March 24 to 30 - Paris, London, Southampton, Bath (Heidi)

Thursday March 24 - Paris and London
We were up early to finish packing and have our last free breakfast. We wrapped up a couple of the amazing pastries in napkins and smuggled them out for snacks on the the train. Probably not quite above board, but they were too nice! It was a beautiful clear morning with a cold bite and we quickly made it to Gare du Nord. We had gone scouting the day before to make sure we knew where we needed to go and had already snaffled and filled in our immigration cards which made the whole process a bit quicker and easier. Immigration for international rail isn't unlike immigration for international flights, but it was quicker and less painful. The biggest difference was that we were with what would normally be our checked bags when they were x-rayed. The guy was quite interested in our big bad of leads and cords. Makes me wonder how many times it has raised eyebrows at airports. We only had to wait a few minutes before we were able to board the train.

I'm glad we were there a little early as our carriage was packed and by the time everyone was onboard, some people weren't having much luck finding room for their baggage. Strangely though when I went for a walk to the cafeteria later I discovered that most of the other carriages were only about half full. Not sure why ours was so full. James was in his element taking photos of other trains out the window and I went for a walk to find him his caffeine fix. I ordered a peppermint tea. Unfortunately I didn't realise til I made it back to my seat, 5 carriages away, that they girl had made me green tea, which I hate. Oh well.

I didn't find the seats on the Eurostar that comfortable. They don't recline at all and the headrests were horrible - so wide that to actually lean your head against it and try to sleep, your neck was bent so far that you were horribly uncomfortable. I did manage to sleep for the 20 or so minutes through the tunnel but had a very sore neck afterwards. Definitely need a little pillow for that one.

We arrived at St Pancras station in London. The place is enormous - all international train services leave from here as well as some long-haul overground passenger trains and about 6 different underground lines. First stop was to buy an Oyster card so we could get around. I told the guy behind the counter that we just wanted 2 pay-as-you-go cards. He was trying to talk me into a 7-day one that was only valid for certain zones but I didn't want that as we weren't quite sure where exactly we were going to go. Either he was being a jerk or he stuffed up and couldn't have been bothered fixing it (which makes him a jerk either way) but we somehow ended up with one pay-as-you-go card and one 7-day zone 1-2 pass and didn't realise it til a few hours later. Thanks mate.

Our first trip on the tube was on the Hammersmith and City line to Paddington where we were had organised to meet Adam and Sarita and drop our luggage so we could go exploring. Flooding at another station delayed them a bit but they finally made it and we headed to a nearby pub for lunch. It was our first time in an English pub and quite the novelty! After lunch and a pint (which are bloody enormous!) we went for a walk to Hyde Park and were planning on going to see the Princess Diana memorial but our navigator got a bit confused so we didn't actually get to the memorial. It was a lovely walk though! We caught the tube to Oxford Street and browsed through a few different shops including Primark (ridiculously cheap and crowded) and the very posh Selfridges. The boys weren't so keen on shopping and went in search of a pub to watch the rest of the Australia v India World Cup match but couldn't find one that had Sky TV so ended up at Starbucks to recharge James' caffeine levels. We found them there and decided it was time to collect our bags and make our way to Kerry's.

Kerry's place is only a short ride on the tube and soon we were piling our enormous bags into her flat. She greeted us with good news and bad news... The good news was that it was going to be fixed the next day, but the bad news was that the boiler had blown the night before and there was no hot water. Kerry kept apologising and James kept threatening to put it into his trip review. However all was not lost as the gym over the road had very graciously said we could use their showers that night. We called to check if we could all go at once but they suggested only a couple at a time as there was only 6 showers in each bathroom. Kerry, James and I decided to take the first shift. Something the gym forgot to mention was that those showers were communal. Mens and womens were separated, but there was no stalls... just a tiled room with shower heads at intervals around the wall. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Best of all we had to keep pushing a button on the wall to make the shower run - it only lasted about 30 seconds per push. There was plenty of laughter. James was lucky enough to have the mens to himself, as were Sarita and Adam when they took the next shift.

Back at Castle de Myatt Kerry whipped up a fabulous chilli con carne while James and Adam went to the bottlo in search of beer and Stones - and came back successful on both fronts! I was a very happy girl. Good food, good drink and fabulous company - a great first night in London.


Friday March 25 - London
We waved Kerry off to work and then the four of us tubed it to Picadilly to head to Leicester Square to get show tickets. We had narrowed it down to a couple of shows and ended up choosing Legally Blonde because it was on at 730 and meant there was less chance of me falling asleep.
Once that was sorted we found some coffee for James and then legged it to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. Adam managed to find the spot where the whole thing starts and we then followed the guards to the gates of Buckingham Palace... along with every other man and his dog and his herd of sheep. The place was absolutely packed! It was very cool to see the whole thing unfold. I really don't know how they see out from under those fluffy hats though. We were there for about an hour and actually got so hot that we had all stripped off our coats and jumpers. The weather was glorious!

Once we'd seen all we could see we went for a walk through the royal park to see Big Ben and then down Whitehall. We also managed to stumble across the cavalry guard change... and Sarita nearly got trampled by a horse. But that's a whole other story.

We found another pub for lunch and more pints. I can't handle pints though and had to go with a half pint. At home that would look like a perfectly normal size glass, but in England when everyone around you has a pint, you look like a wimp. Ah well.

After lunch we went for a quick look through the National Gallery. It was really interesting to see the amazing old portraits and I really enjoyed reading the parts about new research which meant they could tell that certain changes had been made to the paintings.

Next stop was St Paul's cathedral - where Prince Charles married Diana way back when. We all made the hike up the stairs to the top of the inside dome but Sarita and I let James and Adam go right to the top on their own - we were already feeling a little dizzy from the spiral stairs up and the ones to the top were much narrower. Instead we sat and wondered at the beautiful workmanship. Unfortunately there was a service on so they started kicking us out a lot sooner than we would have liked.

From St Pauls we wandered down to the Millenium Bridge and then along the Thames to the embankment and back to West End for dinner. We found a Thai place that looked okay and Kerry met us there soon after. We made it to the theatre right on time and had a great laugh at Legally Blonde. Oh my God you guys!!


Saturday March 26 - London
We had planned on doing more site seeing on Saturday but found out there was going to be protests in London and thought it best to avoid the area. We found out later that was a wise choice - there was over 250,000 people there!

Kerry had been going to join us but decided it was time to see a GP about the cold she'd had for nearly two weeks. Poor thing. The rest of us caught a bus to Notting Hill and spent a few hours wandering around the Portobello Road Markets. These have to be seen to be believed! It went for blocks and there was everything you could think of - fresh fruit, veges, hot food, clothes, djs etc. And it was packed - though probably not quite as packed as the protests.
One of the most interesting sites was the massive paella being made in a stall while the world watched on. The smell was amazing and James, Adam and Sarita all decided to have it for lunch. I helped James with his but couldn't go past the bruscetta we had spotted on our way in for my own lunch. So fresh and so good.

After we'd finished wandering we took the bus back to Kerry's and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out. I had a cold and James had a sore throat so we were both pretty worn out.
Sarita and I decided we would look after dinner so headed to Sainsburys to grab supplies. We had it all sorted out and only needed to get a hot chook when we discovered that we had just missed the very last one so it was back to the drawing board... I think the boys thought we were lost as we ended up being gone for about 90 minutes by the time we'd figured out what to do instead. I think it was worth the wait though.


Sunday March 27 - Cambridge and London
One of the things I wanted to do while we were in England was to visit the grave of my great uncle James Potter in Cambridge. Uncle Jim was a wireless operator on bombers in World War II. He actually survived the war but was killed in March 1945 when his crew was learning to fly an American plane to help with the post-war clean-up effort. Their American instructor told them to do a manoeuvre which shouldn't be done under about 3000ft... at about 1500ft. The plane crashed and he was killed along with the pilot. He was 22 and engaged to an English girl. Although I obviously never met him Uncle Jim has always been someone that we talked about a lot in our family and we've certainly never forgotten him.

James' mum's cousin, Pam, lives near Cambridge and when she suggested we meet there it was perfect for both of us. We got ourselves up nice and early Sunday morning and arrived in Cambridge just before 10am. From the train station we caught a taxi to the cemetery where, after a bit of a hiccup, we finally managed to find Uncle Jim's grave, and the pilot's right next to him. It's a beautiful place and so well maintained. It's also a very sad place and I'm not ashamed to say I shed a lot of tears over a man I've never met but feel such a connection to. We stayed for about 45 minutes and my only regret is that I didn't take flowers.

From the cemetery we called a cab and headed into Cambridge to meet Pam and her daughter Chelsea. Pam, who is deaf, married an Englishman and they live just south of Cambridge. Chelsea is 17, going on 25, and we had the most delightful couple of hours chatting with them. I wish we could have spent longer and really hope that we can go back again to visit both them and Uncle Jim.

We caught a very-crowded express train back to London and then made our way back to Kerry's to start packing our bags and get ready to catch the train to Southampton.
Chris and his friend Nico arrived home from their cycling adventure late on Sunday afternoon and we all went to a nearby pub for dinner - it was about a 7 minute walk... right Kerry?
Kerry and I had both had our hearts set on the lamb dish but the waitress came back with the bad news it wasn't available. We opted to join everyone else and get a steak. It was a fabulous steak so I guess I will forgive them for not having lamb.

We had planned on catching the tube to Waterloo but Chris very kindly offered to drive and give us one of his famous night-tours of London instead and it was fabulous. You should all hit him up for one! Seriously, thanks so much to Chris for the ride and to Kerry for putting up with us all under her feet while she was sick. We owe you!

We made it to Southampton about 1230am and caught a cab to Adam and Sarita's place where we hit the hay pretty quickly.


Monday March 28 - Southampton and Bath
In spite of our best intentions of leaving by about 9am, the late night meant we were only having breakfast about then. Adam and Sarita whipped us up some coddled eggs - yum! I'll definitely be trying to make them myself.

We all piled into the Peugeot and set out towards Bath. First stop for the day was Stonehenge. It's quite an impressive site as you come down the hill and it suddenly pops up in front of you. Roadworks of some kind meant we had to sit through a bit of slow traffic and enter Stonehenge the long and convoluted way, but it was all worth it. It's an amazing site to behold - I really wish you could get up closer and see the rocks better though.

Leaving Stonehenge James and I began to think that we're a curse to anyone we stay with while travelling... About 500m out of the carpark the temp gauge on the Peugeot shot sky high and and 'STOP' warning started flashing. We pulled over and checked the radiator overflow. It looked like it had been filled with water from the creek next to my parents' place, but there was plenty of water in it and nothing actually felt very hot. We restarted the car and despite it running about 20 degrees hotter than normal, the STOP light was no longer flashing and the temperature had actually gone down into safe territory so it was decided that we would limp it to the next town and reassess once we got there. It continued to run hot but without going into the red zone. We stopped for lunch at a cute little country pub. Once again I left the pints to the experienced members of our group and opted for a half pint of ginger beer instead.

After lunch it was decided that we would keep going to Bath, which was only about half an hour away. The car behaved itself for most of the rest of the trip, but did suddenly fly up into the red before dropping away again a couple of times. We made it to Bath in one piece and eventually managed to figure out how to get to the right end of the one-way street our accommodation was on. Stupid roadworks.

James and I headed off to check out the Roman Baths while Sarita and Adam took the car to a mechanic we had spotted on our trip round in circles. We were hoping that it was just that the gross water was full of crap and giving the cooling system the mechanical equivalent of a heart attack.

The Roman Baths are quite an experience. It's amazing just how intact so much of it still is! The water doesn't look overly inviting now thanks to algal blooms which the sun on the water causes, but in it's time, when the roof was intact, you can imagine that it was absolutely amazing. I wish I could have seen it as it was and bathed there. You can read more about the Roman Baths here.


After we'd finished our tour of the Roman Baths we met Adam and Sarita at the Thermae Day Spa for two hours of relaxation - we looked like serious prunes by the time we left! We were all highly amused by one silly middle-aged woman who arrived with a full face of makeup - including bright pink lipstick - and complained that even the coolest of the steam rooms was too hot for her and seemed more intent on making sure her makeup stayed put than taking advantage of the facilities and getting something out of it. I felt sorry for her boyfriend.

Back at our unit Adam and Sarita whipped up a fabulous roast dinner and we tried Crabbies - an alcoholic ginger beer. James doesn't like ginger beer but he does like Crabbies - it was more like a ginger ale. Very nice. I'm going to have to look out for it at home!


Tuesday March 29 - Bath and Southampton
Tuesday morning we had planned to go check out the Cheddar Valley, but as the car was at the mechanic's and was going to be for several hours yet, we set out to explore Bath a little further. First stop was, of course, coffee for James and we stopped at Java Coffee House. Best coffee in England! I wish I'd had one myself and I don't really drink coffee... They also had cakes handmade in house - Maya's carrot cake looked amazing. I'm still kicking myself for not trying it.

First things first we went to the circus to check out the architecture. Everything is so symmetrical - it's quite cool. Next stop was the Assembly Rooms. They were underwhelming. Let's leave it at that. We wandered on to Royal Crescent for a peek before we decided to go and check out Bath Abbey.

I really enjoyed the Abbey - we spent a good hour wandering around and reading some of the both interesting and amusing memorial plaques dating back several hundred years which adorn both the walls and the floor of the church. We opted to do the climb up the bell tower and it was a great tour - our young guide did a great job before we knew it, we'd been up there for an hour. I even got to ring the tenor bell and then we stood in the bell room while it struck for the half hour. Very loud but very cool. You can read more about the Bath Abbey here.


By the time we finished at the Abbey it was nearly 2pm and we made our way to the nearest pub - called All Bar One - for lunch. The menu here was a bit more like the kind of menu you would find at home - far more Asian and Mediterranean influenced than any other pubs menus we had seen in England. James, Adam and Sarita all ordered burgers but I had my heart set on the pork belly. But then the waitress came back to inform me that they didn't have it and I would have to make another selection. Twice in three days! So unfair. I ended up having a lamb and tzatzki burger which was very nice. While we waited for our meals Adam called the mechanics to check on the car... Still not ready. James and Adam had a couple of Doom Bar ales over lunch - James' favourite of the tour.

After lunch we went for a walk down to the weir where, to my delight, we found lots and lots of very cute ducks. We wandered over the bridge, down along the canal and then back towards town. On our way the mechanic called Adam and informed him that the the cooling system was ok now, but that it had blown the head gasket and would not make it back to Southampton. For those of you who aren't mechanically savvy - that's pretty bad.... Small part but a lot of work to replace and means the head has to be crack tested. Not something that would be done in an hour and quite costly courtesy of the hours of labour required.

Fortunately the mechanic was sympathetic that we needed to get back to Southampton as we had an international flight to make and he loaned Adam and Sarita one of his cars on the condition they bring it back the next day. So we piled our stuff into the loaner Saab station wagon and finally started our journey back to Southampton about 630pm. We arrived in Southampton about 8 and went for a bit of a walk to check out the old city wall and gate found ourselves in a pub with a super cheap dinner deal. Everyone else had steak but I had a bit of an upset tummy so opted for an apple and berry crumble with custard, much to the amusement of the man who took our order. James also tried his very first Guinness with dinner and reckons it wasn't too bad.


Wednesday March 30 - Southampton, Heathrow and New York
Adam tried to sneak off without saying goodbye but we managed to catch him before he got too far. Poor guy was a little bit tired. He was back soon after with a flat tyre on his bike though. I hope your day improved, Adam!

We packed our bags up, piled them into the Saab and hit the M3 to head to Heathrow. Traffic in Southampton was a bit of a gridlock at that time of the morning but thankfully the M3 wasn't too bad and we had a nice clear run through onto the M25 and Heathrow, arriving right on time. We'd done an online check-in the night before so all we had to do was print our boarding passes and drop off our checked in luggage. The security check took the longest and it was pretty painless. James coffeed up and we wandered around a bit before catching the shuttle over to our departure gate. Soon we were boarding and on our way to New York.

Right now we're about 45 minutes out of New York and have just been told that we're about to hit some turbulance. Other than the woman behind me who keeps jamming her knees into my back (my seat is bolt upright!!) and the speaker right next to me that started crackling and squarking about 2 hours ago, so loudly that I can hear it over my headphones, it's been a pretty good flight. They have just told us that it's 8 degrees and overcast in New York though and apparently there's the possibility of snow in the next few days. Should be fun!