Europe

Sorry, I am jumping ahead a bit here but we are so busy doing things that I am not getting a chance to download photos and type up blog as well.  Rod pleads ignorance and he has slightly more time than me to do this. So, bear with me please

France & Italy trip 15th April to 1st May.

Destination: Marseille, Nice, Monaco/ Monte Carlo, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Venice, Paris, London.

Marseille 15th & 16th April 2011.

About a 1/4 of Marseilles

We left London at 11.30am in the morning.  The day was warm and clear so we set off with our 3x packed bag and 1 backpack.  We were travelling via a cheap package with Ryanair so any extra bags had to be paid for.  We had an uneventful 2 hour flight after the plane was delayed by 35 minutes due to late arrival from previous flight.  We landed in Marseilles to a dull overcast day with a few spots of rain threatening to get worse.  Where to now? Rod went around talking to staff members until he finally found one who could speak English and off we went in the right direction to catch a bus to Marseilles.  We were about 30 minutes out of Marseilles so first impression of the city was bare rugged stony hills with lots of high buildings.  The housing was all a terracotta colour with tile roofs and plastered walls.  All very square and looking very similar.  Also every window had either wooden shutters or slide down roller door type shutters.  It must get very hot here in the summer time.  Also, most windows have some sort of wrought iron balustrade so the mademoiselles can lean over I guess.  The bus brought us to the Gare du St Charles which is the main train station and we then had to figure out the metro and where it was going.  Once sorted off we went and by more good luck than management we actually disembarked at the right place.  We came up to ground level right outside a information centre and lucky for us Rod spoke to a lady who was fluent in English.  She was most helpful in giving us info and maps and sent us off to find our hotel which was just around the corner.  The Grand Tonic Hotel was set right in Vieux Port overlooking the port and marina.  A beautiful location set in the oldest part of Marseilles.

Our Hotel

Marseilles, Frances second largest city was founded 2600 years ago and is the oldest city in France.  It purports to having 300 days of sunshine per year and has a population of 839,000.  Once we had checked in and dropped our bags into the spacious room, we set off to explore the local area and to get our bearings.  The waterfront was just across the road and the views were spectacular.  There were many boats in the marina, the sun was shining and there were scooters everywhere.  We walked around the port to the entrance where Fort St Jean and Fort Nicholas have stood guard since the 1200’s.   Around the corner in the industrial port there were about 6 or 7 cruise ships and ferries alongside.  There is a lot of construction and scaffolding around as Marseilles is host to the European Cultural Celebration in 2013.  We wandered around until we had found a restaurant where the menu was partially written in English.  We were not very hungry so decided an entrée and dessert was all that we needed.  Lucky!!!  The meals were huge.  Rod had a seafood stirfry which was on a plate about 15inches long and 9 inches wide.  It was absolutely loaded with calamari, mussels, shrimp s and prawns.  I had salmon which was a large meal as well.  We couldn’t manage dessert. Back to our hotel, a spa bath and good night’s sleep.

A tight corner for the buses!!

Inside the church

16^th April: We booked a hop on and off tour bus round the city.  This was a open top double decker and gave a commentary in English.  It was a great way to see the sights and hear the stories behind the different items of interest.  It took us around the coast road and then up into the hills to the Chapel de la Garde.  This chapel is amazing inside and has recently been restored to its original glory.  The mosaic ceilings are just stunning.  The road up to the chapel was very twisty and narrow and we had several very close calls with cars and other buses.  Credit to our driver, he certainly knew where to put his vehicle so that he could get round the corners.  The Port area was preparing for the Marseilles Marathon with over 36,000 runners competing the next day and on our wanders around the town we saw three different groups protesting.  An animal rights protest, a Kurdish protest and another one that we couldn’t make out what their message was.  As evening began to draw nearer, the crowds were getting thicker and thicker.  The wide streets were packed and the sidewalk cafes and bars were full.  We decided to go to the hotel restaurant and  have the local famous dish “Buillobaise” which is kind of like a fish stew/soup thing.  It was terrible and at 21 euros a bowl, we had to eat it.  It was a khaki greeny/brown colour and looked like the sludge that you get from the bottom of a fish tank.   It tasted very gritty.  There were large chunks of fish in the sludge and also about six mussels in their shells.  We were not impressed with it at all.  Again we had a huge serving so back up to our room , another lovely spa bath and to sleep.

Boullibaise

17^th April: Sleep in this morning so down to a quick breakfast as we wanted to catch the boat out to the Isle of If.  This is a small island within view of Marseilles and there was a fort built on there in the 1500’s to protect the port.  In later years it was turned into a prison and has housed mostly political prisoners (protestants) who opposed the King at the time.  It is also the location that Alexander Dumas used to set his fiction novel The Count of Monte Christo.  The fortress is fairly sparse and most of the displays seemed to show the book rather than the history of the fort.  There is another island nearby which had a marina and a few shops.  Lots of people got off there with swimming gear and chilly bins.  Nice beaches are fairly hard to find although it is the Mediterranean coast.  Mostly cliffs and rocky outcrops.  Back to the station and on the train for Nice. 





 

Our Lady of the Guard.  Built on the highest point so that she is able to bless the sailors as they leave the port.
The statue on top stands 11.20m tall and weighs 9796kg on her own.  The bell just below her weighs 8234kg and stands 2.50m.  The clapper in the bell alone weighs 387kg.  The baby jesus wrist measures 1.10m. This all stands on top of a hill which ia 147.85m in altitude.   It was bloody steep!!!

Disneyland in Paris:

Wow, what a great place to spend time.  We excitedly packed our gear and headed for the International station in London to connect with Eurostar train to Paris.  We got to the station in plenty of time and took our pre printed tickets to the gate for the no fuss boarding.  The gate wouldn’t let us through!!! We scanned it again, no luck!.  An attendant came up and offered to help and she looked at the ticket and said this is for yesterday!!!  I looked at Rod in horror!!! What have I done.  She said I needed to go to the ticket office to purchase a new ticket.  We went along to the ticket office and I went up to a nice young man and explained that I was new to this and have never travelled overseas before (You know the story that you give when you’re grovelling!!)  He said wait a minute he would have to see his supervisor.  He then came back and said we would have to get new tickets ad that would be £189 thank you.  Oh no!!  I said oh well I guess I need to check more carefully in future.  He issued the new tickets and then handed them over and said Keep your money to spend on something else.   I couldn’t believe my luck.  I thanked him very and then departed quickly before he could change his mind.

So, onto the train.  What a lovely smooth ride.  We had a carriage with comfy seats and a drop down tray in front.  The 2 hr 25 mins trip took hardly any time at all and the tunnel under the channel was through in no time at all.  French countryside was very similar to the English.   Paddocks are quite large and not a lot of stock to be seen.  We arrived at Paris and promptly got confused .  Rod eventually found a very nice man who could speak english and was in a ticket booth.  He set us on the right path to Disneyland.  The park is amazing and the rides and things to see and do are incredible.  We became kids again, riding on the rides, buying candyfloss, wandering about looking at the wonderful sights.  The parade was on at 5pm and we were lucky enough to get a place where we could see the parade several times.  What a grand, colourful parade it is.  The Disney characters old and new on beautifully designed floats.  The characters that impressed me the most were of course the Winnie the Pooh float and the soldiers from the Toy Story.  They were so like the ones in the film.  Rod and I rode the merry go round from Mary Poppins, The Peter Pan flight to Never never land and even Space Mission 2 (which was hard, fast and flipped us all over the place.  We went on the small world boat ride through all the dolls of the world and also the old steam train round the whole park.  We stayed in a hotel on site and it was a mexican them one.  Breakfast was well supplied and there was a free bus to the park continuosly running. The park was open from 7am till 10pm so there was plenty of time to see it all.  I would add photos but have had a glitch in that I have sent my photos home to Melanie and thought I had copied them but I didn't.  She will send them back to me and I will add them then.

Weekend of 12th & 13th February 2011

This was the weekend before the mid term break so we decided to spend the days fairly quietly at the London Museum of Transport.  This is near convent garden which is where we were the week before.  As we were making our way from the tube station we came across these huge trucks with spotlights and scaffolding all around.  There were crews busy building awnings and the streets were closed to traffic.  We wandered around the corner and discovered that they were preparing for the BAFTA award ceremony the next day.  There was a huge red carpet out and awnings leading up to the Opera House.  What a pity we were a day early.  We carried on to the Museum of London Transport where the huge buildings that were once flower markets house an amazing display of vehicles through the ages and the history of the tube as well.  A fascinating display that was full of information.  Of course, Rod was entranced and so we spent a good part of the day there.#

From there we headed for Harrods where we (well I was anyway!!) were astounded by the displays and the variety of goods available.  Each room is allocated to a particular group of things such as the seafood area, meat area, cheese area and of course chocolate area.  The ceilings and adornments on each room fitted the theme and it was so beautiful.  Being the weekend before Valentines Day, the fine foods area was particularly busy and beautifully decorated with hearts etc.  They even had heart shaped cheese that was coloured red.  We wandered into the meat department and saw some NZ Wagu beef for £       per kilo.  Rod was horrified.  On upstairs to the toy department where they had all sorts of displays and might I add lots of harassed Mums and Dads trying to get their children out without a purchase. Looking around I think the children were winning the battle.  There were separate rooms for boy’s toys, girls toys, babies, soft toys etc.  At each place there were also life size teddies, figures made from Lego and an array of other things to catch the eye.  Funnily enough, I came out of Harrods with a lovely bag of goodies but for some reason they have all gone home to Melanie, Jamee lee and Phillip & Amy.  Rod and I seemed to have missed ourselves out yet again.  We then dragged our weary souls home at the end of another day exploring.  Sunday we were up and off to explore the area and shops in

Oxford St

.    We arrived to absolutely packed streets.  We couldn’t believe how busy it was.  But all the shops were still closed.  Shopping doesn’t start till 12.00 on Sundays.  Boy, I would hate to be on the other side of the doors when they were opened, there were hundreds of people outside every big store.  We wandered down to the end of the road to see the Marble Arch.  This was a gift for Queen Victoria and built by the architect John Nash in 1828 for the front of Buckingham Palace but she didn’t like it so purposely had a carriage made that was too wide for the arch so it had to be moved.  So it was plonked at the bottom of

Oxford St

where the Tyburn gallows used to be. Prisoners were dragged up from Newgate Prison and stood upon a wooden cart. The horses were then whipped and ran away, leaving them to dangle from a noose. An estimated 50,000 people were put to death between 1300 and 1783.

  There is also a horse’s head that apparently weighs 6 tonnes and stands 27 feet high.  It is made of bronze and has been in the park for the last two or three years.  On the other side of the road there are the jellybabies (that’s what I call them anyway).  They are cute coloured figurines and again they have just been put there to refurbish the park.  We also went to another department store that is along similar lines to Harrods and it is called Selfridges.  They have the beautifully ornate front entrance with a revolving door and again being Valentines weekend they had beautiful displays.

Chinese New Year Phantom of the Opera & Convent Garden 5th Feb 2011

This is the Royal Opera House on the other side
of the street from Her Majesty's Theatre.

Her Majesty's Theatre. Home of Phantom since 1986. 
Sold out every performance since then.



The opening scene of Phantom



Looking up from our seats.

The weekend I have been waiting for, for so long. I'm going to Phantom of the Opera in London.  I am so excitied beacuse we bought these tickets in NZ and it is my most favourite show.  We found the theatre very easily and it is in an amazing area of London.  Within a few blocks there are so many theatres, opera houses, china town and the westend.  Her Majesty's Theatre is a small building first opened on 28th April 1897 and was the first theatre ever to have a flat stage.  Previous theatres had a sloped floor.  Also it has two levels of sub-stage machinery to move props and scene changes.  So, if you see the theatre workings in the Phantom, they are very similar to the workings in HMT.  It is a small theatre not even as big as our beautiful Hastings Opera House but designed in a similar style.  The show itself was absolutely amazing.  I was mesmerised from the start to finish.  We had seats about 8 rows from the stage and to get to see the costumes up fairly close was amazing.  They were stunning and the acoustics were incredible.  It was breathtaking when the chandelier comes swinging down to crash on the stage and it swung very close to us.  What an experience!!! Highly recommend to everybody to go to a live show.  Must say though, the shows I have been to in NZ are of equal standard so I can be happy now that I have seen shows in London and they compare to ours in NZ.  Next one to see is the sequel "Love Never Dies".  Also, Michael Crawford is in Wizard of Oz here so need to see that, and there's The Lion King, The Jersey Boys, Billy Elliott and.... and... and... (you get the idea??)

Ripley's Believe it or Not.  This is Jack Sprat

Ripleys

The Royal Opera House.

The famous lights of The West End.

Chinatown

Changing of the Guard - Buckingham Palace 30th Jan 2011

The changing of the guard ceremony is every second day in the winter months and everytime we went into that part of London it was the wrong day.(Figures!!)  Finally we struck it right.  Mind you, so did everybody else.  It's really amazing too how all the tall people manage to make it to the front.  Anyway, we did our best and managed to see snipits between people.  The ceremony is very good too because they come in and split and one group goes one way and the other group goes the other way so you do have two vantage points.  In winter the guards wear grey coats and they all look so young.  It is lovely to watch the march and then listen to the brass band.  Then a 2nd band comes along and they are all playing fyfes which is like a little penny whistle.  Very nice sound.  They are led by a mounted police and it was so funny as the horse did what horses do and the crowd murmered as to what the band would do.  A great cheer came up when he barely altered his step and just missed the pile.  One of the poor band members obviously didn't see it clearly under his big fluffly hat (bearskin cap.  If you want to learn about the different regiments go to http://www.changing-the-guard.com/. They are actually the most elite regiments in the army and they have interesting careers.  When they have finished in active soldiering some of them can become the beefeaters at the Tower of London.  After the ceremony we headed off to see the carriage house but need to go back at the end of March when it will be open to the public.  In there we will see the ceremonial carriages that are used for parades and of course the upcoming Royal wedding on my birthday (29th April)

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That's my hand getting a movie while Rod takes a photo.

London Bridge - Southbank 29th January



One of the many openings
from a narrow alleyway

  The south side of the river Thames is called the Southbank and this is filled with lovely shops and restaurants.  There is a wide pathway and although there was a freezing cold wind, we enjoyed strolling down and finding little alleys and byways that opened up to wonderful areas.  The streets are roughly cobbled and it is difficult to walk along but when you think of the age of the streets and the stories that they hold, it is truly amazing.  This fountain was an amazing contraption and there was no information on it other than it was one of many sculptures sponsored by the City of London.  The city of London is actually quite a small area because the City of Westminster is nearby.  Apparently here if you have a cathedral in your area you can be officially a city.  Well, you can imagine how many cathedrals there are here.  So each area is a small city in it's own right and all together makes up London.  London bridge is a very ordinary grey bridge that doesn't look at all special.  Of course the oricinal London bridge is actually in Arizona (don't ask me why but apparently the Americans wanted it.)  In it's place is a smaller more sturdy bridge that services the area more efficiently.  Surrounding tyhe bridge on the Southbank are the tourist spots where you can be terrified by the dungeons tour and the stories of the past that are not so nice.  Apparently it is where the gallows and the guillotine were kept and when a prisoner was killed his/her head was put on a spike at the gates of London bridge to warn all others to behave as they entered London. 

 

 



The view from London Bridge.



Poor man was a bit nervous but his friends were really enjoying themselves.
Heather, shall we save this activity for if you decide to come over?

London is on the left and the Southbank is on the right.

Pudding Lane 29th January

Pudding Lane is a very small street tucked away in a corner near St Pauls Cathedral.The Monument is a memorial to the damage caused by the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, and built between 1671 and 1677.
It measures 203-feet from top to bottom – the exact distance from its base to Pudding Lane, where the fire broke out. A flaming copper urn sits upon the top, to symbolise the flames. The ruins of the city were 1.8 km².  It consumed 400 streets, 13,200 dwelling-houses, 89 churches, 4 of the city gates and 16 people.  The fire began in the night on 2nd September in the bakehouse of Thomas Farynor who was the baker for King Charles II.
The cost of the fire was £10m, and at a time when London’s annual income was only £12,000. Many people were financially ruined and debtors' prisons became over crowded. 

There were some benefits of the fire. One of these was that the black plague which had killed many people was eliminated by the burning down of diseased, rat-infested properties. The new city was planned by Christopher Wren and rebuilt using stone over the following 30 years.