God Save the Queen & God Bless America (Update 4/4: June 1 to July 15)
Hi All,
Hope all is well. This is our last installment of travel news as we are now well and truly entrenched back in Melbourne. Warning: this is a mammoth post - but last one for a long while.
The last time we wrote we were about to leave Paris. As I recall it was also the last time we were cold, until we arrived home that is.
Our send off from Paris was a wonderful night out at the Moulin Rouge. They really know how to put on a show (or was it the bottle of champagne that comes included with the cover?) and we were truly impressed. Rob was a little disappointed though, when part way through the show he discovered that not all the girls had bare breasts ;) but thankfully the show impressed him enough (read: there were enough boobies) to keep him interested for the rest of the night.
Then off to London! Those rumours you hear about how bad the weather is in London simply didn't ring true for us. We were greeted with lovely sunny skies and warm weather which persisted through our two weeks there. Greeted at the train station by Justine we collected our money, keys and map to her & Dylan's place and headed off to negotiate the Tube.
Negotiating the tube was the easy bit, what Justine & Dylan had neglected to tell us was they'd moved house. So after a few passes around the local streets and a few phone calls later we found their apartment - on Abbey Road. What was most impressive was their "local" was practically underneath their apartment not too far to stumble for a beer!
Oxfordshire & the Cotswolds was our first side trip. Which went something like Stratford-upon-Avon (Foster's stop), Warwick Castle ('cos you haven't really done England without seeing a castle), Oxford (Foster's stop, dinner bed). Sunday saw us do a walking tour around Oxford and then off to the Slaughters for a bit more of a look and some scones with jam & cream (once again you haven't really done England...). Unfortunately for Rob the scones had sultanas, and unbeknownst to him he would never try scones in the UK =(
Our next side trip would be to Hexam in the north of England to visit Susan and her new husband Ian. Once again the weather was kind (except for the fog along the coast) and so were our hosts. We visited the remains of a roman fort and Hadrian's wall - we even got to walk on top of it - and saw the oak tree from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Next time we'll give ourselves a couple of weeks and do the full walk along the wall. More castles - one on the coast which was very dramatic, more of a ruin sitting atop cliffs, and then the Harry Potter castle (only glimpses of this as they wanted £15 to enter the grounds!).
From the north country to the south we found ourselves in Brighton visiting Lucy & Dave, the South of England show, Brighton "where's the sand?" beach and the famous pier. We watched our first World Cup "football" match on a big screen at the South of England show which was lots of fun - more so because there was beer (alas no Foster's this time).
Between jaunts around the countryside we managed to do a bit of sight seeing: the Tower(s) of London (it's not really just one tower, is it?), Madame Tussaud's, the Eye, Tate Modern, the London Dungeon, a West End show and the list goes on. Did someone mention the World Cup? We managed to squeeze into the Walkabout in Covent Garden and watch the Australia v Japan match. What a ripper of a match, and nice not to have to get up at 3am to watch it! We also caught up with some friends from Adelaide Ellie, Paul, Michelle & Chris to celebrate a milestone birthday for Ellie on the Queen Mary. Happy Birthday Ellie!
Our last stop in Europe was Ireland - Cork and County Kerry. It was very green, we drank a lot of beer, black pudding isn't as bad as it sounds, and we managed to find a pub to watch the Australia v Brazil match and we kissed the Blarney stone.
Did someone mention the pub? I lost count but I think we managed to visit our fair share of pubs and drank enough Foster's to keep me in a job for at least another 6 months (which is good as I'll need to the next six month's to pay off the loan we took out to buy these beers).
Start spreading the news... we hit New York, New York for the final leg of our trip. We tried not to look up but resigned ourselves to the fact that we would always look like tourists, especially as we were sitting on the red hop-on, hop-off bus. Our hostel was right in Times Square so no need to walk far for action. We did the best we could to fit NYC into 4 days but did not succeed - my second time there and I've still not been up the Empire State Building - but we did get our name & picture up in lights in Times Square!
Viva Las Vegas baby! This is a town that really defies description and is much more exotic by night. Unfortunately our timetable did not allow us enough time to find Elvis Herselvis (lesbian Elvis impersonator) to renew our vows, much to my disappointment, but enough time to walk the strip, win some money, catch a David Copperfield show, lose some money and make it back to our hotel for a bit of a sleep before our Road Trip!
Just like you haven't done England if you haven't seen a castle, you haven't done the US of A without doing a road trip, driving up the wrong side of the road, swerving across a 4 lane freeway to get to the off ramp which turns out to be the wrong one anyway, but not realising this until you'd driven 25 miles in the wrong direction!
Our road trip had all those elements but the highlight of it would have to be the Grand Canyon and the helicopter flight over the canyon (although surviving an almost head on collision with the giant ute as I drove on the wrong side of the road would come in a close second). There was a haze over the canyon due to a large bushfire past the north rim, but it was a spectacular view anyway. Another place to spend more time "next time". As it was we drove 11 hours from Vegas to the Canyon and back and only spent a total of 1 1/2hr at the Canyon itself. Amazingly this is 1hr 15mins more than the average visitor spends at the Grand Canyon. Turns out the if we'd kept on the 25mile detour in the wrong direction on the way back to Vegas we wouldn't have reached Vegas, but we would have arrived in LA before our flight!
We spent our time in LA at Universal Studios (guess who's choice that was?). At least this time we managed to get to the park before it opened and spent a full day there. The next day we did a movie stars homes tour to pass some time, but really in the end it's just LA and is just a big, sprawling concrete jungle.
From LA we travelled to San Francisco, well Sunnyvale to be exact which is in the heart of Silicone Valley an hour south of SF, where Rob's brother Gordon & his wife Lisa live. If there's one experience that is a must when you go to the states it has to be 4th of July at Santa Cruz beach. There are thousands of people on the beach each with their own private stash of fireworks. Imagine Skyshow or new year's eve fireworks but imagine they go from about sunset to 10pm. Then imagine that instead of them being lit somewhere away from you, there's a guy with a butane torch who believes that the fuse is decoration and that the firework should actually be lit at the base, bypassing the fuse.
Our last two weeks were a blur of activity as Gordon & Lisa showed us the sights of northern california. We headed up to Napa and did a bit of wine tasting and stopped in at Golden Haven Spa resort where we were shouted to a mineral mud bath and massage. It was a very relaxing experience once I got over being nuddie in the mud - Rob on the other hand was oinking all the way.
Back in SF Alcatraz was a highlight, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge without any fog, riding across the bridge to sunny sausalito and watching the fog roll in were also amazing. It's funny how fast the fog moves! We also caught up with lots of family, got invited to a wedding and managed to fit in some shopping as well. Sakari - Lisa & Gordon's blind miniature husky was also lots of fun!
And some how, before we realised, 3 months of travel were up. We were on a plane back to Melbourne. We left SF and it was 36 degrees and sunny and arrived home in Melbourne 20hrs later to 9 degrees and rain (apparently the first decent rains so far this winter - just our luck). We were getting a bit homesick towards the end of our travels, but after being home for a couple of hours wished we were back on holidays in the sun!
We've been home and back at work for a week now! It's cold, but we're getting used to it and there's only one and a half month's until spring! Hope you're all well. If you're travelling drop us a line as we'll be living vicariously through you for the next couple of years!
Cheers,
Yen and Rob
Hope all is well. This is our last installment of travel news as we are now well and truly entrenched back in Melbourne. Warning: this is a mammoth post - but last one for a long while.
The last time we wrote we were about to leave Paris. As I recall it was also the last time we were cold, until we arrived home that is.
Our send off from Paris was a wonderful night out at the Moulin Rouge. They really know how to put on a show (or was it the bottle of champagne that comes included with the cover?) and we were truly impressed. Rob was a little disappointed though, when part way through the show he discovered that not all the girls had bare breasts ;) but thankfully the show impressed him enough (read: there were enough boobies) to keep him interested for the rest of the night.
Then off to London! Those rumours you hear about how bad the weather is in London simply didn't ring true for us. We were greeted with lovely sunny skies and warm weather which persisted through our two weeks there. Greeted at the train station by Justine we collected our money, keys and map to her & Dylan's place and headed off to negotiate the Tube.
Negotiating the tube was the easy bit, what Justine & Dylan had neglected to tell us was they'd moved house. So after a few passes around the local streets and a few phone calls later we found their apartment - on Abbey Road. What was most impressive was their "local" was practically underneath their apartment not too far to stumble for a beer!
Oxfordshire & the Cotswolds was our first side trip. Which went something like Stratford-upon-Avon (Foster's stop), Warwick Castle ('cos you haven't really done England without seeing a castle), Oxford (Foster's stop, dinner bed). Sunday saw us do a walking tour around Oxford and then off to the Slaughters for a bit more of a look and some scones with jam & cream (once again you haven't really done England...). Unfortunately for Rob the scones had sultanas, and unbeknownst to him he would never try scones in the UK =(
Our next side trip would be to Hexam in the north of England to visit Susan and her new husband Ian. Once again the weather was kind (except for the fog along the coast) and so were our hosts. We visited the remains of a roman fort and Hadrian's wall - we even got to walk on top of it - and saw the oak tree from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Next time we'll give ourselves a couple of weeks and do the full walk along the wall. More castles - one on the coast which was very dramatic, more of a ruin sitting atop cliffs, and then the Harry Potter castle (only glimpses of this as they wanted £15 to enter the grounds!).
From the north country to the south we found ourselves in Brighton visiting Lucy & Dave, the South of England show, Brighton "where's the sand?" beach and the famous pier. We watched our first World Cup "football" match on a big screen at the South of England show which was lots of fun - more so because there was beer (alas no Foster's this time).
Between jaunts around the countryside we managed to do a bit of sight seeing: the Tower(s) of London (it's not really just one tower, is it?), Madame Tussaud's, the Eye, Tate Modern, the London Dungeon, a West End show and the list goes on. Did someone mention the World Cup? We managed to squeeze into the Walkabout in Covent Garden and watch the Australia v Japan match. What a ripper of a match, and nice not to have to get up at 3am to watch it! We also caught up with some friends from Adelaide Ellie, Paul, Michelle & Chris to celebrate a milestone birthday for Ellie on the Queen Mary. Happy Birthday Ellie!
Our last stop in Europe was Ireland - Cork and County Kerry. It was very green, we drank a lot of beer, black pudding isn't as bad as it sounds, and we managed to find a pub to watch the Australia v Brazil match and we kissed the Blarney stone.
Did someone mention the pub? I lost count but I think we managed to visit our fair share of pubs and drank enough Foster's to keep me in a job for at least another 6 months (which is good as I'll need to the next six month's to pay off the loan we took out to buy these beers).
Start spreading the news... we hit New York, New York for the final leg of our trip. We tried not to look up but resigned ourselves to the fact that we would always look like tourists, especially as we were sitting on the red hop-on, hop-off bus. Our hostel was right in Times Square so no need to walk far for action. We did the best we could to fit NYC into 4 days but did not succeed - my second time there and I've still not been up the Empire State Building - but we did get our name & picture up in lights in Times Square!
Viva Las Vegas baby! This is a town that really defies description and is much more exotic by night. Unfortunately our timetable did not allow us enough time to find Elvis Herselvis (lesbian Elvis impersonator) to renew our vows, much to my disappointment, but enough time to walk the strip, win some money, catch a David Copperfield show, lose some money and make it back to our hotel for a bit of a sleep before our Road Trip!
Just like you haven't done England if you haven't seen a castle, you haven't done the US of A without doing a road trip, driving up the wrong side of the road, swerving across a 4 lane freeway to get to the off ramp which turns out to be the wrong one anyway, but not realising this until you'd driven 25 miles in the wrong direction!
Our road trip had all those elements but the highlight of it would have to be the Grand Canyon and the helicopter flight over the canyon (although surviving an almost head on collision with the giant ute as I drove on the wrong side of the road would come in a close second). There was a haze over the canyon due to a large bushfire past the north rim, but it was a spectacular view anyway. Another place to spend more time "next time". As it was we drove 11 hours from Vegas to the Canyon and back and only spent a total of 1 1/2hr at the Canyon itself. Amazingly this is 1hr 15mins more than the average visitor spends at the Grand Canyon. Turns out the if we'd kept on the 25mile detour in the wrong direction on the way back to Vegas we wouldn't have reached Vegas, but we would have arrived in LA before our flight!
We spent our time in LA at Universal Studios (guess who's choice that was?). At least this time we managed to get to the park before it opened and spent a full day there. The next day we did a movie stars homes tour to pass some time, but really in the end it's just LA and is just a big, sprawling concrete jungle.
From LA we travelled to San Francisco, well Sunnyvale to be exact which is in the heart of Silicone Valley an hour south of SF, where Rob's brother Gordon & his wife Lisa live. If there's one experience that is a must when you go to the states it has to be 4th of July at Santa Cruz beach. There are thousands of people on the beach each with their own private stash of fireworks. Imagine Skyshow or new year's eve fireworks but imagine they go from about sunset to 10pm. Then imagine that instead of them being lit somewhere away from you, there's a guy with a butane torch who believes that the fuse is decoration and that the firework should actually be lit at the base, bypassing the fuse.
Our last two weeks were a blur of activity as Gordon & Lisa showed us the sights of northern california. We headed up to Napa and did a bit of wine tasting and stopped in at Golden Haven Spa resort where we were shouted to a mineral mud bath and massage. It was a very relaxing experience once I got over being nuddie in the mud - Rob on the other hand was oinking all the way.
Back in SF Alcatraz was a highlight, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge without any fog, riding across the bridge to sunny sausalito and watching the fog roll in were also amazing. It's funny how fast the fog moves! We also caught up with lots of family, got invited to a wedding and managed to fit in some shopping as well. Sakari - Lisa & Gordon's blind miniature husky was also lots of fun!
And some how, before we realised, 3 months of travel were up. We were on a plane back to Melbourne. We left SF and it was 36 degrees and sunny and arrived home in Melbourne 20hrs later to 9 degrees and rain (apparently the first decent rains so far this winter - just our luck). We were getting a bit homesick towards the end of our travels, but after being home for a couple of hours wished we were back on holidays in the sun!
We've been home and back at work for a week now! It's cold, but we're getting used to it and there's only one and a half month's until spring! Hope you're all well. If you're travelling drop us a line as we'll be living vicariously through you for the next couple of years!
Cheers,
Yen and Rob
posted by Mr R at 9:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home