London to Provence....

Stressful!!! Cabs, train stations..... Customs, chaos, passport control, luggage x-rays.... And finally...... Eurostar, having breakfast with Jennifer Saunders. A little disappointing, she didn't recognise me, or perhaps she was just too polite to ask for an autograph....(for real!)

.... And so to France...

K! Show off! His "smattering of French" was getting us around pretty good! It was freezing on the platform at Lille with an hour to wait so, surprise.... We soon gave in and went in search of a glass of vin blanc! Dunno what it is but when people talk a foreign language to me it's like hitting a panic button... I say yes to their first question so vin rouge it was! In an Irish Pub!

Proud of ourselves, we found our way to the right platform and the right carriage on the French TGV fast train to Avignon.... K wanting to show off settles into his seat and asks the bloke across the aisle, "parlez-vous Anglais?"... "Hope so mate, I am Welsh!"! Amazing... here we are in Lille, France and it turns out the bloke we are sat next to on the train lives on The Wirral, about 2km from where we spent our first 2 weeks! Talk about a small world!

Around 10 hours after leaving our luxurious London pad we arrived at our pretty Provence villa.... Knackered! We hadn't eaten since breakfast, we have had so much this last few weeks we must look like Mr & Mrs Blobby... Certainly feels like it.... However sod unpacking, let's go get food!!

Amazingly we are still speaking.... This despite a long day traveling, freezing cold train stations, at least 5.5 hours locked on trains, collecting a hire car, K locking the keys in the boot and a retrieval via the back seats, driving on the wrong side of the road, not finding a single recognizable road sign, at least three wrong turns, finding several junctions not on any map, driving around a golf course at least twice, barely speaking a word of French and being tired & hungry!

London..... Day 2......

Day 2 started out a little slow... Struggled to think what to do, it felt like we have already done everything we wanted to do on past visits. Of course, we soon remembered, it isn't possible to do everything in London in two whistle-stop trips!! Duhhhhh

So what will it be? Museums? Markets? Open top bus tour? Eventually with the help of the concierge, we settled on Camden Markets, followed by either the Victoria and Albert Museum or the National Gallery.... The V & A David Bowie exhibition sounded good but tickets were scarce....

We caught the #27.... YES! A bus... [once it was described to me it rang a distant youthful bell] and we arrived at Camden Markets 20 mins later.... initial thought were to turnaround and get back on the bus! However, ignoring reservations, a little bit of a wander and we soon started to enjoy the sights, sound, smells, character, characters..... It was fabulous.... A real experience...... If you ever get the chance go!

Weather was perfect...

From there we jumped on another bus... starting to get the hang of this now.... Off to Trafalgar Square, which it turned out we hadn't seen before... Not sure how we missed it!

Another great place... Just oozes history..... A walk up The Mall to St James's Palace, Waterloo Place and finally an accelerated tour of the National Gallery.... We have walked miles so time to head back on yet another bus for an hour or two downtime before heading out for dinner....

Tomorrow?  France!

London Day 1.....

Finally!!! We dragged ourselves away from the hotel for a quick stroll to Oxford Street and Marble Arch, then back for a late lunch/early dinner at a fabulous little local Thai restaurant and then off for an evening with Helen Mirren....

Some great lines! Harold Wilson and John Major excelled..... The costume changes were impressive.... and we definitely recommend it!

And finally ... back for some much needed downtime and some sleep .....

Landmark Hotel.....

Woo hooooooo and WOW! Just arrived at our London hotel..... checking in 3 hours early..... AND the room is ready...... AND we have been upgraded to a Marylebone Suite.....

..... Now shall I pop to the spa or opt for a glass of the complimentary champagne?

Hmmmmmm tricky one...... POP.... Bang.... Oh, ok.... Perhaps just a little glass or two before exploring ...... For a man who doesn't like champagne, K is putting in a good effort..... Too good .....

Loving this hotel already.......

Did I mention, we deserve extra points for getting to reception, we had to "take a right, then a left, go straight past the wine tasting....." .... Erm, wine tasting? .... "yes, PAST the wine tasting....".... Mmmm Ok...






BTW, if my champagne looks a little flat in the pic, it's due to a retake using a very nice Pinot Grigio... Unfortunately, having made the best of the champers, I mistakenly deleted the original!

Good job we weren't here last Saturday! Man City stayed here, before and after their loss to Wigan.....

What Is The Gabba?

Something about the trip from London Euston to the hotel reminded me of home.....

How hard can it be?

So dates locked in... May 2013..... annual leave booked and confirmed!  FIVE WEEKS!  YAY!

Destination sorted... UK for a couple of weeks, home visit then over to France ... oh joy.....

So how hard can it be?

Quite hard apparently.... planes.... trains..... accommodation...... which to book first.... why don't the train and plane times line up ever? sigh..... let's not argue... I am sure it will come right in the end....

But finally..... details sorted.... we have an itinerary....

Inside Lane Cottages, Tarvin

Brisbane to Manchester...... stay in our favourite holiday cottages in Tarvin, Cheshire for a couple of weeks....

Lane Cottages, Tarvin

 .... visit friends and family... then catch the train from Chester

High Street, Chester

to London...

Shopping anyone?

London Bridge

spend a couple of nights in London.... stay at The Landmark Hotel


catch a show in the West End - The Audience, with Helen Mirren in the lead role,


hop on the Eurostar to Lille,
...... transfer to the TGV down to Avignon and spend a couple of weeks in a villa in Provence before a last splash in a swish hotel in Aix en Provence before

...sigh.....

........ catching those flights and heading back to Brisbane .....

Sounds like bliss.....