..... And Finally .....

Well folks, this is it.... and finally...

Our journey home wasn't entirely without incident.... after a three hour delay at Heathrow, unfortunately, we missed our Singapore connection back to Brisbane .... BUT... it turned out that wasn't such a bad thing and every cloud has a silver lining.... whether it was British Airways or Singapore Airlines who managed it, our transition from one flight to the next was smooth as could be .....

.... and now I know who gets to ride around airports on those little buggies!  Awesome, after 24 hours traveling we were saved those long transit walks..... and thanks to the pilots picking up time, we arrived in Bris-Vegas only an hour after our original scheduled time!

Well done British & Singapore Airlines!!!

The arrival in Brisbane also presented a great dawn photo opportunity.... how pretty is that?



 I am sad to report there has been a casualty of our holiday.... those who know me will know my affection for my trusty Blackberry..... I am very sad to report that after four loyal years, its energy is fading and its ball is refusing to move ..... I shall hang on to the very end but the  decision has to be made.....

.....  Blackberry? Android or iPhone?  Which is it to be?????

and now time to think about our next trip..... Chang Kong Cliff Road perhaps?

Oh and on a final note..... I told you it was cold didn't I?  UK Weather: Spring is coldest for 50 years!

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.....

Moving on.... Chester to London.....

So 13 days since touch down, 11 pubs, 12 different real ales, 18+ bottles of wine, an average of 25 dinners EACH....lots of hello's, even more laughs and some sad farewells until next time, it's time to move on to our next stop....

A last sad farewell to a little yellow friend K grew very close to .... Then off to Chester to catch the train to next stop, London for 2 nights ....

What Is The Gabba?

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

All Good Things Come to An End....

Sadly, our home visit part of the journey has come to an end, a last evening with Mum and Sophie.... A nice meal and a sad farewell....

Thursday and York.....

Well, not a whole lot to say about Thursday.... Let me just note,this wasn't the highlight... It was cold and wet and although York is a very nice City, the rain didn't give us a lot of chance for exploring.... I should mention The Shambles... Very pretty.....





.... and York Minster... very grand..... We climbed every one of the 273 steps to the top of the tower and the views were pretty good.... we were lucky the rain held off until we climbed down again .... From there we just got soaked!!

And here we are Friday morning.... We are having a slower day today... Its been a whirlwind so time to recharge our batteries and pack our bags before we head to London first thing tomorrow... I hope we leave the wet and cold behind us ....

Tonight is a final dinner with Mum and niece, Sophie... Another sad farewell....

Farewell and .... Last Chance For A Catch Up

It's been a busy couple of days so it's time for a catch up.... Wednesday evening after Conway was quite sad, saying farewell to three of K's sisters.... Off to the pub for a change and oh goodie... A pub quiz... We put in a good effort scoring 22.5, not bad given we weren't really trying.... Out of how many? Well that's not the point really is it?

A few tears and sad farewells.....

I cannot believe how fast the time has gone..... It seems like only a few days since we were scrabbling round for a cup of coffee....

And so to Thursday.....

Public graffiti.... Conway Style...

Also in Conway I thought it time to deposit Jenny's sticky!

Conway retry....

Today started with rain so we decided to take a break but were bored by 11am and the rain had stopped so we decided to give Conway in North Wales another go.... We rugged up cos it may not be wet but still cold.....

It didn't rain so we walked along the front and bumped into our old friend Robin.... Seen in the same spot 6 years ago.... He was barely out of his egg then though......