Day 31 - Be it ever so humble....

We awoke to a new hotel room - well actually, it was our bedroom - get with the program Chris!

Lots of things to do today, include complete the unpacking and sort the accumulated bits and pieces. There were souvenirs, tickets, receipts, postcards, catalogs, a beautiful book of the Oberammergau PassionSpiele, and toiletries and other necessities. Umbrellas are essential when you are travelling, but they break - left three brokens overseas and came home with new ones from London.




We will have to decide what to do with all the bags - they are all the same size and don't fit inside each other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >o ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A note from Liz:
What a fantastic stupendous amazing and unforgettable ride the last month has been. Thanks to everyone back home who has indulged our narcissism and followed along the journey with us. There will be much more reflection, unblogged, in the coming weeks I am sure, but on balance I think about some of the things I will treasure from this holiday and some of the things that I definitely wont miss.

On the treasured side... my wonderful husband who planned and drove me to distraction before we left... It was worth all the hours of this and that and will we do this first or that and what do you think about.... the maps, the guides all the things made our trip very comfortable. Love you Lots xxx

I will also treasure every experience. Already some have asked me to quantify what was the "best" thing... there was no best thing. Every day we started the day open to the new experiences it would hold, and while the big ticket items like the Passion Play, the Tattoo and Disneylands and the West End Show were just amazing and awesome and lived totally up to expectation there was also 100 little things that made every day such a rich experience. i am also grateful for the fantastic people we met, many of them strangers who brightened our day with a chat or helpful advice, and others like the friends from the tour of Britain like Pam and Tony, whose company we enjoyed immensely.

On the not so treasured side. I will not be sorry to leave the stairs behind. They really challenged my bodgy arthritic knee to the max. I estimate that, during our week in Paris alone I walked a minimum of 10,000 stairs and I reckon that is a conservative estimate. Add to that all the other stairs everywhere else and you get the picture. I will also not miss kamakazie bus drivers who fang it down narrow lane ways, often scratching their head with one hand and talking on the mobile phone with the other. Nor will I miss rude Italian student tourist groups who tended to descend en masse everywhere we were in London...I will certainly not miss paying to pee! The most expensive toilet visits were the regular 50p everywhere in London and 70 eurocents in Paris and while some of the facilities were great others left much to be desired and it was so inconvenient finding the change all the time. And one final thing I will not miss is the trauma of counting the undies and hoping that you make it to a laundromat before the clean clothes run out... there is something very comforting about ones own washing machine and dryer.. even though I now face a mounting pile of folding and ironing.

Overall.. one fantastic life enriching experience, the memories of which I will treasure forever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >o ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A note from Chris:
Thanks to our family and all our followers, it has been a pleasure sharing our holiday with you.

A special thanks to my darling wife Liz, who put up with months of planning and then was there to share our special moments. You have taught me new computer skills, through using this blogger.

As my dedication said on the plane, I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow.


And Sarah, I love you lots. Thank you for being our anchor at home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >o ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And so friends, this is the end of our blog. Every moment has been a treasured one, even all those ruddy stairs.

For those of you with the stamina, we will be adding photos to those days that are light on - come back and see us some time!

Day 30 Homeward Bound

So all the ribbons have come together into a beautiful memory of fun, laughter, sights and sounds, and good company.

An even earlier rise this morning to check out and check in – from the hotel and onto the plane. Thank heavens for being at the airport hotel. Once again the porters were there after we checked out to provide trolleys for our bags. We then strolled over to Terminal 1 and up to the QANTAS Business class check in counter for our QF88 flight to Sydney. A stroll through security and immigration, then into the first class lounge to wait for our flight. An interesting place, on an open terrace overlooking gate 15 and not too flash. We grabbed breakfast then strolled around the duty free before boarding our flight. You can’t buy alcohol and take it on board – they check your bags again for liquids just before going down the airbridge. Some Oz government regulation (we reckon the Oz duty free merchants have something to do with it).

Liz had noticed a Typhoon warning in the foyer of the hotel, and we experienced significant turbulence flying through it (though Chris slept through it). We even had to reduce our flying altitude from 35000 feet to 27000 feet. It delayed us a bit, but the flight director said we would make up time.

The cabin crew did a good job, and the meals (lunch and dinner) were scrummy. We continued our photo blog by photographing them. The chocolate date cake was particularly nice.

Chris kept checking the QANTAS in flight magazine, and then made Liz listen to the radio – there was a love song dedication from him to her – sneaky so and so. He had arranged this over two months earlier, picking one of our special songs and having a message announced by the announcer to Liz from Chris before the song played. So, every person who has listened to the Love Song channel on a QANTAS flight during the entire month of August has heard our dedication and we only got to hear it today, because when we flew out on the 1st August they still had the July list playing.

Thanks to the in seat power supply we were able to continue drafting our blog content.

When we arrived at Sydney the customs hall was nearly empty. Priority baggage worked this time, with all four bags popping up quickly. We must have looked like low risks as we were whisked through quarantine – mature couple, travelling in business class with lots of bags.

We were pleased to be greeted by the family - very excited daughter, grannie, sister, nieces and nephew. We piled into the chauffeur driven chariot and were driven home (thanks Sarah). It felt strange – where had the time gone?

It was great to be in our house which Sarah had kept clean. Bella the cheeky cat was not so sure at first after all these humans had been away for a month. However she soon came round to lots of pats.

Last thing to do before collapsing into bed – unpack and find that dirty washing!
Night night all.

Day 29 – the Mini Mouse House

Yea Ha! Today’s the day that Chris gets to complete the set – visiting all of the mouse houses!

Unfortunately it started quite early as we had to check out of our Kowloon hotel and head out to our Hong Kong airport hotel. Of course the first thing was to sort out the packing of all the shopping. Most of it was Liz’s (not true says Liz!!!) but Chris got his new work shoes that needed to be packed too. Most fitted in the one bag, though many of the souvenirs fitted in Chris’s new trolley bag. Thank heavens we have been disposing of old underwear as we have been travelling!

View of Hong Kong Harbour from our room

Checkout was quick and we got to ride the express glass elevator down to our taxi that whisked us away to the train station. The streets were very quiet on this Sunday morning and of course the taxi driver took the most direct route (we think). It cost $25 HKD plus $5 HKD for the luggage – hmm. Oh well we could afford the extra 72 cents Australian. The MTR airport express train is really good, with lots of luggage space and comfortable seats.

From the airport it was a short stroll to the Regal airport hotel to check in. Smoking or non-smoking, twin or king bed sir? This hotel counts the 24 hours of your stay from the time you check in, so we were covered until 8:30am tomorrow morning. Up on the eighth floor it was a bit of a walk along a long curving corridor, but our bags that we had left on Friday soon arrived and we were able to get ready to go to the mini mouse house – the name we have given Hong Kong Disneyland for reasons that will become clearer later in this story.

We had used our MTR pass extensively over the last two days and needed to use it once more today to get to Hong Kong Disneyland. First a cheap bus ride to Tung Chung station – no Liz, no time to go into the shopping outlet – then a trip to Sunny Bay to catch the Disneyland Line train. The carriages are very cute with Mickey Mouse-head windows and passenger hang-on straps – reminded Chris of the monorail at Tokyo Disneyland. There were even statues and photos in the train.

We left the air conditioned train and walked through the humid warm air to the park entrance. Chris was amazed at how easy it was to get our park tickets. We went to the Automagic booth, inserted the credit card with which the tickets had been purchased and hey presto out they popped – brilliant. Pity we couldn’t have done this yesterday in Hong Kong and saved the blood pressure.

First impressions. The park is laid out like all the other Disneylands, with a Mickey flower bed and railway station at the entrance. The Chinese love their umbrellas to keep the sun off, but wield them like the French wield their strollers – Chris nearly had his eye poked out in the first five minutes. We expected the park to be smaller, and it was – fewer rides, smaller Sleeping Beauty’s castle, but also much shorter walking distances between lands. This is why we call it the mini mouse house.

There were very few people about, which was a real bonus because we had been led to believe that it would be a crush of people on a Sunday, and we never had to wait long for rides or shows.

We were also lucky with the weather because it was overcast with no rain but high humidity and so hot.

There are also lots of opportunities for photos and autographs with Disney characters. There is even a formal garden that contains several gazebos that you can line up and have your photo taken with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto.

We did all the mandatory rides – Space Mountain twice (Liz reckons the best one in the world), Winnie the Pooh ride, Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblasters, (memo to Sarah… mum still sux at astroblasters) the Disneyland Railway steam train, and of course It’s a Small World (no, anything but that!). Other rides we gave a miss, like the Jungle Cruise, Mad Hatter’s Teacups, Autopia and the Carousel.

We also sat through excellent shows – Phil-a-Magic, Lion King (different from Orlando with Rikki narrating in English and two Chinese monkey men retelling the narration in Chinese, and less crowd interaction), Stitch’s interactive show (an English language session where there were three Anglo families in the audience: Stitch chose each to talk to group, and when he talked to us, he said he was more handsome than Chris, was going to name a new planet after us because we were such a lovely couple but typed in Liz and Chrys and when Chris told Stitch that he had spelt Chris’s name wrong, Stitch told the computer to delete and the computer blew up the planet!), and the Golden Mickeys, where the main Disney characters danced with performers – great show. The Chinese are not as well versed in when to applaud and show appreciation as western audiences.

We also saw three parades – two short parades and the main parade at 1pm which involved water guns and getting wet which was rather pleasant in the heat of the day! There was no evening parade.

The short parades gets the crowd involved, some dancing, some entertainment, songs and dance.

Meals are good value and we chose to eat in air conditioned restaurants at lunch and dinner to get away from the warmth. Chris was very pleased that his visit to his fifth and final Mouse house of the collection did not disappoint. It was a case of good things come in small packages.

The Chinese have the heat worked out. They stroll around the park and then rush over to a spot when something is happening – different from our approach.

By the end of the day we were exhausted so did not wait for the fireworks but headed back to Tung Chung and the – you guessed it – shopping outlets. (Editorial note at this point… Chris directed us back to the bus VIA the shopping outlet and he was the one who suggested shopping!!!! Liz) With all the things we had bought over the last 4 weeks, 3 suitcases were just not enough to make sure each one kept under the weight limit. We found a nice red one to go with our other red ones, and caught the bus back to the airport. Considering there is an express train service all the way into Hong Kong, we were surprised by the number of people travelling with luggage on the bus, and the long queue at the airport waiting to catch the bus back to Tung Chung to catch the local train with multiple stops into the city.

We made short work of distributing our load across the bags, deciding what would not be coming back to Sydney (goodbye, loyal and trusted and somewhat worn out backpack!) then settled into a well deserved sleep. Tomorrow, home.

“ Now it’s time to say good bye to all our company..
M ..I.. C.. .... see you real soon
K ..E.. Y.. .… why? Because we like you…
M.. O.. U.. S.. E..” (if you don’t know the song, you’re too young)

Day 28 – All that way to ….

No Sarah.. not all that way to a Westfield, but rather all that way to Stanley Market which is on the southern side of Hong Kong Island. We started the day with breakfast upstairs and then enquired what the best way was to get to Stanley Markets. We were advised that there was an Express bus that left from across the road. Sounded great so we even got the right change for the fare, because you have to have the right money in Hong Kong. Still wondering about the use of the express word… as the ride took well over an hour we would have hated to have travelled on a non express service. But finally at Stanley and we found the Markets.

The village of Stanley has changed quite a lot in the 17 years since Liz had last been there. It is a very pretty place, a village of contrasts. It has a mix of Chinese and English architecture and yet it looks like it belongs in the Mediterranean. We spent a bit of time mooching in the markets and made a few purchases. Chris got a new pair of joggers and was able to wear them out of the shop, disposing of the old ones that were smelling a bit after all the rain in Rothenburg, Oberammergau, Munich, Paris, Edinburgh and London (well heeled shoes?). It was fun, but the heat and humidity were quite oppressive and took their toll. So we lunched in the only place that was air-conditioned.. you guessed it.. the Scottish restaurant and then climbed many escalators to the street level again, stopping by the info booth to find out about a potentially quicker route back to the other side of the island. There was a different express bus that went back to Central and were making fantastic time til we hit the Aberdeen tunnel where we crawled and crawled, finally making it back to Central after about 75 minutes. Express!!! HA!

We needed to go to the Disney Office at Hong Kong station to redeem our tickets, but we didn’t have the voucher so we went to try to find the office so we knew where to come back to. It was not very easy to find and we must have looked very lost because a lovely New Zealand couple offered to show us the way. The sign at the office said that they were opened til 6pm but the woman told Chris that they were opened until 9. So we went back to the hotel by MTR to Tsim Tsa Chui, grabbed the voucher and headed back over to the island.

We walked past the Peninsula Hotel - here is Liz arriving in her Rolls Royce. We also strolled in to check out the afternoon tea in the lobby - a great tradition in Hong Kong. There was a three piece orchestra playing airs, and even at 5pm a queue to get a table. We wandered out via one of the arcades, looking into the Tiffany window - no prices on the precious jewelery items but then if you have to ask the price you can't afford it.


We walked along to the Star Ferry terminal. This is an institution in Hong Kong. It costs $3HK which is about 45c AUS to travel on the top deck across Victoria Harbour.
It is a bit of a scary trip as the harbour is the busiest in the world and the ferries are a little ordinary. But we have travelled on all the other waterways where we have travelled so Victoria Harbour was a must. Liz said we had to travel on the upper deck which is slightly more expensive because common wisdom says that you may be spat on if you are on the lower deck – yuck. There is more development going on along the waterfront – very little flat land on Hong Kong Island – a a bit of a walk along an elevated walkway to the Central railway station. Unfortunately when we got back to the ticket office it was closed!!! It will open again at 9am tomorrow. Grrrrrr! The language barrier gets us. So back to the hotel by MTR for some dim sum for dinner and then a trip to the Temple street night market.

Chaos, smells, sounds… Temple Street is a multi sensory experience. It is full of T shirts, bags and copy watches and pushy vendors encouraging purchase at all costs. We got some things and were in the process of getting a new camera to replace the camera with the serious problem following the great bus bag sprint of yesterday when we witnessed the chaos of a bag snatcher sprinting up Temple street hotly pursued by a posse of stall holders!!! It was quite scary really. We secured our purchases and then we headed back to the MTR past some ladies of the night for the one stop ride back to the hotel and of course the need to again run the gauntlet of the copy watch traders on Nathan Road. So Kowloon!

Had to get sorted because tomorrow we were checking out to head out to the Regal at the airport. Ah the joys of travel. Then off to sleep. Night!

Day 27 - Taking Flight ( Up in the Air!)

Much of today was spent at the pointy end of a British Airways 747 as we jetted eastward in First Class to our final destination of this amazing holiday.. Heathrow to Hong Kong. We were greeted onboard by our own personal cabin crew. We were in fact supposed to be the only passengers in first class, but they had upgraded someone’s daughter!!! It was as though she wasn’t there as she spent most of the flight asleep and so it was really like flying in our own personal jet. Utterly amazing. At dinner time, which was really nearly midnight Heathrow time because we were so late leaving, Chris came around to my cubicle and sat on the small buddy seat that converts to become the foot of the bed. That way we could sit opposite each other while we were treated to a six course silver service dinner. The food was very swish and very yummy as this image of Chris' crayfish salad indicates. After all that, it was time for a rest and so we bedded down, literally. They come and lay down your seat flat while you slip into your flight pyjamas, put a thin mattress over it and give you a duvet to snuggle down under. It was quite comfortable.

Unfortunately Liz wasn’t too well During the flight.. the flight was exceptionally turbulent and a canapé served in the Concorde Room did not agree. This meant no brekkie for her, but the crew were fantastic making sure she was ok and providing drinks and cups of tea – thanks Raoul and Makmoud. All up it was a phenomenal experience, one which neither of us will ever forget. And so we arrived in Hong Kong.

The first thing that struck us was the humidity, even in an air-conditioned airport. After that, the sheer distance that we had to walk to get from our arrival gate to the customs and baggage area. A rough estimate.. perhaps one kilometre!!! Clearing customs was easy, although it took a while for the bags to come through and then it was off to work out how to catch the airport express train into Kowloon. We were having two nights at the Sheraton and our final night was to be out at the Regal Hotel at the airport. This Regal hotel is literally attached to the end of Terminal One and so we decided that we would leave our excess bags that we did not need at the Regal, and just take one suitcase into town. Great idea. We hit the doorway, were greeted by concierge staff who snaffled the bags away, gave us the collection tag and then we were off to the train.

Now this train was something else again. Smooth and very modern, with comfortable storage for luggage and a quick 25 minute ride into Kowloon. From the train we transferred to a shuttle to take us to the hotel and that was where the fun really began. The streets of Kowloon were utterly chaotic and we were about the sixth stop so we went around and around before we reached our hotel. Then we had to clamber off the coach very quickly and Chris exited without his backpack and Liz didn’t realize that it had been left on the bus. Thank heavens Chris realized almost immediately the bus had pulled out from the kerb and due to the bad traffic he was able to chase it and redeem the bag. No harm down, but the adrenaline rush left both of us feeling rather wasted.

We were glad that we were able to check in straight away at the Sheraton. We had been offered an upgrade by email some days before for a very reasonable deal and so Chris had taken it. When we checked in they had to upgrade our upgrade as they were fully booked. We ended up with a deluxe harbour view room on level 15 overlooking Hong Kong harbour, with “happy hour” drinks and nibbles in the executive lounge, 24 hr coffee and tea in the same lounge and brekkie dining on the 18th floor overlooking the harbour and other benefits. It was great. As they were still serving happy hour we had some dim sum for dinner there and then went back to the room. Unfortunately we were both exhausted.. the combination of it being a long day and the humidity and nearly losing the bag, so we didn’t have the energy to venture very far.

We took a wander, perhaps scurry would be a better word, up Nathan Road, where we ran the gauntlet of all the copy watch touters… they were everywhere. Had a bit of a look see and then went back to the hotel to crash, in the hope that we could start to get the body clock back closer to Sydney time… What an amazing amazing day.

Day 26 – Can you guess where we’re blogging from?

Our last day in London… and of course that means that terrible four letter word PACK.. it is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in nearly a month away!!! Eeekkkkk. We organized our stuff for Hong Kong and then headed out for our last London adventure.

First stop the V&A, otherwise known as the Victoria and Albert museum. This museum has a very rich and varied collection of artifacts from the antiquities til last week. We started our exploration of the museum by visiting the Islamic art treasures on a guided tour, but the guide was as boring as all get out, and when 20 minutes later we had heard about her studies and visited only two pieces we decided to go it alone. We escalated up a couple of levels, viewed 1940’s “plastic” furniture and then wandered an amazing collection of sacred religious vessels, including a 6 inch tall Torah scroll complete with breastplate and towers, and then, on the next corridor, textiles, 14th century full wall tapestries and an amazing display of theatrical wherewithal. There were posters and promotional material, stage and set design that would make an HSC Drama student salivate, and then, in the next room, full size original Lion King Costumes!!!! Not to mention Dame Edna's hat. It was total visual overload but so fantastic.



It was time to finish our London shopping and so where else but Harrods. But who can shop on an empty stomach? Certainly not Chris, and the deli counter in Harrods was beckoning. We had a yummy half sandwich and soup before hitting the souvenir section. After Harrods we got back on the tube to Covent Garden. Perhaps Liz had been expecting something out of the pages of My Fair Lady, but the Covent Garden of today is very different. Very expensive fashion shops line the street, side by side with alternate lifestyle and therapy offerings. It is a very eclectic place. Mooched in some of the shops, didn’t really get what we came for but stumbled on a couple of good finds. Then on the way back to the Leicester Square station we found a little pub called the Porcupine serving afternoon tea and cake for 3 pounds. What a find. That certainly postponed the trip back to the hotel just a little.

Back at the hotel for a shower and change, finalise the packing ( oh dear why did I do more shopping??) finalise the bill and catch a cab down to Paddington station for the Heathrow express out to the airport. By this stage the day had turned very bleak and we were very glad to get to the station in the cab nice and dry. Check in and claiming back the VAT was easy and then it was off to the Concorde room, reserved for first class travelers only. Ooohhhh that has a nice ring to it. We had a lovely meal served to us in a private dining booth and then sat down to update the blog, only to discover that due to bad weather our flight to Hong Kong had been delayed for over an hour. Ah well, I guess we will just have to suffer the lounge for a bit longer. So a wander around the airport to check out the other lounges was in order and then back to wait for our call.

Soooooo.. can you guess where we’re blogging from??? British Airways Concorde Room. What an experience.

Day 25 – Of Bridges, Bards, Bastions and Bloody big raindrops

Wednesday morning dawned lightly overcast with sunny periods and this was the day that we were going to finish off our London pass with some more big London attractions. Our first stop was the Globe Theatre for the tour. We caught the slowest circle line train on record to Mansion House and walked across the Millennium Bridge, made famous by the death eaters in Harry Potter. The Globe Theatre is just on the south bank of the Thames. The reconstruction built 30 years ago by Sam Wannamaker is a faithful reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe that was actually located about 150 metres away and was destroyed during Cromwell’s anti theatre (read anti everything ) purge. In fact the reason that the Globe and its competition The Rose who Shakespeare also worked for were on the south side of the river in the first place was that the Puritan parliamentarians would not allow any theatrical or performance or entertainment within the boundaries of the city of London. The tour of the Globe was great. It meant that we could get a real good look at what we had seen from the middle level when we went to see the Merry Wives a couple of weeks ago. They also told us about the history and there is a great costume and artifacts display on the gallery before the tour starts.

When done at the Globe we wandered over the Southwark Bridge back to the London side of the Thames in search of the Tower of London. It was easy to get to on the circle line from Mansion House to Tower Hill station. Liz was unsure what to expect at the tower, thinking it was just a tower where prisoners were kept, but it was and is much more than that. We walked to the top level of the White Tower where they kept many of the prisoners, we also learnt much about the military history of the tower. It was for many years the royal Armory and boasts an amazing collection of armor and weapons. Two levels were full of the bizarre and gory items of battle preparation. Being an armory it was also the site of the major store of Gunpowder in London… How lucky were they that the great Fire of London in 1666 missed the tower or the Tower wouldn’t have been there at all. After the fire they rationed and then removed gun powder supplies at the tower!

One of the main attractions at the tower of London is the Crown jewels. Of course everyone who visits wants to see the precious objects and so the queue was a little long. But it was worth the wait. On the way in they have a very clever queuing system akin to a Disney ride, where they show authentic movie footage of Lizzie’s coronation and all the jewels and their origins. And then you actually get to the safe room. The doors of the room weigh 2000kg each!!! There are crowns, scepters, maces, orbs and diamonds rubies emeralds and sapphires as far as the eye can see... breathtakingly beautiful. The thing that is distressing is that all the beautiful plates, chalices and coronation stuff only dates to the post Cromwell era, because you guessed it, he had it destroyed… melted down for whatever purpose, and some of them were sold off. Sad really.

We did see the place where Anne Boleyn and several others lost their heads - the memorial lists their names and has a pillow made of glass to represent the pillow that was placed below the block upon which their head fell when cut off.

By this time the heavens had decided that it was time for some serious London rain and we headed off in that serious rain for the Tower bridge.. not far from the Tower of London. It has been in existence since the late 1880’s and is an amazing architectural feat. We headed up the London side pylon, viewed some films and a couple of good exhibits, walked the length of the bridge on the exhibition walkways that are 42 meters above the Thames and then headed down the Southwark side. It was an interesting and informative exhibit and we even learned where the Thames sea wall barrier is located, between Greenwich and Woolwich.

Not to be dissuaded by the cold and rain we hopped on yet another form of train transport… the Docklands light rail or DLR, in search of Greenwich and the Prime Meridian!! Got sidetracked on the way and stopped by the painted hall and the chapel that formed part of the Greenwich palace, both designed by Christopher Wren who designed St Paul’s. The paintwork on the walls and ceiling of the hall was truly spectacular and it was a massive venue. The chapel was beautiful too, and having been a navy hospital chapel at one stage it is probably appropriate that it has a large painting of the Shipwreck of St Paul behind the Altar, painted by American artist Benjamin West. By this stage we were very very cold and soggy and so rather than make the half mile hike up to the observatory that would have been closed by the time we got there, we decided to find the spot on the street just down from the park where the Prime meridian passes… a very uneventful spot next to a service station, but none the less there it was … and so we stood, straddling the eastern and western hemispheres. How exciting.

When we got back to tower hill on the light rail it was dinner time and so we had our first experience of Wagamama. Nice food, and warm and hearty on such a cold wet and miserable day! This meant that we were at tower Bridge at 6.45pm and so we raced down to watch the scheduled opening of the bridge so that a large yacht could pass underneath. The bridge was up when we got there and the yacht passed under and then in less than 2 minutes it was closed again.. thanks to the wonder of hydraulics. And we saw it.

Thoroughly soaked we headed back to the hotel and decided to have a swim in the indoor heated pool… nice and relaxing after such a long day.. And now blogging at Costa coffee shop across the road and hoping that the internet comes back up so we can upload this and off to bed. Last night in London!!! Where has the time gone?

PS Unfortunately this blog did not get uploaded at Costa’s so we had to wait until tonight when we are in the Concorde Room at Heathrow airport.. waiting for our flight to Hong Kong. Damned shame that!!

Day 24 - Walking in Windsor, Strolling the Strand

The changing of the guard happens every second day in August at Buckingham Palace, and on the alternate day at Windsor Castle. Today being Tuesday it was at Windsor Castle, and so off we went.
We walked from our hotel towards Paddington station. A quick breakfast at the Scottish restaurant and then onto our train to Slough (pronounced Sl-auww – not Slow or Sloth). The train was travelling fast, or so we thought, until mainline trains started zipping past us – whoosh! At Slough we changed trains to join the branch line that runs into the train station at Windsor built for Queen Victoria so she did not have to walk far.

We arrived a few minutes before admission time, and amused ourselves by watching the bollards go down and up on the entrance road into the castle. The gargoyles on the walls are very amusing. Then in with quick access thanks to our London Pass card. An audio guide is included with the entry fee, and the assistant asked what language we wanted. Liz said Australian. The other assistant said “that’s the one that’s upside down”. He he.

There be squirrels in the grounds of Windsor Castle. And a nice attendant who agreed to take our photo as long as no one else saw him doing it. Hooray! Proof that we were actually on this holiday together. We strolled up to the inner keep, saw the moat garden, and were welcomed by Charlie himself (on the audio guide).

A quick look in the middle keep shop and Chris just had to buy a postcard of Charles and Camilla – not sure why, but we have it. We wanted to be down at the lower keep for the changing of the guard, so we decided to look through St George’s chapel. This is the chapel you see the Queen processing into with the knights of the Order of the Garter. It is true gothic inside. The most recent kings and queens are buried here with marble memorials. By contrast, Henry VIII is interred in the crypt below the aisle in the choir stalls, with a simple inscription on the floor. He shares the burial place with Jane Seymour and Charles I who lost his head.. quite esteemed company.

In the middle of the cloister at the back of the chapel is a statue of St George slaying the dragon. Very apt. On the wall just near the exit is the original entry to the chapel, built some time in the early 1200’s. On the wall they have discovered a small fresco of the face of Henry II, painted in 1239. Amazing

It was now 10:45, so we strolled down to the main gate. Surprisingly, there were few people about. We got a good pozy just in time to see the new guard march in with drums and fifes. Both old and new guards were from the Welsh Guards. You can tell them from other guards because they have two sets of four buttons down their coat fronts and a green and white feather on their big black fluffy hats.

The ceremony takes about 20 minutes, with guards marched to their posts and the band playing a few airs. Being Britain we had a heavy rain shower in the middle of the ceremony and everyone got drowned. The advantage, of course, was that most people went scurrying for cover, giving us an even better view when the rain stopped. Finally the old guard marched out, the new guard marched into the guardhouse and we marched up the hill to the state apartments.

The castle apartments have three main areas – the galleries, the state apartments and the Queen’s private apartments. We started in Queen Mary’s dolls, not made for children but made as a gift for Queen Mary, Elizabeth’s grandmother. It even has a working vacuum cleaner and a strongroom full of miniature crown jewels.

The next gallery contained drawings and photos from the royal collection – Leonardo de Vinci amongst others. There was also a display of photos of the young Elizabeth from about two up to fourteen. The first photo of the royal family after Elizabeth’s father became King was such a poignant statement on that part of post depression history, as it was designed to inspire hope in a country that was really struggling. The final gallery contained a selection of some of the dinner settings – you have to have a lot of plates to feed a royal banquet, but we’ll pass on the fruit bowls with the fetching pineapples as the stand! Money does not guarantee taste you know.

Then it was upstairs to tour the state apartments. Famous rooms, paintings, busts, furniture, suits of armour and weaponry everywhere. We stood in St George’s Hall where the banquets are held – the crests of the knights of the Order of the Garter are on the ceiling. And they get painted white if they have been naughty but left there to remind others to behave. We saw where the fire started – the restoration has been fantastic. The hexagonal space had been a private chapel, but Prince Charles suggested that it be turned into a vestibule connecting the state and private apartments. It now contains a memorial about the fire and those who contained it. There is also displays of gilt-worked items such as the coronation chalice on display here.

The King’s bedroom, built for King Charles II was never slept in by the king, but used by Napoleon III when he visited. The bed is still draped in curtains bearing his colours. The audio guide was very informative.

More stairs to get out (a constant theme) then into the sunshine and wind – could this be Sydney in August? Chris had a lovely royal chocolate ice cream bucket, and then we left the palace and had lunch in an English pub so aptly named the Fox and Hound. Very generous servings.

A bit of shopping then we caught the train back to London. Just over an hour later we were standing in front of St Paul’s Cathedral – Christopher Wren’s masterpiece. Once again our London Pass got us in quickly, to stand in awe. We sat and gazed up at the ceiling and dome, covered in mosaics and richly painted. We could see people walking the whispering gallery which is up just before the dome starts – not for us today (too many steps). There are memorials to Wellington, Nelson, John Donne the poet who was Dean of St Paul’s for over 10 years and other famous persons in the aisles in the body of the cathedral. We also heard the guest choir practicing their parts for tonight’s evening prayer – very moving.

Next we went down into the Crypt. There are more memorials down here, the OBE Chapel that includes modern glass screens containing etchings representing the members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Australia is represented by a kangaroo. Further along in the centre of the crypt are Wellington’s and Nelson’s tombs. There was also a display about the history of the cathedral, including what the view is like from the golden gallery at the very top of the dome. There is also restrooms (thank heavens), and there is also a coffee shop sitting in the middle of the crypt… and we struggle to understand how you can have coffee and party and kids running everywhere in the crypt and yet refuse to allow the taking of photos in a sacred place… go figure?

Another tube ride beckoned and this time we managed the Central line from St Paul’s back to Oxford Circus and then Bakerloo back to the hotel for a quick rest and change into some fancy clobber, because tonight we were off to the theatre. We had tickets to the new Andrew Lloyd Weber musical Love Never Dies which is on at the Adelphi on The Strand. How exciting! Picked up the tickets and then grabbed a bite to eat at Garfunkel’s almost next door to the theatre and then off to the show. Our seats were prefect, right on the centre aisle about half was back in the stalls and there was stacks of leg room and the seats were very comfortable. It is a spectacular musical… quite black in many ways, but the music is vintage Lloyd Weber and the leads were amazing, especially the phantom character. We won’t give away the story… that would not be fair, but when it comes to Oz it is certainly worth a look. We treated ourselves to a copy of the CD as a souvenir of yet another fantastic theatrical experience! Back on the underground and home to blog and bed…

Day 23 - Palaces and Princesses

Today's Monday.. and what did we do last Monday in London.. we made our first tour stop at Hampton Court. But last week we only got to see the gardens so today we hopped on a train at Waterloo and headed out there to do the palace for ourselves. It is a grand affair. We were greeted at the gate by the King's guard, and ushered into the main courtyard. We had just picked up our palace audio guide when the clock struck 11 and two members of the house appeared. The year was 1543 and Henry VIII was going to marry Katherine Parr today. We went on a tour with the master of the King's house and he showed us through the kitchens and up to the banqueting area, apparently auditioning us for jobs in the royal household. It was a real hoot.

At one stage Henry VIII turns up too along with wife to be Katherine. it was so much fun... a lot more fun than an audio headset. After the 1 hour performance we were free to wander the palace. The royal chapel, at which there is a service each Sunday, is very impressive. The king and queen had a gallery where they attended Mass apart from the rest of the household... kind of like going to church in your own personal choir loft! The tapestries that cover the walls are very much like others we have seen in royal houses.. French inspired and very ornate. Then we left the Tudor half of the palace and toured William III extensions, spending some time wandering through Queen Mary's apartments. The palace done, we headed back to Hampton Court station to plot the next part of the day.

As the train passed through Wimbeldon, we decided to alight and to join the District line here as this would take us to High Street Kensington, a walk away from Kensington Palace. It was a bit messy changing trains twice but we got there and then hiked 'til we found the palace in the Kensington gardens. Much of the palace is closed for refurbishing at the moment but the apartments that they have open have been transformed into an interactive fantasy world about the seven princesses who have lived at Kensington Palace. It was a very avaunt gard display which we thoroughly enjoyed. Just so different to the other palaces and castles we have been to. The only disappointment was that the Orangery was closed today due to a private function so we didn't get to see that.

On the way back, Chris suggested that we use our London Pass to take a ride down river on a Thames ferry. As we have done the other rivers in the cities we have stayed in we thought this was a great idea. But when we got to Westminster we took a deviation, firstly wandering by the Houses of Parliament for a good look and then heading over to Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately we were too late to pay for a tour, but we hung around for what turned out to be a fantastic experience. We went to Evensong in the Abbey.

At 4.30 they opened the doors and escorted thos attending Evensong down to the left of the centre altar to a sort of holding pen. We stood here for about 15 minutes where we could literally reach out and touch the tomb of Sir Isaac Newtown and Chalres Darwin was buried just across the way. Total headspin! We were pretty close to the front of the group and so we were seated in the choral area. In fact we sat in the Headmasters Row, immediately below the Canon who led the lessons. We could see the sanctuary where Lizzie II was crowned. Goosebumps! The service lasted for about 45 minute and was accompanied by beautiful organ music and choral singing.It was very prayerful and moving and sitting looking at the High Altar of Westminster Abbey was a once in a lifetime experience. What a great find.

Still undaunted we went down to the river and took our Thames cruise at 6.30 down to the Tower Bridge. This is a terrific way to view the significant landmarks on the Thames: St Paul, Millennium Bridge, Tower Bridge and many others. Grabbing a quick bite of dinner we hopped back on the Circle line this time (yeah it has been down for track work both weekends in London and we haven't been able to ride it). Back at our hotel, very tired feet again, but reflecting on a great day of adventures.