european holiday....over

  A long flight home, consisting of two hops.   The first leg was the longest, about twelve hours.  By the time we alighted from that plane in Singapore, we all had very sore bottoms, and stiff legs and joints.  We had a very short stopover, less than two hours, and then back onto another plane for the leg home.  We are very impressed with Singapore airlines, except for the hot chilli dish that TRO selected for one of the meals.

 

 

Mark was waiting for us when we came through customs, having food to declare took a whole five minutes longer, there were no concerns with chocolate, wine, pesto and stroopwafels.  Having watched "Border Control" more than once, we were very careful filling in our passenger declaration cards.

 

Aysha's family were very happy to see her home again, and after dropping Mark and her off, we were very happy to hit our home, with its sweet smell of the good old Aussie bush as we got out of the car.

 

Our poor garden is looking a little worse for the heat, despite being watered regularly by our house sitter.  The roses were due for their summer prune, so I have worked hard the last two days doing just that.    There are a couple of green waste loads to go to tip, with all the bark that the trees have dropped, and the garden clippings.

 

I thought I would show you a few of the London Cabs, traditionally of course they are black.   On our first journey in a cab, Aysha and I jumped in the back where there were only two seats, telling TRO to get in the front.  When he tried to do exactly that, he discovered that there was actually no seat in the front at all, so had to get in the back with us, and sit on a small fold down seat.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage

 

 

 

Right up till the late 1950s vehicles licensed as London taxis were required to be provided with an open-access luggage platform in place of the front passenger seat found on other passenger cars (including taxis licensed for use in other British Cities.

 

When I decided to photograph the cabs, the first opportunity that presented itself was this one carrying a huge advertisement for UGG.

 

 

 



 

 

And the traditional Black one...

There are over 20,000 black cabs in London and they  are the most efficient taxi service in the world with every driver required to undergo serious training and test to master the London roads.

London taxi drivers go through stringent training to obtain their licence, they need to pass “The Knowledge”, a test which is amongst the hardest to pass in the world, it has been described as like having an atlas of London implanted into your brain. No two days are ever the same for London cabbies, they just never know who is going to be climbing into the back of their cabs.

 Taxi drivers meet people from all walks of life, the rich and famous, arguing couples and tourists who always have a question or two that they would like answering. Add this factor to the amount you can earn as a London taxi driver and it is a career many feel is well worth the effort.

An effort that requires you to memorise every possible route through the city as well as memorising landmarks and points of interest, museums, parks, police stations, churches, theatres and schools and not just the famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace and Nelsons Column. The hardest of all taxi driver tests in the world is how many have described “The London Knowledge” a reputation which very few would argue with.

It takes the average person between 2 and 4 years to learn the knowledge, a lot however depends on how much time and effort they are willing to dedicate in learning it.

 

This is the one that took us to Liverpool St Station, the driver was very friendly and chatty.

 

 

 

We look forward to visiting London again, and using the cabs.

European holiday...our last day

Our very last day, and a lazy sleep in for all of us. Lily had a horse riding lesson, so she and Liz went off to that. TRO and Liz went to Leiden a little later, and I simply sat around reading, blogging, and finishing the knitted bear I had started for Lily. With much difficulty, I finally finished it, and she named it GBJ...grey bear junior.

Here he is with his cousin, BBJ...brown bear junior. I knitted that one for Aysha about five years ago, and he goes almost everywhere with her.




Close to dinner time, TRO opened the genuine French champagne that he had bought in Versailles. It was absolutely awful, so it finished up down the sink.




We went out for dinner to a nice Italian restaurant near the Winkelhof, where the two chefs were Italian and Egyptian. The food was delicious, and JJ and Aysha wizzed off to the Winkelhof and bought some ice cream for us to have for dessert at home.







This ice cream has waffles and syrup through it, it was extremely tasty.




I set up the camera and took some family pics, which I can't put here as JJ does not want to be on the internet :)

Case packing tonight, and early tomorrow it will be farewell to the Netherlands once again, and the long trek home to the heat and bush fires.

Location:Leiderdorp,The Netherlands

European holiday...farewell Paris....hello Leiden

We had breakfast in the hotel dining room before packing our cases, and setting forth for the Gare de Nord station, arriving almost an hour before our train to Amsterdam was due to leave. We had checked out the platform and the procedure for boarding the train the day before, so we were confident we could manage it with ease.









There were some tree fellers at work across from the station, providing some entertainment, many people were photographing the work.
They were doing a great job, and we had to scurry past the roped off area where they were dropping the branches.

Whilst we waited for our train, Aysha and I checked out the shops one more time, and she purchased a new carry on case to pack her excess luggage in. Hopefully, we can manage with the cases we brought with us. I am always mindful when buying things that they need to be carried home, and I travel as lightly as possible to begin with. With hindsight, always a wonderful thing, we would have brought our carry on case, and packed the backpack in it to begin with. Next time we travel, that will be the order of the day.

Boarding the train involved a ten minute walk, as our train was last on the platform. Along with everyone else, we were pulling our luggage along. Once we found the right carriage and hoisted the luggage on board, TRO stowed it away in the right area. We found our seats, which unfortunately for TRO, were not forward facing, and settled in for the journey.

After about twenty minutes, a number of casually dressed men and women, some of who were wearing armbands saying "douane" approached two ladies sitting diagonally opposite us, demanding to see their passports and tickets. After a few minutes they took them to the end of the carriage, and it was ten minutes before they returned to their seats. We have no idea what that was all about, but were preparing to show our passports if required.

The remainder of our journey was pleasant and uneventful. Aysha and I had some lunch from the buffet car , TRO found himself a forward facing seat once some folks had left the train at Brussels, and before we knew it, the train was pulling into Amsterdam, and we found our way to the station for Leiden.
Liz picked us up, and we enjoyed pizza for dinner, feeling quite at home again.

The bunny has grown, and become quite friendly with the Matilda the bird. They even share their food and water. There may be a very confused bird there !

Location:Leiderdorp,The Netherlands

European holiday...farewell Paris....hello Leiden

We had breakfast in the hotel dining room before packing our cases, and setting forth for the Gare de Nord station, arriving almost an hour before our train to Amsterdam was due to leave. We had checked out the platform and the procedure for boarding the train the day before, so we were confident we could manage it with ease.









There were some tree fellers at work across from the station, providing some entertainment, many people were photographing the work.

Whilst we waited for our train, Aysha and I checked out the shops one more time, and she purchased a new carry on case to pack her excess luggage in. Hopefully, we can manage with the cases we brought with us. I am always mindful when buying things that they need to be carried home, and I travel as lightly as possible to begin with. With hindsight, always a wonderful thing, we would have brought our carry on case, and packed the backpack in it to begin with. Next time we travel, that will be the order of the day.

Boarding the train involved a ten minute walk, as our train was last on the platform. Along with everyone else, we were pulling our luggage along. Once we found the right carriage and hoisted the luggage on board, TRO stowed it away in the right area. We found our seats, which unfortunately for TRO, were not forward facing, and settled in for the journey.

After about twenty minutes, a number of casually dressed men and women, some of who were wearing armbands saying "douane" approached two ladies sitting diagonally opposite us, demanding to see their passports and tickets. After a few minutes they took them to the end of the carriage, and it was ten minutes before they returned to their seats. We have no idea what that was all about, but were preparing to show our passports if required.

The remainder of our journey was pleasant and uneventful. Aysha and I had some lunch from the buffet car , TRO found himself a forward facing seat once some folks had left the train at Brussels, and before we knew it, the train was pulling into Amsterdam, and we found our way to the station for the Leiden train.
Liz picked us up, and we enjoyed pizza for dinner, feeling quite at home again.

The bunny has grown, and become quite friendly with the Matilda the bird. They even share their food and water.




- Posted from another day in Paradise

Location:Leiderdorp,The Netherlands

European holiday.....Versailles

A trip to Versailles, with a more leisurely start after breakfast at our hotel.
I was the one assigned to buy our rail tickets, and I did a great job, forgetting to mention that I wanted return tickets!
With help from a friendly Frenchman, we found our way through the maze of the underground station to the right platform for the train going to Versailles.
The underground here is Paris is very sad and dirty looking compared to the London Tube. The trains seem to be in a much older condition as well, and the platforms are a bit grubby.





We missed a train by moments, and had to wait 15 minutes for another. We seems to be spending a bit of time waiting, and searching for toilets, most of which have be paid for, the most expensive we have encountered has been 30p, which is about 65c. Places like Starbucks will give you pass codes for the toilets when you purchase something.

We had to change trains for Versailles, and managed that quite well on our own. We had to find a different line, and a different platform at the Notre Dame station. To find the new line and platform, you have to negotiate following arrows pointing to your line, and either going up or down escalators.
It was a little easier in London, where we could at least understand the language.





It was then a comfortable ride to our destination. We went to see the palace of Versailles, but of course, then we had no idea where the palace was, so needed to ask someone.





The Palace of Versailles is the central part of a complex that housed the French government, most notably its royalty, during the reigns of Louis XIV (France’s famed “Sun King”), Louis XV and Louis XVI. After the French Revolution in 1789, it ceased to be a permanent royal residence.







The very famous hall of Mirrors, which was essentially a corridor. The second photo I nicked off a web site, but you can see TRO there in the first one.




A very beautiful marble staircase within the palace . The palace is magnificent, and the gardens equally so, although we did not walk all of the gardens. I suspect like most places we have been you would need a couple of days to do the whole complex justice.

It's interesting to learn that all the royalty in those times, Dutch, English and French , all held audiences in their bedrooms. Mind you their bedrooms were around a small house size.

Finding our way back to the station was simply as was buying our tickets to return to Paris.

Once we had returned to Gare de Nord station, and found our way out of the subterranean city that it seems to be, we happened upon a boulangerie, and treated ourselves to some cakes to be enjoyed with a cup of tea.




At about five o'clock, we decided to walk down to the Moulin Rouge, rather than take the train. Google maps told us it was a twenty four minute walk, and we set off in daylight and fine weather. There were lots of souvenir shops along the way, so a little more shopping was accomplished. Once we got to Moulin Rouge it started raining, although not for long. We took lots of photos, and then phoned Matt, who came to meet us. He led us to a very nice restaurant, where we enjoyed our last evening in Paris with delicious food, and the good company of Matt and Andrea, who joined us a little later.

A quick taxi ride back to Boulevard de Magenta, we had walked enough for one day.

Location:Boulevard de Magenta,Paris,France

European holiday....Paris bus day 2

A little sleep in this morning saw us setting off a little later than we had planned for our day two bus tour. When we arrived at our stop, we discovered a Lindt chocolate store. It did not take long for us to decide to stop in later for a hot chocolate!




Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe again, so we alighted the bus, and went for a short walk down the Champs Elysse. Sadly, it was raining this morning, and very grey. The rain was not heavy, more like a constant drizzle, but enough to wet us. We had brought our umbrellas just in case, so were well prepared. One of the places we passed was the Lido, where apparently many of the rich and famous have visited to see the show. Liz would describe it as a "titty" show, and seeing some of the pics I would agree with her.




We were so glad we had visited the Eiffel Tower the day before, as our first view of it was shrouded in mist. We did not see the top clearly today at all, and I imagine that those visiting the second level may not have got such a good view of Paris that we had the day before.




We stayed on our bus until it reached the stop for the Louvre, and stepped off to more rain. Our plan was to have a lemon tart here, and do a quick, well, very quick tour, mainly to see the Mona Lisa. Alas, there was a queue to enter. It moved quickly though, but once through security, and into the foyer, we realized there were more queues to actually buy the tickets. As we were really on the hunt for lemon tart, which Liz had told us were the best anywhere, we went ahead and found some, eating some lunch as well.
This is the famous entrance to the Louvre, and where we queued in the rain for entry.



After lunch, we decided it was not worth another queue to enter the museum itself, so we made our way back to the bus stop for the bus through to the Notre Dame stop.
This very beautiful cathedral actually costs nothing to see, so we did a walk through.



TRO and myself were very keen to see the rose stained glass windows, as we had seen the second biggest one in the world in the another cathedral that I can't recall the name of.



There are actually three in the Notre Dame, one smaller than the other two. The larger are 13 meters in diameter and are numbered among the masterpieces of Christian art.

With the rain still falling we were keen to get back to the Lindt shop, where we enjoyed coffee, hot chocolate, and free samples. Of course, we needed to spend a few Euro as well!

TRO and myself had a quick walk around the Opera, a most magnificent building that is now used only for the ballet. We actually left Aysha in the Lindt shop on her own, trusting her not to buy the shop outright.





Again, a walk back to our hotel, amidst very heavy traffic. There are lots of zebra crossings, some of which have traffic lights on them, and there are of course, the normal crossings at the traffic lights. The general rule of thumb seems to be to ignore any light and cross if you dare. We need to watch out for bicycles, motor bikes, buses and cars, who also ignore the lights if they are able. There seems to always be a police or ambulance wailing as well, either close by, or in the distance.

We found a nice Turkish restaurant close to our hotel for dinner, where TRO enjoyed kofta, and Aysha and myself lentil soup, followed by the inevitable baklava!
Delicious!

Location:Boulevard de Magenta,Paris,France

European holiday....Paris

Setting off nice and early, croissants and drinks for breakfast in a little cafe on the way to the "Les cars rouges" bus stop for our hop on, hop off tour of the city. All was going well, until we took a wrong turn and walked for ten minutes before we had to retrace our steps to the right place.

The bus tour takes you around the city to most of the tourist attractions, the first one for us being the Arc de Triomphe. Our plan was to travel the complete route in the bus, and then decide what to return to. As the bus stops at several stops for around five minutes, it enables you to have time to jump out, take a few pics, and jump back on again.




As soon as the top deck seats in the covered section of the bus were vacated, we scurried up there, and hogged the front seats. It was freezing!! We were already cold from sitting in the bottom of the bus, but at least there was some heat down there. We rugged ourselves up as much as possible and battened down for a cold ride.




The upside of the cold ride was that we could see things well in advance and get some good pics. Paris is full of wonderful buildings, and loads of sculptures everywhere.




By the time the bus got around to Notre Dame, we were so cold, and starting to get hungry, that we decided to depart the tour and find some lunch. We had a delicious meal in a nice restaurant, I finished with a hot chocolate, which came served like this .....chocolate swished around the sides of the cup, and the hot milk served separately.



After lunch, and after consulting our map, and our pleasant waiter, we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. Although it was cold the sun was out, and we were assured it was twenty minutes walk. We were able to walk on the promenade next to the Seine, free from traffic and crowds for half the distance, which actually turned out to be an hours walk, not twenty minutes. Talk about a bum steer, we would never have undertaken that walk!

However, seeing the tower was fairly simple, just a short queue to buy a ticket, and take the lift to the second level, where the most amazing views of Paris were to be seen. The tower is a mammoth structure, and after seeing it so much on the television and movies, it was wonderful to actually see it "in the flesh".
It is 320 meters high, or 1052 feet, containing 2 and 1/2 million rivets.
There is an average of 6 million visitors a year to the tower.
Aysha walked down the steps from the second level whilst we waited for the lift, and she reached the bottom first.

Aysha and I had a ride on a carousel, and we did a little souvenir shopping as well, before picking up our bus tour again. Paris put on a sunset for us, which was just lovely. From the bus I managed to picture the tower in the sunset.




Once our big red bus had deposited us next to the Paris Opera, we had a twenty minute walk back to our hotel. We were all exhausted when we finally arrived back, I think we had walked about ten miles today.

Location:Boulevard de Magenta,Paris,France

European holiday..goodbye Frinton, hello Paris

Another exciting adventure today, made all the more "exciting" by the fact that I left my backpack containing our travel documents in Mama's car. Of course, I only discovered this once our train had pulled out from the station on its one and half hour journey to London !

Looking down the barrel of missing our Paris connection, happily we were able to phone her. She raced to Witham so we could get off the train there, collect the backpack, and catch the next train to London.

A taxi took us from Liverpool St. Station to the international Station, St. Pancras, and after a croissant for lunch, and one last meander around London shops, we checked in and boarded the Eurostar train for Paris. This journey was very uneventful, the train was full though. The tunnel under the English Channel takes twenty minutes to cross.

On arrival at Gare du Nord, we found our way to our hotel, dragging our suitcases behind us!

This is the view from our window, with double window glazing there is no traffic noise though.



We went exploring, and managed to buy some strepsils for my still sore throat with no problems, and then found a restaurant for dinner. Back for a night of snoring and coughing according to Aysha, who is sharing a room with us at this hotel.

European holiday...leaving London

We are off to Witham, where Aysha's great grandparents live, and Barbara will meet us there, and take us back to her home in Frinton-on-sea.

After ascertaining that Harrods does not open until 10 am, meaning we do not have time to go there , we have decided to go back to Garfunkels for breakfast, and have a last wander along Oxford Street.
Oxford Street before 9 am in the morning is almost completely traffic free, it's quite amazing. All we see are the buses, and not too many of them either. It's really rather pleasant walking along the street without having to elbow your way through a crowd!





After breakfast, eggs florentine for the oldies, and pancakes, bacon and maple syrup for the youngie, we walked back to the Leonard and checked out. The doorman hailed a black cab for us, which wasn't black, and we were off to Liverpool Street station. Our cabbie told us he could take us right onto the platform, so that sounded as if it would be very easy for us. We had originally decided to take the underground to the station , but the thought of hoisting my case up and down flights of stairs and escalators was just too daunting for me, so we opted for a cab.
We envisaged being driven right next to the train, but it was not quite like that. The taxi rank next to the platform was closed because buses were parked there, so we had a short walk to the ticket office. No problems buying our tickets, no concessions for any of us though. The cost of rail travel is outrageous here, only tempered by the fact that it is so good ! Three tickets to travel 45 minutes on the train cost £40, equivalent to $80.
Last evening it cost £15 for one short tube ride each!

Mama picked us up at Witham Station, and we went to a lovely lunch at her parents retirement care house. It was lovely to see them again, and for the first time, meet some of Aysha's extended family.




Witham is a lovely little village, where Edna and Wallace are living very happily, close to a couple of their children.





A forty minute drive took us to Frinton-on-sea, where Mama lives in a most delightful 60's built block of flats. She has the end flat, which is very spacious, and we are accommodated in separate bedrooms.

After a great nights sleep, and a yummy breakfast, we were off to St Mary's Anglican Church for the contemporary service, which we very much enjoyed.
We were made feel most welcome at the coffee time afterwards.







The church was built in 1929, to replace the small one that the congregation had outgrown. It's quite a different building technique called flint stone, and very attractive.

After church we took a very brisk walk along the sea front, the wind was freezing, but the sun was out.









There were many dogs on the beach, along with their owners, and we even saw a horse. Lots of people were out walking, despite the bitingly cold wind.

This little village is delightful, I could easily live here. If it were on the coast of Australia, the developers would have high rise buildings all along the sea front. As it it, there is only one taller building than the one we are in, it is twelve stories high. Admittedly, the North Sea is somewhat colder than our sea, but it's still lovely here.

We had a leisurely lunch, and by the time we had finished, the clouds had rolled in, the sun had disappeared, and the weather was looking quite grey. A relaxing afternoon was called for, so we simply sat around reading, and sharing our photos with each other.

Aysha helped prepare the dinner, roast chicken, with pavlova for dessert.

We will be sorry to leave tomorrow, but we must press on to GAY PAREE!!!!

Location:Esplanade,Frinton-On-Sea,United Kingdom