div>
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A duck fresco on the wall in the House of Menander</div>
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The dining room, House of Menander</div>
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The atrium, House of Menander</div>
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The courtyard, House of Menander</div>
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A second, larger dining room, House of Menander. This one looked out over the garden</div>
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A fresco, House of Menander</div>
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House of Menander. The owners of this house were wealthy enough to have their own private bath house</div>
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Stairs! In the House of Menander.</div>
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A table in the remnants of a house</div>
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Willy, our guide, demonstrates how the fast food shop worked...</div>
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Groove in the doorway from the sliding door that used to be here.</div>
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Mads on a stepping stone. Pompeii didn't have any proper sewers so water etc. would run down the street, so the streets were quite deep and had these stepping stones that people could cross without getting mucky feet. </div>
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The beautiful ceiling of the Stabian Baths</div>
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The roof over one of the baths, Stabian Baths.</div>
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Mads in the baths</div>
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This cute doggy was immaculately preserved by the volcanic ash. Kidding! He was following us around for a while, he was really sweet! Then he found another doggy friend and ran off :(</div>
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The plaster cast of one of the victims of the eruption. Creepy but quite incredible</div>
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The Stabian Baths. Notice the under floor heating.</div>
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Outside the Stabian Baths</div>
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A fountain in the street</div>
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One of the rooms in one of the brothels. Nice, comfy bed...</div>
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The entrance to another wealthy villa with beautifully preserved mosaic floor.</div>
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The forum</div>
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The forum again. You can see Vesuvius looming in the distance.</div>
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At the forum</div>
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Basically a storehouse full of amphorae that has been discovered.</div>
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'The crying boy' plaster cast of one of the victims, with amphorae and birdbaths and other bits and pieces that have been found on the site.</div>
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A statue in the storehouse</div>
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The Temple of Apollo</div>
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Altar to Apollo, with a sundial on top of the white column. You can just see the pointy shadow marking the time</div>
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The site is absolutely massive!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We attempted to evade the aggressive
souvenir vendors to head back to the coach, first getting a beverage and going
for a toilet stop (in a lot of places in Italy you have to pay to use the loo,
which really irks the Americans in the group but I think is great! It means
there is an attendant there constantly cleaning the toilets, ushering you in,
replacing loo paper and paper towel and soap. I’m more than happy to pay 50c
for that kind of service. The loo in the town of Capri was amazing, with
chandeliers, fancy tiling and an attendant that even checked the cubicle for
cleanliness before you went in). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back on the bus, everyone in their
correctly rotated seats (I was a bit disappointed to not have another episode,
I have to say!) and off we went to Assisi! I must confess I didn’t see much of
the trip, I fell asleep on the bus and didn’t really wake up except for our
lunch stop at a motorway service station and just as we were coming in to
Assisi. Even then I was pretty groggy and chilled and zombie-ish. </span></div>
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The Abbey of Monte Cassino, where the Nazis were holed up during WWII. There was a lot of fighting around here.</div>
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An old farmhouse in a wheatfield.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Assisi is so beautiful! Such an old
medieval town built on top of a hill, home of course to St Francis of Assisi
and the Franciscan monks. We walked up to the St Francis Basilica, the lower
part of which was built in the 13<sup>th</sup> Century I think, and in which
you have to be completely silent – a bit of a challenge for me. But it was
lovely, it is absolutely covered in frescoes, walls and ceiling. It was so cool
and peaceful in there, even though there were a couple of tour groups not
respecting the silence request with their guides giving them information and
whatever else. We went downstairs to see the tomb of St Francis, which is in a
chapel underground and it kind of looks like a cross-section of a grave, I
guess. There were a lot of people praying down there. It was a really nice
place, I’d have to say it’s my favourite Italian church so far! And I saw a
monk in there, which was pretty exciting. We went upstairs to the larger
Basilica which is built on top of the smaller one, via the courtyard of the
monastery and a little shop full to the brim of prayer cards and books and
rosary beads and post cards – including one I found that has a picture of St
Francis’s skeleton on it. Okie dokes. Anyway, the upper Basilica is much larger
than the lower one, but it’s not as nice I don’t think. Apparently it was badly
damaged by an earthquake a few years ago. Although you can’t tell.</span></div>
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Mads in Assisi</div>
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The Monastery</div>
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St Francis's Basilica</div>
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Courtyard of the Monastery</div>
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Poor St Francis coming home after deserting from the army</div>
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The upper basilica</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had a wander around Assisi after this,
it is so pretty! The buildings are all very old along narrow, steep,
cobblestone streets. And there are amazing views of the beautiful Umbrian
countryside. There were monks all over the place, and nuns, and we saw one dude
who I guess was on a pilgrimage in bare feet (that looked very sore and
swollen) and a brown robe, and his beard was really long. It was a nice and
quiet place with nice little shops, and I liked it a lot. We eventually made
our way back down the hill to have some chocolate gelato and wait for Brendan
the bus. Our hotel was about three kilometres from the old part of Assisi, near
the Patriarchal Cathedral of Santa Maria of Angels. We got to the hotel at
about 6.30, and were told the Cathedral would close at 7 so we hoofed it up the
road to have a look-see. It’s a huge cathedral (as they all are), but it’s very
nice and light in there and it is built around this really little old church
that has frescoes all around it and a relic of some kind in there I suppose,
because people were kneeling before entering and praying in there before the
altar. We didn’t go in, it was too intimidating, so we just walked around
looking at the brightly coloured and lit up sculptures of Jesus and various
Saints people had lit candles to. Back to the hotel for dinner, pasta course,
followed by the most delicious pork chops I’ve ever had, and some kind of
pistachio custardy dessert stuff which was very nice. Then off to bed to pack
because we were moving on again the next day!</span></div>
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Monks in Assisi!</div>
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Me in Assisi</div>
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The old town gate, built in the 14th Century</div>
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This is the part of Assisi in which our hotel was.</div>
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The Cathedral of Santa Maria of Angels</div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-53085016165607503072012-06-07T08:39:00.002-07:002012-06-07T08:39:50.677-07:00Rome: Eternal City<br />
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Our first day in Rome
was a pretty lazy one. We pretty much just chilled out at the hotel, as it’s a
fair distance from the city in a nice residential area. We awoke to a sure sign
we were in Italy – the view of a lovely tower surrounded by fairly typical Italian
buildings and poppies from our room window. We had a meeting with our tour
group and Travel Director, they all seem quite nice, mostly on the middle age
and older side but that’s okay. Then off to Giapponese (Japanese) for dinner
around the corner – it was a public holiday in Italy so it was the only place
open, but it was pretty tasty!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The view from our hotel room</div>
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Our first day with our
tour group was absolutely chockas, but really great! Rome is so beautiful and
there is just so much history everywhere!! We received a wake up call at the
extremely uncivilised time of 6.30am, and had to be on our coach by 8am, which
we managed to do! So we started the drive into Rome, passing a huge ruined
complex which our Travel Director told us was the remains of the Imperial
Palace, looking over an oval with more ruins on it that was the Circus Maximus.
Honestly, I nearly cried. The number of times I have read about the Circus
Maximus and Ancient Rome and seen pictures and then I was finally actually
there!! Unbelievable! We crossed the Tiber River, which is in a very sad state:
apparently the source of the river is drying up so the river is now too shallow
for boats to cruise up and down it, there is grass and weeds growing over the
banks, dirty polluted water, and it’s also really deserted – compare this with
the Seine which is so full of life! Boats going up and down, people strolling
and sitting along the banks with their wine and cheese and bread, nice gardens
and statues... it’s very sad that this once mighty river is in such a state. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The ruins of the Imperial Palace. That grassy bit in the foreground used to be the Circus Maximus.</div>
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Ruins at the Circus Maximus</div>
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Anyway, first stop St
Peter’s Square in the Vatican City! We met up with our local guide, Eleanor,
and her multi-toned purple scarf on a stick which we were to follow around the
place. I thought the square was lovely, with the perfectly aligned columns running
around the outside, and the facade of St Peter’s Basilica with its massive
dome. From the Square you can see the Pope’s house (?), including window
(second from the left) from which he gives blessings, and the balcony from
which he gives the special Christmas blessing. We followed Eleanor’s scarf
through the metal detectors and up into the Basilica. On a Sunday groups aren’t
technically allowed to go in, so she gave us some info outside and in we went
for an hour free time. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t blown away by St
Peter’s. After the bright, simple (well, relatively anyway) beauty of St Paul’s
in London, and even York Minster and Notre Dame of course, I just didn’t think
it was amazing. Even though it is bigger than those cathedrals, it didn’t feel
that way because there is just so much ornamentation EVERYWHERE – statues and
gold and mosaics and the humungous high altar (not in use today because the
Pope was away and he’s the only one that is allowed to use it) all seem to
break it up. And I also thought it felt rather dark, actually. We did, however,
get to see Michelangelo’s Pieta, his famous sculpture of Mary holding the
lifeless body of Christ, and it was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful: how on
earth you can get stone to look so soft and fleshy is beyond my comprehension. Less
appealing were the weird monuments to popes or cardinals or whatevs that look
like corpses lying in glass cases – a couple of which even had that
green-tinged emaciated look that corpses have. For a while there I actually
thought they were real corpses – you know how there are those saints whose
bodies don’t decompose and they get carried around all over the place... you
never know! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Eleanor's scarf</div>
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The columns surrounding St Peter's Square</div>
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The Pope's house</div>
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A funky guard at the Vatican</div>
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Inside St Peter's Basilica</div>
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Michaelangelo's Pieta. Stunningly beautiful!</div>
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Looking up into the dome</div>
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The main alter</div>
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Outside the Basilica</div>
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St Peters. As you can see in the above picture there are chairs in front, and the Pope stands on that white stage in front. The big screens showed footage of the mass he was giving in Milan, I think, that morning.</div>
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After wandering back
to the bus we went for a drive around Rome, and saw the Castel San Angelo, the
Piazza Venezia with Mussolini’s balcony and the huge monument to the
unification of Italy, plus a lot of ancient ruins and our first glimpse of our
next destination, the infamous Colosseum. We had a couple of options: go on an
‘optional excursion’ to see the Catacombs; have three hours free time; or have
two hours free time before going to see the inside of the Colosseum and then
going to the Vatican museums the next day as a second ‘optional excursion.’ As
much as we would have liked to see the Catacombs, you can’t do everything in
one day so we opted for the free time option and got in line to see the
Colosseum’s interior. The line wasn’t as long as we’d thought it would be,
which was great, so we got to have a pretty good look around it. It was a very
surreal experience actually being there: on par with being at the Eiffel Tower,
but even cooler because it’s so old and full of so much history. I think the
one thing that really blew me away was how much it felt like you were in a
modern stadium: the numbered entrances; the different layers, I suppose, around
the outside of the arena; the stairs leading up and out to the spectator area;
the rows for seating. Those Romans were pretty dang clever. I also liked that
they had bits of statues and columns and other decorative features lying around
the place where they’ve been found again, and there is one part you can stand on that feels like you're actually a gladiator stepped out into the arena ready to fight - just like Russell Crowe! The place is so big and would have been so full of spectators all calling for your blood, how intimidating!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Castel San Angelo</div>
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Monument to the unification of Italy.</div>
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Mussolini's Balcony, from where he used to address the people - in the middle with the flags on it. I believe it's a palace built in the 15th Century... but don't quote me on that.</div>
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The Colosseum!!</div>
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Here you can see the three rings around the arena</div>
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Constantine's arch.</div>
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Numbered entrance gates.</div>
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We're in! This is the line to get tickets to go further in, after the line to first get into the building</div>
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The labyrinth that was beneath the ground of the arena</div>
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View of the Palatine Hill from the Colosseum, the hill on which Rome was founded.</div>
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Bleachers.</div>
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Bits and pieces of the Colosseum that have been found</div>
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Gladiators etched into stone. And I guess that's a dog... maybe a wolf or something?</div>
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Remains of snacks consumed at events</div>
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One thing I have to
add about the Colosseum is it is completely surrounded by dudes trying to sell
you stuff they carry around: scarfs, umbrellas, hats, sunglasses, and these
weird splatty animal toys (go figure. Look what I bought at the Colosseum in
Rome! It’s a pig shaped bit of goopy stuff that you throw at the floor and it
squeaks and splatters before taking it’s original shape again!). And they are
really all up in your face about it. And they are everywhere! You’ll finally
shake off one bloke holding an umbrella over you trying to sell you one, and
another person will come up to you and hold an umbrella over you trying to sell
you one. I mean, they’re just trying to make a living but surely you just saw
me reject that last guy with the same wares!! <o:p></o:p></div>
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We finished looking
around the Colosseum with a bit of time to spare, so we headed for the Roman
Forum which is just up the road. We could see it all from the outside, but for
a while there couldn’t figure out how to get in... Finally we found the
entrance with only about 20 minutes to spend in the complex. If we had the time
again, we would have gone to the Forum first: the ticket for the Forum gets you
in to the Colosseum as well and vice versa, and naturally the line for tickets
at the Forum was A LOT shorter than at the Colosseum so we would have had more
time to look around both attractions. Ah well, hindsight, hey? Anyway the Forum
was AMAZING and it was so frustrating having to run around like crazy people
clicking away on our cameras so we could get back to the tour group. My
favourite part of the Forum (well, what we saw of it anyway) was the Vestal
Virgins’ Villa (V.V.V.) – it was very cool, because you can really see what it
must have been like back in the day. And it must have been really nice! <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Roman Forum</div>
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Courtyard of the Vestal Virgins</div>
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Incredible, everywhere you look there is more evidence of the lives of the Ancient Romans</div>
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A bit of a power walk
and we made it back to the group, so it was back onto the bus and back to the
hotel. But do not fear! Our day was not yet over, for it was only 2pm at this
point! After a bit of R&R at the hotel for an hour or so, it was back on
the bus again to be reunited with Eleanor and her magic scarf on a stick for a
nice stroll through the city. And it really was a nice stroll, the city is so
incredibly beautiful, with its richly coloured apartment blocks with shuttered
windows and climbing plants and flower window boxes all over the place, cobble
stones and narrow laneways with sidewalk cafes and fountains everywhere. We saw
the Presidential palace; the house of government with a large column outside
commemorating the defeat of the Germans by Marcus Aurelius (the war at the
start of Gladiator) topped by Saint Peter out the front; and the Trevi
fountain. Of course we had to chuck our coins in: throw with the right hand
over the left shoulder, four coins which means you’ll win the lottery. Surely,
even though the Blarney Stone seems to have failed in its task of gifting us
with eloquence, the Trevi Fountain will pull through for us! It really was
beautiful, too: much larger than I had expected, and the water was so clear and
such a nice aqua pool colour I really wanted to swim in it. And we didn’t even
get pickpocketed! Hooray! We got some gelato by the fountain, yummy pistachio,
strawberry and the most delicious, rich chocolate for me; Mads had chocolate,
chocolate chip and mango. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A street in Rome</div>
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The Presidential Palace</div>
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The Trevi Fountain. Beautiful!</div>
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Mads after chucking her coins. Let's hope it worked, even though she did it backwards. </div>
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My turn! Pleeease let me win the lottery! Then I can go back!</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bROP2l7zkMc/T857eNZMNKI/AAAAAAAABbw/VuBX5ZUTCw8/s1600/DSCN2754.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bROP2l7zkMc/T857eNZMNKI/AAAAAAAABbw/VuBX5ZUTCw8/s640/DSCN2754.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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Yum yum gelato!</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5rNFLLfBfUc/T8571N-_xaI/AAAAAAAABb4/hL-WjgTy7yw/s1600/DSCN2758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5rNFLLfBfUc/T8571N-_xaI/AAAAAAAABb4/hL-WjgTy7yw/s400/DSCN2758.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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Column commemorating the win over the Germanic people by Marcus Aurelius</div>
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Then it was on to the
Pantheon. Now this gave me the wow moment I’d been expecting at Saint Peter’s
earlier! The dome is incredibly beautiful, with the spotlight of sun tracking across
it. Amazing that it has lasted so long, originally a temple to the Pantheon of
Roman gods, turned into a Catholic church later. Raphael is buried here, and
his tomb is quite lovely with sculpted flying birds above it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Pantheon, originally built for the Ancient Roman gods, now a Catholic church</div>
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The amazing dome, with its continually moving sunspot.</div>
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The main altar.</div>
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At midday (or 1pm daylight savings time) the sunspot aligns with this main doorway</div>
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Birds on Raphael's grave. </div>
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Off to Piazza Navone
next, a lovely oval-shaped piazza dominated by a beautiful church and a large
fountain with figures representing the four continents (no Australia yet I’m
afraid) and their major rivers. For centuries artists have come to the Piazza
to sell their works, and still there are people selling a lot of watercolours
of Rome mainly. There were also a lot of buskers, favourites included a man
with a violin and a man with a guitar playing various rock songs; and
especially this little old guy in a red vest who lip syncs and sort of bobs up
and down to music playing through his speakers. So adorable!! Mads and I had
dinner in a laneway just off the piazza, at a restaurant with fairy lights and
red and white tablecloths. Lasagne for me and a nice glass of Rose (the lasagne
wasn’t as great as I’d hoped but it was still nice) and Mads had some roast
chicken with delicious potatoes. It was such beautiful weather, a really lovely
evening! Back to the hotel completely exhausted after such a busy but great
day! There is so much to see in Rome it’s absolutely going to have to go on the
‘must return’ list! <o:p></o:p><br />
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We had dinner in this lane way, the place on the right at the end of the street with the fairy lights on the wall.</div>
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Chicken and lasagne</div>
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Piazza Navone</div>
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Art for sale, Piazza Navone</div>
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There are beautiful flowers all over the city</div>
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This cute old man lip syncing and dancing away</div>
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The view of the Tiber looking back towards St Peters at the end of the day</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-83201261180691309662012-06-03T13:59:00.003-07:002012-06-03T13:59:58.566-07:00War and Peace<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Wednesday in Bruges.
We decided to climb Belfort, the very tall and reasonably famous belltower
dominating the Markt. But before that we slept in AGAIN and this time didn’t
even leave the hotel until the day was well under way. We went to have lunch,
with the intention of going to the place we had the Belgian waffles at, but it
was closed. Alas! A spanner in the works. We wandered around for quite a bit
not being able to decide what to eat before just settling on Quick, a European
fast food chain. It was okay I guess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">So, Belfort – 366
windy, narrow, old steps to the top. Again, due to the wonderful fact that we
are under 26 we got in for cheap. The current belltower was built in the 1700s,
I believe, however there was a tower there for a few hundred years before that
– the old one was struck down in the most dramatic fashion by a bolt of
lightning that caused it to collapse. Apparently back in the day bells were
used to send signals to the people of the town, like ‘time to go to work!’ and
‘Quittin tiiime!’ and ‘Yay good news!’ and ‘oh no, something bad has happened’.
Despite the huge number of stairs it wasn’t so bad – there are a few levels at
which to stop and look around, like the Treasury in which the town charters
were kept behind gates with numerous locks, and each key for each lock was
given to a different person so they all had to be present to open them. The
higher you go in the tower the narrower the stairs, but once at the top there
is quite a nice view over Bruges, and a lot of bells of different sizes that
seem to ring constantly for different reasons. Nowadays the only messages sent
by Bell are ‘it’s a quarter past the hour,’ ‘it’s half past the hour,’ ‘it’s
nearly a quarter to the hour,’ ‘now it’s a quarter to the hour’ etc. So we
heard a couple of different chimes whilst on our way up and at the top of the
tower. We heard the hour struck on our way down – it was pretty loud. I’m glad
we weren’t at the top for that one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Up up up to Belfort!</div>
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The treasury room at the bottom-ish of the tower with its fancy locking gates. It has a cool floor.</div>
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Spiral stairs! </div>
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Belfort's courtyard from a bit up the tower.</div>
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Looking up in Belfort</div>
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More stairs. </div>
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Some of the chimes are played like a giant music box.</div>
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Cogs and stuff.</div>
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A fairly big bell, but not the biggest by a long way.</div>
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Made it to the top!</div>
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The view over Bruges.</div>
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Another big bell and a few smaller bells you can see.</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Back down on lovely,
solid ground again (mind you, despite the height of the tower I was not too
scared at all! I guess it’s all enclosed so you don’t know how far from the
ground you’re heading until you’re up there, and then you’re down before you
know it!), we headed off to see if the elusive doggy-at-the-window was there –
and it was!! Finally we saw it sleeping on its cushion, and it was very cute
and I am glad it really exists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Yaaaay, the famous doggy in the window by the canal!!</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">We wandered to the
Hospitaalmuseum next, which is a hospital museum (go figure!) in the chapel of
the old Sint Janshospitaal, an old hospital run by nuns that dates back to the
12<sup>th</sup> Century. It was pretty interesting actually. They had some old
medical instruments, old store cabinets, some medical books from the 15<sup>th</sup>
and 16<sup>th</sup> Centuries, very old accounts documents dating as far back
as the 1300s, and sedan chairs used to transport the patients to the hospital.
There were also some medically themed paintings, including one of Sint
Janshospitaal in the 18<sup>th</sup> Century, in which you can see the beds,
patients, nuns, doctors and even one of the sedan chairs. Very interesting! But
possibly my favourite part was a restored 17<sup>th</sup> Century pharmacy
which was very cool!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Wandering to Hospitaalmuseum</div>
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Down beside Sint Janshospitaal</div>
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The apothecary/pharmacy. Can you find Mads?</div>
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Courtyard and well - I think it used to belong to nuns or monks, one of the two.</div>
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Outside of the Hospitaalmuseum</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">We headed back to the
hotel as we needed to check on our reservation for a Flanders Fields tour,
which was lucky as we had to call them to confirm our places. We also had a
relax and then went to see Moonrise Kingdom at a little cinema where each
theatre is colour coordinated!! We were in the Red room, so we got a little red
ticket and all the walls and chairs were red. The world just feels right when
it’s colour coordinated. The film was very, very good too – super dooper cute
and exceptionally quirky. It receives a Highly Recommend rating from yours
truly, who is, of course, a very well respected film critic. For dinner we had
Ben and Jerry’s. We are such healthy people. But it was delicious. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Pretty! Restaurants at Markt at night.</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">On Thursday we had the
only freezing day of our Bruges trip (which we were thoroughly unprepared for),
and we went on an excellent bus tour to Flanders Fields, to visit some WWI
sites there. The tour was run by Quasimodo, yet another Highly Recommend rating
for them! Our guide Phillipe had so much knowledge, so as well as being very
moving and very beautiful, the day was very educational as well! Hooray for
learning things. There were about 30 people on our bright blue bus, a very good
number I think.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Basically the tour was
focused on the Ypres Salient, travelling mostly along the Passchendaele Ridge.
Apparently a salient is a military term for the dangerous situation when a part
of your army pushes through the enemy’s front line to create a sort of bow
shape, giving the enemy the opportunity to attack from three sides. See,
learning! This is where a lot of fierce fighting took place throughout the four
years of the war, as the Allies tried to keep Germany from crossing the border
between Belgium and France, and many, many men were killed in the war of
attrition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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A monument to the Canadians who held their line in the first German gas attacks.</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Our first stop was
Langemark, a German cemetery where over 44,000 soldiers are buried. It’s quite
sad, really, because it seems so uncared for and forgotten. Even though they
were the enemy in Belgium, they were young men with families the same as every
other soldier, living and dying in awful conditions. There are granite stones
on the ground marking the graves, each grave holding three or four soldiers,
and there is a large, dead garden marking a mass grave which reportedly holds
the bodies of around 22000 men. These are numbers you can’t even fathom, and
the thing about Flanders is that there are these huge war cemeteries
EVERYWHERE. We went to Tyne Cot Cemetery later in the day, which is the final
resting place for over 12,000 British and Commonwealth troops (including Aussie
diggers), and the names of a further 35,000 missing (whose bodies were never
found or identified) on a wall around the cemetery. Driving up to it there is
just a sea of white headstones – it is a very peaceful place, with beautiful
lawns and flowers growing on the graves. There is a new visitor’s centre there,
which has an eerie voice reading out the names of the dead, and a few personal
effects of soldiers who are buried at Tyne Cot. One particularly moving relic
is a letter written to a soldier from his wife, dated the day he actually died.
As if this wasn’t tragic enough, the letter speaks of a friend of theirs,
Walter, who returned from the front on leave a changed man: not wanting to see
or talk to anyone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Langemark German Cemetery</div>
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Names inside a monument at Langemark</div>
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The approach to Tyne Cot Cemetery. </div>
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A German bunker left at Tyne Cot</div>
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Australian headstones at Tyne Cot</div>
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There are so many names of the missing.</div>
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Letter to George Smith from his wife, dated the same day he died.</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">We went to a couple of
battlefields, including Polygon Wood where there is a large monument to the
Aussies who fought, and Hill 60, a fiercely fought-over hill on the Passchendaele
Ridge that was blown to pieces by mines in tunnels dug deep under the German
lines. We also saw how WWI is still impacting the farmers working on Flanders
Fields, with a few unexploded shells that have been found, lying by the side of
the road waiting collection by the bomb squad (apparently farmers in the area
have the bomb squad on speed dial). Occasionally they blow up and people still
get wounded by them. When it rains you can apparently find a lot of shrapnel in
the ground: it’s crazy how much there is left over, so many years later! And
it’s plain to see how much when you go to the Hooge Crater war museum, which is
where we have lunch. A private museum, it is full to the brim of relics from
the war: uniforms, weapons, helmets, binoculars, bugles, shells, bottles, gas
masks; everything even down to cigarettes and matches and absolutely everything
you could think of! It’s actually a really good museum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shells by the side of the road</div>
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Souvenirs - shrapnel fished out of the ground. Apparently these came from shells filled with them, very nasty. We got to keep one each.</div>
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The Australian monument at Polygon Wood.</div>
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Polygon Wood. Such a pretty place.</div>
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Creepy gas masks at the Hooge Crater museum</div>
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Aussie slouch hat, Hooge Crater Museum</div>
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German helmets</div>
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Shells. This is half of the second of two cases absolutely chock-a-block full of them</div>
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Artillery</div>
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Out the front, Hooge Crater Museum. </div>
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Hill 60. Or at least what's left of it. The battlefield has been preserved as a war grave.</div>
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The leftovers of a mine at Hill 60</div>
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In the crater at Hill 60</div>
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A British bunker left over at Hill 60. There were a few bunkers, this one changed hands at least twice I believe.</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">We went into a
restored trench in the middle of an industrial estate – the past and present existing
side by side! There is a dugout there that has been excavated, but you can’t go
in unless you bring your scuba gear as it is completely flooded. Apparently a
few years ago they found the remains of over 200 soldiers when they were
building the warehouse next door. It’s just insane the number of dead lying all
over the place, from just four years! I had a real wow moment at the Menin Gate
in the city of Ypres (or Ieper to the Belgians. I kept seeing road signs and
read them as ‘Leper’, wondering why anyone would want to live in a town called
‘Leper’) – it is an absolutely massive monument with the names of all the
missing inscribed on it. Just those whose bodies were never found. And there
are names ALL OVER IT. Every single bit of wall is covered in names. Suddenly
you realise just how many men died in just this one part of the war and all for
absolutely nothing. It’s completely tragic and completely stupid. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Into the trenches</div>
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The opening to the dugout.</div>
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Here you can see the zig zag pattern of the reconstructed trench. The gravel marks out where the dugout is underground. There are a few rooms and corridors down there.</div>
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The huge Menin Gate</div>
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Every night in Ypres they play the last post for every soldier who's body has never been found or identified. They're still going, and won't be stopping anytime soon. </div>
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Names on the walls of the Menin Gate. </div>
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The rebuilt city of Ypres.</div>
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A monument at John McCrae's dressing station.</div>
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Inside the dressing station bunker where John McCrae worked.</div>
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Inside the dressing station bunker.</div>
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The dressing station bunker from outside. </div>
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More graves.</div>
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This soldier died at the age of 15.</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Our last stop was at a
dressing station bunker, where John McCrae worked and wrote the famous poem ‘In
Flanders Fields.’ For the whole trip Mads has been dreaming of lying in a field
of daisies. So we found some daisies in a field, and I thought it would be a
good idea to fulfil Mads’s dream and lie in them. However, about two steps into
the field and Mads’s legs started stinging from some kind of plant. Luckily we
got out before we had flopped down, it could have been very unfortunate
indeed!! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Retreat!! </div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Back to Bruges, I feel
fast asleep on the bus. We walked through the now rain to Pizza Hut for dinner
and chocolate mousse for dessert (on the house, awesomo!!). Then back to the
hotel to pack and prepare to say goodbye to Bruges. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Friday. The weirdest
days are those when you awake in one country, and go to bed in another. We
walked from the hotel to the train station, dragging our heavy wheelie
suitcases behind us (a fair effort, actually). We got there just in time to
catch the train to Brussels Midi before changing to get to Brussels National
Airport. A bit worried about the weight of my suitcase, I was amazed and
relieved to find it only weighs 21kgs!! That’s way underweight, excellente! We
had two flights to Rome, going via Barcelona (I know, it’s completely out of
the way but it was a cheap flight!). A very funny ‘lost in translation’ moment
at Barcelona airport: at Maccas we had all the food on our tray except for my
burger. The guy serving us put my burger on another tray and goes ‘I bring to
your table.’ Okay, well that’s exceptionally good service for a Maccas, I mean,
we could probably find our own table and fit the burger on our tray easily, but
whatevs! We’re in Spain!’ So we followed the dude with our tray, around and
around in circles, past heaps of empty tables, him sort of turning around to
look at us every now and then, a few other workers and some customers looking
at us sort of funny. Eventually I got a bit tired of the game, so said ‘we’ll
just sit here’ and pointed to an empty table. Again he said ‘I bring to your
table’. The penny dropped – the burger was for someone else he was looking for,
he was going to bring my burger to us at our table because there’d be a wait on
it. We were like a bunch of ducklings. OMG, talk about a couple of losers
following this poor dude around the restaurant, we were a bit embarrassed and
sat in fits of laughter the whole rest of the time we were there!</span></div>
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Barcelona from the airport</div>
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A very memorable maccas visit</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">We landed in the
Eternal City at around 9pm. The flights were fine, a bit of turbulence out of
Brussels that had me gripping the arms of my chair, but I did okay! And now we
are in Rome! It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to come to Rome! To
Italy! I can hardly believe it! We got a very expensive taxi to our hotel after dodging a few very enthusiastic fellows trying to sell us taxi rides. The driver lifted up Mads's suitcase exclaiming 'Mamma Mia!!' He he, I love it that Italians really say Mamma Mia. I think I'm going to like it here! The hotel is quite nice, but full to the brim of tour groups! More on our adventures in Rome later...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sunset flying in to Rome.</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-55860454957765205002012-05-30T09:13:00.000-07:002012-05-30T09:13:13.393-07:00In Bruges. (It's in Belgium)<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">On Sunday morning we checked out of our
hotel and bade farewell to Paris. I was rather heartbroken as we drove through
the streets and our awesome taxi driver pointed out so many things we hadn’t
had time to see. It’s such a beautiful city, so full of things to see and do,
and I shall have to return many more times in the future!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We got to Gare du Nord a bit too early –
Mads kept occupied watching this really weird sculpture contraption that was
all white with lights and music and a ball thing inside it that smoked and rose
up when the music reached its crescendo. It was very odd. I kept occupied
watching the cool departures board which has those flippy letters.
Unfortunately, waiting for our train was the most enjoyable part of the journey
to Bruges. The trains from Brussels were all delayed due to an accident between
Paris and Brussels, so the bright fellows at Thalys decided to condense three
trains into one and terminate the train at Brussels instead of sending it right
through to Bruges. This meant that Mads and I didn’t have a seat, so for three
hours we were perched on these little fold down stools next to the doors of a
carriage in the baggage section. I was absolutely livid. When you pay 30 euros
for a seat you kind of expect a bloody seat! We found the next train that was to take us on to Bruges, just a
standard intercity train. Finding a seat with our giant suitcases we were
informed by the ticket dude that we’d stumbled into first class and would have
to either move or pay the difference. So we lugged our bags into the next
carriage and found another seat, and I managed to cool down a bit reading
Confederacy of Dunces (really, really funny and horrifying book – a pretty good
read that had me laughing out loud quite a lot. Ignatius J. Reilly sure knows
how to insult a person).</span></div>
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Cool flippy departures board at Gare du Nord</div>
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Gare du Nord</div>
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Waiting for the train!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So we got a taxi to our hotel and stayed in
for the afternoon relaxing, straying out only to get dinner. We found a nice
restaurant with a very begrudging waiter, and were pleased to find that people
in Bruges speak excellent English. I feel terribly rude speaking English to
them, but I do not know a word of Dutch. The hotel is very nice, apparently
part of a building built in the 15<sup>th</sup> Century, with a canal running
along the back of it.</span></div>
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Home for the next few days</div>
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A canal</div>
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A horse-drawn wagon! I could hear horse hooves on the cobblestones from my hotel window, and thought I must have been going crazy. Thankfully I still have a little of my sanity left.</div>
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Swans with their fluffy babies, so cute!</div>
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A cool building by the canal that runs along the back of our hotel</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Yesterday we slept in, of course (we’re
here for five days, partly to recuperate after the busyness of Paris
sightseeing and driving around the UK before heading off for more madness in
Italy, Austria and Germany), before emerging in the afternoon to wander around
the city. It really is a very beautiful city – the buildings are gorgeous, and
it has a very chilled-out, holiday vibe (helped by the fact that it was a
public holiday in Bruges). The weather has been perfect: warm and sunny with a
nice cool breeze so you don’t get too hot. AND being here I’m constantly
reminded of In Bruges, one of my favourite all time films. ‘Oh look, there’s
Belfort where Colin Farrell insulted those fat American tourists and Brendan
Gleeson met his untimely and rather gruesome end.’ ‘It’s like a fairytale, wif
the cobblestones and all the churches and the canals.’ Ahhh, if you haven’t
seen it, rent it out now. It’s brilliant! We had lunch at a cafe near the Markt
(the main square in Bruges), Mads was very excited to find Schnitzel on the
menu, but all her hopes were dashed when it came out drowning in salsa. I
thought the salsa was the best part of the meal, personally, but if you know
Mads you’ll know she’s a supertaster and can’t handle too much flavour.
Naturally she was quite devestated.</span></div>
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More horses! They really are quite loud on the cobbles, can't imagine how loud it must have been back in the day when there were horses and carts everywhere...</div>
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Belfort, Bruges' famous bell tower.</div>
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Bikes at Markt, the main town square. There are even more bikes here than at Cambridge!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Most of the museums seem to be closed on a
Monday here, so we decided to check out the Basilica of the Holy Blood (like
Colin and Brendan did!), a fairly out of the way church famous for possessing a
phial of Christ’s blood. The church itself is rather beautiful, with the wall
behind the altar painted with a mural, a beautiful, high ceiling and stained
glass windows. We happened to be there when the Relic of the Holy Blood was out
for veneration, so we went to have a look-see. It’s in a chapel off to the
side, and it was a bit intimidating because you have to climb stairs up onto a
dais, and there is a priest(?) sitting behind it, and people were crossing
themselves and kissing the glass case in which it lives. But we went up anyway
and it was pretty gross – a rather large glass phial with gold and jewels at
the end, with rather a lot of this congealed, scabby-looking old blood in it. I
felt a bit queasy afterward, actually. We had a sit in the church for a little
bit, taking in the cool, peaceful atmosphere, then had a look in the little
one-room museum they have which has a few triptychs of the Crucifixion, and the
reliquary in which the blood is transported during a procession that takes
place every ascension day, covered in gold and precious stones. </span></div>
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Heading in to the Basilica of the Holy Blood</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We got some delicious ice cream in the
square outside the Basilica, before having another explore in which we came
upon a castle gatey sort of thing and a couple of windmills. We then happened
upon a street that led to our hotel, which I was glad about because I needed
the loo. We stopped in for a while, reading and just generally chilling out
which was nice, before heading out again in search of Belgian waffles. We found
nowhere that was reasonably priced and open, so we just got some Chinese
takeaway and went back to the hotel again. Interesting note: MasterChef
Australia was on the tellie! The last one that Kate won... that was nice to
see! Actually most shows here seem to be English-speaking shows with subtitles,
except for the cartoons which are dubbed – Spongebob Squarepants in Dutch,
rather humorous!</span></div>
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Ice cream outside the Basilica</div>
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Some castle-gatey thing. I don't think it's particularly old but it looks cool</div>
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The discovery of a windmill in our wanderings.</div>
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Another cool building. It's hard to tell which ones are actually old and which ones just look old... </div>
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A nice tree by a canal. </div>
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The canal from our hotel window</div>
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Mads collapsed from exhaustion in the hotel room.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Today was another very nice, relaxed day.
We got up early to have breakfast in the hotel, but once we got back to the
room fell asleep again for another couple of hours. Oops. (Give us a break,
okay, we are totally buggered after Paris!). We decided to head down to Djiver
to take a boat ride along the canals, and on our way there saw a chocolate shop
(there are SOOO many chocolate shops here. Deadly for a confessed chocoholic
like yours truly) that had chocolates in the shape of sheep! I love sheep! So
in we went and I got a sheep and Mads got a duck because she loves ducks. We
decided to save them up to eat later, so off we went for our boat cruise. It
was so nice! Bruges is just so dang pretty! With the beautiful buildings along
the canals, the sun shining, the overhanging willows and bright flowers in
window boxes, the pretty bridges, and the fact that we were on a boat (I love
boats!) all combined for a very nice way to spend the middle of the day. Also
there were heaps of fluffy little ducklings and baby swans on the water, sooo
cute!! One major disappointment was that the dog in the window was not there!
We have heard so much about this famous dog, so when we saw his window and
cushion empty we were very sad. So once the boat ride was over we decided to
have a stake-out for the dog, finding ourselves a nice spot across the canal
from where the dog lives to eat our chocolates. But oh dear, even more disastrous
was the state of our animal shaped chocolates. My sheep was all melty and
squashed against the side of its plastic packet, while Mads’ duck was nothing
but a chocolatey puddle with pink spots in her bag. Still the doggy did not
come, so we went to the Groeningemuseum, an art gallery which houses a few
famous works of art and many more by Flemish artists. A very nice surprise was
that it cost us only 1 Euro each because we are both under 26! </span></div>
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Belgian chocolate in the form of a duck and a sheep! Super cute!</div>
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Boating on the canals. I really love boating.</div>
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One of the very pretty bridges - I think this is one of the smallest bridges in Bruges, something to do with love or romance or whatevs.</div>
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More nice canal scenery</div>
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Got her! Mads on the boat</div>
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The window sans dog.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I have to say I find the works by the
Flemish masters, including Provoost and Van Eyk to be a little too morbid for
my taste. There’s so much death and torture: The Judgement of Cambyses in which
he is flayed alive (this is a very famous painting); the torture of Saint
George, including being boiled, dragged behind a horse and decapitated; others
being stabbed and having molten gold poured down their throat; not to mention
all the pictures of the Birth of Mary, Mary’s death and ascension, and of
course the Crucifixion. Ouch. We also saw Provoost’s famous Death and the Miser
painting. But there were also some absolutely stunning chalk drawings,
landscapes and old portraits displayed, as well as some exceptionally weird
modern art. </span></div>
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Heading in to Groeningemuseum</div>
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My favourite piece in the gallery, Portrait of a Girl by Albert Jakob Frans Gregorius.</div>
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My close second-favourite, Self Portrait by Edmond van Hove. Incredible!! It feels like he's staring at you out of the darkness.</div>
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Outside Groeningemuseum</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We finally got our Belgian Waffles in a
cafe near Djiver after we left the museum. They were pretty yummy, with
chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Then we went to stalk the doggy in the
window one last time – nothing. I’m starting to doubt the existence of this
dog...</span></div>
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Yum yum Belgian Wafels</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back to the hotel and Mads had a snooze
before we played a board game she got back in Bath called Dick Turpin, in which
you are a highwayman trying to rob a stagecoach called the Silver Flyer between
London and Edinburgh and back, demanding ‘Stand and Deliver’ when you’re
attempting to rob it. It was pretty fun, but it really needs more than two
players, so we played my right hand, my left hand, Mads’ right hand and Mads’
left hand. Mads’ right hand won by a landslide. </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-68048782445513091322012-05-29T13:32:00.001-07:002012-05-29T13:32:03.200-07:00Busily Adventuring in Paris<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Wow wow wow, there is a lot to catch up on!
Apologies for the recent silence, the internet in our hotel was not very
reliable, so this will have to be a rather lengthy edition in order to get
through everything we’ve done!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I left you at Versailles: after such a big
day of walking around and for practical reasons, we decided to have a sleep-in
and concentrate our sightseeing efforts on the Ile de la Cite, which was in
walking distance of our hotel. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We started at Crypte Archeologique du
Parvis de Notre Dame, which is basically the archaeological remains of medieval
and even Gallo-Roman buildings beneath the square in front of Notre Dame. It
was great: there were doorways, stairs, foundations of buildings and the
remnants of old cellars, as well as parts of Roman columns and cornices, part
of what could have been a Roman bath and a furnace for a Roman under-floor
heating system. As well as this it was very cool temperature-wise (it was a
pretty hot day), and there were hardly any people in there – a very rare
occurrence for a tourist destination in Paris. I really love archaeological
sites: it’s amazing to see doorways people walked through, floors they stood
on, and stairs they descended so long ago – they provide such a direct link with
the past. Also I like the smell of dirt.</span></div>
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Ruins in the Crypte Archeologique under Notre Dame</div>
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Old stairs!</div>
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I heart archaeology.</div>
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Remnants of a Roman column</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had planned on hitting Sainte-Chapelle
next, but it was closed for lunch so we moved on to stop number three, the
Conciergerie. Originally the palace from which the Kings of France ruled, it is
more famous for its role as a prison and the home of the terrifying
Revolutionary Tribunal, which operated during the French Revolution. You enter
through a huge, beautiful hall that originally served the staff of the palace
in the 14<sup>th</sup> Century, with gorgeous vaulted ceilings and four massive
fireplaces (it now seems to be used as a storage area for tables and chairs
from the Palais du Justice which it is connected to, as well as a tourist
attraction). However despite its beauty it has a rather creepy atmosphere, due
in part to its horrible history. It was here that during the French Revolution
nearly 3000 enemies of the revolution were ‘tried,’ and kept to await their
meeting with La Guillotine over 1793 and 1794. The most famous prisoner was
Marie Antoinette, who was imprisoned here before her execution. There are
recreated cells illustrating how the prisoners lived, including one in which
those to be taken to the scaffold had their personal belongings taken, their
hair shorn off and their collars ripped. There are also two chapels: one built
on the place where Marie Antoinette’s cell stood, the other larger one was where
21 Girondins (a legalist, liberal group opposed to the powerful Commune group
and the creation of the Criminal Court, which was soon transformed into the Revolutionary
Court) feasted together the night before their execution. Talk about intense! There
is also a room in which the names of all those who faced the Revolutionary
Tribunal are listed; a Guillotine blade; and the Cour des Femmes, where female
prisoners wandered about and washed themselves in a fountain (still there), and
also where groups of 12 at a time waited for the tumbrels to take them to the
scaffold. As I say, the whole thing was extremely intense and I left feeling
rather weighed down. </span></div>
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The main hall of the Conciergerie</div>
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Heading towards the recreated cells</div>
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The Cour des Femmes, where women washed and exercised, and where prisoners waited for the tumbrels to take them to La Guillotine.</div>
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The Conciergerie from the outside.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">After heading to Maccas for a drink and a
McFlurry, it was off to Sainte-Chapelle. It was so incredibly beautiful:
basically the walls of the upper floor are almost all stained glass depicting
over 1000 scenes of the story of man from creation to the resurrection of
Christ. The ground floor is very beautiful as well, brightly painted with
arches, a sculpture of Saint Louis who built it to house the relics of the
Passion of Christ, and a gift shop (the poor fellow working at the gift shop
was involved in a dispute with an old lady who had crossed a chain barricade
and planted herself on a bench that runs around the walls to enjoy a cup of
tea. He was trying to get her to move on, she sure as hell wasn’t going!). But
when you ascend the tight spiral stairs into the Upper Chapel, bathed in
coloured light, it really is a ‘wow’ moment. </span></div>
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The outside of Sainte-Chapelle</div>
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The Lower Chapel of Sainte-Chapelle</div>
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The incredible Upper Chapel of Sainte-Chapelle</div>
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The Palais du Justice</div>
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Bookstalls along the Seine. They had some cool books and very cool posters for sale</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We headed back to the hotel after this, as
we were all sweaty and had to get ready to go to the Opera Bastille to see Le
Barbier de Seville (aka The Barber of Seville). Opera Bastille, despite being a
modern building, is really beautiful inside – huge, airy and light. And the
Opera itself was fantastic! It was a very different experience, they were
singing in Italian and the subtitles were in French, so I thought it was fun
figuring out what was going on – we knew the basic plot so it wasn’t too hard
to get it. But I had one of the best opera moments ever: one of the final
songs, the guy’s got the girl, they’ve got hitched, it’s all dandy – the
conductor throws a soccer ball on the stage, which the lead singer starts
juggling before taking off his Seville-style top to reveal a football jersey
and the members of the chorus start waving little flags. It was brilliant,
everyone in the audience started laughing and cheering and taking pictures, it
was just so completely unexpected. Mads had to explain to me that the Euros (?
Some soccer thing, I dunno) are about to start and that is why it happened.
Still it was pretty awesome!! </span></div>
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Inside the Opera Bastille</div>
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Memorial to the Parisians who died in the revolution of 1830, Place de la Bastille</div>
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Opera Bastille from the outside</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Friday was an absolutely fantastic day
because we went to Disneyland Paris!! It was completely bizarre at the same
time: my head was telling me I was in Paris, but it sure as hell felt like I
was in California! Especially Main Street – so, so, so weird. But still so much
fun! There is not as much in terms of rides at Paris Disney compared to the
California version, and there weren’t really many lines at all so we got to go
on all but about 3 rides. Mads and I LOVE rollercoasters, so we started with
Big Thunder Mountain which is very good fun. Indiana Jones had a loop, so that
was awesome too. But it was nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to Space
Mountain. It is probably the BEST rollercoaster I have ever been on. It was
fast, actually shooting you up the big hill, it had a loop and a corkscrew, and
it was almost all in total darkness. Brilliant! You don’t know if you’re upside
down or right side up or where the heck you are or what’s going to happen next!
By the end of the day there was no line at all so we just kept running round
and round and going on it again and again. Damn I loved that rollercoaster.
Other highlights from the day included Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, the Phantom Manor
and Star Wars Star Tours (both of which were in French so we had no idea what
was going on), and Pirates of the Caribbean. Mads made me go on It’s a Small
World. That ride freaks me out. Happy little freaky people. I always feel like
they are too happy, they must be hiding some dark little secret. Creepy. </span></div>
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The entrance to Disneyland Paris</div>
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Main Street USA... In Paris...</div>
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Here I am outside Indiana Jones' tent. His hat and whip are in the background. Dreamy.</div>
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Any ride with a sign like this out the front is gunna be great!</div>
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Teacups!</div>
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Have you ever seen a happier person?? Mads riding the teacups</div>
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Riding Autopia. Mads got to drive...</div>
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She was terrible!! But she had fun, so you know... who cares how much you crash as long as you enjoy it, right Toad?</div>
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Possibly the greatest ride ever conceived... Space Mountain: Mission 2. Brilliant!!</div>
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There they go shooting upward!</div>
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Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee. May have been checking me out - stopped right in front of me, looked at my face, looked down seemingly toward my boobs, did it again and walked off. Hey, it happens all the time... </div>
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Mads on the look out at Adventure Isle</div>
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Bouncing over the bridge. Bouncing me all over the bridge.</div>
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Carousel!</div>
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Going all Jeanne d'Arc and leading the charge</div>
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A nice catch up with the Caterpillar, in Alice's Curious Labyrinth. After our last maze attempt I'm surprised we braved this one, but we found our way OK</div>
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Surely I could fit into this one??</div>
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Brace yourselves. The ACTUAL spinning wheel that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on that left her comatose. On display in Sleeping Beauty's Castle.</div>
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This dragon was soo cool, moving around and blowing smoke and being generally dragon-ish.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Mind you one of my favourite parts of the
day was watching the little girls in their princess outfits, it was hilarious!
There was this tension and rivalry between them all: one little girl in a
princess dress looking another little girl up and down in her princess dress;
another little girl I saw must been three at most, wearing a very long,
full-skirted Snow White dress saw another little girl wearing a smaller fairy
dress – Snow White looked the fairy up and down, held out her fuller skirt and
gave the fairy a look which very clearly said ‘I have the superior dress, I am
so much better than you.’ Ah, it never changes! Meanwhile I was feeling rather
envious myself of all these little girls in their princess dresses. Why don’t
they make them in my size, huh Disney??</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We watched the firework show, which didn’t
start until about 11pm because it gets dark so late in Europe at summer, and
would have been fantastic if I hadn’t had a very loud, extremely stinky man
sitting on me. I mean he actually sat on my foot, and he really smelled. Yucky.
But despite this hardship I rather enjoyed it: a projection on Sleeping
Beauty’s Castle timed with music, fountains, fireworks and flame throwers. It
was very beautiful and moving: dreams really do come true and all that. We
didn’t get on the train until after midnight. Being a Friday night it was
rather busy on the train, and I had one of my favourite Paris moments: three
young, well dressed, well-to-do French fellows sat opposite us, discussing
something in French (naturally) in a very animated, passionate and serious
manner - I was reminded of Enjolras and the students in Victor Hugo’s Les
Miserables discussing politics and the plight of the lower classes. Probably
they were discussing the latest instalment of their favourite soap opera or
something equally menial, but it was cool all the same.</span></div>
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Sleeping Beauty's Castle</div>
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Waiting for the show to start. Dreams really do come true... </div>
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The way out :(</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">After all the running around and screaming
we did at Disneyland, on Saturday, our last full day in Paris, we were
completely buggered. We slept very late, and were still pretty tired when we
actually did get up. First things first, we did our laundry at a launderette
conveniently located next door. Hungry, I went to the supermarche around the
corner and got a Baguette which was so delicious! So we sat and read, and once
we had nice clean clothes again we headed for the Hotel National des Invalides,
which was originally a home for wounded war veterans but is now a military
museum. It was great! The building is beautiful and positively palatial. We
started in a gallery of Ancient Armour and Arms, which was very cool: it
included the most amazing suits of armour, guns and swords, as well as things
like a 500 year old velvet padded saddle and these beautifully decorated fabric
quivers and bow covers. They had a few bows, crossbows, arrows and arm guards,
which I liked; helmets decorated with griffins and dragons; pikes; and a stack
of cannons, one of which had Cardinal Richelieu’s name and coat of arms on it
which Mads was excited to find. It was a very impressive collection. </span></div>
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Paris laundromat</div>
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The Hotel National des Invalides</div>
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The courtyard at Invalides</div>
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One of many, many cannons</div>
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Very cool bow cover and matching quiver. I could totally see myself as an archer...</div>
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A helmet in the shape of a griffin's head. Pretty amazing</div>
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Daisy fields at Invalides</div>
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Bows and arm guards in the Musee de l'Armee</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We went to the Dome Chapel of Invalides
next, which houses Napoleon’s tomb. Wow. The chapel is incredible, so huge and
light, with the most beautiful paintings high up on the ceiling. Napoleon’s
tomb takes pride of place, and it is big (although I think rather unattractive,
which is a shame in such a beautiful space). It is surrounded by statues of
angels, which apparently represent Napoleon’s victories, and seem to be looking
over his tomb. There are a few other famous French military figures buried in
the Dome Chapel, but while I know the names I don’t really know who they are,
except one is Napoleon’s son and two are Napoleon’s brothers.</span></div>
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The Dome Chapel at Invalides</div>
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Napoleon's Tomb</div>
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In the Dome Chapel</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had lunch in the cafeteria, which was
okay, and went into another gallery presenting military relics from the 1600s
to late 1800s. There are a lot of military uniforms from this time period
there, including a jacket, coat and a few hats worn by Napoleon himself. I
always knew he was small, but the jacket was absolutely tiny! Another
interesting, but rather gruesome, item in this gallery was a bit of armour from
the Battle of Waterloo, covering the chest and back of some poor sod: a cannon
ball has gone in through the right chest and exited out the back. I’d hate to
see the fellow who was wearing it, horrible! But it was a very good museum,
apart from Napoleon’s tomb there weren’t many people there at all and I recommend
if you are going to Paris you should stop by! </span></div>
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Napoleon's jacket and hat. </div>
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Napoleon's coat, two hats, tent and other personal effects</div>
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At Invalides</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We went back to the Eiffel Tower to take a
boat cruise down the Seine. It was the perfect day for it, however it was very
busy and neither of us were really in the right mood for it. But it was nice to
see the houseboats along the river (oh how I want to live on a boat! They have
lovely flowers in pots and decks with tables and chairs, it just seems to me
like it would be a peaceful, relaxed existence living on a boat), and the
Parisians with their picnics along the banks – wine, bread and cheese, legs
dangling, enjoying the sunshine. We’d had big plans of climbing the Arc de
Triomphe afterwards, but instead we went back to the hotel via the supermarket
for ham and croissants again, packed our bags and went to sleep. </span><br />
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A pretty bridge from the Seine cruise</div>
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A pretty Paris building</div>
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Vive le France!!</div>
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Houseboats on the Seine. I really, really want one!!</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-8519217285407347822012-05-23T14:52:00.001-07:002012-05-23T14:52:45.600-07:00Trois Jours a Paris!<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">The last three days in Paris have been
jolly good and chock-a-block and I still can’t believe I’m actually here! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Weather-wise, Monday was miserable. It was
so wet and cold! We slept in ‘til almost midday anyway, because we were tired
and it was dark, so when we awoke we decided to tackle the Louvre because it’s
indoors and also because most museums are closed on Mondays in Paris. First
things first: we headed to the closest Metro station, Saint Marcel, which is
just around the corner. However we took one look at the map on the wall and
could find neither Musee du Louvre or Saint Marcel, so we headed in to the
closest shopping centre to invest in a couple of umbrellas. Next we wandered in
to a boulangerie/patisserie for a moment I’ve been waiting a long time for: a
real chocolate éclair. Our feet getting saturated after walking approximately
200 metres, we decided to attempt the Metro again, and this time we were much
more successful, finding a map on the wall that had the Metro lines
superimposed over a geographical map of Paris. So we went to the correct
platform and started eating our baked goodies: my eclair was delicious and full
of chocolate cream, but Mads seemed to have chosen a winner: called a Meringue
Chocolat it is two layers of meringue covered in a thick layer of chocolate
mousse with a crispy chocolate coating over the top. Wooooowww! </span></div>
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Madsy's Meringue Chocolat. It's probably the best cake thing ever!!</div>
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Yay! First eclair of the trip!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We managed to navigate the Metro, changing
at the right stop, and made it to the Louvre, and it seemed that the whole of
Paris had the same idea as us! The line to get in was tres long, but we stuck
to our guns! We started in the Sully wing, which houses the foundations of the
medieval castle that stood on the spot where the Louvre now stands, which was
very cool, as well as a lot of very amazing ancient Egyptian artifacts, my
favourites in there included a blue hippopotamus, items of furniture and a robe
– the fact that a piece of clothing could be preserved for so many thousands of
years is quite incredible! I didn’t think the crowds were as bad as I was
expecting, but hermit Mads was freaking out a bit, so we decided to break for
our afternoon meal. Mads prepared herself and took a deep breath, as we decided
to face Denon, the wing that houses the Italian masters and other old, famous
European works of art. We headed for La Jaconde, or the Mona Lisa as she is
known to the English speakers of the world, first going up the staircase Audrey
Hepburn glided down in a red dress in Funny Face (gasp! I was on the same
stairs as Audrey was!), and then in to the gallery that houses Da Vinci’s most
famous work. And by crikey, is she popular! There was something of a mosh pit
before her, as a couple of hundred people at least jostled to get up close and
get a picture with her! After a bit of patience and a few elbows in the back,
we made it to the front. She is quite remarkable in real life: it really does
seem as though she is looking right at you, smirking as if you share an inside
joke together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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The line for the Louvre. You can see the Inverted Pyramid in the distance...</div>
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The foundations of the medieval castle that stood on the site of the Louvre.</div>
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Ancient Egypt. We got pretty lost in here and couldn't find our way out for a while...</div>
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The stairs down which Audrey glided in Funny Face.</div>
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One of the beautiful ceilings in the Louvre. Another one of those places where it's hard to decide whether to look at the works of art or the building itself!</div>
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One of the long galleries in the Denon wing</div>
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Here we are with the Mona Lisa herself.</div>
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La Jaconde and all her friends.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Other highlights of my time in the Denon
wing included a very famous, beautiful and moving painting of the execution of
Lady Jane Grey in the Tower of London – I tried to get a picture of it, but
naturally it’s the only picture in the whole of the Louvre you’re not allowed
to photograph, as the scary guard pointed out to me (oops); and another
beautiful painting by Delacroix of Liberty leading the revolution of 1830. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The final wing of the Louvre, Richelieu, we
had just wandered in to before the voice came over the loudspeaker announcing
something in French, and then thankfully repeating in English that the Museum
would be closing in 15 minutes. So we went to the gift shop (a bit
disappointing really), then headed back out into the rain. It was such a shame that we didn't see half of the wondrous things in there, but I suppose I'll have to come back for more... Because we’d entered
the Louvre through the shopping centre that is attached, we toddled over to the
forecourt to get a proper look at the former Palace that is now the Louvre and
the famous, controversial glass pyramid. I have to say I don’t like the
pyramid. It obscures the facade of the beautiful Louvre, and it doesn’t
complement it in any way. But that’s my opinion, and as they say, everyone
needs to make their own judgement of it. </span></div>
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Delacroix</div>
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Mads has decided she's in love with this picture of Napoleon. He's cold and needs a hug apparently.</div>
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Mads with another one of her favourites, a painting of paintings!</div>
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Another of the incredible galleries</div>
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This is as far as we got in Richelieu</div>
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The forecourt of the Louvre with the controversial glass pyramid.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We got our first glimpse of the Eiffel
Tower at this point, it was shrouded in mist, but it was quite exciting all the
same. Back to Saint Marcel and we stopped at a bistro for dinner: steak with
the most delicious potato bake, yum! Mads was pretty homesick for London: I
don’t blame her, the weather really was awful and you do feel quite isolated
when you don’t know the language. I know I do and she knows even less than the
infinitesimally small amount I know!</span></div>
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First glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">On Tuesday we took advantage of the hop-on
hop-off bus tour included in our Paris Pass, starting at Notre Dame. On our way
to catch the bus there were two fellows playing the piano accordion on a bridge
over the Seine! I tell you I almost cried, it was just one of those moments
when you think, ‘that is so cliched, but it just proves that I really, really,
really am in Paris!! Paris for goodness sake!!!!’ The bus tour was good but
really cold! But Paris is just so incredibly beautiful! We saw the Paris Opera
House, the Place de la Concorde, the National Assembly, the Madeleine Church,
The Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalides, the Louvre, as well as
bridges, cafes, and beautiful buildings everywhere! So much to take in! </span></div>
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A piano accordion! In PARIS!!</div>
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Assemblies Nationale</div>
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Madeleine Church</div>
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Madeleine on Rue Madeleine, on our bus tour.</div>
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The Paris Opera House</div>
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A column Napoleon had built.</div>
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The Eiffel Tower!!</div>
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The Arc de Triomphe, from the Champs Elysees</div>
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The traffic here is insane, cars actually going everywhere, in every direction. SO glad I'm not driving here.</div>
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Les Invalides, where Napoleon's tomb is.</div>
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Pont Neuf</div>
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Beautiful Parisian buildings.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We actually stopped off at the Eiffel Tower
in order to climb it, and to see it rising above us in real life was one of the
most surreal moments I’ve ever experienced. Unfortunately only the lift in the
East Pillar was working, so there was a huge line and we waited for a couple of
hours before we could head up. Now, I know I’ve mentioned my fear of heights
before, but I was really quite terrified at the prospect of going up in a lift
to the top of this structure. Waiting for the lift, which annoyingly enough has
glass all around it so you can see how high off the beautiful, lovely ground
you are speeding, was getting me rather anxious. It wasn’t helped by the
annoying tourist with child screaming ‘I want to go on NOW!!!’ explaining to
said irritating child ‘Can you see those rails? Can you see how they go up? The
lift will come down those rails, and everyone will get in, and then we’ll be
going all the way up to the very top of the tower!’ Please please pleeeease
stop talking! You’re just making it worse! So the lift came and up we sped, me
trying very hard to control my impulse to sit down on the floor the higher we
got, hug my knees and rock back and forth. Finally the lift stopped. We were so
high, it was crazy. ‘This is the second floor. Everyone has to get off and
change to the other elevator if you are going to the summit.’ WHAT!? I have to
do that AGAIN!? And HIGHER!? How is this possibly not the highest you can go? The
buildings are already like lego blocks. The people down there are like little
ants!! Anyway I was brave and had a look around, trying not to envision myself
being blown off the tower, or the spindly bits of metal holding us up breaking,
sending me plummeting to my death. The view was nice: Paris very nice from the
air and the ground. Probably nicer from the ground, I would say. We had a look
in a very high shop; we had a very high hot chocolate; we watched the very high
pigeons squabbling over scraps (for some reason they all seemed to have mangled
feet. One of them didn’t have any feet and was waddling around on stumps which
was very clever for a pigeon but also very disturbing). Then Mads said I
couldn’t procrastinate any more and we had to take the second lift up to the
summit. And oh how thoughtful this ridiculous lift also had walls with glass
through which to look out. This lift was so much worse than the first. Up we
went, rather quickly, and I had my hands covering my eyes and was kind of
hyperventilating/nervously laughing/trying not to cry. Some people in the lift
were even laughing at me. What a bunch of jerks. We made it to the top, and oh
look everything is even smaller isn’t that lovely. Thanks goodness it was all
enclosed... wait! Oh good you can go outside!! So I clutched the railing, once
again trying to keep visions of the tower bending and me falling off the edge
at bay. Mads thoroughly enjoyed herself watching the funny little people on the
wonderful ground. I’ll admit, people do look funny from above. After long
enough we went back down. Sweet, sweet down!! I LOVE down!! Down is so
underrated!! </span></div>
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It's really the Eiffel Tower!!</div>
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This is only the second viewing platform. Soo high!</div>
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From the summit. Eek!</div>
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The Arc de Triomphe</div>
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Me at the top</div>
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Mads watching the little people. Ah, gives me the heebie jeebies just looking at this pic of her looking over the edge!</div>
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Yay, going down!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">On our way back to the bus we went on a
carousel Mads was in love with. It was okay. I was interested to watch the
police – there seems to be police everywhere in Paris, which is fine by me.
There were also a few army dudes patrolling around with fairly heavy-duty
looking machine guns. I like their hats. </span></div>
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Mads on the carousel at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We decided to go to the movies to see Dark
Shadows, we found a cinema close by our hotel and wandered over there. The
movie was really good. I had a little trouble buying popcorn: I’m all good
until they deviate from the script! Thankfully the attendant spoke English –
she wanted to know if I wanted sweet or salty popcorn (sweet popcorn, as if!).</span></div>
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Check it out Tarantino fans: a Royal with Cheese.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This morning we had very good intentions of
getting up early. Instead we slept through the alarm. Oh well! We caught the
RER train to the Palace of Versailles, which was very beautiful and completely
OTT! The line to get in was very, very long again - everyone keeps talking
about pre-purchasing tickets to avoid the queues at the ticket office. But
honestly, since we’ve been here I have not seen a single line for the ticket
office, the line is just to get in! So to avoid lines, go in a group! There
were so many people in that Palace, it made it quite hard to properly see the
rooms, but I can tell you that there are chandeliers and gold and decoration
EVERYWHERE! The ceilings are painted and ornamented, every candle stick is
decorative, there are mirrors and paintings on the walls, the furniture is
covered with patterned fabric, cupboards have paintings and gold trim on them,
it’s insane! So much luxury and opulence, but at the same time a bit of a scary
undertone when you consider the horrible fate of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
who were captured here in the revolution and later lost their heads to that
sharp female La Guillotine. But the rooms are absolutely massive, of course,
and there are so many – I’d spend my life getting lost if I lived in a place
like that. After we had a good look around the palace, and after we actually
did get lost from each other: Mads is rather more speedy than I am, and it
turns out I walked right past Mads while she was waiting and looking for me (I
even have a photo of her waiting for me in the room where we both missed each
other), we grabbed some lunch and sat outside the palace to eat it, looking out
on the very extensive grounds. We went for a wander through the grounds next,
which are so green and very beautiful and very extensive. And there are
fountains everywhere! We went to the Chateaux de Trianon next, a group of
smaller and slightly less grand palaces on the estate. We started with Le Petit
Trianon, a very sweet little palace that would do nicely for me, I think. Le Petit
Trianon is a lot more simply decorated, it’s very light, it is surrounded by
pretty English-style gardens, and has a small but amazing theatre in which
Marie Antoinette used to perform. You can’t take pictures, I’m afraid, but if
you’re thinking a little knocked-together school hall kind of set-up, you are
very much mistaken: think two tiers of seating, proper backdrops and curtains,
and beautiful, ornamental decoration around the stage, including the initials
MA in the centre. It’s amazing!! </span></div>
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The line to get in to Versailles. That box on the left is where you go in.</div>
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There is so much gold at this place. The gates to Versailles.</div>
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The palace</div>
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One of the many amazing painted ceilings</div>
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I've never seen so many chandeliers.</div>
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Marie Antoinette's bedroom. She escaped from the mob from here into the King's bedchamber, only to be captured.</div>
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I would have KILLED for one of these frocks when I was a kid. Seriously. Actually, perhaps I still would...</div>
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Yay Australia!!</div>
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Mads in a field, in the gardens at Versailles.</div>
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Sheep! We didn't get close enough to find out if they are perfumed or not...</div>
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The staircase in Le Petit Trianon</div>
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Music room, Le Petit Trianon</div>
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Le Petit Trianon. This place will do me nicely...</div>
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Exploring one of the English-style gardens at Le Petit Trianon</div>
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A pond at Le Petit Trianon</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Mads, however, has decided she would like
Le Grand Trianon, which is bigger than Le Petit Trianon, but still much smaller
than the Palace of Versailles: it’s a single storey building, with large rooms
that are very open and light, still full of chandeliers and mirrors but not
quite as OTT as Versailles. Sort of a happy middle. By the time we’d finished
here, the day was getting very hot and once again we were buggered. So we
headed back to Versailles and the train station. It wasn’t until we were on the
train that I realised we hadn’t seen the Queen’s Hamlet, the cottage and little
town Marie Antoinette had built to play in. Rather disappointing, but I guess I’ll
just have to come back to Paris to see it! What a shame!! </span></div>
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Le Grand Trianon, Mads' palace of choice</div>
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Le Grand Trianon</div>
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Boats on the Grand Canal at Versailles. I thought this couple was cute.</div>
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In the grounds at Versailles</div>
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The Palace of Versailles. I should also note it's where WWI ended. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">For dinner we went to the supermarket and
got some croissants, ham, juice and nectarines, which were all delicious! I’m
falling more and more in love with Paris. It is just so beautiful, and there is
so much to see and we are running out of time in which to do it, so I will have
to start planning my next trip here!! </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-73121154179066786022012-05-21T11:33:00.001-07:002012-05-21T11:33:08.702-07:00A Tale of Two Cities<br />
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Yesterday was our last
full day in London for five weeks! A bit sad, it’s sort of become a home away
from home and I really, really like Hampstead a lot! We started the morning
with a pain au chocolat from this really nice bakery across the road from our hotel,
and we thought we’d try and find the famous Hampstead Heath to eat it in.
Unfortunately, seeing as we don’t actually know where this Heath is, we gave up
and found a (still nice) bench and ate our yummy croissants. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Trying to find Hampstead Heath. This is a nice little garden, though!</div>
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Mmmmm pain au chocolat!</div>
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We then headed to the
tube station and trained it to Euston, to check out the British Library! Seeing
as I am obsessed with old documents, and like them EVEN MORE than old, worn
stairs (hard to believe, I know!), I had been looking forward to this event for
a lot of the trip. And the library did not disappoint. There is really only one
gallery you can tourist in, which holds the ‘treasures of the British Library’
– fair enough, it is a working library – but the stuff in there is incredible!
There are original drafts of famous books, historical documents, musical
compositions, sacred texts and illumination manuscripts, old maps – there is
just so much, so I’ll just list some of my personal favourites: a document
written in 1155 relating to the redistribution of land after the Norman Conquest;
a copy of Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ from the 9<sup>th</sup>
Century; the first, handwritten draft of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; The
Gutenberg Bible (gasp!); a map of the world from the late 16<sup>th</sup>
Century in which you can make out the coast of Western Australia (even though
it is attached to Antarctica) and
a book called ‘The Roman de la Rose’, which was one of the most popular
medieval romances. The whole place was so overwhelming, Mads and I were
suffering major over-excitement and information overload, and there were a few
things I missed: we had to go back because I told Mads how disappointed I was
that Magna Carta wasn’t in there. She then informed me that it was, so we went
back in and lo and behold there it was, in its own room with MAGNA CARTA in
giant letters at least twice around the door frame. A few other things I didn’t
realise I’d missed until I got the souvenir guidebook home, including ‘Dulce et
Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen (if I’d seen that I actually would have cried); and
Shakespeare’s First Folio (although I’d already seen a copy of that at
Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Stratford-Upon-Avon). <o:p></o:p></div>
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So we left feeling
very happy that we’d been, and a little disappointed we couldn’t go in to the
King’s Library, a huge room full of really old books. I bet it smells like the
Trinity Old Library in Dublin in there. On our way out we passed a little boy
standing in the middle of the quadrangle out the front urinating on the ground.
Where his parents were I have no idea, but they really ought to stamp out that
habit soon or he’ll never stop... <o:p></o:p></div>
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The King's Library inside the British Library.</div>
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We had lunch at a good
old English pub across the street, before deciding on having a wander around
London. We caught the tube to Buckingham Palace and had a look, laughing at a
fellow who had dropped his lens cap inside the fence and was trying to fish it
out with an umbrella. The palace really is an impressive building, however we
couldn’t walk up to it through Green Park because they are building up the area
out the front for a Jubilee concert. Still, it’s always a must-see when you go
to London. We wandered from there to Westminster, then along the Thames to the
Globe, watching all the buskers as we went (there were tons of them!), and
enjoying a Cornetto Soft Serve ice cream. Next we headed over the Millennium
Bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral, and caught the tube back to Hampstead from Bank.
It was all so busy, there were people everywhere, but it’s still a nice walk.
We had dinner at the Flask – absolutely delicious steak and ale pies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buckingham Palace.</div>
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The statue out the front of Buckingham Palace. I love all the gold-tipped statues in London.</div>
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A black London taxi!</div>
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Big Ben</div>
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Boudicca and the Eye</div>
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Houses of Parliament at Westminster</div>
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London on the River Thames</div>
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St Paul's Cathedral</div>
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Today was a very big
day! We left our hotel and beloved Hampstead, tubing it to St Pancras to catch
the Eurostar to Paris! I was so incredibly excited to be going to Paris,
however also slightly annoyed because my bag is too heavy and it keeps spinning
out of control as I drag it along behind me. So by the time we had checked in,
got our passports stamped and sat down in the lounge to wait to board, I was
pretty much buggered. The train trip was great, we had big comfy seats, and we
got food, which was tasty. The waiters always addressed us in French to begin
with, but I felt too weird speaking French back, so we just communicated in
English. Down into the tunnel we went, and in what felt like a couple of
minutes we were out again. I pointed out the window to Mads. ‘Yeah, we’re
outside again’ she said, looking at me like I was some kind of idiot. ‘It’s
France’ I explained. So she got excited too as we raced past Calais and a whole
lot of little French towns with small houses and big, tall bell towers like you
always see in war movies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Waiting for the Eurostar</div>
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On the Eurostar. Yay here we come Paris!!</div>
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In what seemed like
another couple of minutes we were in Paris! And now I had to speak French! I
actually know barely any French at all, but I managed to communicate with a
taxi driver where we wanted to go, and we got there easily enough. There was a
bit of miscommunication when it came to the fare at the end, nothing dramatic
but I was very, very relieved when we found that the lady who works at the
hotel speaks excellent English. Once we’d settled in we decided to go for a
toddle, the hotel isn’t too far from the Seine and Notre Dame, so off we went.
The thing about Paris is it looks so splendidly Parisian! It sounds obvious,
but I just love it when places look exactly how you imagined them to. It was
such a beautiful, sunny day, and everyone was very chilled out. We wandered
past houseboats docked in the Seine, bridges, and those beautiful Paris
buildings: five or six stories with the Mansard-style roof, French doors and
curly iron balconies. Finally we got our first view of Notre Dame – it was
pretty amazing. We crossed over the Seine on one of the bridges, the railings covered in padlocks where
lovers have attached them to symbolise their everlasting love (aaaah l’amour), before coming up to the famous cathedral and admiring the
flying buttresses, one of the huge rose windows, the saints climbing down the
roof, and of course the gargoyles. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Paris on the Seine.</div>
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First view of Notre Dame</div>
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Padlocks on the bridge</div>
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We figured seeing as
we were there we may as well head in to Notre Dame. It was massive and
absolutely beautiful. The arches, the stained glass, the prayer candles burning
outside the smaller chapels: it is incredible that a building so huge and so
beautiful has stood for so long. There were A LOT of tourists in there, but it
didn’t seem to matter, they’ve done it quite well setting a path around the
perimeter of the cathedral. While we were there Mass began, and it was
incredibly beautiful as well. The most beautiful singing, accompanied by organ,
filled the space, and we watched the priests doing whatever it is they do in
Mass, lighting candles etc. It really was overwhelmingly beautiful to watch. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Heading in to Notre Dame. The stonework is unbelievably beautiful!</div>
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One of the famous Rose Windows</div>
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Joan of Arc</div>
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Prayer candles in the cathedral.</div>
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Mass in Notre Dame</div>
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Notre Dame - so massive and very beautiful.</div>
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Some of the famous gargoyles atop Notre Dame. Mads reckons these ones look particularly like those in Disney's version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. </div>
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We began to wander back to the hotel,
Mads was tired and cranky, and on the way we went to a bar/brasserie for some
food. Oh dear, more French. But I actually didn’t do too badly! Mads has
designated me head of communicating with French People, so I managed to order
us some Croque Monsieur and our usual coke/diet coke (which is light coke here)
– the waiter was very nice and very patient, as it was very obvious that I
really don’t know French at all. But as long as you have a go, so far people
seem to be really nice about it! The brasserie was very, very French, with the
maroon and cream woven chairs out the front under an awning, random posters on
the walls and a lot of wood panelling inside – it felt very cool and very
Parisian to be in there! The Croque Monsieur wasn’t too bad, either: I’m not a
huge fan of Gruyere cheese so it’s not my favourite thing, but when in Rome,
right?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ah Paris! So pretty!</div>
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Liberty, Equality, Fraternity... Or Death! The revolutionary cry. I don't know what this building is.</div>
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Sitting in the bar next to Australie!! </div>
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Mads in the bar/brasserie where we had our Croque Monsieur dinner</div>
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Mads fell asleep as
soon as we got back to the hotel, so I wrote a bit (no point watching tellie,
although we did have a flick earlier and humorously found CSI:
the-one-with-the-redhead-chick dubbed in French), and then went to find a
supermarche (supermarket). Just about everything was shut, as it’s Sunday
evening, but I found one that was open around the corner and grabbed a couple
of things. I must have looked like a total idiot standing there with a vacant
expression on my face, smiling and nodding whenever anyone tried to say
anything to me. Basically I just used the three words I know over and over:
Merci, Combien, Au Revoir. However I did discover one VERY good thing about
doing summer twice in one year: summer fruits!! I got myself and Mads a
nectarine each, which was very exciting as nectarines are probably my favourite ever
fruits and there is nothing like the first nectarine of the season: so to be
having that experience again is pretty dang excellent!! <o:p></o:p></div>
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So far I am definitely
feeling the love for Paris, and I can’t wait to see more sights tomorrow!! In the immortal words of Madeline, everyone's favourite Parisian: ‘Ah Paris ooh la la, as for me, I love Pariiiis!!’<o:p></o:p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-89686382690966002872012-05-19T02:43:00.001-07:002012-05-19T02:47:21.255-07:00The end of the road... trip.Apologies for not
writing for so long! There’s so much to catch up on...<br />
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Tuesday was another
big day of travel: we were sadly leaving Ireland, and had to be in Dublin,
three hours away from Doolin, ready to board the ferry to Liverpool at 8am. So
we got up super early, headed downstairs to leave the hotel and found the front
door locked, the night porter missing, and we couldn’t get out. After a few
attempts to call the emergency number on the phone at reception, the night
porter finally emerged from wherever he’d been and let us out – luckily it
wasn’t too late!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The West Coast of
Ireland at dawn is quite spectacular. Narrow, windy roads bordered by stone
walls, rolling green fields dotted with pretty white houses, it was all
extremely beautiful. And it’s always nice driving when there’s no one else
around. We managed to make pretty good time, however we were slowed on the
approach to Dublin and I was a bit worried we wouldn’t make the ferry on time.
But we did make it, we drove on board and were ready to make the long crossing
back to England.</div>
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This ferry didn’t have
anywhere to sit and enjoy the ride really, just a dining area and a lounge
area. I went to get some snacks for the 7.5 hour trip from the information
desk, where the fellow on the desk enquired about my place of origin.
‘Australia,’ I naturally replied. ‘Oh yes, I thought I heard some Australian
there. Mind you your accent isn’t as bad as some, “waaah waaah waaaah” [I
suppose that is his impression of what Australians sound like]. It could be worse.’
Errr... thanks? A little confused about whether I should be relieved that I
don’t sound too horribly Australian or insulted, I returned to our spot at a
table in the dining room to find Mads more or less collapsed with fatigue. So
she went and upgraded us to a cabin which was awesome! A couple of beds, a
window, our own bathroom for only 20 quid because it was a daytime crossing,
and we were set. Once again we pretty much slept the whole way – I woke up once
or twice with the rocking of the boat on the choppy water, which I have to say
I enjoyed. I think I could happily live on a boat.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will on the ferry in Dublin</div>
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Our awesome-pants cabin! So comfy!</div>
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Somewhere in the ocean. It felt much more choppy than it looks, I swear!</div>
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Back in the car once
we’d docked to find it absolutely covered in sea salt! We drove into the first
petrol station in Liverpool we could find with a carwash, only to discover ‘oh,
the car wash? It doesn’t werk’. So we kept heading to Bath, having to stop at
every petrol station along the way just about to re-wipe the windows as the
salt kept growing back, and as it was getting towards sunset it was pretty much
impossible to see. We arrived in Bath a bit after 10pm, staying in a hotel
about 200 yards from the Roman Baths and around the corner from Admiral Lord
Nelson’s house. Once again our room was at the top of about a zillion flights
of stairs but it was a nice clean room with a comfy bed and ensuite bathroom,
and what more do you need?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Poor Audi covered in salt.</div>
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The view from our window in Bath.</div>
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Wednesday was Bath
day. It started out in a very frustrating manner – having completely run out of
clean washing we found a laundrette, thinking it would take maybe an hour to do
our washing, then we could go and explore Bath. Wrong! Nearly 3 hours later I
had a very bad case of cabin fever, I just wanted to go out and sightsee and
toddle around Bath and the bloody washing wouldn’t DRY!! Apologies to Mads for
having to deal with my hot-headedness - those who know me will know that my
anger tends to manifest itself in tears. Which makes me even more angry because
I’m crying and I can’t stop and then I cry even more because I’m even angrier.
Finally the washing was dry, we parked the car back near the hotel and our
sightseeing began, and I was happy again! <o:p></o:p><br />
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At the bloody laundrette!</div>
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We went to the Jane
Austen Centre first, which was a bit disappointing really. It started with a
really interesting talk on Jane and her life in Bath – I hadn’t realised she
died so young to start with, and it was interesting to hear how her opinion of
Bath changed when she moved there to actually live rather than just visit: this
makes a lot of sense if you’ve read Persuasion, the main character is really
unhappy moving from her home in the country to Bath. The museum itself was
okay, there wasn’t really anything in there, but they did have a letter written
by Jane to her sister, and they also had a really nice tea shop where we had
high tea: man I LOVE fancy sandwiches, especially cucumber! Yum yum yum. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra</div>
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High tea! Yum yum sandwiches, we were so stuffed afterwards and had to take most of the cake home with us!</div>
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Here I am with Mr Bennett.</div>
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Next up: the Roman
Baths. I’ve been here before and they are amazing, the complex is so much more
extensive than I had expected when I first went there, and the Romans were just
so clever with their underfloor heating! There are also a lot of Roman artefacts
on display that have been found around the baths and Bath itself, my favourites
include some Roman safety pins, basically the same as the safety pins we use
today; and curses that have been thrown into the waters at the temple to Sulis
Minerva: bits of metal that have requests for the goddess carved on them like
‘the person who stole my gloves to lose an eye’ and things like that. A bit
harsh, in my opinion, but maybe they were really nice gloves. It’s also
incredible to see the remains of the Roman courtyard at the front of the
temple, and the temple steps, not to mention all the baths that remain. It’s
pretty amazing that it’s all survived, and to be able to see where people
walked and talked two thousand years ago is pretty amazing! Possibly just as
incredible was my discovery of Harry Potter translated into Latin in the gift
shop, which I simply had to purchase! Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis. Will
be handy when I know how to read Latin... one day!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The main bath at the Roman Baths in Bath.</div>
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Ruins of the Roman temple courtyard</div>
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The Roman drain taking excess water from the baths and putting it in the river.</div>
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Ducks in the bath!</div>
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Here I am with some Romans! I was too shy to get my pic with them properly...</div>
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The King's Bath</div>
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One of the old, ruined Roman baths, with, you guessed it, old steps!</div>
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We went on a massive
walk around Bath after this, from the Baths, across the Pulteney Bridge and up
Great Pulteney Street, past Queen Square, along the Gravel Walk up to the Royal
Crescent and The Circus. Bath really is an incredible place, because of its
World Heritage Listing all the buildings are very old and have been preserved
beautifully, so it almost feels like you’ve stepped back in time 250 years. The
buildings themselves are very pretty, and there are a lot of parks and trees,
it’s just a really nice place to visit! Back to the hotel and we had Thai for
dinner around the corner, you can’t go wrong with a bit of Pad See Iew. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Bath Abbey</div>
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Mads from the side this time! Walking along Grand Parade.</div>
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The Pulteney Bridge, it has shops on either side and just feels like you're walking down any other street... </div>
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Great Pulteney Street, the widest street in Bath, very nice leading to the Holburne Museum</div>
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Shadows on the pavement, who could it be??</div>
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A typical street in Bath.</div>
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The Circle</div>
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Carvings that go around the houses in The Circle.</div>
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The Royal Crescent</div>
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This hospital was founded in the 12th Century!! </div>
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Thursday morning we
checked out of the hotel, leaving the packed car in the carpark as we wandered
back up to the Royal Crescent to see the Georgian House at Number 1 Royal
Crescent, which was beautiful. The whole place is done up as it would have been
in the Georgian period: the dining room, study, bedroom, drawing room and
kitchen all furnished with real 18<sup>th</sup> Century furniture. I learned a
couple of things here: first of all there were chamber pots everywhere
including in the dining room and the study (yuck, yuck, yuck!!); and they were
obsessed with reflecting light, which is why they loved gold trim so much, on
books and furniture, on picture frames, even in their clothing. Aside from the
chamber pot thing, I could totally see myself in a huge powdered wig, corset
and lace, swanning about, fan in hand. Everything is just so luxurious and
pretty, it’s all about pure enjoyment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We had our
breakfast/lunch meal at Cafe Rouge, a Parisian-style cafe, which got me all
excited for our trip to Paris, then headed back to the car to head to
Thornbury, about an hour and a half north. We stopped in at a very good hand
carwash on the way, £6 to get rid of the Audi’s nice salty coating
which I thought was a bargain. We got to Thornbury a little early to check in
to our hotel so we had a wander around the town, which was very nice. I got a
pretty large duffel bag, which will fit my stuff in it a bit better than my
poor suitcase which has been about to pop every time I repack it. After a
pretty good explore and not being able to find a single Thornbury postcard
anywhere (it must be the only town in the whole of Britain to not have its own
postcards), we headed to our accommodation for the night, the real life, 500
year old Thornbury Castle. It was AMAZING!! Our room was massive and it still
felt like it was in a castle, with stone walls covered with hangings, carved
wooden furniture, a heavy wooden door and those cross-shaped window thingys for
archers to shoot through. We also had a huge bathroom, a complimentary bottle
of sherry, bathrobes, sweets and the most comfortable beds on the planet: lying
on one felt like you were sinking into a marshmallow. We were both so excited
by the room and the fact that we were spending the night in a real castle that
we got a bit squealy for a while there. AND apparently Henry VIII and Anne
Boleyn stayed at the castle too which makes it even cooler!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Outside Thornbury Castle</div>
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The door to our room!</div>
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We were in the Tudor Room, which I was pretty happy about...</div>
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Inside our massive room</div>
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Mads drops into her squishy marshmallow bed, sooo soft!</div>
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Enjoying a complimentary sherry in our room. Well, I enjoyed it, Mads didn't.</div>
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We had a walk around
the grounds after we’d settled in, into the church yard next door and in to the
old church, down a country lane which went through some lovely green fields,
and around the castle of course – there is a ruined section of the castle we walked through, as well as in to a very pretty walled
garden. We went back to our room to dress for dinner (no sneakers, jeans or
t-shirts in the main part of the castle after 6, thank you very much), and
headed over to reception, where we were shown in to the very Tudor sitting room
for an aperitif and canapes whilst we decided on what we wanted for dinner. You
know you’re in a fancy pants establishment when you’re sitting in a wing chair
eating chicken liver – not as bad as I thought it would be, kind of tastes like
cheese I thought. Once our table was ready we were shown into the dining room –
I had beautiful pork, Mads had lamb, and we both had the most delicious, melty
chocolate fondant for dessert, all served by a rather attractive waiter with a
European accent. After dinner, feeling rather full and toffish, it was back
into the sitting room for tea and petit fours. The whole experience was a lot
of fun and we were disappointed we were only there for one night.</div>
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The old ruined, overgrown part of the castle. You can still see fireplaces in the walls.</div>
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The village outside the castle</div>
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A country laneway by the castle</div>
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The main quadrangle inside the castle gates. </div>
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The main part of the castle, from inside the walled garden.</div>
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Heading back to our room!</div>
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Probably the coolest tights ever! I got them from Marks and Spencer, the good thing about here in Olympic/Jubilee year is you can get all this fun patriotic British stuff. </div>
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In the sitting room before dinner</div>
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The fireplace in the sitting room</div>
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More of the sitting room</div>
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Enjoying an aperitif</div>
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In the dining room</div>
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This morning we got up
early again for our last ride in the Audi, as we drove back to London. We’re
staying in Hampstead tonight, so we dropped our bags off at the hotel (which,
it turns out, is above a gay pub), then returned the car to the rental place
and said our goodbyes to our good friend. We caught the tube to Bermondsey
(Mads was EXTREMELY happy to be reunited with her beloved Tube) to put my
suitcase and the stuff we don’t need for the rest of our trip in her locker
there, and then headed back to Hampstead! I love Hampstead already. It is a
really nice place, the houses are absolutely beautiful, and there are such nice
shops all up and down the High Street. Mads took me for a walk around the place
to show me where she used to work and her first London flat, then we went back
to check into our room properly. It’s really nice and overlooks the High
Street. My new mobile wasn’t working, so we took it in to the phone shop across
the road – naturally as soon as the fellow in there glanced at it it started
working, which is fine by me. We went to Mads’ favourite pub, The Flask, to
meet up with her friend Sarah. It was a lot of fun, it’s a really nice pub with
the most delicious food! As I say, I really like Hampstead. Maybe I’ll live
here when I’m working at the British Library one day... <o:p></o:p><br />
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Farewell to the Audi. Altogether, over the last two weeks, I drove over 1800 miles - that's more than 2900km! No wonder I was buggered...</div>
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Another one for Ben - we drove past Lord's on our way to the rental car place!</div>
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A very nice street in Hampstead.</div>
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The Hampstead High Street</div>
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Mads and Sarah at the Flask.</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-9031525396898555062012-05-14T14:16:00.002-07:002012-05-14T14:16:48.941-07:00I heart Ireland...<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">Ah, Ireland has been good to us!! Excellent
weather, lovely people, nice food, beautiful scenery, it’s been a dream and
I’ll be sorry to leave it tomorrow!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Yesterday was a bit of a relaxing day, I
was quite buggered from all the driving I’ve been doing, so it was nice to just
sleep in in the morning! After slowly getting up and ready we headed out to
explore Cork and see what it was all about. It’s actually a really pretty city!
We wandered down from the hotel to the river, grabbing some Subway for
breakfast/lunch on the way, and hoping to find a park or a bench on which to
eat – instead we just leaned on a wall next to the river and ate. It was
Subway-ish. We found the main shopping district, which is really nice and
really extensive, actually, a whole bunch of streets and laneways chockas full
of shops and cafes. Unfortunately, being as it was Sunday and we are in the
very Catholic Ireland, most places were closed, not opening until later in the
afternoon. We did see something being filmed in the main street – I don’t know
what it was, but there was a dodgy-looking actor crossing the road, made-up to
look like he’d had the you-know-what bashed out of him, and a director who
seemed to be screaming at everyone. </span></div>
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The River Lee, running through Cork (or Corcaigh for those of you who speak Irish)</div>
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A laneway in Cork. A lot of buildings are painted bright colours, it's so pretty!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">After finding a shop that sells
conditioner, we stopped in a park (yay, we found one!) to have a Cornetto ice
cream, seeing as the sun was shining. It was such a beautiful day! Mads was
getting rather tense as Man City was playing in the afternoon to find out if
they would win a championship of some kind, so we desperately had to head back
to the hotel (via Marks and Spencers as I had run out of clean knickers and we
couldn’t find a laundromat) so she could blow-dry her lucky Man City outfit.
They won (hooray!), however I did get rather terrified because it looked like
they were going to lose AND the internet cut out on her so she couldn’t watch
the end of the game. Luckily Ben was watching and was able to text me updates
to relay to her, and when they won she burst into tears, partly because she was
happy they won but also mainly at first because she missed it. I don’t think
sports are a good idea for this kiddie...</span></div>
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Cornettos in Cork! Yum yum</div>
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Mads prepared to watch the big game</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Once she calmed down we went to the health
club in the hotel to have a play in the Jacuzzi, which was fun, but we wished
it was a swimming pool. Apparently all the restaurants are closed on Sunday
night in Cork, so we had room service dinner again, which was nice, and chilled
out: I had a bath and finished Swallows and Amazons. It was a really cute book.
Mads watched the highlights from the game on BBC. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Today was a very good day indeed. The sun
was shining again, it was actually quite warm! We dragged our suitcases down
the fifty flights of stairs to check out of our hotel in Cork, packed up the
Audi again and we were off to Blarney Castle to kiss the stone. </span></div>
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Blarney Castle</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Blarney Castle is quite nice. It’s
basically a big old stone tower set in really beautiful, lush green grounds. It
has a few rooms still intact, but it also has a very cool network of cavey
underground passageways which we did check out a little bit. Unfortunately, there were A LOT of tourists in parkas, which always means
trouble! For some reason many of them didn’t understand what an old castle is,
and were rather put out by the fact they had to climb a lot of steep, narrow, windy
stairs to the top. ‘I’m claustrophobic and afraid of heights!’ complained one
halfway up the staircase. ‘I have to stop off and catch my breath’ said
another. </span></div>
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One of the secret underground passageways beneath the castle</div>
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I knew she could be obsessive but I didn't realise how much of a Smeagol she really is! This pic cracks me up it is so creepy!</div>
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A bit of a house that was added on to the side of the castle. Apparently the owners decided they didn't like living in a castle. Honestly there's just no pleasing some people!</div>
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Mads bravely navigates the narrow, windy spiral stairs.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The castle itself is pretty ruin-y. There
are a lot of rooms you can explore, like Dunottar, but unlike Dunottar the
actual features of the rooms aren’t in good condition, or even existent in many
cases. There are a few fireplaces in the walls, but the kitchen, for example,
is completely empty. The grounds were absolutely stunning, however, and really
the only reason you go is to kiss the Blarney stone, which, legend has it,
gives you the Gift of Eloquence and enables you talk your way out of, or into,
any situation. The stone is built into the battlements, so basically you have
to lie down and pull yourself out over a hole at the very top of the castle,
leaning down backwards to reach it. There was a bit of queue to kiss the stone:
‘Why are they lying down?’ asked one tourist. ‘I don’t know, I’m not going to
lie down to do it, I don’t see why you need to’ responded whoever it was she
was with. Jeepers. Anyway, despite the fact I was a tad nervous about the
height thing, I did it! I kissed the Blarney Stone! I am so brave. I lay down
and leaned right out – it’s a long way to reach, I have to say, and while I did
look down for a second or two I was concentrating more on getting to the stone
and so it wasn’t that bad! Did I receive the Gift of Eloquence? So far signs
point to no, but maybe it takes a while to work...</span></div>
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A fireplace in what was the Great Hall</div>
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Mads in the castle</div>
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Me in the castle</div>
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The line of people keen to receive the Gift of the Gab</div>
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Mads kisses the stone</div>
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Me kissing the stone! Note the height... Bloody glad those poles are there I can tell you!</div>
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The view from the top</div>
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The Blarney Stone from the bottom, you can see someone going in for a smooch up there.</div>
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Me and the castle</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had a bit of a wander, past a Poison
Garden, full of various poisonous plants (why??), and down a wooded path by the stream that runs through the
grounds. We had lunch at a pub in Blarney after checking out a couple of
souvenir shops (so, so, so much green! You walk in and the green really hits you!!),
where the Man City game was on the tellie, so naturally we couldn’t leave until
it was over. </span></div>
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Walking in the Irish woods</div>
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A cave leading to more secret underground passageways</div>
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Irish pub in Blarney</div>
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Euros. I hate them, the coins all look the same! How exactly are you meant to tell the difference between 20 and 50 cents? Not to mention the 1 Euro when you're looking at them from the side! Generally I open the coin section of my wallet, give up and just go for the notes...</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next stop: Doolin. We drove through a few
little towns on our way, and the last little bit of our journey was down
narrow, winding roads with old stone and hedge fences – plenty of cows, sheep,
horses and even a few paddocks with donkeys!! Doolin is a tiny little town near
the West Coast of Ireland, and it seems like a great little town. After
checking in to our really nice hotel, we decided to try and find the beach,
which we eventually did: it’s just rocks, but it was absolutely beautiful! The
sea was such a gorgeous colour, there are loads of rock pools and heaps of cliffs
all around, and it was such a beautiful afternoon! We went back to Doolin for
dinner at a pub, I had a half-pint of Guinness (because you really have to when
you’re in Ireland, don’t you?) beef stew and potatoes. There was a guitarist
playing and singing, which was nice, and possibly the best bit of all? A waiter
with a dreamy Irish accent calling us ‘girls’ (say it in your head in Irish.
Sigh!). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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The 'beach' near Doolin. Quite spectacular.</div>
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Rocks for Madsy!</div>
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Climbing on the rocks</div>
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Explorer Mads.</div>
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Me on the rocks.</div>
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Driving in the Audi. We have done A LOT of miles in that car, it's become part of the family.</div>
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Driving in Ireland.</div>
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Another ruined castle, this one near Doolin. They're all over the place! That old 'oh, a caastle' ad with the goldfish in the bowl is starting to make more sense, Mads and I are starting to sound like it!</div>
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Fitzpatrick's pub in Doolin.</div>
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Yummy Beef and Guinness stew with scrumptious potatoes for dinner.</div>
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First Guinness of the trip. Actually, I think it's my first Guinness ever...</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-43038276171172731892012-05-12T15:39:00.002-07:002012-05-12T15:39:48.206-07:00A couple of drowned rats<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">Boy oh boy, Edinburgh day on Thursday was
disastrous weather-wise! We woke up and it was rainy and absolutely freezing.
After an okay breakfast at the hotel we decided to tackle the Royal Yacht
Britannia and Edinburgh Castle. Due to the weather we drove, down to Leith for
the Queen’s Yacht to start with. Brilliantly there is free carparking there,
you get to the Yacht through a very big and nice shopping centre. The boat was
awesome, frankly I went around feeling mega jealous of the Queen for being able
to own and travel on such a boat! The Queen’s apartments and staterooms were so
nice! Which you’d expect, of course, but it felt like you were in a house on
the sea – I could definitely see myself hanging out there on a nice cruise
around the Mediterranean. Mmmmmm... We also got to see the ‘downstairs’, i.e.
the crew’s areas, which were also not too bad but seriously when I’m on those
ships I can’t think of anything worse than being a sailor – it’s so
claustrophobic and it smells funny. I’m sure my crew won’t mind though...</span></div>
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HMY Britannia</div>
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Mads with the audio guide, in the control room (?)</div>
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Feeling right at home. </div>
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Cold, wet day. But we were determined to hear what those audio guides had to say!!</div>
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A Rolls, in case you need to pop out at the next port...</div>
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The Queen's bedroom</div>
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The state room</div>
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Here's one for Ben: swords with sharks teeth instead of a blade. Ouch!</div>
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The Queen's study</div>
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I really liked this room - Prince Phillip's study. </div>
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The living room. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had lunch at the shopping centre, I had
the most delicious tomato and basil soup, yum yum yum! Then we headed out again
to Edinburgh Castle. A little problematic (of course), as basically the whole
middle of Edinburgh has been torn up with road work, so the Audi had a little
trouble trying to figure out which way we should go. But we made it in the end
– and it started to pour!! But hey, you can’t go to Edinburgh and not go to the
castle, right? Plus we had a mission: try and find a cannon for Dad that a
formation at Jenolan Caves is named after – but he didn’t know the name of it
or where it was or anything... Ah well, we’d do our best! </span></div>
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Edinburgh Castle perched high atop the volcano. Very intimidating...</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">To be honest, the castle was a bit
disappointing. I don’t know if it was because we were soaked through with icy,
icy rain and so couldn’t really look around properly – me literally because I
was wearing my glasses and they were covered in raindrops, and whenever I breathed
they would fog up – but there were other reasons as well. For a start, the
place has never really stopped being used in an official capacity, so there are
a lot of areas that are blocked off because they house offices. Also it means
the rooms have been renovated a lot as they’re used for state functions, so you
don’t really know if what you’re looking at is actually old or if it’s just
been done up to look old. I suspect much of it comes under the latter category, such as the Great Hall in the Royal Palace. The second reason is sort of related
to the first: the bloody Victorians got hold of it. Feeling a sudden surge of
patriotism they decided to ‘fix up’ the castle and make it look like the
romantic castle of their dreams. Thankfully many of the proposals to almost
completely change the place fell through in favour of ideas that were more
conservational, but there are a few Victorian additions, such as the gate
house. And I guess compared to the Tower of London, and even Dunottar, it just
wasn’t as good!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">At any rate, we did have a fairly good look
around, and it is an incredibly formidable fortress, perched high up on an
extinct volcano, looking over the whole of Edinburgh. And we had a very spooky
time in the military prison, sort of hidden away in a deserted corner of the
castle, complete with creepy dummies in the cells – we were the only ones in
there and we couldn’t get out fast enough! We also saw the Honours of
Scotland, which are basically the very nice and sparkly Scottish Crown Jewels (which, I might add,
were saved from Cromwell and his armies at Dunottar and secretly smuggled out.
Scotland, you can thank us later...) and the Stone of Destiny, which Mads has
been obsessed with for some reason: basically all kings of Scotland must be
crowned on this stone, so, naturally, the English nicked it to use in their
coronations because the English monarch is the monarch of Scotland too. Apparently
in the 80s I think, some students nicked it back from Westminster Abbey, and so
the English decided to give it back – on the proviso that it is still used
whenever the next King/Queen of Britain is crowned. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also a really nice little tea place in there, where
we stopped for a bathroom break and a warm, delicious hot chocolate.</span></div>
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Portcullis</div>
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The Royal Palace</div>
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The Great Hall </div>
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A large, very decorated fireplace in the Royal Palace. These rooms are quite nice, still used for state functions.</div>
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Such a beautiful day! Looking out over Edinburgh from the castle.</div>
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Yum yum yum, hot chocolate with melty marshmallows.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Eventually the freezing cold got too much
for us, and our poor little toes were soaked through, so we decided to leave.
Oh, and I believe the relevant cannon, Dad, is probably the Mons Meg, one of
the oldest cannons in the world apparently and it is bloody huge! </span></div>
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Mons Meg. I'm providing scale. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So we made our way out past the ice cream
van parked out the front (I was completely speechless. You would have to be
INSANE to buy ice cream on a day like that! What were they thinking??? I
practically <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> an ice cream
myself!!) and went to one of the fifty tartan and souvenir shops in the street
leading up to the castle, where Mads bought herself a scarf in the Keith
tartan. Back to the hotel to check that all my toes were still attached, and
attempt to defrost them, only venturing out again to get pizza for dinner.</span></div>
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Just a wee bit chilly</div>
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Couldn't see much. I need windscreen wipers. </div>
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This street has about fifty clan/tartan/souvenir shops.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Yesterday was a bit of a write-off. We
hopped in the car again, heading SOUTH this time toward Liverpool, where the
plan was to catch a ferry to Dublin. This part of the trip I deliberately
hadn’t planned too much, because I thought it might be nice to try a bit of
spontaneity – people always seem to be going on about how good spontaneity is.
They are wrong. To start with, Liverpool is possibly the worst-signposted place
on the planet. You would think finding a dock at which many people catch
ferries to other countries would be easy. Instead, after following signs for
ferries to a point, they all disappeared and left us to our to our own devices.
There is even a sign to ferries to Dublin (yay!) which are actually out of date
because those ferries don’t go to Dublin anymore (ooookay). After a couple of
hours (this is after four hours driving just to get to Liverpool in the first
place) we found a nice person in a cafe who printed directions out for us from
the P&O website, so we were able to get to the docks. We discovered that
the next ferry would leave at 3.00am, so we booked our tickets and checked in
to a hotel for a couple of hours for a shower and a snooze. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I can’t really tell you much about the
ferry at all, because Mads and I managed to sleep almost all the way there. We
were the only people on the whole boat who weren’t in a cabin, so we had a
whole room of seats to ourselves, and they give you real pillows and full size,
really warm blankets. They also gave us breakfast at 9.30, which we woke up for
(seriously, bacon in the UK is awesome. Yuuuum!). Then we arrived at the dock
and got back in the Audi, who seemed to also have had an okay trip, drove off
and we were in the Republic of Ireland, our other ancestral home! Amazingly
enough we didn’t even have to get our passports checked or anything! Very
relieved to find they do drive on the left here, but trying hard to readjust to
kilometres per hour rather than miles per hour (pretty important to get it
right, there is a fairly major difference between travelling at 30km/h and
30mph) and having to figure out Euros after finally having got used to pounds...
irritatingly Euro cents are gold coloured and full Euro coins have a lot of
silver on them. So I’ve just been handing notes over all day.</span></div>
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See ya Liverpool. </div>
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Sleeping on the boat.</div>
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Land ho! First glimpse of Ireland.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Anyway, we found a carpark in Dublin and
went to explore. And can I say, that for both Mads and myself, it was love at
first sight. Dublin is amazing! I don’t know what I’d expected, but it is just
so pretty and so cultural! There are galleries and museums everywhere. Our day
in Dublin started out very well as a couple of Irish boys tried to chat us up
as we walked along. Naturally we were chuffed, who doesn’t love an Irish
accent? However we declined and continued on our way. We started our
sightseeing at Trinity College, which was founded by Elizabeth I, because we
happened upon it first. We wandered in, it was really pretty, then decided to
go and see the Book of Kells, a book containing the four Gospels from the New
Testament that was put together by Irish monks around 800BC. It was very
beautiful, as were the other ancient texts on display, but the real treat was
to come: the famous Long Room of the Trinity College Library. I’d seen pictures
of it, I’d read about in Ulysses by James Joyce, but nothing can really prepare
you for actually being there, it is incredible. It is massively huge, with old,
old books from floor to ceiling over two floors. The arched roof is stunning,
the smell of the books, the whole place is just amazing. 600 years of knowledge
amassed into one room, plus the knowledge that greats such as Joyce, Bram
Stoker and Oscar Wilde stood there too. We were in awe. We didn’t want to
leave. We literally just stood rooted to the spot for ages not trying to figure
out how to steal a whole, massive room without anyone knowing. Mads even
confessed that Cambridge, where she has always dreamed of going, may have been
usurped by that one library. </span></div>
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Trinity College.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We wandered through St Stephen’s Green, a
big park in the middle of the city, which was lovely, and saw a people’s art
exhibition with some really beautiful paintings – I saw a few I was tempted by,
if it weren’t for that small matter of getting my stuff home to Australia. We
then went to the National Museum of Archaeology, and I can safely say that it
is the absolute best museum I have ever been to – if you know me, and the
number of museums I have been to and loved, you will know that is a huge call. Even
better than the British Museum! But seriously it is amazing. The artifacts they
have there are absolutely incredible: Viking leather satchels and shoes, an
ancient book of Psalms discovered in a peat bog and painstakingly separated out
and cleaned, bog bodies (which I have to say were very appropriately presented
– they’re all in one room, but each of them are in their own private cubicle
things. We could only bear to look at one, because they are pretty horrible
really), and ordinary sorts of medieval objects, rather than the usual
religious relics you see. One of my favourite pieces was a little gold boat
from the 1<sup>st</sup> Century BC which was found in Ireland, with little oars
and a rudder and seats in it. But we didn’t get nearly enough time in there. We
had booked a hotel in Dublin for last night, but obviously we spent the night
on the boat instead, and tonight we are in a nice hotel in Cork, so we had to
leave Dublin a lot sooner than we’d have liked. There are a few more places I’d
like to see there (plus these really fun looking Viking duck tours, you know those vehicles that go on the road and in the water - everyone gets to wear a viking hat and they cheer a lot, how fun!!), but Cork seems like a nice place. Driving through Ireland
was stunningly beautiful, too. Somehow it seems greener than England even: I
think perhaps it’s not as cleared, there are more trees around. We also saw a
lot of old, crumbly towers dotted around the place, which was cool, very
Rapunzel. Another thing I like about Dublin (and Ireland in general) - all the signs are written in Irish as well as English. I'd love to hear someone speaking it while we're here!</span></div>
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A glorious day at St Stephens Green</div>
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The National Museum of Archaeology. Spectacular.</div>
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It's the kind of museum where you don't know if you want to look at the artifacts or the building itself. Beautiful!</div>
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My fave: little gold boat from the 1st Century BC</div>
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Just a street in Dublin, it's such a pretty city!</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-44156776536745631562012-05-09T17:01:00.001-07:002012-05-09T17:01:49.118-07:00Visiting with the relos.<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Today was a very good
day indeed. We checked out of our hotel in Glasgow in the morning, and headed
to Dunottar Castle, which dates from the 14<sup>th</sup> Century and was the
seat of the powerful Earls Marischal of Scotland, the Keiths. That’s right, we
were off to take a peek at </span><i>our</i><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"> castle! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The day started with a
glitch or two, of course. First of all the Audi decided to direct us to a
motorway which would take us east, and when we were driving on it, it decided
that actually the road didn’t exist and kept freaking out that we were off
road! What are you doing!? Turn around! The blue line of life was gone, and we
were just a little arrow in the middle of a big black field. I know for a fact
that we were actually on a road, but seeing as I had no earthly idea where to
go we got off the motorway and tried to find a road that the poor Audi
recognised. Reunited with the magical blue line of destiny, we went to a Maccas
drive thru for some sustenance. Oh no: one of those ordering voice box thingys.
They are bad enough when the person on the other end is speaking with an
Australian accent. As much as I LOVE the Scottish accent I never have any idea
what they are saying, and I suspect they don’t know what I’m saying, so it was
rather disastrous. I ordered hash browns and a bacon and egg mcmuffin. ‘No
brreakfast left.’ Okay then, I’ll have a cheeseburger meal and a nugget meal.
‘Rrr bsigrr wrrsight?’ Errr, no sauce thanks. Silence. ‘Was that from the
brreakfast menu or the main menu?’ Oh, sorry! Just the main menu!! We left with
most of our order correct, which was impressive, but apparently when I say
‘coke’ it sounds like ‘sprite zero.’ Poor Mads. Man I am going to be screwed in
Europe... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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First view of Dunottar Castle</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Anyway, we made it to
Dunottar, and it is incredible!! Not just because of the family connection,
which was pretty cool in itself: to see all the references to the Keiths
(that’s us!) and know that my ancestors lived here (I’ve never really
experienced that before. It’s a strange feeling that I’m not sure I can express
adequately. There was
something special and very cool about looking through the same windows that people in my family
tree looked through 500 years ago, or standing by a fireplace or walking
through a room). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As well as all
that, the castle is so amazingly awesome! It is exactly what you picture when you
think of an old, ruined castle. To begin with it is built on what is almost an
island: this big mound of land surrounded by cliffs and ocean on all sides,
connected to the mainland by only a narrow strip. The landscape is very
dramatic and beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Very cool, isolated location - how the heck did they build it up there?!</div>
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Mads surveying her domain...</div>
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Whereas I look like a goobah but here I am at Dunottar!</div>
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Had to back her on to the edge of a cliff but I got her in a selfie!!</div>
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Me being very brave, sitting on the edge of a very high cliff. </div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Then there is the
castle itself: it is mostly ruins, the stones turning green with moss, but there
is enough of it left that you can tell what the rooms were, features of the
buildings are still intact, there are multiple storeys still existing that you
can explore. In the keep, which was built in the 14<sup>th</sup> Century, there
are fireplaces and windows and whole rooms, as well as a spiral staircase that
leads up to an incredible first floor open to the sky. There are stables; and a
chapel. The kitchen just about blew my socks off, it’s still a complete room,
with a stone trough and an oven in which you can see the charred bricks. There
is another room with a brewery (Ben would be happy) and a bread oven. On the
first floor of this building are the Countess Suite and the Marischal Suite
with killer views out to sea – fireplaces, doorways and windows still intact,
and in the Marischal suite there is even a stone clockface built into the wall.
You can roam around everywhere and really explore the place, it is just so much
fun to be there! I’d recommend anyone go, what a place to get the imagination
going!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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In we go! </div>
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Me outside the Keep</div>
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The fireplace in the Keep, ground floor</div>
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In the Keep</div>
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Staircase in the Keep</div>
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Window in the Keep with very handy seats, good for enjoying the view.</div>
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The Smithy. You can still see the huge chimney and fireplace.</div>
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More old, worn, mossy stairs!!</div>
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Apparently Mary Queen of Scots stayed here when she visited.</div>
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The stone trough in the kitchen</div>
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Not a great pic but if you look closely you can see the ovens, still a bit charred.</div>
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Mads checking the view from the Whig Vault: this room has a rather horrible history, nearly 200 people who rebelled against the King were held in this long room without sanitation, having to buy their food from the guards for many weeks. Some managed to escape out of this window, but most of them were captured again. </div>
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The brewery</div>
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I can totally see myself as a Countess...</div>
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In the Marischal Suite. The bedroom is in the next room, apparently King Charles II stayed in there when he visited.</div>
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Fireplace in the Marischal's bedroom.</div>
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Do I look like a Keith?</div>
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Mads kindly demonstrates what you do in the dining room. </div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">After exploring just
about every square inch of that castle, we drove into Stonehaven, a sweet
little harbour village nearby, which is basically your stereotypical UK fishing
village – very pretty! Once again we courted disaster in the Audi when Mads opened
her coke too fast and it exploded all over her trademark pink coat. Luckily it
cleaned up okay (as did the Audi, which I was slightly more concerned about).
We drove out via the harbour, noticing some very cute little kids building
sandcastles on the beach... in hooded parkas and wellingtons, mind you; as well
as a street called Keith Place (us again! So famous!) and it was off to
Edinburgh!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Driving in the Awesome Audi</div>
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Stonehaven Harbour, note the kiddies making sandcastles on the 'beach'. Very cute little town. </div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Passing more giant
Scottish hills, castles and a Loch or two, we arrived in Edinburgh at about
6ish. First impressions are it is very pretty; you can tell it is, or at least
has been, a very wealthy city. Yummy (and cheap!) tapas for dinner around the
corner, and home in time for Britain’s Got Talent. I’m excited for more
sightseeing and exploring tomorrow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tapas in Edinburgh!</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-85283909117959836432012-05-08T16:56:00.005-07:002012-05-08T16:56:58.499-07:00Well I went to Cambridge...It has been a pretty action-packed few
days, with a lot of miles covered from Stratford to Glasgow. On Sunday, after
leaving the hotel and our new sheep friends at Stratford-Upon-Avon, we took a
slight two and a half hour detour to see Cambridge, patronised by kings such as
Henry VIII and home to scholars such as my favourite historian David Starkey.
We arrived in Cambridge after a pleasant drive at about 1.30pm, when Mads had
to listen to the Manchester City game against Newcastle. So she spent the first
two hours sitting in the car in the shopping centre carpark, and I mostly
stayed with her but popped in to the shops once or twice.<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Finally the game finished (Man City won,
thankfully, and now have a real chance of winning the premiership) and after a
quick chat to Benjamina on the phone we toddled off to see the university.
Cambridge is a really, really pretty town, and it is amazing to think of all
the knowledge amassed here over so many hundreds of years. It was really busy,
and full of bikes! There were thousands of them everywhere! We had a look at
the King’s College Chapel, which is enormous, and strolled past Trinity College
(founded by Henry VIII), as well as a couple of other colleges – they were all
closed, though, so we couldn’t look inside the gates, but it was all very
impressive and very old all the same. Another observation about Cambridge:
there are a lot of tailors and suit shops, all displaying tweed ‘collegewear’
in the windows. We did see one or two obvious Toffs, but more interestingly
there seemed to be a few initiation rituals going on: a group of blokes hopping
around saying ‘kangaroo’ in strange outfits (even funnier as Mads had earlier
that day been lamenting how she missed seeing kangaroos by the side of the
road...); and girls in green and purple with painting and drawings all over
their skin being led around by other girls looking normal (one of the girls in
purple was so intoxicated, mind you, she actually couldn’t stand up and bumped
her head on the cobblestones).
Still, it seemed like a nice place all the same. </span></div>
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Typical clothing store in Cambridge: frocks and tweed.</div>
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Bicycles: the only way to get around!</div>
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Hmm, apparently they're not all as intellectual as one would think... actually this guy played pretty well considering he was in a bin...</div>
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One of the colleges. Apparently the brown building on the left was established around 1635. </div>
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Trinity College, founded by Henry VIII</div>
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The back end of King's College Chapel.</div>
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Just an old, windy street in Cambridge.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Feeling like my IQ had gone up a point or
two, and noticing my pretentiousness levels increasing at a rapid pace, we got back in the
car and headed for ancient York, home to Romans, Vikings, Angles and Normans
alike, on the A1. Roadsigns all point to the NORTH, always capitalised like
some kind of warning: this road leads to the NORTH, are you sure you want to go
to the NORTH, turn back now you’re going to the NORTH!! We arrived in York at
about 8pm (still light, of course, which feels odd) and checked in to our guest
house, run by a tough-looking, tattoo-covered but really, really nice fellow.
We walked into town after settling in, and had a delicious Indian dinner at a
restaurant, with seriously the best nan bread ever! </span><br />
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York</div>
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Clifford's Tower</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We had the best sleep EVER at that guest
house, which was unfortunately cut short because breakfast is served between 8
and 9am. It was a nice, home cooked meal, and it meant that we got a nice early
start to the day. So after checking out we headed in to town again, got there
at 9.30 before everything opened so we walked up to the Shambles, a tudor
street in which the crooked buildings hang over the street, they are very cute,
and we got some ‘cinder toffee’ which is basically what we in Australia would
call ‘honeycomb’. </span><br />
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Mads at the Shambles</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We went to Clifford’s Tower next, which is pretty
much all that remains of an old castle whose history dates back to the 11<sup>th</sup>
Century, in the middle of town. It’s really cool, the actual tower being built
in the 13<sup>th</sup> Century, and only the stone walls and floor remain. You
can, however, see windows, fireplaces, spiral staircases, a well, and a chapel,
and there is a walk around the top of the walls (a little scary for me, being
terrified of heights and all I did get a little... dizzy I suppose, but I
pushed through!!). Heartbreakingly, it was the scene in 1190 of an attack on
the Jewish people of York, who took refuge in the tower and in the end chose to
end their own lives rather than die at the hands of the rioters.</span></div>
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Preparing to storm Clifford's Tower</div>
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Up we go!</div>
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Spiral stairs up to the first floor and wall walk.</div>
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On the wall</div>
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So high! There was no way I was leaning over like that...</div>
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Here, you can see a fireplace and doorway, as well as the windows in the remaining walls in the tower.</div>
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Mads going down stairs</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next up on the program: York Minster, which
dominates the York skyline and is incredibly massive, even today! You can only
imagine how a person living in medieval times must have felt looking up at the
massive tower, it would have blown their little socks off! It is an excellent
example of gothic architecture: stained glass, rose windows, flying buttresses,
arches everywhere, the perfect symmetry: I have a real appreciation for gothic
architecture, I love the giant scale of it, and how it looks really chaotic and
overdone but if you really look, it’s actually very ordered and organised. The
minster really was very beautiful, and it’s been a pretty historically
significant place, too, with Parliament meeting in the chapter house in the
past. </span><br />
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York Minster from the top of Clifford's Tower</div>
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This place is absolutely massive!</div>
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Ah the symmetry...</div>
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Chapter House. Stunningly beautiful, the stained glass windows almost go all the way around the room.</div>
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Mads being no one in Chapter House.</div>
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The view from the main altar.</div>
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I have a thing for old, worn stairs.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There was a very cool moment when we left
the Minster, Mads stopped to send a text to one of her friends and we looked up
and happened to be standing in front of Guy Fawkes’ Birthplace: this kind of
thing happens all the time in England. There’s just so much bloody history
here!!</span><br />
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Guy Fawkes' Birthplace, now the Guy Fawkes Inn</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next up we took a brief toddle around the
city wall, which was nice, but we started to run out of time as we’d only paid
for parking until 12.30pm. Mind you, not a bad effort for three hours of
sightseeing! So we hopped in the Audi again and pushed further NORTH. </span><br />
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Walking the wall</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It’s kind of funny how the buildings change
the further NORTH you go: as we went they started to look more drab and
depressing, like they are the homes of some man who’s gone mad after the death
of his wife, or a child who lives in a dream world because they’ve been forced
to live with an abusive distant relation after being orphaned, like in so many
old books. There were a lot of dilapidated barns and houses falling down, but
the land is still beautiful and green, with hedges and rolling fields and cows
and sheep. It also became
noticeably more hilly, contrasting with the absolute flatness of the South. We
passed two crumbling castles, and finally got to Scotland – for a while we
couldn’t tell if we were still in England or had passed in to Scotland, but
finally passed a big blue sign welcoming us. </span><br />
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The NORTH of England.</div>
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One of the crumbly castles we passed on the way to Scotland.</div>
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Yaaaay we made it!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It didn’t take long to get to Glasgow after
crossing the border and I have to say it’s not the prettiest city I’ve ever seen.
We didn’t do any exploring last night, because frankly we were buggered. And only after a very long sleep in this morning we ventured out of the hotel. We
realised that actually we don’t know a single thing about Glasgow or what there
is here, and owing to a cold which reached its peak today I didn’t really feel
like doing much. So we went to the movies to see The Avengers, which is
awesome. I love superheroes. I wish I was a superhero. We did go for a wander
around Glasgow after the film: there is a river, and a lot of kilt shops. As I
said before, it’s not the prettiest of cities, but the best thing about
Glasgow? SCOTTISH ACCENTS!! I cannot resist a Scottish accent, so all day I’ve
been feeling rather melty, every time anyone says anything that has ‘r’ in it
I’m gone! Mads also got rather excited when we walked past King Tut’s Wah Wah
Hut, where her precious Oasis was discovered. Back to the hotel for room
service dinner and day one in our ancestral homeland was done!</span><br />
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Downtown Glasgow</div>
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The River Clyde</div>
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This spire has a ship at the top!</div>
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Kilt shop!</div>
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King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, where, according to Mads the fanatic, Oasis was discovered. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-69842249970297802772012-05-05T14:29:00.001-07:002012-05-05T14:59:25.389-07:00Potter and Shakespeare<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">I know many of you have been waiting for
this... my report on the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour. It wasn’t that
great actually. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">AS IF!!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It was pretty much one of the best things
ever!! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We caught the train to Watford Junction to
get the Harry Potter shuttle bus to the studios in Leavesden., where filming
took place over ten years. Even before going in we saw Harry’s cupboard under
the stairs and one of his pairs of glasses, which got us super excited!After
seeing an introduction video in a cinema, the screen was raised in front of us
and there they were, the doors to the Great Hall, which we entered to see two
of the long tables set for dinner, the teachers’ head table, the tally of house
points, Dumbledore’s lectern and a few cosutmes! It was so exciting actually
being there! The detail in all the
sets, the props, the costumes, is incredible. We saw the Gryffindor common room
and boys dormitory, Dumbledore’s office (my personal fave), the Potions
classroom, the kitchen from the Burrow (a close second), the Ministry of Magic
(absolutely massive), Umbridge’s office in the Ministry, Hagrid’s hut, and the
Green Screen including broomstick, Sirius’s motorbike and the cart on which
Harry, Hermione and Ron rode through Gringotts. Not to mention all the amazing
props and costumes!! Ugh, too much to include here!!</span></div>
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The Hogwarts Great Hall, ready for dinner</div>
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Gryffindor costumes, including Harry's first year uniform on the left and Neville's cardi second from the right.</div>
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Wands - Harry, Hermione and Ron included</div>
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The Mirror of Erised - apparently I desire a bunch of strangers...</div>
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Gryffindor common room</div>
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The Crystal Goblet from Half Blood Prince and the Philosopher's Stone from Philosopher's Stone</div>
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Various fun props including a snitch, the time turner, the deluminator and Rita Skeeter's Quick Quotes Quill</div>
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Dumbledore's office. I totally want this room!</div>
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Potions dungeon classroom</div>
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The door to the Chamber of Secrets</div>
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One of my favourites: The Burrow</div>
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What remains of the Ministry of Magic.</div>
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Umbridge's Ministry office</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And that was only the first part! The
backlot was next, but we took a few minutes out to sample some Butterbeer – the
verdict: delicious! Almost sickly sweet, with a really creamy, marshmallowy
vanilla-tasting head on it. My only complaint about the butterbeer was that it
was cold, where I had always imagined it being warm, but maybe that’s just me!
The backlot was also very cool, and had the Knight Bus, two of the houses from
Privet Drive (including number 4, of course), the Potter’s House from Godric’s
Hollow, the wooden bridge to Hogwarts and some of the giant Wizard’s Chess
pieces.</span></div>
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Mads with her Butterbeer</div>
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Privet Drive</div>
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The Knight Bus</div>
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Me paying my respects at the Potter's House at Godric's Hollow</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next we went to the Creature Shop, where
they had prosthetics, robots and dummies of the cast – the best to see was poor
little Dobby and Buckbeak the hippogriff, which moves so smoothly it’s like a
real animal. We got to walk up Diagon Alley and finally see the huge model of
Hogwarts, which they used for filming external shots of the castle. It was
incredible. It was absolutely massive, and so incredibly detailed: I wanted to
cry!! </span></div>
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Buckbeak!</div>
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Ollivander's on Diagon Alley</div>
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Hogwarts!! Amazing!!</div>
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Hogwarts at daytime</div>
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The detail on this enormous model is absolutely incredible!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Out via a massive giftshop, trying to
resist as much temptation as possible (although I did get a gift or two and
maybe a couple of books). Then it
was back to the flat to pack up and clean, ready to leave on Friday!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Yesterday morning I caught the train to
Kings Cross to pick up a very nice Audi A4 which will be mine for the next 2
weeks! It is a very sweet ride and very fancy, with no handbrake (it’s
automatic with the gears) and a key that doesn’t turn, you stick it in the
dashboard and it becomes a button that you push to start the car. And the
engine shuts off whenever you stop at lights, then turns on again when you
release the brake. AND it has GPS which may be the coolest thing ever! I made
it all the way back to Walthamstow not knowing where the heck I was the entire
time and I didn’t get lost! </span></div>
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The Audi. Sweet as. Only problem is they don't seem to like telling you what the speed limit is in England. Problematic when there is a speed camera on the road to our hotel. I suppose it's like a guessing game...</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Driving in London is actually not as bad as
driving in Sydney – it feels like there are less cars, and other drivers are
extremely polite and accommodating. Except that you can drive for over an hour
and still be in the city, the place is so huge! After packing the car we drove
to Bermondsey to drop some stuff off at Mads’ locker and we were on our way to
Stratford-Upon-Avon, our new home for the next two days! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The drive was pretty nice, a lot of Canola
fields and sheep and small towns: basically England looks just the way you
would imagine And so, so, so green!
It feels like you’re wearing green coloured glasses or something, even
the air seems to be green – actually rather funny as there have been water-wise
signs all over the place and we were told the other day that England is in the
middle of a very bad drought, I had to try very hard indeed not to laugh out loud.</span></div>
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Canola fields across from our hotel. Stunning, makes me think of Bathurst...</div>
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Sheep and lambies next door! So adorable!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We got to our hotel and were completely
blown away! It’s in an old manor house on the site of a medieval town which was
abandoned a long time ago and is now a sheep paddock. The hotel itself is so
beautiful, with a topiary garden, a big fountain, and a wooded duck pond. There
is a huge canola field across the road, and one of my favourite things, a
little church which dates back to the 11<sup>th</sup> Century. The church yard is completely overgrown
with graves hidden all over the place: apparently Shakespeare’s grand-daughter
was married there, and there is a claim that Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway
there as well (mind you, this is a claim made by just about every church in the
area. Maybe they just had lots of weddings...). After a stroll around the
grounds we drove in to the town of Stratford-Upon-Avon. Everything was closed,
pretty much, but we had a look at Shakespeare’s birthplace, and found a
laundrette so we did our washing. At one point a bunch of hard-ass fifteen year
old boys came in to eat their fish and chips and listen to S Club 7. They make
‘em tough in Stratford! Back to the hotel for dinner in the fancy pants dining
room, where I spotted a secret door in the panelling – apparently there are a
lot of secret passageways in the hotel!</span></div>
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Billesley Manor Hotel</div>
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The main entrance</div>
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Mads in the Topiary Garden</div>
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The beautiful All Saints Church, originally part of the medieval town that once stood in the (now) paddock next door.</div>
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Washing!!</div>
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Mads looks for some reading material</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We slept in (again) this morning, and then
Shakespeare Saturday started in earnest! First we went to Anne Hathaway’s
cottage, which is a couple of miles out of town and is where she grew up,
before getting knocked up and marrying Will. We had chocolate cake for breakfast
at the cafe across the road and headed in to the house which was stunningly
beautiful! It has a thatched roof, beautiful gardens (I am obsessed with bulbs
after this trip. I just want a yard full of bulbs!) and the whole place is
delightfully crooked. There is not a level floor in the place, it looks like
it’s going to fall down at any moment and I love it! Move over Hampton Court, I
think I will live here instead! We went for a walk along the Wooded Walk which
was so fun and, again, so green. Then we drove back to Stratford to see
Shakespeare’s Birthplace. The town is so lovely, there are so many old, crooked
16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> Century buildings. We also checked out
Nash’s House and New Place, which is where Shakespeare died but was knocked
down a long time ago, so now there is a big archaeological dig going on where
the house used to be. We then walked along to Trinity Church, which is where
he, Anne Hathaway and other family members including his daughter are buried. The interesting thing about Shakespeare
is that despite the fact he was so famous even in his day, there is very little
that survives that we know definitely belonged to him. Compare this with the
Dickens exhibition we were at the other day, there is even a shopping list that
Dickens wrote that survives. </span></div>
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Anne Hathaway's Cottage.</div>
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Anne Hathaway's garden</div>
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The Woodland Walk</div>
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Mads with her new best friend, the rubber William Shakespeare duck.</div>
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Me outside Shakespeare's Birthplace</div>
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The best bed in the Shakespeare's living room.</div>
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Shakespeare's stairs</div>
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What light from yonder window breaks? Why it's Juliet! Performance at Shakespeare's birthplace.</div>
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A street in Stratford-Upon-Avon</div>
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Archaeological dig at New Place.</div>
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Trinity church, where Shakespeare was both baptised and buried.</div>
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Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare's graves. His reads 'Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"> </span>Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones.' Fair enough. </div>
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Mads chillin by the River Avon in the churchyard at Trinity.</div>
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Another cool building in Stratford-Upon-Avon</div>
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Mads outside the Madeleine Ann shop. Even though our Mads is Anne with an 'e', it's pretty dang close! </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We walked back to the town centre along the
River Avon, and had dinner at a pub established in 1450, which was pretty cool
too. Despite almost having a panic attack when I nearly lost one of my gloves
in one of the gift shops, all in all it was a very pleasant day in a very
historical and beautiful town: I highly recommend a visit!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Also, they sell Wonka Bars here, just like
the ones in the Willy Wonka movie! Forget seeing Shakespeare’s first folio, probably
the most exciting point of the day was seeing Wonka bars in a shop’s cabinet!!</span></div>
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Yaaaaay Wonka bar!</div>
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Golden ticket???</div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-57124137409178084372012-05-03T13:05:00.000-07:002012-05-03T13:05:19.185-07:00What we did next<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">Tuesday = Tower Day!</span></div>
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The iconic White Tower</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We slept in a bit on Tuesday, our poor
bodies were a bit tired after sooo much walking over the past few days, then we
headed in to the Tower of London, a building with nearly 1000 years of history
which is mind-blowing in itself! We’ve both been there before, so we started
with the parts I didn’t get to see the first time around: the medieval palace,
the wall walks, the Torture at the Tower section, and the Fusiliers Museum. We
also, of course, had a look in the White Tower, the Bloody Tower and the
Beauchamp Tower. The thing about the Tower of London is that it is just so dang
old, and so stereotypically castle-ish, that it almost doesn’t feel real. It
feels like you are at a theme park. But when you stop and really think about
where you are standing, and the history that has taken place there, it is quite
incredible that it is even standing, let alone that it’s in the amazing
condition that it is. </span></div>
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Outside the Byward Tower</div>
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Pepsi by the Beasts of the Tower shop</div>
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Note: Mads refuses to have her picture taken, so I've started a trend: photos of Mads walking places from behind. I might open a gallery one day. This is Mads walking into a tower.</div>
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Mads walking up a spiral staircase.</div>
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Mads in a tower. Note the beautiful vaulted ceiling. I would definitely like a room like this!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">My highlights of the Tower:</span></div>
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<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US">I LOVE the graffiti in the
Beauchamp tower. It is my absolute favourite thing there: it’s so poetic and
beautifully carved and sad. It gives a human face to the Tower and the famous
prisoners that were held there.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US">The armour in the White Tower
is incredible – my favourite suit belonged to Henry VIII, and was worn when he
met with the King of France. Let’s just say he wasn’t shy about his
masculinity...</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US">The Wall Walk was really nice,
and the medieval palace was very cool, with beautiful vaulted ceilings in some
of the towers.</span></li>
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I'm a natural with a crossbow. Come on, do your worst!!</div>
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Yay! Got her in a pose! Mads demonstrates the immense size of this ceremonial sword belonging to Henry V.</div>
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Me and the White Tower</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The absolute best was yet to come but more
on that a bit later. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We hopped on a boat to take us down the
Thames from the Tower to Westminster, which was really nice: the sun was
shining, a perfect day to be on the water. We had commentary from our
not-a-guide-but-a-waterman, who rolled out many so-bad-they’re-bloody-funny
jokes all the way down the Thames. After disembarking we wandered up to
Leicester Square to have a look in HMV, but didn’t buy anything in the end.
Leicester Square is ALWAYS insanely busy, full of very interesting types, flashing
lights and noise. Despite all this I like it. </span></div>
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Tower Bridge from the Thames at the Tower. T.T.T.</div>
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Thinking evil thoughts, as usual.</div>
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On the boat</div>
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Big Ben, Westminster.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We went to Mads’ RML (bible study) group at
St Helen’s to have dinner with her friends in the church. They were all very
glad to see Mads back, and she was very happy to be back, and they seem like a
nice bunch of people. They were certainly cracking out the Aussie jokes but we
won them over with the Tim Tams and pinchy koalas that Mads brought them. </span></div>
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St Helen's Bishopsgate.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And so we headed back to the Tower of
London to witness the 750 year old Ceremony of the Keys. The Tower looks quite
spectacular at night time, all lit up. We presented our ticket and were
allowed, with maybe 100 others,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>back in to the Tower, and I must say it felt rather eerie standing by
Traitor’s Gate at night time, thinking of the other poor souls throughout
history who have come through that gate at night-time, never to leave again.
Basically the ceremony is the locking-up of the Tower of London each night:
apart from it being an important historical site it does house the Crown Jewels
so this is rather important. The chief Yeoman dude meets an armed sentry below
the Bloody Tower, and they march down to the front gates and lock them. They
then march back towards the Bloody Tower and are met by another armed sentry
who adopts the challenge pose with his gun and commands them ‘Halt! Who Comes
there?’ An exchange follows, and they are allowed to proceed with Queen
Elizabeth’s Keys. They then meet the guards who are to guard the Tower through
the night, they present arms, we all pray for the Queen and the Last Post is
played. Then off they go to do their duty. It really is amazing to think the
same thing has been happening for such a long time, and they all look so
impressive in their red coats and bearskin hats, I had chills up my spine being
allowed to witness it, and I highly recommend that if you are coming to London
you try and get there: you have to write to the Ceremony of the Keys office
months in advance to get a spot, but it’s well worth it!</span></div>
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The Tower at night. Creepy. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Yesterday we headed to the British Museum,
another of my favourite places on the planet so far! The place is so incredibly
massive, and choc-a-bloc full of the most amazing artifacts nicked from all
over the world, many of them thousands and thousands of years old. Quite apart
from the countless treasures the museum holds, the building itself is
stunningly beautiful. </span></div>
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The British Museum</div>
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The Great Court in the British Museum.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We started, of course, with the Sutton Hoo
helmet, which I went completely gaga over the last time we were here. It’s just
such an important piece, more than anything, and it’s an iconic image representing
British archaeology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found the
Enlightenment exhibition, which was interesting in itself, telling the story of
the Victorian Enlightenment when archaeology and historical research was born,
really; but as well as this it was housed in the King’s Library, which used to
belong to King George III and was the most beautiful room all by itself!</span></div>
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Sutton Hoooooo!!!</div>
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Mads in the Enlightenment exhibition in the King's Library.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Naturally we had to check out the beautiful
but controversial Elgin Marbles, or the sculptures from the Parthenon in
Athens. After a quick drink we went to the Egypt: Life and Death galleries that
house a number of mummies, as well as sarcophagi and coffins and tomb paintings
from Ancient Egypt. I felt a little sickened afterwards, seeing the tourists
gawking at and taking photographs of the mummies – certainly they’re
interesting, but a little respect wouldn’t go astray: after all once upon a
time they were living, breathing human beings just like you and me. And I
suppose that is the one drawback of the British Museum, it is just so famous
that it is ALWAYS sooo full of tourists, and really the only way to avoid them
is to find some of the more obscure galleries, which we managed to do with a
fairly out-of-the-way Greece and Rome section which was full of beautiful
pottery and everyday objects, like medical instruments, armour and one of my
faves for the day, the engraved cover of a booklet that granted a man Roman
Citizenship after 20 years military service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also noticed that there was a lot of duck pottery, which
seemed a bit random...</span></div>
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Me and the Parthenon Sculptures</div>
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A chick with a duck.</div>
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A dude scowling at a goose. I don't know what he did wrong. Maybe he's just a generally mischievous goose. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Starving, we had lunner (lunch/dinner) at
the Museum Tavern across the road, an old-style English pub with delicious
burgers and giant ciders, and then went to Westfield at Stratford. And if you thought Westfield
Parramatta could be unbearably busy, you ain’t seen nothing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are so many people all packed
into this shopping centre, and while it is huge the crowds are ridiculous. We
did have a list of things we wanted to get, but after battling the gagillions
of fellow shoppers we accepted defeat with a couple of pairs of tights and went
to see Pirates at the movies. It was AWESOME! Seriously, see it! Hilarious! And
it’s kinda cool seeing a movie that is set in London when you are in London. </span></div>
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Mads in the Museum Tavern. </div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-60631927044454651772012-04-30T14:13:00.001-07:002012-04-30T14:13:21.604-07:00Rain and Shine<!--StartFragment-->
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<span lang="EN-US">Weather-wise, yesterday was miserable: it
was so wet and sooo freezing, and we didn’t really accomplish much but it was
still a pretty alright day! The plan was to go to Westminster Abbey, but we
didn’t take into consideration that it was Sunday and the Abbey would be closed
for worship. Still, it was nice to wander around Westminster, which is
absolutely beautiful. We had brekky at a very, very, very strange Italian
restaurant: possibly the most gaudy place I’ve ever seen, and a mean waiter who
wouldn’t let us order bacon with our eggs on toast. </span></div>
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Does it get any more stereotypically English than this? </div>
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Horse Guard</div>
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Westminster Abbey - closed :(</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So we decided to catch the tube to Oxford
Street to do some shopping: I needed a phone and a cardi, Mads needed jeans and
boots. Unfortunately it seems the British are either deluded or just wishfully
thinking it’s hot and are selling only very, very summery clothing. Strike two!
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Mads FINALLY gets her Star Bar fix.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As a result, we thought it might be a fun
idea to head over to 221b Baker Street – those literary (or Robert Downey Jnr)
aficionados out there will immediately recognise the address as belonging to
Sherlock Holmes – seeing as we were in the area. There was a fair line out the
front waiting to get in, but we bought a ticket and joined the queue. Naturally
the rain started getting a bit harder while we were in line, I think Inspector
Lestrade out the front thought we were all a bit nuts and suggested we go and
get a brolly from the sports shop down the road on our way home. The museum was
fun, only a little too crowded to be thoroughly enjoyable. The first couple of
floors are presented as Holmes and Watson’s rooms, the rest houses fun props
from the stories and slightly creepy full-sized figures of various characters.
But possibly the best part of the museum: the gift shop!! Books, pipes,
deerstalker hats, other fun Holmes-related memorabilia. </span></div>
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Me and Inspector Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes Museum</div>
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Holmes' living room. Notice the deerstalker hat on the coffee table!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We headed back to Walthamstow to dry our
feet, then went to church at St Helen’s Bishopsgate in the city. It’s an
absolutely amazing church, built around 700 years ago and full of Elizabethan
effigies and 17<sup>th</sup> Century memorial plaques. Apparently Shakespeare
was once part of the congregation. It was nice to meet some of Madsy’s friends;
we had dinner together in the church. </span></div>
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Downtown Walthamstow</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Today we went to possibly my favourite
place in the world, Hampton Court Palace, home of Henry VIII. It is a very
intense and amazing experience walking in the footsteps of one of England’s
most famous monarchs – you can almost feel his presence as you walk through the
Great Hall and the Great Watching Chamber. The palace itself is absolutely
stunning, and seeing as it was a perfect day with the sun shining, we spent a
lot of time in the gardens. We had a go at the hedge maze and actually got
lost, trying to find our way around for about 20 minutes, getting slightly
desperate, before Mads switched her noggin on and we found the centre and, more
importantly, the exit!! We explored the gardens for a while, taking in the
royal tennis court, the magnificent flowers, and having a ride on a horse-drawn
buggy thing. We even saw Henry himself having a wander.</span></div>
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The BEST hot chocolate on the planet, bought on the train platform at Hampton Court.</div>
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Hampton Court Palace, my future home.</div>
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Base Court</div>
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Flowers</div>
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A lone tulip in the informal gardens. So artsy, as Mads put it, I should have put it on instagram.</div>
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The backyard. Apparently this is where 'Mary Mary Quite Contrary' originated.</div>
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Formal gardens</div>
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1<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vdP4cgBBNZQ/T5753UV_65I/AAAAAAAAADQ/N0eEnt8yyEs/s1600/DSCN0103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vdP4cgBBNZQ/T5753UV_65I/AAAAAAAAADQ/N0eEnt8yyEs/s640/DSCN0103.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Into the hedge maze!</div>
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Completely lost.</div>
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Made it, finally!! The centre of the maze.</div>
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Horse drawn buggy thing.</div>
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Mads and the Thames.</div>
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Me and Aragon.</div>
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Henry VIII!!!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In to the palace next, viewing an
exhibition of portraits of Charles II’s many, many mistresses, Henry VIII’s
apartments,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and the Tudor Kitchens
before Mads headed back to Walthamstow for her pre-match ritual (City has a
VERY important game against the evil United), and I stayed back to continue
exploring the palace like the good little nerd that I am! I think when I move
in I think I will take over the Georgian apartments. Eventually I managed to
tear myself away and headed back to the flat, navigating the tube all by myself
and finding my way home without getting too lost!! Crumbed chicken and potatoes
for dinner, and now to just eagerly await the results of the City/United
game... and what kind of mood Mads will be in for the rest of the week...</span></div>
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Henry VIII's Great Hall. </div>
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The entrance to what used to be Henry VIII's private rooms. </div>
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Mads in the Great Watching Chamber</div>
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Fish Court. </div>
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The firebug with a bloody great fire. Bliss!</div>
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The Cartoon Gallery. This will be an excellent space in which to have my housewarming party.</div>
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A tudor lady.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>This just in: City won so we are all good and jolly! </o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-36265610998670108392012-04-29T02:00:00.003-07:002012-04-29T02:04:12.021-07:00To London<br />
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We made it to London!
Hooray! And after some initial disasters we are well on our way to having an
excellent time! <o:p></o:p></div>
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The flight, although
long, was pretty good. Emirates is a pretty good airline in my experience, the
food is unusually tasty and plentiful for airline food, there is plenty of leg
room and the hosties were all really nice. It turned out to be the best time to
fly, as well: leaving Sydney at 9.45pm meant there were no screaming children
at all, and it was easier to sleep on the plane which Mads and I both
miraculously managed to. It also made the change in time zones seem more
natural: in the morning we landed in Dubai, ready for our next flight in to
London which would arrive in the afternoon. Due to fog the flight was delayed,
we sat in the plane at the gate for nearly two hours, but it didn’t seem to
matter. Generally speaking I don’t
like flying, but there are some amazing things to see: the sun rising over the
horizon at 25,000 ft was incredible; sand dunes in the Middle East; the
snow-capped Austrian Alps; wind turbines in the English Channel; the patchwork
fields of England and finally the London Eye by the Thames were highlights. <o:p></o:p></div>
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England</div>
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We found our driver at
the airport easily, however disaster struck when we arrived at the holiday flat
in which we’re staying in Walthamstow: the owner was not there, and her phone
was switched off. So after 24 hours on the plane and a desperate need for a
shower, we were homeless and had no idea where to go. Calling a cab is
impossible in London unless you have a destination, so asking a driver to take
us to a hotel anywhere was not an option. I left Mads with our tonne of luggage
to try and find a black cab on the main road, to no avail, however I was spied
by a nice fellow and his wife at the petrol station who took pity on my ‘what
the heck do I do now?’ expression and gave me the number of a good cab company
and even let me use their mobile. We decided to head to Hampstead, and a hotel
we will stay in later in the trip, however on calling from the taxi they had no
accommodation for the night. After another desperate call to the directory
number 118118, we found a room at the Holiday Inn at Brent’s Cross – a dilemma
for the taxi driver as it was not our original destination and he would have to
call the cab company to figure out how much he would need to charge us. Anyway
we made it, it was a nice hotel and we got to have room service for dinner and
crash, and figure out what to do for the next day. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At Brent Cross Station</div>
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Saturday was rather
better, although I felt pretty homesick due to the fact that in London we
didn’t have a home yet. We had a
huge, delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel, then decided to leave our bags
there and explore the city. We’d gotten in touch with the owner of the flat and
agreed to meet her in the afternoon, so we headed to the local tube station and
went to the Museum of London. Wandering along in the city we came across the
ruins of the Wall of London – damn I love this city and it’s history! <o:p></o:p></div>
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The ruins of the old London City wall</div>
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The museum was good –
there was a Charles Dickens exhibition on which included the handwritten
manuscripts of Bleak House, Great Expectations, David Copperfield and a number
of other books, as well as his writing desk, chair, quill and ink pot. The
museum also has a section set out like a Victorian street, and a pleasure
garden that has dresses from the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> centuries.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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We wandered the city
after this, into the garden of St Paul’s to watch some squirrels running
around, and completely tripping out as there are heaps of flowers around, but
it’s really cold and rainy. I kept trying to figure out how that worked, then
remembered it’s actually spring here, not the middle of winter. We wandered over the Millennium Bridge,
purchasing a cup of caramelised nuts on the way, and strolled down the Thames
to Waterloo Station before heading back to Brent’s Cross. London is just so
pretty! It’s beauty actually took me by surprise the first time I came here, and
I still think it is absolutely stunning. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At St Paul's Cathedral</div>
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Caramelised Nuts on the Millennium Bridge, looking towards Tower Bridge.</div>
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We finally made it in
to the flat! It’s really nice in here, a one-bedroom place with TV and wi-fi,
and a shower and a bed and a kitchen and what more could you want? Pizza for
dinner, which I pretty much ate single handedly I was so hungry! So NOW I’m
super excited to be in London and ready to see what the rest of this trip
brings! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Home.</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617434118482891633.post-68626985348465482322012-04-07T06:57:00.001-07:002012-04-07T07:00:36.238-07:00ItineraryMads and I are pretty standard tourists, really: we love the cultural, touristy stuff that most people do on holiday in Europe, and we're not ashamed of this fact! There is nothing better than a historical site, a gallery or museum, a famous landmark... not to mention a great souvenir/book shop! So naturally the itinerary for our trip reflects this. We're staying in hotels, thanks to Hotels.com I think I got some pretty good deals. I'll try to keep the blog updated mostly with photos, so at any point in time you can see where I'll be reporting from! Cannot <i>wait</i> to go - 20 days left before we head off for our adventure!<br />
<br />
April 26 : Leave Sydney Australia<br />
April 27: Walthamstow, London, UK<br />
May 4: Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK<br />
May 6: York, UK<br />
May 7: Glasgow, Scotland, UK<br />
May 9: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK<br />
May 11: Roadtripping around Ireland, starting from Dublin<br />
May 15: Bath, UK<br />
May 17: Thornbury, UK<br />
May 18: Hampstead, London, UK<br />
May 20: Paris, France<br />
May 27: Bruges, Belgium<br />
June 1: Rome, Italy<br />
June 4: Naples, Italy<br />
June 6: Assisi, Italy<br />
June 7: Venice, Italy<br />
June 9: Lugano, Switzerland, and the Italian Lakes<br />
June 11: Florence, Italy<br />
June 13: Rome, Italy<br />
June 15: Vienna, Austria<br />
June 16: Salzburg, Austria<br />
June 18: Munich, Germany<br />
June 19: Regensburg, Germany<br />
June 21: Nuremberg, Germany<br />
June 22: Berlin, Germany<br />
June 25: Walthamstow, London, UK<br />
July 1: Sydney, Australia<br />
<br />
Here is a <a href="http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?msid=205988827152511791058.0004bd169190b71d588cc&msa=0" target="_blank">Google map of the tri</a>p - I've mapped out all the points at which we'll be staying. <br />
<br />
Keep in touch!<br />
<br />
xoxoUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0