TravelStream™ news feed for member winston on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/winston en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:58:12 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204329600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204329600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204329600/tpod.html Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:58:12 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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Melbourne, Australia

The flight home to Melbourne was a long one. Just on 14 hours. I hit the jackpot as far as seating allocations go - I ended up being one of the few people in economy class who had a spare seat next to them. About 40 minutes in to the trip I was asked if I would be willing to give up my two seats to allow a mother travelling with her young child to take my seats and in return I could have her aisle bulkhead seat in the first row after business class. In my book bulkhead seat trumps two seats in normal row so I was happy to trade in the extra side room for extra leg room. The cabin staff were grateful for my generosity, the other people they had tried would not give up their seats, and took pains to ensure I was happy throughout the rest of the flight. Other than that the flight was uneventful but interminable. I watched a couple of movies, worked on some Sudoku puzzles, slept fitfully but mostly read 'Jumper' by Steven Gould. A Movie based on the book is showing in cinemas at the moment, we had seen posters for the Movie right throughout Europe, so I was interested in reading the book and had picked it up at Waterstones in London. It was a good read, showed its age through repeated references to Pan Am Airlines (first published in 1992), had an interesting but not particularly complex plot and made a perfect diversion for a 14 hour plane journey. We touched down in Melbourne at 7:15am about 30-40 minutes late. We had left Dubai pretty much on time so I guess we had some string headwinds to contend wih on our journey East. My location just aft of Business Class enabled me to be the first of the economy passengers out of the aircraft. I was quickly though customs although did get stopped for a quick quiz by a Custom's Officer once I was through the first passport control - Belle attributes this to my funny hat! After customs I ignored the duty free goods and went to collect my luggage. I had a bit of a wait before it appeared and I had to keep reminding myself that I was looking for a red bag as Belle and I Had swiched bags for the trip home as the blue suitcase i had been using was larger and therefore better able to cope with the 30kg of stuff that we crammed in to it. After that it was through quarrantine where they x-rayed my bag and then sent me on my way. Belle met me outside, we brakfasted and the headed home. After a short rest and a much needed shower we headed out and managed to replace or set in train the replacement of, most of the cards that were pinched from my person in Spain.I promised a big revelation in the last blog and here it comes. Belle and I have been concealing from the majority of you that in early August we are expecting the arrival of our firstborn. Belle will be 17 weeks pregnant on Monday and so far evrtything has been proceeding as expected. I have included a fuzzy grey image in which, if you screw your eyes up enough, you can just make out a tiny human form.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204208340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204208340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204208340/tpod.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:22:39 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Well here I am, first leg of my flight over. After about 7 hours I am at the gate at Dubai Airport waiting to board the flight to Melbourne - the long one: 13 hours and 25 minutes. The main reason for this entry - I wanted another map pin location on my Google Maps Trip Map.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204163400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204163400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204163400/tpod.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:51:45 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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London, United Kingdom

We got up just before 7:00am to get ready and have breakfast before we finally closed our bags and headed off to the airport. I left my bag in the luggage room at the hostel and we set out for Heathrow via Tube Train with Belles bags. When we got to the platform at the Piccadilly Station there were many other peak-time travellers vying with us for space on the train. We opted to avoid the first, packed to the rafters, train and got on the next Heathrow Train which pulled up at the platform a few minutes latter. The ride to the airport is about 45 minutes. We had to change trains at one point as the train we were on only went to the Terminals 1,2 and 3 stop, not the Terminal 4 stop, which Belle needed. We did not have to wait long for another train and were soon at Terminal 4. We found the right gate for Belle to check-in at and then I hopped back on a train to the city and made my way back to the British Museum. I arrived at the British Museum at about 11:00am and unfortunately they had sold out of tickets for the Terracotta Soldier exhibition. Disappointed, I wander back to Piccadilly Circus, browsing a couple of shops that attracted my attention as I went by - secondhand books and pop culture items. I eventually found myself a coffee shop at which I had access to a powerpoint and settled in to catch up on the blog and charge my laptop for the trip home. I grabbed some lunch and the headed off to the Tate Britain looking for the woman in the boat who looked to long at Lancelot. I arrived at the Tate and was wandering the galleries enjoying the Tudor portraiture and other artworks. It was good to see some British artwork - the only British artwork we had seen in Europe was a single, small gallery room in the Louvre. I was still scanning the walls in search of the Lady of Shallot when an announcement came over the loudspeaker system stating, in a very calm female voice with a British accent, that a fire had be detected in the building and could we please leave immediately. Turns out it was an actual fire, only small and rapidly controlled but we were all banished from the gallery for about half an hour. I was in need of a comfort stop so headed to the local watering hole for some relief and a pint of bitter. I headed back to the gallery and finally located Waterhouse's wonderful canvas. This one was much bigger than I was expecting and is so much more detailed than I had ever appreciated before. It might be free to get in to the Tate but they do not allow photography of the artwork which was a bit disappointing. On my way out I stopped in at the gift shop and picked up a book on the artworks in the Tate Britain and also a large print of The Lady of Shallot.I headed back to the hostel to collect my suitcase just before 5:00pm and then headed off to the airport. I caught the same train line as we had used this morning and got off at the Terminal 1,2 and 3 station as my aircraft departs from Terminal 3. I checked-in, had some dinner at TGI-Fridays and then found a quiet place to sit and write this final blog from Europe. I plan to add a short update from Dubai and then there will be one final installment once I am back home - stay tuned for an important announcement.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204083000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204083000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1204083000/tpod.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:50:42 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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London, United Kingdom

Our final full day in London and the final full day of our trip. In some ways it is sad but we are both looking forward to heading home and the peace and quite of the couch. One of the things we have both really missed while on the road is having somewhere you can just sit and relax. Although there has usually been some sort of lounge room at all the hostels we have been in, there is nearly always someone else there and it is not your own space. In Madrid and London we have also been sharing a room with people and, while our roommates in London have been very quiet, nothing beats having your own space, free of interlopers. After breakfasting on the last of the Bagels, we headed off to the British Museum. We spent the morning at the British Museum visiting most of the collection that is open to the public. The collection of Egyptian Antiquities probably surpasses that in the Louvre, the Louvre might have more sarcophagi but those in the the British Museum are more impressive. I got up close and personal with the Rosetta Stone, stood next to the real Assyrian Winged Lions, checked out the Lewis Chess Set, turns out the giant chess set from the first Harry Potter Movie is modelled on the pieces from the Lewis Chess Set, and enjoyed yet more classical Greek (Elgin Marbles) and Roman marble. We did come across an Australian $10 bill in the special exhibition on money. The Terracotta soldiers from CHine are on exhibition at the British Museum at the moment. We couldn't get tickets at a convenient time for today but I will try and head back tomorrow to visit them. After the Museum it was off to lunch. Not just any lunch but a very special lunch that we have been looking forward to for the entire trip - Petrus at the Berkley. The Executive Chef of the restaurant is Marcus Waring, Belle's favourite chef from the two series of 'The Great British Menu'. If you have not come across this show, top chefs from Britain compete against each other for the honour of cooking a course of a special banquet - in the first series they were competing to cook at the Queen's Birthday Dinner, in the second series they were competing to cook at the English Abadassador's Dinner at the French Embassy. Marcus Waring has 2 Michelin Stars and the food was spectacular. When we sat at the table we were immediately offered two pre-entrees: foie gras (sp?) and a salmon mousse, after ordering our entrees and mains from the menu we were then presented with unasked for pumpkin soup topped with parmesan foam in a small glass and were instructed that we should 'sip it like an espresso'. The soup was excellent and our entrees soon followed. I had the veal and Belle had the quail breast. Next came the mains, venison for me, Cumbrian Lamb for Belle, I accompanied my venison with an excellent Italian Red. After the mains were polished off and cleared away, we were offered an additional cheese course, which I indulged in. The cheese board had 20 to 30 different cheese on it, all arranged into five groups - goat/sheep milk cheeses, hard cheeses, creamy cheeses (think brie), blue cheeses, and strong cheeses. I was offered and accepted a sampling of one cheese from each of the five groups. The majority of the cheeses were French and the five I sampled were excellent and perfectly aged. After the cheese, which was accompanied by a 'small' glass of Port, not sure what the wine waiter would class as a 'large' glass of Port, we selected our deserts. Before our desserts came out a pre-dessert arrived: caramel mouse overlaid with a crumble and topped with apple foam. Dessert arrived - I had selected the Chocolate-Orange - a chocolate gateau accompanied by a ball of marmalade ice-cream that had been dipped in chocolate and topped with a small amount of gold leaf. Belle's selection was the Lemon Creme - brioche chips layered with lemon creme and candied lemon peel accompanied by vanilla ice-cream and caramel popcorn, topped with caramel sauce. We capped off our lunch with tea and then the bob-bon trolley was wheeled to our table and we had a final indulgence in some truly excellent chocolate truffles. The Maitre'd was known to us, if any of you have seen Gordon Ramsey on Hell's Kitchen USA, you will have noticed the French Maitre'd he uses in the show, well that Maitre'd is currently working at Petrus (Gordon Ramsey is somehow involved with Petrus even thought Marcus is Executive Chef). Belle noticed the Maitre'd give another patron a bag with something in it and quizzed him as to the bag's content. Turns out it contained a menu signed by Marcus and Belle very quickly agreed when asked if she would like one too. We finally waddled out of Petru at 4:30pm, two-and a half hours after first taking our seats. Lunch was easily the most expensive meal either of us have ever partaken but we are not in London very often and we throughly enjoyed it plus, Belle got a signed menu!We caught a bus back to Oxford street for a visit to Marks and Spencer and a couple of other shops along the strip. Belle got a nice jacket and a couple of other things. We then headed back to Piccadilly Circus and stopped in at Lilywhites, a sporting wear store, where I picked up some things on sale for some great prices. We finally headed back to the Hostel where we squeezed all our belongings into our suitcases and took them downstairs to weight them. Belle has a 30kg luggage allowance for the trip home and I have a 20kg allowance. Belles case came in with a couple of kilos to spare, mine was right on the money. Hopefully the scales are accurate and there are no nasty surprises at the airport tomorrow. After that it was off to bed for a nights rest before we start the long journey back to Australia tomorrow.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203996600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203996600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203996600/tpod.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:49:38 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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London, United Kingdom

We started the day by heading downstairs to the breakfast room, after our showers, to enjoy bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. Kate had given us directions to the Bagel Shop in Finsbury Park from where the lunch Bagels had come from. As a result of our taste test at lunch, we had necessarily purchased some Bagels from the shop before boarding our bus back to the city. We had also procured cream cheese from a supermarket in Finsbury Park, so were well provisioned this morning. After breakfast we headed downstairs and got on the Open-Top Tourist Bus for the trip to Buckingham Palace. We were on the bus at about 9:30am and arrived in the vicinity of Buckingham Palace at about 10:00am. Not really having anything better to do, we decided to disembark and head to the Palace to wait for the changing of the guard ceremony which was scheduled to commence at 11:30am. We took some pictures of the Victoria Monument and of the Palace and found ourselves a spot by the fence with a good view of the courtyard. It was 10:05am at this point and we were beginning to question our wisdom in arriving so early, the commentator on the bus had suggested we should arrive at about 11:10am. We started to look around to see if there was anywhere we could buy a hot drink or something but the lady who lives in the big house obviously does not like shopkeepers and will not allow them to set up anywhere near her home. We were thinking about getting a bus to somewhere else in the meantime when we noticed that the number of people in the general area had doubled in the last five minutes with many other people making a bee-line for us. Deciding that we might do better to firmly stake out the real estate we had occupied, we remained by the fence and got out our Sudoku books and started puzzling away as the minutes ticked by. By the time 11:00 am came around the stairs of the Victoria Monument overlooking the courtyards were packed and the crowd was three or four people deep behind us. We amused ourselves by laughing at the particular way in which the guardsmen would walk, transfer the guns from shoulder to shoulder and stamp their feet as they turned. We were a little disappointed as the guards we could see had fairly standard looking, red, military caps on their head, not a tall bear-skin hat to be seen. Periodically, higher ranking officers would appear in the courtyard to inspect the four guardsmen standing out side their little booths. At about 11:20am the ceremony started with a detachment from Buckingham Palace and a detachment from St James's Palace turning up and taking up position in the courtyard. The way in which they dress their lines is very funny. They formed up in rows and do their best to form straight lines. An officer is then detached from the group and he looks along each of the lines and orders any soldier who is not in perfect alignment to move forward or back. The soldiers move not by picking up their feet but by shuffling their feet very rapidly as they move in the required direction. It might be one of those things you have to see to appreciate but it was quite hilarious - the soldiers march along with big long strides, they come to a halt and turn by lifting their feet high and stamping the ground and then they dress their lines by rapidly shuffling their feet. The squad of guardsmen stood in position while the two senior officers and the officer carrying the banner started to walk up and down, from fence to palace and back again. After a while we could here music playing in the background which got louder as a large group of guardsmen turned up with their band in tow. These soldiers all had the traditional tall, bear-skin, (are they still bear-skin?) hats. They did not have red coats, however, so they must be one of the three other regiments, rather than regiment that wears the red coats and tall hats that is the one I usually associate with the guarding of the Royal Palaces. There was much pomp and circumstance as the soldiers in tall furry hats replaced the ones in the red caps. The Senior Officer of the red-capped regiment was on the receiving end of quite a few chuckles from the crowd - he must be suffering from a sore throat as his voice grew steadily weaker and weaker throughout the ceremony until, at the end, his orders were barked out in a very hoarse whisper. The ceremony over we headed off to the London Eye. We had booked our tickets on-line last night and therefore saved ourselves a pound each. We located the ticket collection point, swiped our credit card (Belles credit card, mine is still somewhere in Madrid although cancelled!) and received our tickets in fairly short order. We then went and joined the queue for our 'flight'. The wheel takes about 30 minutes to make a full revolution. You barely notice the motion while you are aboard and you really do get a magnificent view of London, particularly the houses of Parliament. Upon our return to earth we headed off to the Sherlock Holmes, a London Pub, to have a lunch of fish and chips and mushy peas. Mushy peas may sound unpleasant but they were very tasty. After lunch we headed off to Harrods. When went via the Tourist Bus service which has six different routes. We had been using the yellow route to get to the major tourist sights but now we needed the blue route. After a wait, in the cold, of about 30 minutes we finally boarded the bus heading in the right direction and hopped of in Knightsbridge for a short walk to Harrods. In Harrods we headed for the Harrods' Souvenir section where Belle picked up a couple of items, after which we headed off for a gawk at the food hall. Exquisite produce - all sorts of chocolates, fresh fruit and vegetables from all parts of the globe, beautifully aged beef, sea-fresh seafood - was available, for prices we had no interest in paying! We headed out again, this time in search of coffee as I had gone to long without caffeine. We found a coffee for a reasonable price across the road from Harrods and then went to Sainsburys to pick up a packet of Jaffa Cakes for 50p less than the exact same packet of Jaffa Cakes was on sale for in Harrods. We just missed the blue line tourist bus back to Piccadilly Circus, so endured another 30 minute wait in the cold as we did not have enough change to by tickets for the metro bus to Piccadilly Circus that went by regularly every three minutes. We got back to the Hostel at about 5:30 pm, put our washing on and then flaked out for the 45 minutes of the washing cycle. We collected our washing from the washing machine just before 6:30pm and then prepared to head out to the Apollo Victoria to see 'Wicked'. We hopped a bus to VIctoria Station as the directions told us that the Apollo Victoria was just opposite Victoria Station. When our bus pulled up we got off and low and behold there was the theatre, all decked out in green. We found the ticket office and picked up our tickets which we had purchased yesterday from a discount ticket booth in Piccadilly Circus. The seats were excellent, in the stalls 24 rows back, pretty much in the middle of the theatre. I will not spoil the plot in case any of you are looking forward to seeing the musical but it was a great story. The plot essentially outlines the backstory for the three witches of the Wizard of Oz - wicked witches of East and West and the Good Witch. All three were at boarding school together! Much of the story runs parallel to the story of the Wizard of Oz - Wicked gives a different view of the story: The WIzard of Oz is from Dorothy's perspective, Wicked is from the Wicked Witch's perspective (the one the house did not land on). It was a great night, the Wicked Witch's performance (the one the house did not land on) was spectacular. Unfortunately we missed out on Nigel Planner as the Wizard of OZ but the stand in was quite good, otherwise we saw all of the regular cast. After the evening's performance we headed back to Piccadilly Circus, grabbed a quick bite from Burger King and then headed off to bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203905760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203905760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203905760/tpod.html Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:17:37 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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London, United Kingdom

We woke around 8:00pm, showered and headed down for the 2 pound breakfast special. We took things fairly slowly and just after 10:00 am we set off for Finsbury Park by tube. We arrived just on 11:00am and were able to catch up with Kate Baillie, Sarah Catchlove's sister. We stayed for lunch and met Mary Conolley who knows Vic Russell and particularly wanted to be remembered to him. After lunch we headed back to Piccadilly Circus by Double Decker bus. We sat up top right at the front, which is a odd vantage point as you are constantly in fear that the bus will run in to the car in front or never make the turn around the next corner. We arrived back at the hostel, dropped off some excess baggage and then headed out. We got tickets for tomorrow evening's performance of 'Wicked', which is, by all accounts, a great show that tells the story of the two witches of the Land of Oz. When then got tickets for the Open-Top Bus Tour of London. The bus tickets are valid for 48 hours from the time of first use, so they will do us until Tuesday afternoon. We hopped on the last yellow-route bus for the day and were taken on a trip past Trafalgar Square, St James's Palace, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament, The London Eye, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, The Tower of London, the New Globe Theatre and back to Piccadilly Circus. After that we grabbed a quick snack at the Regent St Macca's - a guy on the corner was giving out discount coupons - and headed back the hostel for a quiet night in before hitting the tourist circuit hard tomorrow.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203823800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203823800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203823800/tpod.html Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:15:47 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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London, United Kingdom

Our first full day in London and it is a Saturday. We woke about 8:30 am and Belle went in search of a shower as I tried to wake fully. Belle returned much sooner than I had expected with the distressing news - no hot water. I thought I would try my luck and so headed to the male showers just across from our room, where i enjoyed a beautifully warm shower which washed away the sleepiness as well as the accumulated grime of the previous twenty-four hours. Belle was most unhappy when I returned clean and refreshed but hunger overrode other considerations at this point, and we headed down to the breakfast room. There is a 2 pound special breakfast - sausage, egg, tomato, baked beans and mushrooms - which I tried out; edible while not being something you would want to pay more than a couple of pounds for. Belle settled for a glass of cold milk, a piece of toast, cornflakes and a yoghurt. After breakfast we headed back to our room, spotting an alternative female shower block on the way. Belle headed out in search of hot water and was happy to return a little while latter, refreshed from a nice warm shower. With both of us showered and breakfasted, we headed out to the Portobello Road markets near Notting Hill. We explored the markets for a few hours, there a stalls both side of the street for some distance, 1 - 2 kilometers, perhaps further, I doubt it was less. We started from the Notting Hill Gate station end. At first there are a series of Antique stalls where we picked up some antique prints - a couple of Beatrix Potter prints from the 1930s and a Bird print from the late 19th/early 20th century. After the antiques you pass a series of stalls with new wares - clothing, handicrafts, bags, hats, etc. On our initial pass through this section we resisted temptation. The next part is the fresh produce section where there were plenty of fruits and vegies for sale as well as meat and fish. Checking the prices we were a little surprised to note that most things were probably a similar price to what you can buy them for at home. Prepared food in a cafe or restaurant is up to twice what we would pay for the equivalent at home but fresh produce seems to be about the same price. We were getting a bit hungry by this time and ended up at a bratwurst stall. Nice sausage and it came in a decent sized bread roll, not the tiny ones that accompanied our various wurts in Berlin. We continued exploring the Markets, passing through the flea market area and eventually arriving at the less well travelled end. Here we rested for a while in a cafe where they served mediocre coffee but provided a comfortable place to sit and relax for a time. We headed back the way we had come, exploring the stalls on the other side of the street from those we have investigated on the way up. We eventually succumbed to temptation and Belle bought a nice leather handbag and I picked up a corduroy jacket with suede leather elbow patches and a Tintin Print taken from an early 1970's edition of Tintin in the Land of the Back Gold. On the way back to the tube station we also came across a store which specialised in comic and cartoon related merchandise. Belle waited patiently, I think, while I explored and eventually came away with an Obelix figurine, a Tintin and Snowy Pin, and a Shaun the Sheep figurine (a character from Wallace and Gromit).We headed back to Piccadilly Circus by tube train and then located Waterstones Bookshop which is, according to the Guidebook, possibly Europe's largest bookshop. Oh Joy! A huge bookshop and the majority of the books are in ENGLISH!! We both spent a throughly enjoyable hour or more explring the 6 floors of books. Belle came away with a cookbook, predictably, and I picked up an Asterix book, a Tintin 3 in 1 volume, and a Sci-Fi book for the flight home. We next went in search of more coffee. We tried the Coffee Shop in the basement of Waterstones but there were no vacant tables, so we settled for the Nero's Coffeehouse across the road. They claim to have the best coffee this side of Milan. I had better coffee in Madrid so I don't think much of their claim. Poor coffee and expensive prices but at least it did contain caffeine. With dinnertime approaching we started looking around for somewhere to eat but eventually decided we did not want to pay the prices the restaurants were asking, so instead headed off to Tesco's and picked up some ready made meals which we could stick in the microwave. The meals available in Tesco's ar fresh and seem to be of high quality and waht we tried was certainly tasty, so we plan on utilising this source of food regularly over the next few days.After diner discussed what we wanted to do this evening. We both want to try and fit in a trip to the Tate Britain to visit John William Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott. Belle also wants to fit in a West-end show to complete the triumvirate - Bolshoi Ballet, Berlin Philharmonic, West-End Show. It was getting close to 7:30pm, the time that most of the shows start, and Belle had discovered in the guidebook that the Tate Modern is open until 10pm on a Saturday. We decided, therefore, that we would visit the Tate Britain and the Lady of Shalott tonight and try for a West-End show on Monday or Tuesday night. We got directions to the Tate Modern from the guy at the hostel reception desk. His directions did not quite match up with what Belle had read in the guidebook and it was at this point that the penny dropped and we worked out that we were mixing up the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern was open until 10pm, not the Tate Britain which is where we wanted to be. This ruled out a visit to the lady in the boat and the time had now ticked over to after 7:30pm so we had missed the shows. Instead we just wandered around for a while, walking along Shaftesbury Avenue and through Chinatown until we decided we had had enough for the day and headed back to the Hostel for the evening. I spent the rest of the evening catching up on the Blog while Belle turned in for an early night.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203656400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203656400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203656400/tpod.html Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:39:58 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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London, United Kingdom

First things first, Happy Birthday Ruth!!After going at Formula 1-like pace for the last two days, we decided we needed to slow things down a little today. We snailed out of bed a bit before 9:00 am, went to the local bakery to pick up a fresh baguette and then enjoyed a breakfast of cheese and baguette. We had purchased the cheeses from a great cheese shop at Montmarte yesterday - I got some Rouquefort and Belle got some beautifully aged, Swiss cheese. After breakfast we squeezed our belongings into our suitcases, admitting what we had known in our heat of hearts - we needed to find a post office and send another parcel home. We headed downstairs to check-out and to leave our suitcases in the luggage-room for the day. We eventually got directions to the local post-office and picked up an extra-large mailing box in which you could send a maximum of 7 kg to Australia. This was perfect for our purposes and also turned out to be the cheapest of all the packages that we have posted from St Petersburg, Berlin, Madrd and now France. Our next destination was a bookshop back in Montmarte that had closed for lunch when we had attempted to visit it yesterday. The bookshop sold graphic novels (comics if you must) and I wanted to check it out. We caught a bus from near the Hotel Richard to Gare du Nord, the train station from which we would catch the train to the Charles de Gualle airport latter in the day. We timed the trip so we knew how much time should allow in order to make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare this evening. From Gare du Nord we caught a Metro train a few stops to Montmarte and located the bookshop. The French do lots of great graphic novels, Tintin, Asterix and Lucky Luke are the obvious ones but there were lots of great books to be seen, most of which have never been translated into English as far as I know. In particular there was an excellent three volume set that was essentially the history of Berlin during WWII, during the Soviet Era and post the Crumbling of the Berlin Wall, if only it was in English! I had hoped to find some figurines in the bookshop but all I found were French language graphic novels. I enjoyed browsing them all, but could not bring myself to shell out for any, given the language issue. I rejoined Belle outside the shop and we head off in search of Coffee which we found at a nice cafe a little way down the hill. After coffee we decided to head back to St Michel's Fountain and the excellent bookshop near there, hoping they might have some figurines. When we arrived, the fountain was running so we paused to take some photographs of the fountain in this new state. We then explored the bookshop, not finding any figurines but we did find the stationery section and picked up a couple of Moleskine notebooks.Next it was necessary to find some lunch and we were hoping to try a Croque Madame - essentially a piece of toast topped with ham, melted cheese and a fried egg ( a Croque Moisuer is the same thing but without the egg!). We eventually located a cafe which had it on the menu for what we considered a reasonable price and headed in for lunch. We shared a Croque Madame with salad and a Hamburger with Frites. After our lunch we slowly made our way back, via the Metro, to the Voltaire Station, dropped in at our favourite Patisserie to pick up a couple of Quiches for our dinner tonight at the airport and then headed to the Cafe with free WiFi for coffee and internet access. After dawdling over coffee we headed back to the Hotel Richard to collect our luggage and then headed off to the bus stop. A 25 minute bus ride latter and we were at Gare du Nord and a 40 minute train ride latter we were at the Charles de Gaulle airport. As we tried to leave the train station at the airport, our tickets refused to let us through the turnstiles - it turns out tickets were only for zones 1 to 3 and the airport station was in zone 6. There was no-one around who could help us out of our predicament. The platform ticket office was closed, so we could not purchase the additional fare, and there was not even a security guard around who we could appeal to for assistance. Seeing no other solution, we squeezed through the turnstile, Belle having a harder time of it than me, and we were finally at the airport. We then started the trek for terminal 2B, Terminal 2 has five sub-terminals - A, B, C, D and E. We had been so efficient in getting to the airport that we now had three and a half hours to wile away before the plane departed. We stopped in the airport Macca's where we consumed one of the Quiches we had purchased earlier. We eventually headed to check-in but they told us we would have to wait until check-in opened in about forty minutes time so we found another seat, where I spent my time catching up on the last couple of days of blogs. We were eventually able to check-in,we passed through customs where we got our passports stamped and, after browsing the duty free shop for a short while, passed through the security check to our gate. This was probably the most thorough security check we have had so far. We went through a metal detector and then had our carry on bags searched - all people entering the gate area had to endure this treatment. Belle was carrying her Truffle flavored olive oil, which got closely examined but, fortunately, not confiscated.We waited at the gate and as the departure time drew closer realised that this EasyJet flight was not going to be like our previous flights. The boarding process was much more ordered. We (as in the passengers waiting to board, not Belle and I personally) were repeatedly told to wait in our seats and told we would be called forward for boarding in our groups. There are four boarding groups: 1 - SB (speedy boarding), for which you pay extra but get to board the plane first, 2 - SA (special assistance), for people with disabilities and/or children under the age of 10, 3 - A, the remaining passengers who checked in early and 4 - B, the remaining passengers who checked-in late. For our previous flights there had been no SB people, very few SAs and we were always in boarding group A so we could be in the first few people to board the plane. Tonight there were 20 or so people who had shelled out for the speedy boarding, perhaps 30 people, in several family groups, who were in the SA class and then we managed to be in the first half dozen or so of the category A passengers to get on board. There were quite a few less than pleased passengers who were forced to wait before boarding the plane as they held category B boarding passes despite their great desire to be in the SB passenger group. Despite the larger than usual number of passenger who boarded the plane before us we, were very luck to score one of the exit rows in the middle of the plane and so enjoyed the extra leg room this had to offer. The flight to London was about 55 minutes and, as we had to put our clocks back one hour, we essentially arrived in London the same time we departed Paris. We caught a coach in to London which, after an hour, deposited us adjacent to the Hyde Park Corner tube station. We tried to buy tube tickets but did not have enough coins to use the ticket machine and there was no ticket office open. We tried to board a bus but the drivers do not sell tickets and we did not have enough coins to use the ticket machine at the bus stop, despite appealing to several passersby for change for a fiver. We next tried to walk to Piccadilly Circus but this involved descending and ascending one to many underpasses and Belle could not deal with one more flight of stairs, so we hailed a London Cab and were whisked to Piccadilly Circus for the princely sum of 10 quid, which we were more than happy to pay. We quickly located our hostel and checked in and were very pleased to find we had been put in a 4 bed room, despite having booked beds in an 8 bed dorm. This was especially welcome as our internet booking had indicated that we would be in separate rooms for the first two nights but instead we were in a smaller room and together. We did our best to not disturb our roommates as we got ready for bed and finally dropped exhausted in to bed at about 12:45 am London time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203651000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203651000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203651000/tpod.html Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:32:12 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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Paris, France

Once more we were roused by the alarm at 7:00am and dragged ourselves out of bed and into the shower before heading to a local cafe for their breakfast special (Petit Dejeuner) - OJ, Croissant and Coffee. The other bonus was that the Cafe also boasted free WiFi which we were quick to take advantage of. After Breakfast we headed out to the Musee Rodin via Metro. We arrived at the Museum a few moments after a Japanese tour group. After queuing behind the Tour Group we eventually gained entrance to the Museum where we also took in the special exhibition of Rodin through Photography. Rodin was living and working in the early years of photography and had developed relationships with a number of photographers throughout his life who documented various phases of his career. Some of the photographers are only known because they happened to capture images of Rodin and his works while other photographers went on to be outstanding artists in their own right.After visiting the special exhibition we headed out into the garden to see the bronzes. We visited them all but left 'The Thinker' for last. One of the first major pieces we visited with was Rodin's Magnum Opus, the Gates of Hell. This is an incredible work which he never finished despite working on it for most of his career. It was inspired by the first part of Dante's masterwork, the Divine Comedy. We were eventually able to get a good picture of the Gates of Hell but had to wait for a large number of Japanese to get their photos taken with the work first. The gardens were very peaceful for the most part and Rodin's sculptures were wonderful to see in their three-dimensional splendour. We eventually came to the thinker where I made several people wait while I got my photo taken with this most famous of Rodin's pieces. We next headed inside the Museum proper to see the many marble works and also the Van Gough's and Renoir that were part of Rodin's personal collection. I thoroughly enjoyed our few hours with Rodin's work and got into trouble latter for taking over 170 photos of the various sculptures - Belle was concerned that there would not be enough room left on the Camera's memory card to capture all of the Impressionist Works that we wanted to photograph at the Musee D'Orsay.After the Musee Rodin we hopped onto a Metro train and headed to Montmarte. Our first port of call was the Moulin Rouge to get a photo of the red windwill. We did check the prices of and decided we had better things that we could do with the approximately $225 Australian it would have cost just to stand at the bar to watch the show. The prices skyrocketed from their to approximately $600 Australian for dinner and show (prices are for two tickets). We then used Roshane and Willem's Lonely Planet Best of Paris Guide to take a walking tour of Montmarte. This turned out to be a blessing and a cursing. Cursing because it involved several long uphill sections which were energy sapping even for someone who has endured seven weeks of bootcamp with Nata. Blessing because we ended up finding some souvenir shops with quite reasonable prices and we saw the same items for up to 2 Euros more in the Souvenir shops in the main area of Montmarte. We passed the two remaining windmills, the one and only vineyard in downtown Paris and the oldest house in Montmarte before eventually coming to Sacre Couer. We photographed the cathedral while enduring an appalling French male singer who was covering the hits(??????) of Nickelback on the stairs below the Cathedral. There were some great vistas of Paris from the front of the cathedral and after enjoying the view we descended Montmarte via the Funicular - essentially a cable car that goes up and down the hill.We headed back into the centre of town and caught the Batobus - a boat the goes up and down the Seine stopping at the major tourist landmarks. We enjoyed a trip up and down the Seine, almost doing a full circle - we got on board at the Champs Elysee stop went to the Eiffel Tower, turned around and headed back past the Musee D'Orsay and Notre Dame, tuned around once more and went back past the Hotel de Villie and hopped off the boat at the stop for the Lourve. From here we crossed the Seine to the South side and headed for the Musee D'Orsay. We checked the ticket prices and grabbed a map of the Museum and then headed off in search of dinner. The Museum was open late tonight (until 9:45pm, just like the Louvre yesterday) and we were hoping that there might be a drop in admission price after 6:00 pm. We studied the map and worked out our plan of attack and after a dinner of lamb chops and beans (me) and a ham and cheese omlet (Belle), we headed back to the Musee D'Orsay just after 6:00 pm. A quick comment on our dinner, it may sound like plain fare but it was absolutely delicious! At the Museum we joined the crowd waiting to gain entrance, it turns out we were not alone in waiting until after 6:00pm. It also turns out that entrance is free after 6:00pm on a Thursday for persons between the ages of 18 and 25 (free for under 18's anytime). We were held up in the queue for only about 10 minutes before we finally gained entrance and we immediately headed for the fifth floor and the Impressionists. We finally saw in the flesh what has been hanging on our bedroom wall for the last eleven years, Monet's Irises. It is a little smaller than we were expecting - our print at home is bigger than the original. With Rodin and the Impressionists in the same day we burned through a full charge in one of the camera batteries and when we finally left the Musee D'Orsay we had captured some 500 digital images for the day. I will not even attempt to describe our time at the Musee D'Orsay, suffice to say we both thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the Impressionists' works on the fifth floor although there were magnificent artworks to stop and admire throughout the Museum.With sore feet from another long day we headed out from the Museum at about 9:00 pm and caught a regional train to a train station at which we could change to the Metro. We waited on the platform at the Metro station for an extended period of time until we realised that the announcements in French that kept coming over the loudspeakers were informing us that, due to an accident further down the line, trains would no longer be running along the number 9 line. This meant there was no way to get to our train station, so we had to spend a good ten minutes staring at the public transport map, trying to work out how we could get within striking distance of our hotel. A helpful local offered us some advice and we then headed off for another Metro line, made an interchange and eventually got off at the Bastille Metro station from where we walked about two kilometers back to our Hotel, making a pit-stop to sample the Curving Fries at our local McDonald's for one last time. Exhausted we dropped in to bed for a night of rest before an easier day tomorrow with our flight to London tomorrow night at 9:40pm.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203564540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203564540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203564540/tpod.html Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:24:39 -0500 Pete & Belle's Russian and European Adventure

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Paris, France

The alarm woke us at 7:00am and we tried out the shower that was located directly opposite the door to our room. There was plenty of hot water but there was no where to hang up the shower head. Having negotiated this minor inconvenience, we headed out for breakfast at the patisserie we had spotted last night. I went for the pan au chocolat whereas Belle decided she only felt like a plain baguette. We ate on the run as we headed for the metro to hop a train to the Eiffel tower. We purchases a three day tourist pass that will hopefully do us for our three days in Paris and also get us back to the airport on Friday. After one interchange we were on the correct line for the Eiffel tower stop, the only problem was the train did not stop at the Eiffel tower station - the station was under renovation and completely blocked off. We disembarked the train at the following stop and so had a slightly longer walk to what we had been expecting. We could not see the tower at first as we were surrounded by buildings all at least four or five stories high. We headed in the direction of the Tower, although Belle kept giving me funny looks as she did not really have faith in me knowing where I was going. We had seen the Tower from the train and my superior spatial awareness meant that I knew which direction the Tower was in, even if Belle did not. The Tower eventually emerged from behind the buildings and Belle could now relax as she was confident we were heading in the correct direction. It is quite a sight to behold and it is the one thing that truly makes you believe you are in Paris. The passersby might all speak French and the signs might all say you are in Paris but once you see the Eiffel Tower you know you are in Paris.We purchased our tickets and made the ascent to the top of the tower. Unfortunately it was an overcast day and the clouds were relatively low. The view actually got worse as we went higher, as the lowest clouds were at about the level of the uppermost parts of the Tower. There were intermittent bursts of modest clearing which meant we could get a slightly better view of the city. I shouldn't really complain as the view was quite impressive, we were able to identify the Arc de Triopmphe, the Hotel des Invalides and numerous parks and other sights. In search of a slightly better view we descended to the second level and the view was a bit clearer as we were no longer amongst the clouds. Once we had our fill of the sights we checked out the souvenir shop but didn't buy anything fearing that the souvenirs would all have a premium placed upon them for being on the Eiffel Tower. We descended back to ground level and headed off in the direction of our next stop, the Arc De Triomphe.A short Metro ride brought us to the Arc. We did wonder as we headed for the surface if we would have any difficulty finding the Arc but we need not have worried as as soon as we surfaced the first thing we saw was the Arc de Triomphe right in front of us. We admired it from across the street for a while, photographing it from various angles and then descended the underpass that takes you to the island in the middle of this most famous of roundabouts. It started to drizzle when we got the Arc itself but we were able to get all the photos we wanted. We could have ascended to the top of the Arc but, given the overcast day and Belle's inability to cope with large numbers of steps, we decided not to make the ascent. After visiting the Arc, we strolled down the Champs Elysee, admiring the items for sale in all the exclusive boutiques we passed along the way. We eventually became somewhat hungry and so decided to stop in at a shop that sold tasty looking baguettes filled with all sorts of delightful items and also delicious looking tarts of all kinds. I had a baguette with camembert and salad while Belle settled for one with chicken. We also each tried a tart - citron for me and raspberry for belle. Sometime latter we were comfortably full having immensely enjoyed our baguettes and particularly our tarts. We continued down the Champs Elysee eventually coming to the Grand and Petite Palaces. We turned right, towards the Seine, taking in the Palaces and also the Pont Alexandre III. We then followed the Seine heading towards the Jardin des Tuileries. As we were walking along, a woman coming in the opposite direction appeared to point at something on the path beside us and looking down we saw a golden ring. Belle picked it up and passed it to the woman, both of us thinking she had dropped it. The woman went on to indicate to us that no, she had not dropped it and she thought we must have dropped it. Looking around we could see no-one who was obviously looking for a dropped ring and there was some back and forth, each of us saying that the other party should take the ring, the woman pointing to a stamp on the inside of the ring indicating it was made of 18 karat gold. We eventually agreed to take it, wondering what we should do, do we take it to the police, do we keep it. The woman left and we started to slowly move on our way at which point she suddenly reappeared saying that, given she had let us have the ring surely we could spare a few Euro for her to get something to eat. Not feeling as though we were really in a position to refuse her, we parted with 5 Euro in coins as it began to dawn on us that we had been had. It was not to much latter, while we were at the Jardin des Tuileries, that we saw another fellow try the same scam on us. Wise to what was going on we indicated we were not interested but we did watch for the next couple of minutes and witness him try it out on several other passersby, all of whom were wiser than we had been and ignored him.After coming in to possession of the mysterious golden ring, we continued our wanderings and came to the Place del la Concorde where there are two fountains on either side of a golden topped Egyptian Obelisk. I am not sure what it is doing there in the middle of what is essentially a big roundabout, but it was interesting to see and to photograph the hieroglyphs. We then crossed into the Jardin des Tuileries which Belle had insisted on us visiting. She was not sure whey she wanted to go there but she thinks maybe they had learnt about the Garden in High School French Class or something similar. The Garden would no doubt look more impressive during spring but was nonetheless a lovely Garden to visit. There are a large numbers of sculptures scattered throughout the park, many of which are in a classical Greek style although most were produced in the 19th and 20th centuries. After visiting the Garden and the Garden's bookshop, we went to the closest Metro station and jumped a train to bring us within striking distance of Notre Dame. We crossed to the Ile de la Cite via Pont Notre Dame and followed the signs to the Cathedral. We marvelled at the amazing reliefs all over the exterior but particularly those adorning the three entranceways. After the obligatory photos, I got in line for the ascent to the Bell Towers, Belle preferring to visit the Cathedral itself which did not involve the negotiation of some 432 stairs. After waiting on the footpath for a short while, I was ushered into the North Bell tower with the rest of the group going on the tour of the Bell Towers. We ascended to the first level which was a gift shop where they held us captive for about 10 minutes before allowing us to proceed up the the Gargoyle Gallery. I was first out of the blocks and shot up the stairs to reach the Gargoyle Gallery well ahead of the rest of the group. I had hoped to have peace and quite in which to take my photos and admire the sights and did have for the most part, although I did run in to several stragglers from the previous group. After visiting with the Gargoyles I went to see the Big Bell, and finally made the ascent to the top of the South Bell Tower for some more impressive vista's of Paris which this time included the Eiffel Tower. I descended the tower and went to find Belle inside the Cathedral. We got some pictures of the impressive stained glass windows and also managed to be visiting when the organist fired up the pipe organ, which we paused to enjoy. We headed to the southern bank of the Seine where we came across the Fountain of St Michel. The fountain was not running but we did feel the need to photograph it. We next went in search of food and found some more baguettes filled with delicious items and indulged once more. We also happened to come across an enormous book shop which filled five buildings around the Fountain of St Michel. Eventually locating the correct building we managed to find an English Language French cookbook to round out the collection that Belle has been building up as we have gone from country to country. On Wednesdays the Louvre is open late (until 9:45pm) so we decide to head there for the evening. We arrived just after 6pm and where pleased to find that entrance fees were reduced after 6pm. We first headed off to see the Dutch and Flemish Masters, in particular looking for the Vermeer and the Reubens Room. The Vermeer was a little small but still well worth the trip while the Reubens room was just absolutely magnificent. Fifteen or so huge paintings, each of which was absolutely stunning. I particularly enjoyed the one whose main subject is a couple being married before a priest. There is a little dog in front and to the left which is scratching its ear and the little girl holding the brides train has obviously been distracted by something/one in the audience. When next checked out the French works before heading downstairs to visit the Italian works and, in particular, the chick with the funny smirk on her face. The Mona Lisa was a little disappointing. She is not as small as I was expecting, having previously been told by several people that the painting is much smaller than you expect. Actually she was about the size I was expecting, the problem is that the bullet proof glass protecting her gives the painting a green tinge and the pushy Japanese tourists will not give you much of a chance to enjoy the work. After the Italian paintings it was off the see the Italian sculptures, especially Michelangelo's two slaves. We next visited the Classical Greek collection which is dominated by the Venus de Milo. Belle needed a break at this point so found a comfortable spot in the room with the Venus while I went on to check out the rest of the Classical Greek collection and to visit the Ancient Egyptian collection. The Ancient Egyptian collection at the Louvre leaves the collection in the Hermitage for dead. The Hermitage probably still comes out on top in most other areas but the Egyptian collectio at the Louvren is vast and absolutely fascinating. I could not believe the number of sarcophagi they have in their collection. After thoroughly enjoying my exploration of the Egyptian artefacts I headed back to the Venus to find Belle and we then went to look at the Assyrian Lions. They look just like the ones we saw at the Pergammon Museum and I am not entirely sure they are not plaster copies like the ones in Berlin. We rounded out our evening at the Louvre by visiting the French Sculpture collection and at about 9:30pm we gave up feeling very fatigued after our long day. We headed for the Metro and afetr a couple of interchanges were back at Voltaire station. We paused on our way back to the Hotel Richard to sample the quite delicious CUrving Fries that are available at the Macca's. We got back to our foul smelling room at about 10:15pm and after airing the room out we were able to drop in to bed for what we felt was a well deserved night's rest before we tackle the Musee Rodin, Montmarte, a cruise down the Seine and a visit the the Musee D'Orsay tomorrow.
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