Week 8 Swansea, London, Holland, Belgium and Paris
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
8
Trip End
Oct 30, 2007
Swansea,
United Kingdom
Friday, November 9, 2007
This is the last week of my adventure and the last lot of spam you will receive! My journey to Swansea started with a melt down at the train station because I couldn't buy a ticket to get on the train to the airport. It was so annoying after not much sleep and a hellish few weeks to finally be free and you can't buy a ticket for the train! It was a Sunday so no ticket booths were open and the machines only took coins, the ticket was 8euro so I didn't have enough coins and the card machines don't like our eftpos cards without the chip in them...so I jumped in a cap after much stressing and ended up sharing it with a South African who had been bumped off the Euro Star and was trying to get back to London. He had been at the final so was in a better mood than me! Anyway I arrived in one piece in Bristol and met Nik. We had lunch there and it took 2 trains and a bus to get to Swansea
Wyrms Head
! Apparently it's not always like that but they shut the train lines on a Sunday to do maintenance. Swansea is a real nice little place, mostly built in the 50s onwards because it was flattened in the war. Seeing a beach again was lovely, it did feel quite similar to NZ. I was soooo excited when we went out to dinner at Mumbles with some of Nik's friends and I could read the menu! Made a nice change to the last 2 months of guessing and hoping for the best. The next day Nik took me on one of his Welsh 'walks' in Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula. The views were spectacular but the walking got a bit hairy as the cliffs got steeper. At one point Nik is still walking along like he is on flat pavement and I'm muddling my way through the rocks and holes and then I accidentally look down and get totally freaked out cling to the hillside and inch backwards very, very slowly. Then on the different route Nik picked (instead of going around the cliff we back track and go over it!) I fall flat on my face after being scared by some cows, he really can't take me anywhere!! After the 2 hour 'walk' we had a much needed lunch at King Arthur's Tavern (again very excited to read the menu), and visited King Arthur's stone. Apparently it's unique because its granite and you can't get rock like that anywhere in the immediate area. To me it just looked like a bit rock with a little hole in it, again the views were spectacular though. We finished the day off with a really nice dinner at Grant and Cathy's and I got to meet the kids that Nik spends Christmas with; Naomi, Noah and Hannah. I had a great time and heaps of fun playing with them.
The next morning we were off to London bright and early. We decided that my Northern Hemisphere super power is delaying trains as so far everyone I've caught has been
Welsh Walk
! London was a whirlwind tour that consisted of walking along the Thames, sighting St Paul's and visiting the Tate Modern. It's so cool in London how all the art galleries are free, I couldn't get over it! Next stop was The George (a tavern where Shakespeare used to drink) and a drink with Kristy and Miles. Had a really good time and it was so good to finally meet the infamous Kristy! We trained back to their village and had Thai for dinner. The village really felt like Star's Hollow off the Gilmore Girls so I really enjoyed myself. We stayed at Kristy and Mile's and had breakfast in a diner that was just like Luke's (TV holic I know!) then continued the whirlwind tour of London with stops at The National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. Next adventure was a train to Stanstead airport and a flight to Eindhoven, Holland.Nik and I were welcomed with open arms in Holland, it was just fantastic. The first night we had dinner with Gert Jan and Cees then stayed at Yvette and Ronald's. I used to be pen pals with Yvette so it was really really neat to meet her. The next day we had a little tour around the village, Sint Oedenrode where our family lives. It was beautiful, especially because it was autumn and all the trees where shades of gold, so pretty! We visited Tante Maria ( my grandfather's sister) and saw the house where my mummy was born, which was pretty special. Our family has a lot of history in that village
Rhossili
. Our timing was good for a visit as it was also Tanta Ann's 86th birthday so that night there was a big family get together where we got to meet everyone. Nik and I felt very welcome and had a great time, our plates and glasses were never empty!The next day was more sight seeing. Paula picked us up with Hannie and we visited the cemetery where our Great grand father and other family are buried. It was really peaceful and fulfilling to see where they rest. From here we went to wooden shoe museum, the 'Klompenmakerij'. This was great to see, it's amazing how quickly a pair of shoes can be made. I tried some on and they were surprisingly comfy, good arch support! We then had dinner with Hannie and Peter, which was really fun. Great food and wine, Lemon cello, grappa and flaming cherries, what more could you ask for!
The historic city near Sint Oedenrode called 'S-Hertogenbosch or 'Den Bosch' (I think) for short was our next visit. My cousin Sander who spent some time in NZ arranged this for us and it was really neat. We did a canal tour of the medieval open sewers of the city, it was really interesting and so different from anything I had done up to this point. Sailing out of the city walls and looking back at the tiny hole you came from was a bit disconcerting
Cold frightened Joey in Wales
! The afternoon consisted of a tour of the bell tower in Sint Jan's a cathedral in the city that is steeped in legend and that our great grandfather painted a lot. Apparently it has been 30 years since Elvis's death so the bells played Elvis tunes every 15mis! The Bells in the cathedral have kept time in the city for 200 years, which is pretty amazing for a NZer to comprehend. To round out our trip in Holland we had a boozy night out with the family. It was really fun. Tell you what though, I so can't handle smoke anymore. Bars aren't smoke free in Holland and it was quite overwhelming, I love little ol' smoke free NZ. It was still a great night, the beers are really small and the bar staff take your order at the table and bring it out and you pay at the end. This seemed like a very easy way to spend lots of money! Not that we did, Nik and I struggled to pay for a drink all night. It was also funny to hear all the Dutch drinking songs. Just like our English anthems but in Dutch, Nik and me didn't sing along much but had a great night.
We both woke up with dry mouths and a big breakfast from Cees and Gert Jan. Mirijam and Irma drove us to Turnhout in Belgium and we said our goodbyes to Holland. It was quite sad as we had been thoroughly spoilt and were feeling quite at home
King Arthur's Stone
. Our flying visit to Belgium consisted of a train to Antwerp, lunch of beer, fritz and mayonnaise and then a train to Paris. It was a bit strange being back in Paris, but I did feel kind of at home. We had a great dinner at a Moroccan restaurant recommended by Kristy, probably one of the best meals I had in Paris. Nik flew out quite early the next morning and to wrap up my time in Paris it rained all day. It barely rained at all in 2 months and then my last day it rains...all day. My last day was mostly last minute gift shopping and then a final meal at the great Italian restaurant by Ange and Darryn's apartment, and a 4am wake up call to get to the airport on time! The smoking was really getting to me though, people were smoking all through dinner, the attendant at the hotel was smoking and the cab driver on the way to the airport was smoking (as well as going 150kph down the motorway, I just kept thinking I didn't want to die like Princess Dianna and I just wanted to go home!).Paris was fabulous, pity about the RWC (not that we lost just that I had to work it!) and the holiday at the end was, as I've said before, fantastic. Until next time and I hope you enjoyed my little instalments.
