neelyd's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member neelyd on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/neelyd en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:48:29 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com Munich — Munich, Germany http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190972460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190972460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190972460/tpod.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:48:29 -0400 London
Munich, Germany

Three nights in Munich - and this is our favourite place so far.

Where we stayed is a little town an hour by train from Munich and really lovely. The food is good, the shopping is cheap (as cheap as Europe can be), easy to get around, nice countryside, clean - great all around.

We went off to Oktoberfest yesterday. Got there early on Chris' advice, and good advice it was. By the time we left there were masses of people everywhere. Some of the beer halls you couldn't get a seat anywhere. Billy had a few steins - don't worry! I had a sip - that was my contibution. Lucy loved walking around dancing to the music!

We did siteseeing of the city the day before, but as with Paris, unfortunately the weather has been wet!

We are about to get the train to Lucerne, where we are for a couple of nights, then on to Italy.

Billy, Debbie and Lucy
xxx
]]> Paris — Paris, France http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190972160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190972160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190972160/tpod.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:41:23 -0400 London
Paris, France

We spent a flying visit to Paris. Only 2 nights. Probably our least favourite place so far. Not very clean, beggars everywhere - this may be a taste of what we might encounter in Rome.

Our hotel was perfectly located very close to the Louvre. It was a Sunday when we were arrived so not much was happening in the rest of the city, but the weather was great and there were plenty on people in the gardens of the Louvre. We wandered there for the afternoon and got a sneak peek into some of the sights.

We toured the rest of the main sites the next day, but the weather was terrible - lots of rain. So we really just looked - can say we've been there and done that. Got some good pics of Lucy at the Eiffel Tower.

Next day off to Munich.
]]> Ireland — Dublin, Ireland http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190971860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190971860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190971860/tpod.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:36:44 -0400 London
Dublin, Ireland

Hello

Well we spent a week in Ireland. Hired a car and went about at our leisure.

We went into Dublin and looked around, also went to the Guiness Storehouse and I even tasted the Guiness, in no hurry to do it again.

We drove to Cork and visited Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone. Lucy was actually a little worries by it all. The stone spiral staircase you have to climb up is very narrow and steep. I left Billy to look in the rooms of the castle while I climbed quickly to the top, since I had Lucy on my back.

Beautiful countryside in Ireland, just like all the pictures you see.

We were going to drive North the next day, but Lucy had a cold, plus we slept in. It was good to have a day not doing too much.

When we left Ireland we had 2 more nights in London. Had a fantastic dinner at the Horseshoe in Hampstead, really delicious food. Also visited Petticoat Lane markets.

Then off to Paris.
]]> London cont... — London, United Kingdom http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190102760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190102760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1190102760/tpod.html Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:54:13 -0400 London
London, United Kingdom

...the part I forgot to add last time was that when we arrived at the luggage collection at Heathrow, our luggage wasn't there!!! Awesome!!! Turns out that because of the extremely quick stop over in Bangkok, our luggage was still there, and wasn't to arrive in London till 6.30pm that night - it was 9am. So after almost 24 hours on a plane we were gross and desperate for a shower and change of clothes, and really had very little. Our luggage was delivered to Amy's at about 11pm that night.

So Thursday we did a day trip to Windsor, Stonehenge and Oxford. We took the trip to see Stonehenge, and while it was very good, Windsor and Oxford were the better parts of the day.

Windsor it a cute little town, dominated by Windsor Castle. We did the tour of the castle, it was a really amazing place.

Stonehenge was less than you expect it to be. Not nearly as big as you might imagine either. Still, we can say we've been there now...

Oxford was beautiful. It's a really lovely place. We were guided around, shown the different colleges of Oxford University. Plus Harry Potter's school! At the end we got Lucy an Oxford University t-shirt - high hopes!! Hahahahaha!

Friday we spent another day around London. Looked at a couple of things we didn't see on Wednesday. It still feels weird that we are on the other side of the world.

Saturday Amy and Chris took us to Richmond - a suburb of London. Took about half hour on the train to get there. Once again a really beautiful place on the Thames River. The different thing here is that everyone drinks outside the pubs etc. Doesn't matter if it's not the premises - obviously they are very well behaved people here!

Sunday we looked at St Paul's Cathedral - where Charles and Di were married. Absolutely stunning. We went in and a service was in place (thankfully Lucy was asleep). Then we went and had a look at the Spitalfields Markets.

So Monday morning we were up at 4am so we could get the shuttle to the airport for our flight to Dublin. Arrived safely. Picked up our hire car and started following the directions to the hotel. Well I think they couldn't have been more wrong. Not that it worried us. We did "find" a gorgeous little town that really epitomised our image of Ireland.

We are heading into Dublin today, so will let you know of our Irish travels next time.

Miss you all

Billy, Debbie & Lucy
]]> Arrival — London, United Kingdom http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1189611480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1189611480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/neelyd/2007/1189611480/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:47:37 -0400 London
London, United Kingdom

So we have arrived and all in one piece.

To start with our flight from Sydney was delayed 2 hours - good start. We only had an hour stop over in Bangkok, so that was a worry.

This flight was 9.5 hours long and Lucy wasn't the best passenger. They had booked out the seat between Billy and I so Lucy could have the seat, but by the time we left they had booked the flight up, adding passengers from another flight. So we had the whole flight trying to wrestle Lucy to sleep and passing her back and forward. Lucy did make a friend though - a little girl sitting behind us from Israel. Awesome little girl, pulled Lucy over the seat to play with her and took her for walks around the plane!

Arriving in Bangkok we were greeted by a lady holding a sign with our names on it - we then sprinted all the way to the gate (which wasn't close) to board the flight to Frankfurt.

Lucy was awesome on this flight plus they had given us seats to enable the use of the bassinet which was great. Allowed us all to sleep.

So from Frankfurt to London, and greeted by Amy at the station.

Amy kept us occupied for the day to keep us all from falling asleep. We got some lunch and headed to a beautiful park where Lucy could run and run and run. She actually made some friends - a school class had come down to play some sport so she went and visited them, even giving one of the little girls a hug!

Lucy fell asleep at about 5pm and despite trying to wake her for dinner she slept all the way through till 6am this morning - brilliant!

So today we are just doing the tourist thing around London. Tomorrow off to Stonehenge. Plenty of walking to be done - and this is only day 1!

Until next time....

Billy, Debbie & Lucy xxx
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