Friday, 16 September 2016
Thursday, 15 September 2016
The last post
Hello from HK International, we are in the qantas lounge just chilling out before our v evening flight home. To bring you up to date on our travels......
Montmatre, I was expecting the arty and funky and what I got was Kings Cross, yes folk's Warren was offered so many lap dances (or other services) that I employed a check chain - its a good job the French language goes over his head!!!!!
All in all we enjoyed Paris and would go back and spend some more time.
Then Hong Kong, what a culture shock - the old v the new, the territory is in a constant state of tearing down and building up with the old, shabby and smelly nestled in with the super modern. In fact the photo that I missed says it all, the Versace store all glitter and glamour on the ground floor with what to us are grubby tenements above where washing hangs out the windows. This is HK.
We stayed in Aberdeen Harbour which is on the far side of HK Island, really easy to get around with a fantastic and cheap bus system. We took a 48 hour big red bus ticket which does the hop on hop off thing, and explored, took the peak tram and headed up Victoria Peak, took the Star Ferry to Kowloon side, took a ride round Aberdeen Harbour in a sampan and generally did the tourist thing.
The weather was mid 30's with humidity at 80+% and the smog factor was ..... can't see Kowloon side from the ferry terminal. I loved it, the bustle, the people, the skyscrapers - HK has 4 times more than New York - unfortunately for Wazzy it was a nightmare, he's okay now but HK is not for him healthwise.
Once again I have to comment on the public transport system, it is absolutely spectacular, you can check your luggage and get your boarding pass at the HK station up to 1 full day before you travel. The airport express train takes just 30 minutes to have you right in the airport. Get yourself together Victoria.
So we fly out tonight seasoned travellers who are glad to be coming home. We have met some incredible people who have made travelling a pleasure an in most places have felt safe, though I must admit I have felt safer in HK than I did in France.
We look forward to seeing you as all soon.
Montmatre, I was expecting the arty and funky and what I got was Kings Cross, yes folk's Warren was offered so many lap dances (or other services) that I employed a check chain - its a good job the French language goes over his head!!!!!
All in all we enjoyed Paris and would go back and spend some more time.
Then Hong Kong, what a culture shock - the old v the new, the territory is in a constant state of tearing down and building up with the old, shabby and smelly nestled in with the super modern. In fact the photo that I missed says it all, the Versace store all glitter and glamour on the ground floor with what to us are grubby tenements above where washing hangs out the windows. This is HK.
We stayed in Aberdeen Harbour which is on the far side of HK Island, really easy to get around with a fantastic and cheap bus system. We took a 48 hour big red bus ticket which does the hop on hop off thing, and explored, took the peak tram and headed up Victoria Peak, took the Star Ferry to Kowloon side, took a ride round Aberdeen Harbour in a sampan and generally did the tourist thing.
The weather was mid 30's with humidity at 80+% and the smog factor was ..... can't see Kowloon side from the ferry terminal. I loved it, the bustle, the people, the skyscrapers - HK has 4 times more than New York - unfortunately for Wazzy it was a nightmare, he's okay now but HK is not for him healthwise.
Once again I have to comment on the public transport system, it is absolutely spectacular, you can check your luggage and get your boarding pass at the HK station up to 1 full day before you travel. The airport express train takes just 30 minutes to have you right in the airport. Get yourself together Victoria.
So we fly out tonight seasoned travellers who are glad to be coming home. We have met some incredible people who have made travelling a pleasure an in most places have felt safe, though I must admit I have felt safer in HK than I did in France.
We look forward to seeing you as all soon.
Monday, 12 September 2016
Paris
Bonjour from CDG airport, we are sitting in the Cathay Pacific Lounge sipping coffee, its the quietest we have been since arriving in France. Our last day in Avignon we did a bus tour and fell in with a couple of Aussies from Cairns who were great fun to travel with.
We started the day with a trip to Orange to see the Arc de Triomphe built by the Romans to celebrate their victory over the celts in the 1st century AD, a truely amazing edifice. We then headed the Roman Theatre 'theatre antique' a huge amphitheatre which is one of the best preserved in the world. In fact they are still holding productions including operas there now.
After a scenic drive through the Provence countryside we stopped at Chateauneuf-du-Pape for a lesson in wine production, a visit to the ageing cellars and finally the best bit a tasting of their wines. We tried a white and a few reds, and I have to say ours are better, in fact since we have been away I have developed a greater appreciation for our wines and food in general - I think our gastronomy is world class.
After our tipple we sloshed back onto the bus, Kim from Cairns said "well it was okay but give me a good NZ or Aussie Sav Blonc any day - to which we heartily agreed. A 40 minute drive took us further into the hills to the village of Les Baux De Provence which is a medieval village perched on a rocky spur in the Alpilles hill range. An incredible sight, we stopped on the outskirts for photos and then headed into the village for lunch and lavender ice cream.
After lunch we stayed in the hills and headed to the village of Gordes which is a village comprised of drystone cottages, then drove to Roussillon which was the site of ochre production for centuries until synthetic dyes made ochre production obsolete. The houses are all painted with ochre in a mind boggling array of ochre hues, very picturesque.
Our final stop for the day was Le Pont du Gard which is one of the largest and best preserved Roman aquaducts, it was completed in the first century AD and supplied all the water to the town of Nimes.
We arrived back in Avignon at about 7:30pm exhausted but enriched. And then we had to pack!!!!
Saturday we ditched the bloody fiat panda that had sat unused in the driveway since our arrival, the europcar people in Avignon were lovely (which didn't really make up for the ones in Marseilles being arses!!) And we boarded the train for the trip to Paris. Just a word about fast trains - its almost 700kms from Avignon to Paris by road, so by train its probably 650kms the train left Avignon at 10:42 on time and arrived in Paris at 1:24, yes folks thats 2 hour and 32 minutes - I don't think we go from Wang to Melbourne in that time!!! We grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel, and thank you John Bursill for his tip about using Timhotels, it was great. But a big but, guess who didn't know the weekend they planned to spend in Paris was the weekend of the Paris marathon!!!! OMG the crowds, but not to be deterred (and once again thanks to Mr Bursill) we headed out for our tour under the eiffle tower, we chickened out of using the metro as we were both tired and didn't want to have an argument and took a cab to the tower. Secuurity in Paris is worse than airport security, to get into the tower area you go through a bag check and then a scanner, this gets you not into the tower but into the compound - which is like a city block - where you buy your tickets (after queuing for at least an hour) thank god I'd pre booked the tour as we had prioity and went straight through. We met our guide and spent an enjoyable 90 minutes going under the tower and then up the tower. Warren thought it was the best excursion we had done all trip. After leaving the tower we had a walk around the area and then caught a cab back to the hotel, had room service and off to bed.
Sunday we headed off on the metro, a really helpful young lady in information printed out the route we needed to take and the changes of train required to get to our destination, yes Mr Bursill it is easy peasy, the metro is fantastic, we could really learn a thing or two. Cost was €1,30 each which is about $2.10. As we had plenty of time we wandered around the streets, got somethong to eat and generally soaked up the atmosphere, there were so many cops and closed streets due to the marathon that getting around was a little difficult. Then we met our tour group and headed out of the city for Versailles.
Our first stop was Petite Trianon, which was Marie Antoinette's summer palace, once again security was bag check and scanner, several times. We wandered through the palace and then into the grounds before back on the bus and off to Versailles where once again multiple security checks to get in. We had a really interesting guided tour through, but it was soooo crowded that it spoilt the experience. However I can say now that my old mum was right when she said it was vulgar and it was the reason for the revolution. The place is huge, the baroque decor is over the top (but at least each Louis did use French people and materials) the gardens 800 hectares of them are beautiful, we were lucky that all the fountains were on and the music was playing during our visit. All in all an experience I'm glad to have had even if the crowds were horrendous. We took the metro back to the hotel before heading out for dinner and a walk around Montmatre.
But more of that in the next blog, here are a couple of photos before we hop on the plane. Take care all, we miss you xx
We started the day with a trip to Orange to see the Arc de Triomphe built by the Romans to celebrate their victory over the celts in the 1st century AD, a truely amazing edifice. We then headed the Roman Theatre 'theatre antique' a huge amphitheatre which is one of the best preserved in the world. In fact they are still holding productions including operas there now.
After a scenic drive through the Provence countryside we stopped at Chateauneuf-du-Pape for a lesson in wine production, a visit to the ageing cellars and finally the best bit a tasting of their wines. We tried a white and a few reds, and I have to say ours are better, in fact since we have been away I have developed a greater appreciation for our wines and food in general - I think our gastronomy is world class.
After our tipple we sloshed back onto the bus, Kim from Cairns said "well it was okay but give me a good NZ or Aussie Sav Blonc any day - to which we heartily agreed. A 40 minute drive took us further into the hills to the village of Les Baux De Provence which is a medieval village perched on a rocky spur in the Alpilles hill range. An incredible sight, we stopped on the outskirts for photos and then headed into the village for lunch and lavender ice cream.
After lunch we stayed in the hills and headed to the village of Gordes which is a village comprised of drystone cottages, then drove to Roussillon which was the site of ochre production for centuries until synthetic dyes made ochre production obsolete. The houses are all painted with ochre in a mind boggling array of ochre hues, very picturesque.
Our final stop for the day was Le Pont du Gard which is one of the largest and best preserved Roman aquaducts, it was completed in the first century AD and supplied all the water to the town of Nimes.
We arrived back in Avignon at about 7:30pm exhausted but enriched. And then we had to pack!!!!
Saturday we ditched the bloody fiat panda that had sat unused in the driveway since our arrival, the europcar people in Avignon were lovely (which didn't really make up for the ones in Marseilles being arses!!) And we boarded the train for the trip to Paris. Just a word about fast trains - its almost 700kms from Avignon to Paris by road, so by train its probably 650kms the train left Avignon at 10:42 on time and arrived in Paris at 1:24, yes folks thats 2 hour and 32 minutes - I don't think we go from Wang to Melbourne in that time!!! We grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel, and thank you John Bursill for his tip about using Timhotels, it was great. But a big but, guess who didn't know the weekend they planned to spend in Paris was the weekend of the Paris marathon!!!! OMG the crowds, but not to be deterred (and once again thanks to Mr Bursill) we headed out for our tour under the eiffle tower, we chickened out of using the metro as we were both tired and didn't want to have an argument and took a cab to the tower. Secuurity in Paris is worse than airport security, to get into the tower area you go through a bag check and then a scanner, this gets you not into the tower but into the compound - which is like a city block - where you buy your tickets (after queuing for at least an hour) thank god I'd pre booked the tour as we had prioity and went straight through. We met our guide and spent an enjoyable 90 minutes going under the tower and then up the tower. Warren thought it was the best excursion we had done all trip. After leaving the tower we had a walk around the area and then caught a cab back to the hotel, had room service and off to bed.
Sunday we headed off on the metro, a really helpful young lady in information printed out the route we needed to take and the changes of train required to get to our destination, yes Mr Bursill it is easy peasy, the metro is fantastic, we could really learn a thing or two. Cost was €1,30 each which is about $2.10. As we had plenty of time we wandered around the streets, got somethong to eat and generally soaked up the atmosphere, there were so many cops and closed streets due to the marathon that getting around was a little difficult. Then we met our tour group and headed out of the city for Versailles.
Our first stop was Petite Trianon, which was Marie Antoinette's summer palace, once again security was bag check and scanner, several times. We wandered through the palace and then into the grounds before back on the bus and off to Versailles where once again multiple security checks to get in. We had a really interesting guided tour through, but it was soooo crowded that it spoilt the experience. However I can say now that my old mum was right when she said it was vulgar and it was the reason for the revolution. The place is huge, the baroque decor is over the top (but at least each Louis did use French people and materials) the gardens 800 hectares of them are beautiful, we were lucky that all the fountains were on and the music was playing during our visit. All in all an experience I'm glad to have had even if the crowds were horrendous. We took the metro back to the hotel before heading out for dinner and a walk around Montmatre.
But more of that in the next blog, here are a couple of photos before we hop on the plane. Take care all, we miss you xx
Thursday, 8 September 2016
Avignon
Hello from Avignon in southern France. It seems our IT problem has resolved, the UK adapter we were using was faulty and since arriving in France and using the French adaptor the tablet is now charging.
To bring you up to date, we had a week in Kent where we caught up with more of my cousins which wss fantastic, other than that Kent was a disappointment for me. I went back expecting things to be the same, WRONG, the livery stables where we kept the horses now has houses on it, as does the woods we used to ride through. Much of Kent has gone from being country to being a suburb, think Frankston or Yarraville!!
Having said that we spent a great day in Canterbury, walked through the cathedral (although I object to paying £25 for the pleasure of walking through the high church of my religion) we took a boat trip through Canterbury on the river Stour, walked the old town and finally did the Canterbury Tales Experience (which was less than inspiring)
We also spent an afternoon at ightam moat, walking through the 13th century manor house.
On Sunday we headed to London and stayed at St Pancras for an early morning trip on Eurostar yo Marseilles. St Pancras is incredible, we spent a couple of hours shopping and people watching in the station.
Monday a 6 hour trip to Marseilles, when we arrived we found the car hire place and picked up our car a Fiat Panda!!!! The people at Europcar were singularly unhelpful, and in fact downright arrogant, but we picked up the rental car and with no sat nav and no phone coverage I attempted to drive us to Avignon!!!!! Bloody hell the traffic was atrocious, no one signals, they just use the horn, we had no idea where to go and ended up driving up and down these narrow streets in peak hour, with Warren yelling watch out!!! Eventually we found a sign that said Aix En Provence and knew we had to head in that direction, we just kept following the signs until we found more signs for Avignon. 2 hours later we pulled into a Maccas and with their wifi managed to get google maps to find our way to our villa.
When we arrived Laurant the villa owner met us and showed us as around the property, which is wonderful, he also drew us mud maps of where to find the supermarket and other places we might need. He also showed us the push bikes we could use instead of driving.
Tuesday I rode to the supermarket and bought grocerys a round trip of about 5km but we spent the day just mooching around the pool. Wednesday we rode around country lanes, managed to find a mobile phone store and purchase a sim card. You now need your passport to get a sim card in France!! We spent the aftrrnoon by the pool.
Today we rode into Avignon itself and checked out the Pont du Avignon and the rest of the town. Tomorrow we are doing a bus tour of some winerys and other Provence towns. We head to Paris on Saturday.
The weather is fantastic, mid 30's sunny and the mistral which was blowing hard on Monday has dropped to a gentle breeze.
We are both fine, but missing home.
Take care everyone.
To bring you up to date, we had a week in Kent where we caught up with more of my cousins which wss fantastic, other than that Kent was a disappointment for me. I went back expecting things to be the same, WRONG, the livery stables where we kept the horses now has houses on it, as does the woods we used to ride through. Much of Kent has gone from being country to being a suburb, think Frankston or Yarraville!!
Having said that we spent a great day in Canterbury, walked through the cathedral (although I object to paying £25 for the pleasure of walking through the high church of my religion) we took a boat trip through Canterbury on the river Stour, walked the old town and finally did the Canterbury Tales Experience (which was less than inspiring)
We also spent an afternoon at ightam moat, walking through the 13th century manor house.
On Sunday we headed to London and stayed at St Pancras for an early morning trip on Eurostar yo Marseilles. St Pancras is incredible, we spent a couple of hours shopping and people watching in the station.
Monday a 6 hour trip to Marseilles, when we arrived we found the car hire place and picked up our car a Fiat Panda!!!! The people at Europcar were singularly unhelpful, and in fact downright arrogant, but we picked up the rental car and with no sat nav and no phone coverage I attempted to drive us to Avignon!!!!! Bloody hell the traffic was atrocious, no one signals, they just use the horn, we had no idea where to go and ended up driving up and down these narrow streets in peak hour, with Warren yelling watch out!!! Eventually we found a sign that said Aix En Provence and knew we had to head in that direction, we just kept following the signs until we found more signs for Avignon. 2 hours later we pulled into a Maccas and with their wifi managed to get google maps to find our way to our villa.
When we arrived Laurant the villa owner met us and showed us as around the property, which is wonderful, he also drew us mud maps of where to find the supermarket and other places we might need. He also showed us the push bikes we could use instead of driving.
Tuesday I rode to the supermarket and bought grocerys a round trip of about 5km but we spent the day just mooching around the pool. Wednesday we rode around country lanes, managed to find a mobile phone store and purchase a sim card. You now need your passport to get a sim card in France!! We spent the aftrrnoon by the pool.
Today we rode into Avignon itself and checked out the Pont du Avignon and the rest of the town. Tomorrow we are doing a bus tour of some winerys and other Provence towns. We head to Paris on Saturday.
The weather is fantastic, mid 30's sunny and the mistral which was blowing hard on Monday has dropped to a gentle breeze.
We are both fine, but missing home.
Take care everyone.
Sunday, 4 September 2016
Hello from London
Hi everyone
We are having IT problems, the battery on the tablet has shit itself (yes that's a technical term) so I can't do a proper blog.
We are both well and heading to France in the morning. Once we settle in I'll fire up the notepad and blog.
Take care all xxx
We are having IT problems, the battery on the tablet has shit itself (yes that's a technical term) so I can't do a proper blog.
We are both well and heading to France in the morning. Once we settle in I'll fire up the notepad and blog.
Take care all xxx
Sunday, 28 August 2016
Hello from Kent
Today is Sunday and we have driven from the cute little town of Street which is about a mile from Glastonbury in Somerset, to Sevenoaks in Kent via Avebury in Wiltshire.
To bring you up to date, we spent our last day in Cornwall (Thursday) heading down to Lands End which now boasts an amusement park which has a Shaun the sheep experience, a King Arthur experience and other kids 'experiences' plus souvenir shops. Could not believe it, but you can bypass the amusements and take a walk along the cliffs which we did. The bird life is extensive and the flora quite stunning, but looking out over the sea is spectacular.
When we left Lands End we planned to look at the minack theatre, but there was an afternoon performance of the Merry Wives of Windsor so we couldn't walk around. The theatre is an open air amphitheatre with an incredible garden.
Seeing as we couldn't do the minack Warren suggested we walk through the Trewidden Garden which is part of the Bolitho family estate. The gardens are stunning even though they are billed as a spring garden and the rhododendrons and camellias had finished flowering. After walking through the gardens for an hour or so we headed back to the hotel to pack.
On Friday we headed to Street for 2 nights so we could visit Glastonbury. When we arrived we found a laundromat and did the washing - yes even on holiday I can't get away from washing and ironong!!!! Street is a nice little town, the people were really friendly and the Bear Inn served great food and had the only chook wallpaper I have ever seen.
On Saturday we headed out early for Glastonbury which is about a mile from Street. Our plan was to take the 4 mile walk from the town through the fields and up to Glastonbury Tor which is 500+ feet above the plain. The trail is really steep but we made it and walked around St Michaels Tower at the top of the tor. We were lucky that a local archeologist was giving a talk on the tor and the whole Glastonbury area, he spoke about ley lines and the pagan history as well as the christian history of the area, it was really informative and thought provoking.
When we left the tor we walked down and spent some time at the chalice well, which is one of the oldest saints wells in England. Then walked back into Glastonbury and had afternoon tea. We decided not to go through Glastonbury Abbey, having paid £7 to park, they then wanted to charge us £7.60 each to walk through the abbey ruins. Lots of people were complaining about the cost of touring national trust properties.
Today, Sunday, we left Street and headed into Wiltshire to visit Avebury. Once again £7 to park, but at least there was no charge to walk around the stone circle. Avebury is incredible, walking around the area you are transported back to neolithic times. We finished with coffee at the Red Lion Pub which is the only pub within a stone circle in the world.
Then headed to Sevenoaks where we are staying for our last week in the UK. We passed through the counties of Wiltshire and Surrey - Glenn you would feel at home in Wiltshire, lots of cropping, I've got some photos I took from the car.
We are catching up with my cousins on Tuesday and Wednesday so I will blog again later in the week.
Take care all.
To bring you up to date, we spent our last day in Cornwall (Thursday) heading down to Lands End which now boasts an amusement park which has a Shaun the sheep experience, a King Arthur experience and other kids 'experiences' plus souvenir shops. Could not believe it, but you can bypass the amusements and take a walk along the cliffs which we did. The bird life is extensive and the flora quite stunning, but looking out over the sea is spectacular.
When we left Lands End we planned to look at the minack theatre, but there was an afternoon performance of the Merry Wives of Windsor so we couldn't walk around. The theatre is an open air amphitheatre with an incredible garden.
Seeing as we couldn't do the minack Warren suggested we walk through the Trewidden Garden which is part of the Bolitho family estate. The gardens are stunning even though they are billed as a spring garden and the rhododendrons and camellias had finished flowering. After walking through the gardens for an hour or so we headed back to the hotel to pack.
On Friday we headed to Street for 2 nights so we could visit Glastonbury. When we arrived we found a laundromat and did the washing - yes even on holiday I can't get away from washing and ironong!!!! Street is a nice little town, the people were really friendly and the Bear Inn served great food and had the only chook wallpaper I have ever seen.
On Saturday we headed out early for Glastonbury which is about a mile from Street. Our plan was to take the 4 mile walk from the town through the fields and up to Glastonbury Tor which is 500+ feet above the plain. The trail is really steep but we made it and walked around St Michaels Tower at the top of the tor. We were lucky that a local archeologist was giving a talk on the tor and the whole Glastonbury area, he spoke about ley lines and the pagan history as well as the christian history of the area, it was really informative and thought provoking.
When we left the tor we walked down and spent some time at the chalice well, which is one of the oldest saints wells in England. Then walked back into Glastonbury and had afternoon tea. We decided not to go through Glastonbury Abbey, having paid £7 to park, they then wanted to charge us £7.60 each to walk through the abbey ruins. Lots of people were complaining about the cost of touring national trust properties.
Today, Sunday, we left Street and headed into Wiltshire to visit Avebury. Once again £7 to park, but at least there was no charge to walk around the stone circle. Avebury is incredible, walking around the area you are transported back to neolithic times. We finished with coffee at the Red Lion Pub which is the only pub within a stone circle in the world.
Then headed to Sevenoaks where we are staying for our last week in the UK. We passed through the counties of Wiltshire and Surrey - Glenn you would feel at home in Wiltshire, lots of cropping, I've got some photos I took from the car.
Take care all.
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Cornwall continued
So we had a quiet day today, decided to visit the cyder farm, https://thecornishcyderfarm.co.uk
Incredible place, they not only make cider but cider brandy, cider wine and a 7 year old single malt whiskey which sells for £185 yes that's right approx $320, I think I'll stick to Glenfiddich!!!!
It was a really interesting tour as our guide Rosie went through cider making since the 16th century. The farm has a museum with equipment dating back to the 1600's which brings everything to life. She also explained about the 7 year apprenticeship for coopers and why its a dieing art. We then went through to the 21st century with the new equipment they use, absolutely fascinating the number of kg's of apples they can grate and press in an hour is huge. The apple juice is fermented for 3 weeks in huge steel fermenters, its even x-rayed before bottling to ensure there is nothing in it that shouldn't be there.
One bit of trivia, the origin of the term 'horse apples' for horse poo, apparently in the 1600's when apples were ground in a stone grinder driven by a donkey apples tended to fall over the edge, so they employed a 6 or 7 year old boy, gave him a wooden shovel and got him to scoop the fallen apples back into the grinder - naturally as they paid this poor kid in cider - not just apples were put back into the pot, hense the term horse apple!!!!!
Thats it for today, hope you like the photos.
Incredible place, they not only make cider but cider brandy, cider wine and a 7 year old single malt whiskey which sells for £185 yes that's right approx $320, I think I'll stick to Glenfiddich!!!!
It was a really interesting tour as our guide Rosie went through cider making since the 16th century. The farm has a museum with equipment dating back to the 1600's which brings everything to life. She also explained about the 7 year apprenticeship for coopers and why its a dieing art. We then went through to the 21st century with the new equipment they use, absolutely fascinating the number of kg's of apples they can grate and press in an hour is huge. The apple juice is fermented for 3 weeks in huge steel fermenters, its even x-rayed before bottling to ensure there is nothing in it that shouldn't be there.
One bit of trivia, the origin of the term 'horse apples' for horse poo, apparently in the 1600's when apples were ground in a stone grinder driven by a donkey apples tended to fall over the edge, so they employed a 6 or 7 year old boy, gave him a wooden shovel and got him to scoop the fallen apples back into the grinder - naturally as they paid this poor kid in cider - not just apples were put back into the pot, hense the term horse apple!!!!!
Thats it for today, hope you like the photos.
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