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.
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| Main street USA! |
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| Fighting Zurg in the Buzz Light-year ride! |
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| Spinning Tea Cups! |
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| The Disney Dance Troop! |
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| Mark Bennett and the Temple of Peril... (read: Doom) |
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| 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.
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| The biggest advent calendar in the world! |
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| Don't be confused this isn't Disney castle, actual Xmas tree and church in old square Prague! |
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| 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.
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| Wenselece and the national museum... me doing my 'Russian' look (according to Katrina!) |
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| The Czech economy, flogging a dead horse... |
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| The astronomical clock... it tells the time... |
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| Church of unknown origin... (there's been a lot ok...) |
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| Katrina and the King Charles bridge |
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| '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).
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| 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?’
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| The Coyote girls... hot... but rubbish! |
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| Drunk (both) and sweaty (me!) at Starsky and Hutch |
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| 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!
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| Meal on a sword! |
An evening of amateur photography
followed… not much to say so just look.
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| The castle and river by night, monochrome... |
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| 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
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