My Current European Trip!

Given that I have been somewhat lazy in the department of catching up from my last trip to Europe, I am trying my best to keep a small though pictureless (at this stage) diary of my trip now.
You can find it at:
http://www.philipnye.com

Feel free to post any comments to the sidebar since they show up on both my blog and homepage!

Flying to Paris

From London, Allison and I took a big orange plane headed for the Charles De Gaulle airport. We found it was cheaper to fly than bus or train it across, and was also the fastest. I believe we booked on easyjet and paid about 15 pounds each... Not bad. Well before we knew it, we were heading through the French Customs which was quite a shock after the American one and even the English. The didn't do anymore than compare our face to our passport, too easy.
Parle Vous Anglais the was the only french we knew when we arrived, and besides a few extra words, is still about the only french I know. Ultimately everywhere we went, English was enough, and contrary to many peoples attitude, the French were polite most of the time about it as well.

There are many more photos , and if your patient, they will come. But It's late and I am tired.

London Part 3

About a week into our stay in the United Kingdom, my great uncle invited Allison and I along to Badminton. Basically its a big Horse race held a fair way West of London. I think it would have been really easy to get there on the bus my uncle had hired if we hadn't gotten lost in the streets around his house and missed the bus by all of a couple of minutes. At that point we had a decision, head into town and see more of downtown london, or brave the public transport system and attempt to get into the middle of the english countryside.

We chose the later and I believe it may have cost us close to 50 quid each as a result, but it was an experience we aren't going to forget in a hurry. A train, a bus and a taxi later, we were there. And although the transport there was thin, there were hundreds of people there in what is basically some rich guys' backyard (Lord Badminton or something, hence the name).

It was also a big excuse for people to bring along there dogs and a chance to push for the relegalisation of the fox hunt. (Below Right is the rich guys house. Left: some of the many dogs.)

Once there after our marathon journey, we watched a fair number of horses race by, (one at a time) probably a little boring and not worth the fortune we spent getting there, but it opened our eyes to some English culture...

Above: My family in England, Right: One of the many horses that came by, jumped a jump and rode on...

Above: My great uncle Ross, looking on, Some roaming horses, the sticker on the horses bum is a sticker "bring back the hunt".

Getting home from there was MUCH easier than going and I believe one of the reasons the trip was so expensive out was that we weren't using the tickets return. I think the ticket on the train was 29 pounds one way or 29.50 return. So you might say we weren't getting the most for our money. We found that to be the case with several of the transport options in London... Crazy Poms. So yeah, I digress, we caught the bus we should have gotten in the morning home and in no time and effort we were back in the small town of London. Whilst tired from our mammoth journey, we took the time to ride on a double decker bus and go to Piccadilly Circus. (Perhaps a let down after Times Square in NY but we were also a little tired and couldn't take it all in.)

That night I think we stayed back at Simons house (Allisons Uncle #1 of 2.) and celebrated another birthday. It was Ruebens 3rd birthday and it was celebrated thanks to Thomas the Tank engine and his other sponsors the Wiggles.

One of the last few things we did was stay a night with my great uncle at his college just south of London. They own a magnificent house that has more rooms than you would imagine and there are just the two of them living there. (Ross and Ruth). This is partially justified by the fact that he has children around in the Summer time for riding camps were they stay for a week or so and ride horses all the time. They also have some permanent tents just outside that they also use for the kids to stay.

The picture on the left is not actually anyone's house in particular, it's just so English I thought i would put it up. Unfortunetly it was overcast (for a change from the English weather, although we were fairly lucky the 10 days we were there), so the colour is a little washed out. The right hand picture is looking up Ross's driveway to the house. The paddock just below the house actually has an old concrete storage building that they used for the storage of ammunition back in the past world wars, and I believe they even had a factory for it somewhere close by as well. There is also a photo below, but they have pillboxes (C & C style) scattered about for the final defence of England if the Germand were to have ever invaded in WWII. Ross's neighbour now uses one as a wood storage shed...

Before it was too dark, Allison and I took a walk up the hill to look over the property. I still can't get over how green the place is, particulary after being back in Australia again. I think i appreciate the rainfall more here now. Anyhow, there are Rabbits everywhere, they actually hire hunters every now and again to cull the population since they make divets in the ground which can cause the horses to break there feet and ankles etc. We say many, in the seemingly empty photo on the right below, the specs that you may or may not be able to see, are ALL rabbits.

One of the many pillboxes, this one was all sealed up except for the gun holes, and they had a fair amount of rubbish thrown into them. Actually on this hill a bit further was a monestary and their bells were ringing a few times a day.

We had to drive to go and visit Ross's horses, they were on another property in order to let their fields lie in fallow (Is that the right word). And to get there attention we fed them 'POLO' mints.

We also saw an old church that was just down the road, I thought I would have a bit of a bible reading behind the fancy eagle bible holder... I also gave Ross a hand digging up some of the weeds in the chook pen which also gave the chickens some worms and the like to peck at. Apparently they have had a couple of fox issues with the chickens and have now got the fence going a fair way under ground to stop them digging under and also have a lip on it to stop them jumping it.

The Nyes always have the token Volvo, this one was Diesel too, although in a bit better condition than Grand John's. Ruth's Vegetable garden was amazing, I think they grow everything in it.

After a long 10 days we were down to the last evening in London, we took the oppurtunity to farewell Allison's extended family. I kept Tomas the long haired hooligan in check and brandan didn't want to sit still long enough for a good photo. As a group we had a final dinner at an Indian place letting Anthony choose the dishes, in retrospect it was a little silly of us, and some of us (mainly me) had some scorched mouths but it was delicious so who was I to complain.



They all enjoyed our company and were sad to see us go...



The next morning, we too an easyjet plane to Paris where we indulged in many of the french delights...

Australian or Canadian Products

There are a couple of products that I saw in Canada that has really made me begin to wonder as to there origin: Quiz: What is the Australian version of these biscuits?

London Part Two!

See Below for London Day 1....

This post contains 57 Photo's, sorry for the delay, I am a great procrastinator!
But this shall hopefully not disappoint!
- I also intend to do several posts this week to get through Europe and maybe stay ahead of Grant's trip back home... (BTW don't think it was your threats hitting home Carnie... I have had the intention of doing these updates now that I am in Sydney for a while!)

Ok, well, we had just arrived in the UK the day before this and seen the some of the more popular sites of London.

May 1st was a special day, it was Allisons 21st! Besides treating ourselves to a sleepin Rueben had a cake for Allison, which he later thought was his since his birthday was coming up rather soon.

Recovering from a long day yesterday and the jetlag of a six hour time jump... We had a quiet day that ended in a trip to Windsor Castle and feeding some Swans on the Thames. Want to know more?

The next day we headed into the city again, with the hope of visiting the Tower of London and seeing some more of Sydney.

We made it in, and took the free tour by a local Beefeater. (Noone knows for sure why they are Beefeaters...) They tell a good story about all the people that have been kept in the tower and who died and where. They also keep the crown jewels in the Tower, which we had the pleasure of seeing, here is a picture of each of us with the guards. The closest we got to any of the stereotypical English Royal Guardsmen.

They were a bit strict about cameras were the Jewels were, so no photos, but imagine LOTS and LOTS of multicoloured gems and gold and shiny stuff everywhere, then triple it, and triple it again, and you are getting close to the number of gems and gold they keep in the vault...

Next we visited the actual tower, kind of the keep for the area.

Nowadays no Royalians, actually live in the tower, they use it as a Mueseum for all the ages that the tower has been used.

By this stage I think we were getting a bit hungry and we decided to move out of the Tower, and onto some greener pastures. So we crossed the Tower bridge to find a bizarre monster. This monster is supposed to be the amount of major appliances a person goes through in their lifetime. From lightbulbs to ovens to Dishwashers rather bizarre really.

After resting on the grass for a period, we made our way along the Thames, past the new London Bridge, (since the old one burnt down in the childhood jingle). Through some back streets to find shakespeare's globe theatre.

It was getting late at this stage and the night could still get a little chilly so we looked into crossing the Thames and finalising our sightseeing. We crossed the river on the Millennium bridge which lead us straight up to St Peters Cathedral.

The train was caught and we went to another of Allisons families away from home, Marie, Keith and Tomas's house. (See how the train has a rounded roof, I couldn't stand up inside the train unless I stood in the very centre of the car, rather useless when you want to lean against the wall and sleep (remember jetlag)).

The following day, we organised to meet up with my great uncle, Ross in town where he has some stables for horses that ride in Hyde Park. Apparently there are only three inner city stables in london now, His, one just nearby and a Royal Horse unit. The rest have been bought out and are now used as inner city houses. Following our visit, where we enjoyed a civil cup of English tea in the house above the Stables, Ross drove us around Hyde park with his dogs, we took a small walk and heard some of the history behind the big park. Later we went on to find the famous Harrods bumping into some other aussies heading in the same direction. I have to say we spent some time in the Food Court where it was pretty fancy! And then spent the rest in the two section. (we were just getting some presents for Allisons family...) THE TOYS THOUGH! OMG I wanted to be a kid again.. with 20,000 pounds to spare... I mean a toy hummer... with a CD player it was that big... (with a detachable face... :P) alternatively a nice convertable? Or some Harry Potter lego?

So that was fun... Next day it was all about the English version of an amusement park... At the end of winter. Fairly quiet and fairly cold.. especially when mixed with water! After getting some 7 of us in a 5 seater Land Rover, we took the drive out to a theme park not far from London Heathrow. Rides I can remember, an entirely inside roller coaster... so that its always in the dark.. (and backwards to come to think of it...) The Tidal wave! The silliest decision we made... Essentially think a log ride, then think tower of terror car sized boat, now think big bulldozer scoop on front of boat. Now think 100m slide into pool of water, now think 200ft wave, onto boat. Now think 10-15 degree day... (and cold water temp too).... Now think no one waiting to ride behind us so we go again.... Stupidity.... One bonus though, for 4 quid, you can get a giant body dryer going just outside the ride...

Then I was roped into a teacup ride, and later we went onto the resident farmyard, where we took a miny train, fed some goats and watched Tomas attempt to chase down and maybe kill some of the local geese, (which we were just waiting to fight back...).

Overall the day was tiring for most and Allison became a nice pillow for the kids in the back... Somehow I got the front seat... Marie was in the back too off to the right of the frame.

And tomorrow, On to the great Badminton of England!!! Think Horses, Dogs and big green grassy meadows!

Now, hopefully you can see why I have been procrastinating, this takes a while!!!
(I have some 450 photos of London alone!)