B.O.N. England

Hopefully this latest post goes to ‘print’ on Christmas Eve, so firstly a very Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holiday, Happy Honokaa, etc. etc. to all! Personally we are on a train to Zermatt to meet our families for Christmas and hopefully enjoy a white Christmas on the slopes. Although to be honest with you, we just boarded a train that we’re not 100% sure will take us to Visp to facilitate said trip to Zermatt…

For those of you not up with my poor French title, Bon England is French (well bad French, because yes I know it should be Bon Angleterre, but that would be even more confusing!) for good England, and this post happens to cover Bath, Oxford and Newcastle. So let’s get started…

Day 54

After picking up an absolutely lovely Peugeot 3008 from down Putney way, it was off into the unknown with only a little old GPS to guide us. To be honest with you I don’t know how people don’t use one of these in foreign countries, even with English road signs it is so much easier and less stressful for the driver (me) and I could not begin to estimate the amount of fights it avoided! We had a vague list of things to do in 3 days, Stone Henge, Bath, Oxford and Windsor.

We arrived at Stonehenge to some very threating skies and a howling wind that ripped across those rolling hills so violently I thought it would raise the dead from one of the many burrows that pocketed the countryside. Despite this and only having the one chance we braved it and wandered around the site, audio guide in hand. There really isn’t much to see except for a more close up view of what you can see from the road, however the heritage society do their best to pad out the guide with interesting theories/myths etc. about how and why the henge exists. Cool rocks, and amazing that they are so old and how they got there without the tools even the medieval builders would later use is amazing, but still… just rocks.

The "rocks"... with rainbow

Back to the warmth of the car and it was on to Bath which has been on Katrina’s to do list since the inception of this trip, but when questioned as to why, she had no idea! Arriving in the afternoon we scored a very nice B&B in the centre of Bath for two nights. Dinner at the oldest house in Bath including old school ‘trencher’ bread did well to remove the cold that had seeped in to our bones at Stonehenge!

Our B&B ...

Day 55

Waking to our first morning of snow, however brief, was quite a treat, with the small square where our B&B was located, briefly hidden behind some large white snow flakes! Unfortunately it wasn’t to last and quickly turned to rain/sleet which made our walking tour that morning all the more brisk! The Mayor of Bath runs free walking tours everyday of the year except Christmas and New Years and are run by old retired people to stretch the legs I think. Our guide was good and we covered all the big ticket items, the outside of the Baths, the Circus, the royal crescent and my personal favourite, Bennett St! It gave us a good orientation for an afternoon spent wandering and shopping.

Royal Crescent

... Obvious ...

The river

But not before an audio tour of the inside of the Roman Baths, complete with every little detail you could possibly want to know. Please note if your interested in these details, allow yourself a day to do this tour, we spend about an hour and a half there and glossed over the ‘additional information’ sections!

The Roman Baths

Dinner that night was a treat at Jamie Oliver’s Italian, in Bath. Jamie himself wasn’t there unfortunately, but the food was simple, good, Italian and the wine was red (we’re not fussy!). The chefs definitely did Mr Oliver’s name justice and I highly recommend a table if your in Bath. They don’t take day time bookings so you can just rock up of a night time, have a drink while you wait for a table. Although we didn’t have to wait at all, and the only people who did were groups of 4+ from what I could see.

Day 56

Wanting to check out the ‘Cotswolds’ we headed north(ish) and called in at Castle Combe which we discovered was nothing other really than a photographers dream. Apart from that this tiny village was pretty dead at this time of year with us sharing the main ‘street’ with a few telecom crews being the only highlight.

The happening city of Castle Combe...

Next stop was Malmesbury where after visiting the church we stopped at the tourist information centre where the guy told us that the only thing to do here was visit the church. Easy, done, back on the road!

On toward Oxford we drove but detoured to Cirencester where we stopped for lunch and a wander through their little village. Lunch was a beautiful pub meal located next to an awesome little private book store where Katrina finally bought something not shit to read that will last her more than a week! (sorry had to get that out!) Shantaram…great read if anyone is looking for a new book!

Arriving in Oxford we scored yet another lovely B&B by turning up at the tourist office and seeing what was available. We were too tired really to do much else so we had dinner at the local pub and had an early night. I thought my Man Flu was making a return so needed a good sleep!

The local...

Day 57

We had an absolutely packed itinerary to get through on our way back to London for a night time train to Newcastle so it was go go go! A morning walking tour of Oxford was really interesting and covered all sorts of information about how all colleges work and admissions etc., along with entry to one of the colleges and the main university library. Oxford University is a collective of 36(?) colleges in the town and as such are spread out throughout; they only come together for special guest lectures and at exam and graduation times. If you see someone rocking an Oxford University hoodie, they are a tourist as all the students rep their colleges in the choice of clothing. A bite to eat on the run and it was a rush to Windsor Castle before a) they shut and b) we had to return the car.

One of the colleges

The library at above college

Windsor for me is the most impressive of the tourist items in and around London, I think mainly owing to its constant upkeep at the residence of Queen Elizabeth II (and Prince Charles officially, still lives at home with his mum… no wonder people want him to abdicate!). Another site another audio tour which covers the grounds, the royal apartments (these are majorly impressive and you’ve got to wonder whether the private ones are more or less so, would they be more extravagant or would they tone it down when people have to live there?) and the cathedral. A recent (early 90’s) fire has led the refurbishment of a large part of the royal apartments and this only ads to their appeal as they have been very recently restored/improved.

Windsor gate

Getting my revenge for sending my relatives to Australia for petty crime... oh hang on... thanks for that!

The honeymooners outside the chapel

Heading back into London we got major traffic jam, but not on the main freeways. It took us nearly an hour to go about 4km’s from the exit to the Europcar depot at Putney, one lane two way streets causing absolute chaos! All that was left then was a short 3 hour train ride to Newcastle…

We couldn’t of been more wrong, whilst I’m sure it was only 3 hours, it felt like 3 days with a group of 8 young Celtic fans making their way back from a Europa league game/bender who regaled us with such hits as “If you’re not topless you’re not Celtic, ole ole!” at the top of their drunken lungs for the whole journey. After that it was almost a relief to stand a cab line at Newcastle station for 30 minutes with all the other quiet drunks, including the ‘Emirates co-pilot’ in front of me who mistook me for his mate. “where are we going?” don’t know mate, “what are we waiting for” it’s a taxi rank, you’re waiting for a cab, “I’m f&%king sick of this S%$t, where are we going seriously?” It’s a cab rank, I suggest you get a cab home, “I don’t know where I am or where I’m staying”… luckily to ladies took him off my hands and put him in a cab home. Just like being at home in Newcastle…

Day 58

Having spent the night in the comparative luxury (compared to our standard hotel choices) of the Staybridge suites, it was a wander of the quayside and a visit to the new-castle (the toon’s namesake) before heading to the game! This time the game won’t get its own match report due to a) my laziness and b) a reasonably frustrating game which finish nil all.

The river and one of many bridges

The new castle...

Top of the castle with St James Park in background

A few highlights in lieu, Coloccini’s header missing narrowly wide (see photo), total domination by Newcastle for much of the game winning a phenomenal amount of corners and limiting Swansea to one half chance late on, an awesome bicycle kick from Demba Ba and the amazing pre-match tribute to Gary Speed. Our tickets were also great, good view of the game and also access to the “Platinum Club” before, during half time and after the game where you can actually have a real, alcoholic beer! A disappointing result, but better 1 point than none, and some good football none the less.

A very happy Toons fan!

Collocini heads wide

Dinner consisted of happy hour cocktails at the local Latin restaurant before a curry and bed. This bed courtesy of Michael Barwick and Stephanie Jasper which we were most appreciative of, thanks again guys!

thanks Bob and Steph! 

Day 59

Not having enough Toon action it was back to St James’ Park for the stadium tour and a spot of shopping. Despite still being dirty from match day, the tour was really interesting with a personal guide who was an employee of the club taking us around the facilities and through the sheds etc. I didn’t realise it is the 3^rd largest league ground behind Old Trafford and the Emirates, and one of the largest conference centre’s in England. They rely heavily on corporate sponsorship although there is still some bitterness towards those who jumped ship when they dropped to the Championship, our guide was one of the many Geordie’s who was ecstatic that we were able to bounce straight back, saving further money and job losses! Definitely a ‘people’s’ club and this was evident from the way the tours were run, to the friendliness and knowledge of our guide.

The same happy Toons fan!

Many pounds later we left the Toon shop and headed back to the Latin restaurant for lunch (we couldn’t get a table the night before). Then off to board the DFDS ferry to Amsterdam. I was a bit apprehensive about an overnight long haul ferry ride, but apart from eating too much at the buffet dinner and making myself ill, there was really no down side. It served as our night’s accommodation in small but comfortable bunk beds and dinner and breakfast were ok without being amazing. So it was we arrived in Amsterdam on the morning of Day 60…

(and by the way, it was the right train!)

All our Love

M&K

London Calling

So I’ve found some similarities between London and Barcelona; We stayed a week in each; we rented an apartment in each (rather than a hotel); I won’t be writing a day by day blog for London (just like Barcelona), and; that’s it. Ok they’re not similar at all, but it was a good starting point to explain the format of this post! So it will cover days 46 to 53, touch on the main sites and experiences. (the post is being written on route from Newcastle to Amsterdam via ferry so if the pictures look a little green, it is simply a reflection of the authors current feelings!)

Our Apartment

Knowing that we had 8 nights in London Katrina managed to book us a studio apartment for the week which is always nice to break up the site of hotel after hotel (or heaven forbid another Peace and Love Hostel!). Set on two, tiny, floors with a double bed and ensuite downstairs, a kitchenette and 2 seater lounge and TV upstairs. It was small, but well heated and centrally located a 5 minute walk from Swiss Cottage Tube station (in Camden Town). One criticism was the noise, with common plumping through all the tiny apartments and paper thin front doors, everytime someone had a shower, used the toilet, used their front door, or the front door of the building, it sounded like they were right there with you! It was contained in what is the Hollywood stereo type London building which was a nice touch for us tourists!

Our 'home' in Camden

London Tower

Lonely Planet will tell you that if you pay (lots of big London sites are free!) for only one site in London, it should be London Tower. Whilst I personally would disagree with this, it is definitely a great starting point for any visit, and indeed was the jump off point for us. Conveniently within sight of both the Tower and London bridges (Tower Bridge is the one I’m pretty sure most people think is London Bridge, see photos) the London Tower has been the seat of the English Monarchs since being united under one king of England in about 1066 (English friends please feel free to correct). It was originally a fortress, turned execution centre, turned gaol, turned treasury, turned mint, turned safe; turned tourist attraction and safe! So in short it’s had a lot of use. Highlights probably the shit jokes of our tour guide (also a beefeater dude), seeing a small collection of the crown jewels and the ‘boys toys’ armoury complete with interactive displays (favourite being drawing a long bow!).

The white tower, the original and centre of London Tower

Tower bridge and the nanook of the north

The white tower... arty...

Buckingham Palace

Unfortuantely no sign of the ‘old girl’ or ‘Kate and Wills’ however there was some visiting/exiting diplomat type people and a bit of the fanfare associated with them. One of the most noticeable things at the palace, and other royal places for that matter, is the lack of a gifts from Australia. Gifts from New Zealand are everywhere, none from Australia. I don’t know whether I should be proud as a republican, or disappointed that people from around the world miss out on being exposed to our awesomeness by this lack of inclusion… Really the palace is a bit ‘meh’ it’s a fence, a fountain and some dudes in funny hats, but another one off the London tourist list! (And since Kate and Will’s Wedding it was nice to relive the day and see where is all unfolded.)

Some royal shit going on...

Buckingham Palace...

St Jame’s Park (not the good one…)

Between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey is the large and squirrel over populated park of St Jame’s. While infinitely less impressive than the real St Jame’s Park in Newcastle (home of the Toon), it is a pleasant attraction with a shite load of squirrels, water fowls and my arch nemesis geese! Not much to say, the squirrels are tame…

The park

Westminster Abbey

Home of the coronation ceremonies of the royal family since, well forever, and the oldest and longest continual coronation ceremony in Europe Westminster Abbey is all at once as impressive, and just the same, as all the big gothic cathedrals in Europe. Many monarchs have been baptised, confirmed, married and buried all within this one cathedral, most recently the marriage of Will and Kate. The church is also the home to numerous tombs of not only royals but also others who have deemed to have served the empire. Even more still whilst not actually buried here have memorial plaques, including Chaucer (my nemesis from extension English at high school), Jane Austin (likewise nemesis) and the great Winston Churchill.

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

At one end of the houses of parliament is ‘Big Ben’ most frequently mistaken for the clock tower. However ‘Big Ben’ actually refers to the replacement bell that was installed after the cracking of the original one in the tower. It’s a clock, it tells the time, it’s a tower, and it’s tall…

The tower that holds big ben...

Shopping on Oxford St

Shopping on Oxford St this close to Christmas is both a blessing and a curse! The Lights are pretty, the atmosphere is buzzing but the crowd is CRAZY! We had our first Topshop/Topman experience and I bought a new jacket to deal with the cold. Aside I’d packed plenty of jumpers however jumpers are really not practical when you are constantly coming in and out of the cold, you need something to zip on/off more easily! We also had our first Primark (Thanks to Felicity’s recommendadtion) experience which was equally if not more so crazy as the street outside. People go absolutely nuts for that shitie, 3 pound shirts/pyjamas/jumpers/anything, just cheap cheap cheap. It’s kind of like a fashionable (but still cheaper) target clothes! My one criticism is the repeatativeness of all the stores, you cannot go more than 2 blocks without another Topshop, or H&M or similar and everything is mainly big chain stores rather than anything unique. Having said that, a day spent on Oxford st you could easily knock over your Christmas shopping with pretty much something for everyone!

Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Gallery

Trafalgar square was buzzing and we scored a beautiful day to wander around. Currently home to one of the Olympic countdown clocks and the monument itself also containing a gift from New Zealand, again the Australian’s obviously absent! Not really much to see other than a few happy snaps and then a wander into the National Portrait Gallery which flanks one side of the square. There is currently a Da Vinci exhibition including the famous Last Supper however we were too late to score tickets to it. We did get a nice view of the supper through the door however! Not being arty types, we are both engineers after all, we did a quick wander, Katrina directing us to a couple of famous Monet’s (pronounced Mo-net, like gangsta for more net) and it was back out to enjoy the rare sunshine!

The man himself, and some other guy on a horse...

The square, a giant lion (possibly Azlan or Jesus) and the National Portrait Gallery

St Peter’s (occupied)

The same afternoon it was off to St Peter’s after Jaide and Rowan (see below) said that it was rad and heaps cooler than Westminster Abby. Out the front (and blocking the exit as we’d later find out) were that lovely bunch of hippies around the world known as the ‘occupy’ movement. These particular hippies are lucky that our capitalist ways have invented such things as thermal sleeping bags and wind proof camping tents as otherwise their protest would be a freezing one. Avoiding the temptation to explain to them that me going to work, (like their fellow Englishmen (and women) going to work, pays their (and their Australian counterparts) welfare payments) we went into the church. Home to the arch-bishop guy of the Anglican church and the centre of said faith, also home to the wedding of Prince Charles and the late Dianna princess of Wales. It is definitely an impressive structure although it had to be re-built after The Blitz and hence is a modern building in an old style. Home of the tombs of all the previous Arch Bishop guys, Trafalgar himself, and numerous other friends of the church and recognised great Brits. More still have remembrance plaques etc, especially in the crypt which runs underground the full length of the building. We did the long climb to the roof top for some impressive views and also experienced the ‘whispering galleries’ on the inside of the dome whereby one person whispering can be heard on the opposite side of the dome, pretty cool. (Katrina along with Jaide think Will and Kate should have got married there instead, but Katrina believes they were trying to not copy due to the stigma associated with Kate being the next Dianna…’its definitely prettier’….)

St Peter's

What a view! London's alright too..

Portobello Road Markets, Notting Hill

After dinner with Kate (see below), she recommended a few weekend markets to check out, the first of which were the Portobello Road Markets in Notting Hill. As this had also been recommended by the Fletch we figured two people couldn’t be wrong! We were not disappointed, a crazy busy ‘antiques’ market but home to beautiful fresh food and other non antique goodies awaited us and we whisked away the afternoon before we knew it. We purchased an antique map amongst some other tourist type things. Katrina also fell in love with a store called ‘All Saints’ which whilst located here is popular elsewhere as well, and purchased her Christmas leggings complete with reindeer. Lunch consisted of a huge Paella for Katrina and I sampled some random Mexican wrap thing.

Portobello rd Markets

Night out in Camden

Being so close to the trendy area of Camden, and so close to Chris’ old local we couldn’t pass up a night out down in Camden town. We even did the travellers thing of ‘saving’ and eating dinner before we went out and had some pre-dinner drinks! Starting at Chris’ local at his recommendation, The Elephant Head, where we were greeted by an absolutely packed bar, Christmas revellers, and punks of Chris’ and Henry Rollins’ generation. It was an eclectic mix of people and a great place for a few beers. Nicely topped off by an ‘old’ DJ spinning 7” vinyl classics! Things kind of went down hill for me from there, we bar hopped our way back towards home, Katrina stopped drinking, I started drinking her share I think. Definitely a happening area but feel much more comfortable there than other places because we weren’t the oldest people out, nor the most under dressed! Thanks Camden, you’re rad!

Drinking at Chris' old local!

Brick Lane and Spittelfield Markets

Another one of Kate’s recommendations was to head out Brick lane markets and once again facebook connected us with Ange who also mentioned Spittelfield while we were there! Lucky really because it was raining on and off and Spittelfield is under cover. More of the same generic wares at Spittelfield and a healthy mix of Vintage clothes at Brick Lane (please don’t get vintage confused with Retro, they are different!) coupled with some awesome ‘ethnic’ (this is not racial, just a wide variety of different cuisenes were present!) food. Including an awesome curry that I proceeded to spill all over my new jacket, much to it’s detriment! We continued our shopping, like we needed anything more to carry, and enjoyed a day out just cruising (and me recovering from Camden!) and met up with Kate for Dinner.

Obviously...

London Eye

The London Eye was an odd one. We knew we needed a nice clear day to enjoy it, but had also been warned off it, and recommended it in equal doses from friends and wellwishers. Our last day in London dawned with clear blue skies and glorious (for England) sunshine so we threw caution to the wind and made for the eye. OK it’s just a giant Ferris wheel, but on the day we had it was truly amazing views, not too time consuming, and a nice way to spend our final morning high above the Thames. I’ll let the pictures do the talking here…

One of my arty views from the Eye

The eye from the ground

Churchill War Rooms

After the London Eye I left Katrina to go get her hair done and headed for the Churchill War Rooms, the underground command centre of Churchill and his War Cabinet during WW2. The story goes that once peace was finally secured in Europe, the war rooms were simply tidied and then locked up. So in theory what you get is the map rooms etc as they were that day in 1945. In truth they have added wax models of people, and a few other more ‘corny’ touches however the exerts of actual transcripts received in the rooms etc make up for this. My personal favourite is the first ever secure telephone line which linked with the White House, housed inside a fake toilet cubicle. The rumour goes that everyone else in the rooms thought it was the only underground flushing toilet in the rooms and therefore was strictly reserved for Churchill, however everytime he entered there he was actually calling the Presdient of the USA. Besides, who shits for that long…

A more recent addition to the War Rooms is the Churchill Museum which chronicles Churchill’s life and has some really cool interactive displays including, and the parents will love this, a real life working type writer! What’s that you may ask, well it’s like analog Microsoft Word… In all seriousness there are some good multimedia touches and I learned a bit I didn’t know about Churchill including his part in planning the infamous (at least for Australian’s) Gallipoli campaign which forced him to resign from the head of the Admirilaty, and the subsequent similar failure to keep Norway free (although he dodged responsibility for this one, and Chamberlin fell partially because of it). All in all a highly rewarding visit to a museum, Katrina would’ve been bored, but her new slightly darker hair looks a treat!

Priscilla Queen of the Desert!

Felicity and Angela were nice enough to shout us tickets to the Priscilla show for Katrina’s birthday, at the Palace theatre, complete with Alf Stewart (let’s face it, does anybody know his real name? I sure don’t!). The show was a good adaptation of the well known and loved Australian movie of the same name. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but grew a little bit tired of being called a lady (the ‘narrator’ always said welcome, ‘Ladies and Ladies’ or ‘come on girls’). The set was awesome, including an awesome full size bus! Our seats were really high!! The theatre was quite small but seats were practically stacked on top of each other…if you have vertigo issues buy ground floor seats. The night was great especially with our Chinese Dim Sum in China Town enjoyed before the show.

The happy birthday girl! and Alf...

Australians in London

Well it’s true what they say, London is full of Aussies! We had the pleasure of catching up with some of the ones known to us. Dinner with Mark Christopher (formally of Thiess Services) and his wife Vin (sorry if spelt wrong!) was combined with our first catch up with Jaide and Rowan (I think the cold was a bit of a change for the native Cairns residents!). More shopping and a second dinner followed during the week with Jaide and Rowan and it was nice to see some fellow travellers! Then it was school reunion time, myself meeting up with Kate Lewis for dinner both on Friday and Sunday nights after probably close to 10 years after we used to hang out at Dudley! Closely followed by the primary school reunion with Katrina’s friend Tom Clerke and his partner Dilmar. It was awesome to see some familiar (if sometimes nearly forgotten!) faces and share some travel stories with people other than each other. Thanks to you all for making our week in London that bit more comfortable and like home!

Tom, Katrina and I

Kate and I

And that’s a wrap folks, a bit of a long winded wrap at that. It was another adventure in a car and the London countryside which awaited us!

All our Love

M&K

PPP - Paris Prague Partnership

Day 39

After the events of the year, getting married, getting old, 6 weeks of ‘hard’ travel, it was time to stop being adults and let our inner children out for the day… Where better to do this than ‘L'endroit le plus heureux au monde’… The happiest place on earth, Disneyland Paris!

There’s a lot to be said for visiting an amusement park in the middle of winter. No lines… No waiting… No crowds… and lots of idiots in Disney merch. That’s right, after a very mild winter so far, many Parisians mistakenly forgot to pack the gloves, beanies and scarves for this particular happy day. Much to the amusement of the rest of us who happily watched people in mickey and minney mouse ear beanies, big white oversized mickey gloves and even a few Pluto hats and tails.

Main street USA!

Fighting Zurg in the Buzz Light-year ride!

Spinning Tea Cups!

Not to harp on about everything, but some highlights were, the Buzz light-year ride, the temple of ‘peril’ (turns out the French must not have a word for ‘doom’); big thunder mountain and our definite ‘best of’ Big Space Mountain! We also managed to take in a performance of the Disney Dance Troupe (Katrina tells me a waste of some very technically talented dancers), the parade and some ‘genuine’ Christmas snow on main street USA. A great day was had!

The Disney Dance Troop!

Mark Bennett and the Temple of Peril... (read: Doom)

The queen of hearts???

Day 40

The day started bright and early for me, heading off before 6am to meet up with my Normandy/D-day beaches tour. 3 Metros and 45 minutes later I arrived at the tour office… to be told the tour was cancelled. Needless to say this did not impress me, and added with the beginning of a head cold which Katrina kindly passed on to me, it was the trudge back to our hostel and back to bed…

Whilst we’re on our hostel, not having any accommodation when arriving in Paris we quickly found somewhere to stay, it was the cheapest on offer (Paris seemed really busy for some reason) and this couple with a recommendation from the Lonely Planet meant that we were bound for Peace and Love Hostel. Now as you all know, we’re not hostel people to start with, this coupled with a ‘cash only’ policy which was only mentioned when we went to check in, hence a massive walk to find an ATM, ‘free’ wireless that was only available between 8am and 5pm and just happened to be ‘broken’ the 3 days we were there, free towels that were questionably just washed and topped off by 2 single bed sheets laid sideways across a double bed to be a base sheet which stayed on for about 10 seconds once you laid down; all combined to ensure that our stay at Peace and Love, was definitely not peaceful and there is defiantly no love to be had there…

Me not feeling well, a shit of a start to the day meant that all we could do was something we do best… go shopping! Katrina picked up a lovely new Karen Millen (Ironically an English designer) jacket from the Layfette Galleries and we spent the afternoon forgetting about tour companies, and peace and love.

Day 41

Katrina had tracked down a weekend getaway for us (more on that later) so we it was off to the mother country via the Eurostar after sorting out a few bits and pieces. We did manage to squeeze in brunch with Amanda (Katrina’s friend who dances at the Moulin Rouge) and then it was off to Gare Du Nord and onto the train. Our departure for our weekend was to be from London’s Stansted airport and after a few terrible nights sleep with the hippies at Peace and Love we splurged on the ‘in terminal’ comfort of the Radisson Blu hotel at Stansted. We weren’t to be disappointed! Service was great, food was great, and the room was top quality (and no airport noise surprisingly!). We also finished the night with some drinks which although seemed like a good idea that night, wasn’t such a good idea when we woke at 6am for our flight.

Day 42

An early start for an EasyJet flight to Prague in the Czech Republic. We didn’t really know why we were going there, Joel said ‘to drink and pick up chicks…’ everyone else just says because ‘Prague is amazing…’ whilst both were good pieces of advice they don’t really fill out an itinerary…

After checking into the motel, it was off to explore, to be honest it took all of about 4 minutes (the walk from our hotel to Wenslece Square) to see why. Prague is a beautifully laid out, historically rich and architecturally diverse city which is a pleasure to just ‘lose yourself in’ (hey, it’s been 10 blogs without a stupid cliché you can forgive me that one… can’t you?

We did take the opportunity to learn about the Czech’s personal experience at the hands of the Soviet Empire with a walk through the Communism Museum. It was definitely interesting given that I wasn’t aware of the particular Czech occupation and eventual revolution (the velvet revolution because there was no bloodshed, hence it was smooth… like velvet… get it…) and Katrina wasn’t aware of any of the communist history.

Anyway, Wenslece, yes the same one from the carol of the ‘good king’, and a convenient Segway into how awesome it is to travel at Christmas time. Both the new and old squares were adorned with both lovely and tacky Christmas wears of all kinds. Not to mention the biggest advent calendar in the world (not Guinness Records confirmed) in the windows of some shopping centre thing. The night brought on the discovery of Trdelnik a Czech doughnut thing that is awesome. You could be also mistaken for thinking that we were back in Disneyland somewhere with the view of the old square that we were treated to.

The biggest advent calendar in the world!

Don't be confused this isn't Disney castle, actual Xmas tree and church in old square Prague!

The magical Trdelnik Doughnut!

Day 43

In an attempt to figure out whether or not there was more to Prague than ‘drinking and picking up chicks’ or ‘Prague being awesome’ we took on the ‘ultimate’ (self-proclaimed) Prague tour. In a nutshell we started at the Square, saw a version of Wenslece sitting on an upside down horse(apparently depicting the Czech economic situation, ‘flogging a dead horse’), the astronomical clock (it tells the moon cycle, day, month, year, star sign… and the time), took a river cruise up to the King Charles bridge, past the giant metronome (not to be confused with the Frenzal Rhomb song of a similar name Metro Gnome, Thanks Chris, love the new album),  strolled through the Jewish quarter, had lunch (not worth writing about), walked back across the Charles bridge, saw the changing of the guard at the castle and finished it with a walk through said castle… quite a mouthful… pretty ultimate.

Wenselece and the national museum... me doing my 'Russian' look (according to Katrina!)

The Czech economy, flogging a dead horse...

The astronomical clock... it tells the time...

Church of unknown origin... (there's been a lot ok...)

Katrina and the King Charles bridge

'Selfies' on the river!

Whilst the sites were amazing and some pictures are included below, truly the most amazing part of the day was discovering the cause of global warming. You see Prague is home to the longest continual meteorological monitoring station in the world, recording temperatures, humidity etc. every day since the early 1700s never missing a day. Scientists around the world rely on this information as the basis for all sorts of cool science stuff. Unfortunately for them, (and Mikey) what isn’t as well known is the window below. You see since before 1700 it was home to the royal kitchen… and hence gradually, depending on the menu of the day, the kitchen would consistently be a few degrees warmer and as hot air rises (cool science stuff) the meteorological station was likewise affected… Global warming… Oh no… ‘climate change’ at its best… (sorry Mikey couldn’t help myself).

Top - Weather monitoring... Bottom - Kitchen...

All in all the ultimate tour nearly lived up to its name. Probably could’ve done without the boat cruise but a knowledgeable tour guide equipped with a few good jokes…

What do you say in English when someone speaks English and Czech… they are??? Bi-lingual… and 3 languages… tri-lingual… But when they only speak English…

American…

Certainly made the day. The night made itself by a terrible performance by the local ‘Coyote’ bar girls (imagine 4 hot bartenders, who can’t dance, and who hate dancing… being forced to dance), and way too many cheap drinks at Starsky and Hutch bar underground dance club…’Where did we find love?’

The Coyote girls... hot... but rubbish!

Drunk (both) and sweaty (me!) at Starsky and Hutch

Still drunk... Still Sweaty!

Day 44

Nursing a few sore heads it was a late late start to our Sunday in Prague. But you know what they say, nothing cures a hang over like cooked meat, or maybe, meat served on a sword! Yup that’s right, these Czech’s know how to do meat goodness!

Meal on  a sword!

An evening of amateur photography followed… not much to say so just look.

The castle and river by night, monochrome...

The castle and river, over exposed in colour...

Our final night slightly spoilt by some fairly heavy rain and a hurried dinner of giant deep fried batter thing with garlic, cheese and tomato sauce (again these Czechs know how to do their food) and of course one of those awesome doughnut things!

Prague definitely didn’t disappoint, it was ‘amazing’, just for the record, yes Joel the chicks are hot, the food is awesome and the sights are amazing. Truly I don’t think you could name a better weekend getaway for me thus far…

Day 45

A later flight out of Prague was both needed and appreciated and it was back to the motherland, the old dart, etc. An hour to get through the shortest custom’s line ever was definitely no way to treat children of the (once) great British Empire. Seriously people, does our Commonwealth membership mean nothing these days, if not, what’s the point, yeah granted Kate is a hottie, but she’s not even queen yet!

A tube ride and a fight later and we were safe and sound in Swiss Cottage ready for our week long London adventure to begin… but as I say… more on that later…

All our Love

M&K