Round the World in 90 days!

Leaving Oxford we got back on the bus and headed north for York. We arrived there in the afternoon at walked around the city. Being a Sunday we wanted to go to church and sat in the Evensong 4pm service at York Minster which is the 2nd in charge of the Church of England. We didn't know where to sit so we sat in these rather nice pews only to find out as the service started with the full bells and whistles that we sat right behind the choir. Some of the choir members were not amused and as they marched in glared at us! A very different service - the whole service was done in song. Not bad - and it was awesome to hear the acoustics of a really really really old catherdral.

THe evening after dinner we went on a Ghost tour and heard some of the grusome ghost tales of York. Whilst out walking around the city it absolutely poured down on us - so not much fun.

The next morning an early start for our journey up to Edinburgh. Edinburgh was a nice city. We had a whole day to check it out. A nice sunny day - such a welcome change! We went up to the Castle, where they were starting to assemble the grandstands for teh Military Tatoo (which doesn't start until end of July). We walked around the city and in the afternoon tried to find a laundromat to get some needed washing done - and the receptionist gave us the wrong directions so we ended up walking all around Edinburgh. Not fun. Actually I was quite mad at this. Then it decided to rain on us as we gave up to get back to our hotel for dinner. Again not happy Jan!

This morning another early start - we drove up into the highlands and our tour manager had the great idea for us to walk through gail force hail through St Andrews and to check out the 18th hole where Golf had been invented. I hate Golf and especially gail force rain that somehow finds its ways into your shoes and ear canals. No one was amuzed. Took me the rest of the day to cool down and dry out! We continued up the highland and dropped into the Glenlenit distillery and saw how whiskey is made and had a taste - mmmm nice.

We are now staying at a little town (pop 400) called Tomiturl. Jo had a really sore throat and I wanted to take her to see a doctor. So we went this afternoon to the local. We arrived about 5.40pm and was told to wait outside the closed doctor's office - till the Doctor came. The Doctor rocked up at 5.50pm on his bike. He had been exercising - so snot was all over his face. As he was getting off the bike his mobile rang. He quickly raced into his office and said, "I will be 5 minutes". He then got back on his bike and proceeded to stack it twice right in front of us! He then appeared in his landrover, got out of the car -raced into the office and came back out with a whole heap of medical equipment. He said' should only be 15 minutes lady has had a heart attack". Ok! In his fluster he lost his keys to the office. So not knowing or trusting us he knocks on the residence next door and asks the lady to babysit us till he gets back. We got chatting with the lady. 20 minutes pass and the Doc's wife rocks up - lets us inside and then gives us the typical waiting forms to fill in. 20 minutes later the doc comes back. He then tells us - oh my defribulator wasn't working to give the old lady heart a boost. He then worked out that her electric blanket was causing the problem. Then all went well from there! ok. He checks out Jo and says oh i'll give you some Penicillin. As he is chatting on his computer he brings up the wrong Penicillin and says oh better not give you that one - it will kill you.

What a day!

Heading off tomorrow to Glasgow and then ontol Liverpool the following day. Both Jo and I are really looking forward to getting on the place to get to Bangkok and some warm weather. We are both counting down the days till warmth!

I can’t believe how fast our time in London has come and gone.

We spent our first day recuperating from our 18 day dash through Western Europe, this involved a nice little sleep-in then 6 hours of sorting through and editing around 700+ photo’s from Barcelona and Paris in the lobby of the 4th floor (The only place that our computer would allow us to connect to the internet).

Day 2 and 3 were jam-packed with sightseeing, We went on board the HMS Belfast (The ship that shot the first gun on ‘D day’ off the shore of Normandy), we saw the London Bridge, walked along Tower Bridge, took a tour of The Tower of London with a very comedic and larger than life ‘Beefeater’ (The Queen’s Guard), It was fascinating learning about the dark history of England with all of the murder, betrayal, and conspiracy (…and that’s just the Royal Family!). We also saw the Crown Jewels, We then had some very English Fish and Chips, visited the Queen’s Gallery, Went to the WW2 London life Museum, and finished the evening with a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

We began the following day with a trip to St Paul’s Cathedral (You may remember me from such events as Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s Wedding) which was absolutely stunning, instead of the ceilings being covered in painted murals (as most of the places that we have been were) the ceilings were covered in murals made completely from mosaic tiles that had gold flickers through them, as the light hit the pictures it was totally stunning to watch them sparkle. It was also interesting to note that all of the paintings and statues were of Jesus rather than Mary, it was quite refreshing, they also hold prayer there every hour for various needs, while we were there it was for the sick and mainly the sick at the near by hospital, it was also great going to such a beautiful place that hasn’t lots the heart of the reason that the church exists, not to be a building, but to be a people being active in their community attending to those in need.

That day we also went to Buckingham palace (this is where the Queen lives), took a stroll through Hyde Park, went to the Australian War Memorial, and stopped over at Harrods department store, which was an experience in it’s self! (It’s like an upper class Myer on steroids).

On Thursday we took a 2 ½ hour train ride to Hull, Yorkshire. We then found a vague map of the area and took a bus over to the western side of town where we found the house that My (Jo’s) Dad was born in, it was a lot smaller than I had imagined my whole life, and surprisingly well kept by the current owners. We knocked on the door, unfortunately no one was home, so I took some photo’s and walked. We then realized that we had a whole lot of time on our hands as our train wasn’t due to depart for another 6 hours! We walked down the street and found a quaint 1950’s style hairdresser where matt decided to get his hair cut for ₤5.70, the best part was having a chat to the hairdresser, her accent was SOOOO THICK! For half the conversation all I could do was smile and nod, at one point she told me that I sounded like ‘Cowlie’ - I thought she was implying that I sounded pompous, as in ‘cow-like’, because compared to her I sounded like the Queen herself! However once we left my smarter half realized that she said I sounded like ‘Kylie’ as in Kylie Minogue….. duh!

We then walked along the grotty mud-slushy sea port area, it’s sounds bad, however other than the ‘water’ with sunken shopping trolleys and sections of fence in it, the area was really nice as all of the old buildings had recently been restored. Something interesting that is must mention though - one of the boats in the harbour had a Pirate Skull flag, it was just perfect as my Dad had always told me of how he was related to Pirates, this along with his one missing tooth may just confirm that theory?!?!?

Fast forward a few days to today (Saturday 26th) – We began our second Contiki Tour with a brief look through London (There is way too much to do and see there!!) and then a drive out to Windsor Castle (The Royal’s weekend residence) we arrived about 1 ½ hours before the changing of the guards ceremony, after a delicious full English breakfast we took a stroll back to the place the changing of the guards takes place and it was PACKED!! They were getting ready for a parade to welcome back the troops who served in the Middle-East! The streets were barricaded and there must have been several thousand people lining either side, there were police and TV cameras everywhere. We waited for over 1 ½ hours and managed to strike up a great conversation with a group of old ladies who all wanted to hug Matt. It was wonderful being there, first the changing of the guards occurred, then the Marching Band came through followed by the injured troops and then all of the troops on foot, it was very moving as many of the Soldiers were crying, and I couldn’t help but think about the men who didn’t come back, it was a strangely proud moment, and a great honour to be able to honour the men at least in a small way by cheering.

We spent the afternoon in Oxford, it is a quaint college town (Yes the home of Oxford University, Cambridge University, and a ridicules multitude of other universities) had a nice English dinner and are now watching Jurassic Park in the hotel room. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read what we’ve been up to!
We love you all and miss you a bunch!
Love
Matt and Jo

Wow what a time we have had! I know it has been awhile since we last blogged. However we will endeavour to place most of the highlights in the words to come.

The evening in Barcelona was a bit of a let down. Considering both Jo and I were feeling under the weather with the flu and the Flamenco dancers that we went to see – weren’t that good. I think we have been spoilt with good performances, so our expectations were high. It was nice to the see the cultural side of Spain to say the least. The food again we got jibbed. Jo ordered Pork and got meatballs??? Whats the go with the meatballs??? Also the San Gria (forget how you spell it) is a traditional Spanish wine. Nothing really special about it – just a cheap red wine, mix in some juice from a tin of fruit, add a little bit of Sprite or Lemonade and you have a Spanish wine. Quite nice to drink though!

Leaving Barcelona with its SUNSHINE was hard – as I looked into the weather report for our time in Bordeaux and Paris was to be raining and cold. Quite a long journey to Bordeaux with us getting to our hotel around 7pm. We raced outside and downtown to grab something to eat. In our walk in downtown Bordeaux we came across a Free Tibet peace rally in the main square. They were simply walking around a Tibetan flag yelling “Libre Tibet’ we had to get around them to find a place to eat – and the only way was to join their protest rally for a few seconds as they marched and then hop off the human roundabout at our point of exit. Heheh – our little stint of protesting!!!! We managed to find this quiet hole in the wall Chinese Restaurant, which the chinese lady only spoke “Hello, Bye Bye and Good” in English. So ordering food and communicating with her ended up in pouts of laughter and her walking away leaving us with confused grins on our faces. The food was great too – and cheap as well!

We headed on up to Paris the next day. Arriving in Paris around 5pm then cruising around on the bus with our Tour guide JB showing us all the sights of Paris – to prepare us for the next day. Paris is one huge place. And trying to see everything in one week is impossible. We were happy to go up the Eiffel Tower, see the Arc’ de Triumph, walk the Champs de Elysses, view the Louvre and Notre Dame before collapsing in a heap. Jo loved the Eiffel Tower, she couldn’t stop taking photos of it. I like the tower but hated the line to get up it! We took the Metro train to the Arc and again our English wasn’t useful. But thankfully an Indian Frenchman saw our plight of confusion in using the Metro system and helped us out. The French hate the English, and its easy to hate them back I suppose. We saw the Arc and walked down the Champ de Elysses – had to buy something though. Jo found a Sephora shop and bought some more foundation. Arrived at the Louvre and what a place it is. They say if you arranged all the art pieces on a conveyor belt and you stood and viewed each artpiece for 1 minute - it would take you 9 months to see everything. This place is massive and exquisite. The sun decided to show its face in the afternoon so it was great just Jo and I walking around Paris along the river. Such a nice romantic place!

The last night everyone in the tour went to see a Moulin Rouge show. We decided to go up to MontMarte for a nice dinner overlooking the city. Such a great evening. The sun was out and not a cloud in the sky – and the food was superb – as you would expect of French cuisine. Afterwards we met up with the group as they came out of the Moulin Rouge show and we head off to an Aussie bar for some photos and a couple quiet drinks.

The next day was quite somber as he had grown attached to our group – so some of the members of the tour stayed in Paris whilst most of us headed back to London. We stopped on the way at Milly at a Canadian memorial of WW1. The place was a battlefield and was kept in its original condition – with still the scarred landscape of artillery bombardments.

We arrived at Calais and doing border / passport checks – the border officer noticed I didn’t have an entrance stamp to Britian but I had an exit stamp?? I said I came in through Ireland. His reply – “oh.. came in through the back door aye” had a laugh and it was back on the bus to get on the ferry to head back to London.

Here I am sitting in my hotel room - Jo is getting ready for tonight as we head back into Barcelona for a traditional Spanish evening complete with Flamenico Dancers. I can hear children playing in the courtyard below our room as well as the hustle and bustle of cars, buses and mopeds going about their daily thing. Children are yelling at each other in Spanish (I haven't a clue what they are saying) but I do hear a ball bouncing so they must be yelling "chuck it to me, chuck it to me"!

Barcelona sits on the North East coast of Spain and is quite a large city - about 3 million people live here. Today we went into the main city. We went up to Mont Juic which is where Barcelona held the 1992 Olympics. This small mountian overlooked the city - very nice but smoggy! We also saw the Sagrada Familia which is a large gothic / modern style church that started being built by Goudi back in the early 1900s and they don't expect it to be finished until somewhere in the 2040s! I must say it was something I have never seen before - kinda like a traditional catholic steeple church crossed with something you see out of the smurfs cartoon. I think Goudi must of been eating magic mushies when he started designing this monstrosity.

It was nice today to have the sun out, and walking around the city just with Jo. It was funny - our tour manager told us to try to find a nice cafe to sit and eat some seafood - as the seafood here is world class. As you might know - Jo and I love seafood. Needless to say we found a great little cafe overlooking an old spanish courtyard. Sat down. Picked out a nice seafood dish and pointed to the writing on the menu. THe waitress said, "Si Senore". We earnestly waited. Out came our lovely seafood dish - only to look down at the plate and find - beef meatballs and potatoes????? What the???? Anyways, we ate that instead of trying to send it back with the already confused waitress!

Our tour is nearly coming to an ead as tomorrow we travel to Bordeaux for an overnight stay then to Paris for our last stop. We have made some great friends and it will be sad to leave them!

Oopps - looking at the time - we better hurry off to catch our bus - nice chatting to you!

Florence was beautiful - much better than Venice. It was a rainy day again, however there was so much more to do and to see as well. Florence is a nice romantic city with all the history, art (Da Vinci & Michelangelo) and just plain nice. We walked through the Baboli Gardens - which was a hike but worth the effort. Just beautiful. Also went through the Acadamia Galleria showcasing Michelangelo's sculptures including David. The statue of David is massive and very impressive. It was another long day walking through the city. We went to a leather demonstration that gave us the heads up on how to spot fake leather. We didn't buy any leather goods but there were plenty of fake stuff around to make your head spin.

That night we went for a Tuscan dinner, with opera singers and great food and really, really bad wine! It was a fun evening, the atmosphere was like being in a big Italian family's party.

The next morning we travelled to France, stopping in a perfumery and then finally at our hotel in Nice. Last night we went out to Monaco and saw the Grimaldi's palace and just driving through Monte-Carlo is absolutely beautiful. A duplex overlooking the ocean start at around 2.8million euros which is about $5million Aussie - think I might buy 2. We had a lovely dinner near the palace then went down to the Monte-Carlo casino. Outside the casino are only expensive cars - ferrari, masserati, bmws, mercs, & bentleys. It was nice for a moment to walk into the glitz and glamour. Make sure you check out the bond movies that feature Monte-Carlo - as it truly is! Oh yeah we also drove past the house where 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' was filmed - looks smaller than the movie - but still a nice house!

Today for our free day we just walked around Nice, along the stoney beach and through the shopping promenades. It rained for most of the day, and then the sun came out in the afternoon. Such a pretty place. Wish we could stay longer and relax here - but tomorrow we are off to Barcelona. Big drive ahead so its an early start.

Ill keep you posted!