So you've probably noticed that we've been shifting between hostels almost on a daily basis. This has an unfortunate effect in that we need to compeletely pack up our stuff each night, losing some stuff in the process. So far the biggist casualty has been shampoo. I've (J) lost my shampoo while we were in our first hostel in London, Gem's lost her shampoo and face soap in Ullapool, I left my (new) shampoo in Torridon.
We've also left behind my Jandals and our NZ->UK power adapter in Comrie.
As an added bonus we left some pepsi in Skye.
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
The sun and photos
Okay, Jeremy here. Just a short post about nothing much. I've tried throwing in some links to our photos in the actual text of the last two posts. Let me know what you think (do they all work? are they too big? too annoying? do i ask too many questions? etc?)
The other thing thats bothering me is the sun. Not that theres too much of it (summer is good) but that its in the wrong place. We were in Brodie castle and the guide said something like "he wanted to make this room nice and light so he built these big bay windows on the south wall" and I thought "well that was stupid, the sun shines in from the north!". Luckily I didn't say that since I would've looke really stupid (even more than I usually do :]) because of course, now that we're in the northern hemisphere the sun travels from east to west on the south side. Its quite offputting because its so very automatic to orient myself the old way. Hopefully I'll never design a house here otherwise it might end up with a north facing house!
And that's my story.
The other thing thats bothering me is the sun. Not that theres too much of it (summer is good) but that its in the wrong place. We were in Brodie castle and the guide said something like "he wanted to make this room nice and light so he built these big bay windows on the south wall" and I thought "well that was stupid, the sun shines in from the north!". Luckily I didn't say that since I would've looke really stupid (even more than I usually do :]) because of course, now that we're in the northern hemisphere the sun travels from east to west on the south side. Its quite offputting because its so very automatic to orient myself the old way. Hopefully I'll never design a house here otherwise it might end up with a north facing house!
And that's my story.
Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster and other adventures
where were we up to? thats right we were in Torridon last time we wrote.
we drove from Torridon to the Isle of Skye the following day, again the scenery was pretty stunning and the weather was really hot!!! i now have the worst tshirt tan line cos i forgot to pack any singlets for this trip not expecting that it would get hotter as we went further north!!
At Torridon we realised the we has no bread left for breakfast so we drove on hoping that we'd go through a town with a bakery or store where we could get something yum, the only place we went that had anything vaguely suitable was a really small place and the best we could get from the general store was waffles, now these werent any ordinary waffles, they were small and hard but had caramel syrup in them so they wer so sweet and almost sickly after having two each for breakfast!!!
we stopped at the Strome Castle ruins to have a look around, this was a bit of a disappointment to jeremy cos its the friest ruins we'd been to and jeremy was expecting a big stately house like all the other ones we've been to. the ruins were cool though and on a rocky outcrop with great views up and down the sea Loch Carron.
The next place was ruins once but has been rebuilt to look like it was ages ago. the most photographed catle in scotland and appears on every scotland calender!!! Eilean Donan Castle. it was pretty spectacular form the outside and it sits on a island in the Loch accessed by a pretty bridge. the inside of the castle had heaps of crazy passageways in the really thick walls but was teeming with tourists and the information boards were really randomly laid out!!!
We drove over the Skye Bridge to the Isle of Skye. unfortunately we didn't get much of a chance to look around Skye because the main road was closed for most of the afternoon so we were stuck on the bottom half of the island and all the interesting bits are at the top half, including where we were staying!!! by the time the road reopened we were pretty tired and all the castles and museums and other stuff had closed so we made our way to the skyewalker hostel. it was a really cool hostel and had heaps of starwars charactter cutouts all round the place wearing tartan scarves!!! even the carpet was tartan as was the duvets and pillowcases on the bunks!!! the chap there suggested we go for a walk after tea up a local hill to look at the sunset. this was a beautiful view and the sunset was lovely. we did get eaten alive a wee bit by the midges.
midges are a native scottish bug like a very small sandfly and there are heaps of them . the night after our first encounter with them i even dreamt they were getting me and i hardly slept at all i was so itchy!!!!
in the morning we had to catch the boat back to the mainland quite early so only had time to quickly look at a prehistoric round tower ruins before driving to Armadale to catch the car ferry. we did a wee forest walk while we waited and saw some seals on the rocks, apparently you can sometimes see otters there but we didn't. :(
the ferry took us to Mallaig and the next bit of coastline was completely surprising. white sandy beaches with super clear blue water, it was so tropical looking and very different to everything else we'd seen. we had lunch at the beach but even tho it was hot the water was freezing still so no swimming!!!
after that we headed inland towards fort william, we stopped at Glenfinnan where there is a monument for the place the Jacobites raised their standard in 1745 and the Glenfinnan viaduct which was on the harry potter films. the monument we climbed up, it was a very narrow spiral staircase and at the top you popped out a small trapdoor and climbed out onto the roof.
Fort William itself was not particularly exciting we just got some supplies and looked around the outdoor market and headed further along to Fort Augustus where we were staying. Fort Augustus is a cute wee town with a canal and some tourist shops.
Okay, Gem is tired after that mammoth bit of writing, so I guess its my turn to take over. Where were we? So running through the centre of Fort Augustus is the Caledonian Canal. It was built in Victorian times to connect Fort William on the west coast with Inverness on the east coast. It was great to watch in action and really tickled my engineering bone (yes i have an engineering bone).
But back to our travels. We stayed at a hostel in Fort Augustus which had nice rooms but the kitchens and dining room was really gross. And there was a creepy staff member who was drunk/high who kept coming up and trying to have weird conversations with us.
Anyway, the next day we headed back west and travelled along to Glen Coe which is another scenic wee area with lots of walks. We took a Gondola ride up Aonoch Mor (a mountain) which is a ski field in winter. It was right next to Ben Nevis which is the tallest mountain in Scotland at 1343m (for comparison, Mt Cook is 3754m). We couldn't see the peak of Ben Nevis since it was covered in clouds. We also looked at the ruins of Inverlochy castle which is a pretty classical square fort with round towers at each corner (the kind you'd make out of sand on the beach, at least thats the shape i make my sand casltes). That night we went on a boat cruise on the Loch Ness and even got of shot of Nessie herself!
The day after was the last day of our highlands trip. It was (yet again) another stunning day and we went to Urquhart Caslte (ruins again!). These ruins were much cooler than the ones before because they've put some walkways and floors back in so you can clamber all over the castle. Its quite sprawling and you can easily visualise medieval life back in the day. Afterwards we went to a Monster exhibition in Drumnadrochit where we saw all the photographic evidence of the Loch Ness monster. From there we had a nice scenic drive up through Glen Affric which was doublely nice because it got us away from all the tourists again.
Finally we drove back up to Inverness to complete our circuit and after driving through the 5pm traffic we dropped the car off, grabbed some quick Macca's for tea and jumped on the train down to Pitlochry. The End.
we drove from Torridon to the Isle of Skye the following day, again the scenery was pretty stunning and the weather was really hot!!! i now have the worst tshirt tan line cos i forgot to pack any singlets for this trip not expecting that it would get hotter as we went further north!!
At Torridon we realised the we has no bread left for breakfast so we drove on hoping that we'd go through a town with a bakery or store where we could get something yum, the only place we went that had anything vaguely suitable was a really small place and the best we could get from the general store was waffles, now these werent any ordinary waffles, they were small and hard but had caramel syrup in them so they wer so sweet and almost sickly after having two each for breakfast!!!
we stopped at the Strome Castle ruins to have a look around, this was a bit of a disappointment to jeremy cos its the friest ruins we'd been to and jeremy was expecting a big stately house like all the other ones we've been to. the ruins were cool though and on a rocky outcrop with great views up and down the sea Loch Carron.
The next place was ruins once but has been rebuilt to look like it was ages ago. the most photographed catle in scotland and appears on every scotland calender!!! Eilean Donan Castle. it was pretty spectacular form the outside and it sits on a island in the Loch accessed by a pretty bridge. the inside of the castle had heaps of crazy passageways in the really thick walls but was teeming with tourists and the information boards were really randomly laid out!!!
We drove over the Skye Bridge to the Isle of Skye. unfortunately we didn't get much of a chance to look around Skye because the main road was closed for most of the afternoon so we were stuck on the bottom half of the island and all the interesting bits are at the top half, including where we were staying!!! by the time the road reopened we were pretty tired and all the castles and museums and other stuff had closed so we made our way to the skyewalker hostel. it was a really cool hostel and had heaps of starwars charactter cutouts all round the place wearing tartan scarves!!! even the carpet was tartan as was the duvets and pillowcases on the bunks!!! the chap there suggested we go for a walk after tea up a local hill to look at the sunset. this was a beautiful view and the sunset was lovely. we did get eaten alive a wee bit by the midges.
midges are a native scottish bug like a very small sandfly and there are heaps of them . the night after our first encounter with them i even dreamt they were getting me and i hardly slept at all i was so itchy!!!!
in the morning we had to catch the boat back to the mainland quite early so only had time to quickly look at a prehistoric round tower ruins before driving to Armadale to catch the car ferry. we did a wee forest walk while we waited and saw some seals on the rocks, apparently you can sometimes see otters there but we didn't. :(
the ferry took us to Mallaig and the next bit of coastline was completely surprising. white sandy beaches with super clear blue water, it was so tropical looking and very different to everything else we'd seen. we had lunch at the beach but even tho it was hot the water was freezing still so no swimming!!!
after that we headed inland towards fort william, we stopped at Glenfinnan where there is a monument for the place the Jacobites raised their standard in 1745 and the Glenfinnan viaduct which was on the harry potter films. the monument we climbed up, it was a very narrow spiral staircase and at the top you popped out a small trapdoor and climbed out onto the roof.
Fort William itself was not particularly exciting we just got some supplies and looked around the outdoor market and headed further along to Fort Augustus where we were staying. Fort Augustus is a cute wee town with a canal and some tourist shops.
Okay, Gem is tired after that mammoth bit of writing, so I guess its my turn to take over. Where were we? So running through the centre of Fort Augustus is the Caledonian Canal. It was built in Victorian times to connect Fort William on the west coast with Inverness on the east coast. It was great to watch in action and really tickled my engineering bone (yes i have an engineering bone).
But back to our travels. We stayed at a hostel in Fort Augustus which had nice rooms but the kitchens and dining room was really gross. And there was a creepy staff member who was drunk/high who kept coming up and trying to have weird conversations with us.
Anyway, the next day we headed back west and travelled along to Glen Coe which is another scenic wee area with lots of walks. We took a Gondola ride up Aonoch Mor (a mountain) which is a ski field in winter. It was right next to Ben Nevis which is the tallest mountain in Scotland at 1343m (for comparison, Mt Cook is 3754m). We couldn't see the peak of Ben Nevis since it was covered in clouds. We also looked at the ruins of Inverlochy castle which is a pretty classical square fort with round towers at each corner (the kind you'd make out of sand on the beach, at least thats the shape i make my sand casltes). That night we went on a boat cruise on the Loch Ness and even got of shot of Nessie herself!
The day after was the last day of our highlands trip. It was (yet again) another stunning day and we went to Urquhart Caslte (ruins again!). These ruins were much cooler than the ones before because they've put some walkways and floors back in so you can clamber all over the castle. Its quite sprawling and you can easily visualise medieval life back in the day. Afterwards we went to a Monster exhibition in Drumnadrochit where we saw all the photographic evidence of the Loch Ness monster. From there we had a nice scenic drive up through Glen Affric which was doublely nice because it got us away from all the tourists again.
Finally we drove back up to Inverness to complete our circuit and after driving through the 5pm traffic we dropped the car off, grabbed some quick Macca's for tea and jumped on the train down to Pitlochry. The End.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Highlands continued...
Okay, so next up was Culloden Battlefield. (as a side note we used to live on Culloden St in Dunedin). For those of you who don't know this was the major battlefield in the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745/46. The Scottish got absolutely hammered by the British English Redcoats (the Jacobites/Scottish were undefeated up to this point), with 1500 Jacobites dying vs only 50 Redcoat casualties. End of History Lesson. The information centre there is really really awesome, full of interative panels and great tour guides. They even have a birds eye view video/projector of the battlefield with little red and blue men that you can see fighting.
Next up was Cawdor castle which was another lovely state home. Shakespeare set part of Macbeth here (the murder of Duncan) but it wasn't very sinister while we were there (the sun was very sunny). They had a holly labyrith but we couldn't go in because if they let everyone in it will destroy the holly (since its shallow rooted). We're turning into maze enthusiasts I think.
We then intended to drive a short distance to Brodie Castle but we managed take a wrong turning somewhere (i still don't know where) and ended up 10 miles in the wrong direction, having taken a rather scenic route. We finally found our way there and just caught the last tour of the day at 4:30pm. We were so glad we did because the tour and the castle were really interesting. Really cool to hear the familiy history from the tour guide and how it got transfered into the National Trust. I even got to play on the antique piano (only because the benefactor wanted music to always be played in the music room (they also have concerts there too)).
We spent that night in Inverness too. Not sure if Gem mentioned but we had really cheap rooms with really uncomfortable bunks. You could feel the springs all the time as though there was just a thin sheet of material above them and thats it. You get what you pay for really.
The next day (which was yesterday) we had a lovely drive up to Ullapool. It is fantastically scenic and I thoroughly recommend coming up this way to have a look. We had lunch at Corrieshalloch Gorge which means Ugly Hollow in Gaelic but its really not. Theres a big suspension bridge over a massive ravine, with a gigantic watterfall. Gem got a little freaked out when the bridge was swaying and was even more scared when we got to the wee viewing platform round the corner (which sticks out over the ravine). Its weird because I was fine here but I was quite shakey when we were ontop of the dome at St Paul's, and Gem was the other way around. Before that we had a little walk at Rogie Falls which were also very pretty with deep black water, unsurprisingly called the Black River. We managed to lose our way on the walk with some confusing colour coded signposting.
We got to Ullapool in the early afternoon and guy at the hostel suggested we take a drive further north to Achiltibuie. Up there we drove through some stunning mountain scenery and found a lovely white sandy beach. It was blazing hot so we stopped there for a while. Its definitely not what we were expecting to be doing in the Scottish Highlands. There were also lots of pretty wee isles dotted around the coast (called the Summer Isles i think). We had fish & chips for tea and sat on the beach at Ullapool until 9pm because it was so hot. Go summertime!
Finally today we drove from Ullapool to Torridon. Drove through more spectacular scenery (is this getting repetitive?) and stopped for luch at the Inverwe Gardens. The gardens are filled with exotic plants, way more tropical than you'd expect at the top of Scotland. They even had a Bamboosolem (haha funny word) with bamboo! We stopped at another sunny sandy beach and we watched a real funny dog playing fetch. He would bring a tennis ball back to his master and drop it while she threw another one away in the opposite direction, and he went tearing after that one. Meanwhile the first ball would roll to his master's feet. So he basically was on the run the whole time, never stopping. Someone should teach Monty to fetch balls like that! (Yeah right)
We mosied down lots of one track roads which are quite common up here. But they're not as bad as you might think. They have heap and heaps of passing places (unlike the ones in the lakes district) so its really good when you want to stop heaps and admire the scenery and people can pass you easily. Its much better than narrow two lane roads where there's no safe place to stop or to let people behind you pass.
Torridon is a really small place where the only shop is open only 1.5 hours a day. Just chilling out in the YHA at the moment (back in seperate dorms again :[ )
We're finding the sheep kinda weird over here. They all have tails for one thing (we even saw one wagging it like a dog today), and they wander all over the place. We passed through one little town which had sheep grazing next to the pub!
I think that pretty much catches us up. Next up we're travelling to the remote Isle of Skye so might not be internet again.
Toodle-oo
Gem and Jez
Next up was Cawdor castle which was another lovely state home. Shakespeare set part of Macbeth here (the murder of Duncan) but it wasn't very sinister while we were there (the sun was very sunny). They had a holly labyrith but we couldn't go in because if they let everyone in it will destroy the holly (since its shallow rooted). We're turning into maze enthusiasts I think.
We then intended to drive a short distance to Brodie Castle but we managed take a wrong turning somewhere (i still don't know where) and ended up 10 miles in the wrong direction, having taken a rather scenic route. We finally found our way there and just caught the last tour of the day at 4:30pm. We were so glad we did because the tour and the castle were really interesting. Really cool to hear the familiy history from the tour guide and how it got transfered into the National Trust. I even got to play on the antique piano (only because the benefactor wanted music to always be played in the music room (they also have concerts there too)).
We spent that night in Inverness too. Not sure if Gem mentioned but we had really cheap rooms with really uncomfortable bunks. You could feel the springs all the time as though there was just a thin sheet of material above them and thats it. You get what you pay for really.
The next day (which was yesterday) we had a lovely drive up to Ullapool. It is fantastically scenic and I thoroughly recommend coming up this way to have a look. We had lunch at Corrieshalloch Gorge which means Ugly Hollow in Gaelic but its really not. Theres a big suspension bridge over a massive ravine, with a gigantic watterfall. Gem got a little freaked out when the bridge was swaying and was even more scared when we got to the wee viewing platform round the corner (which sticks out over the ravine). Its weird because I was fine here but I was quite shakey when we were ontop of the dome at St Paul's, and Gem was the other way around. Before that we had a little walk at Rogie Falls which were also very pretty with deep black water, unsurprisingly called the Black River. We managed to lose our way on the walk with some confusing colour coded signposting.
We got to Ullapool in the early afternoon and guy at the hostel suggested we take a drive further north to Achiltibuie. Up there we drove through some stunning mountain scenery and found a lovely white sandy beach. It was blazing hot so we stopped there for a while. Its definitely not what we were expecting to be doing in the Scottish Highlands. There were also lots of pretty wee isles dotted around the coast (called the Summer Isles i think). We had fish & chips for tea and sat on the beach at Ullapool until 9pm because it was so hot. Go summertime!
Finally today we drove from Ullapool to Torridon. Drove through more spectacular scenery (is this getting repetitive?) and stopped for luch at the Inverwe Gardens. The gardens are filled with exotic plants, way more tropical than you'd expect at the top of Scotland. They even had a Bamboosolem (haha funny word) with bamboo! We stopped at another sunny sandy beach and we watched a real funny dog playing fetch. He would bring a tennis ball back to his master and drop it while she threw another one away in the opposite direction, and he went tearing after that one. Meanwhile the first ball would roll to his master's feet. So he basically was on the run the whole time, never stopping. Someone should teach Monty to fetch balls like that! (Yeah right)
We mosied down lots of one track roads which are quite common up here. But they're not as bad as you might think. They have heap and heaps of passing places (unlike the ones in the lakes district) so its really good when you want to stop heaps and admire the scenery and people can pass you easily. Its much better than narrow two lane roads where there's no safe place to stop or to let people behind you pass.
Torridon is a really small place where the only shop is open only 1.5 hours a day. Just chilling out in the YHA at the moment (back in seperate dorms again :[ )
We're finding the sheep kinda weird over here. They all have tails for one thing (we even saw one wagging it like a dog today), and they wander all over the place. We passed through one little town which had sheep grazing next to the pub!
I think that pretty much catches us up. Next up we're travelling to the remote Isle of Skye so might not be internet again.
Toodle-oo
Gem and Jez
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Highlanders!!!
Waring... Cliffhanger alert...we only have a few mins of internet time left so will just write what we can post and fill in the rest later :)
the Ceilidh was super fun, we got up and danced heaps, and did fun dances like strip the Wilow and the white dashing soldier, there was lots of getting spun around and it didn't matter at all that we had no idea what we were doing, people showed us what to do in the ones in groups and we just copied in the ones that were just couples. there were even lots (well about four) people in Kilts, it was sooo cool!!! we were the youngest people there by far, maybe the only people this side of forty!!! but it didn't really matter :)
The next day (Monday) we headed up to Inverness on the Train. it was soo sunny so the train ride was really beautiful and the scenery was lovely, the hills became wilder and all covered in heather which is just coming out into bloom, a really pretty purple colour.
in Inverness we looked at the Castle, bit of a let down really, its only 200 years old (HUH 200 years soo young!! :)) and we couldn't go inside, its just the court houses!! but the view over the city from the top was cool. and we looked through the Inverness city museum which was really interesting, all about the history of the highlands and the geology of the area. so now we know what we're looking at when we go around the place.
in the afternoon we went for a beautiful walk along the river Ness, its soo cool you just walk for 10 mins out of the city into this woodland area and across some islands in the river and up the other side!!
the next day we headed off to culloden battle field but you'll have to wait to hear about that and cawdor and brodie castles and todays adventures in Ullapool and a tall suspension bridge!!
:) G + J
the Ceilidh was super fun, we got up and danced heaps, and did fun dances like strip the Wilow and the white dashing soldier, there was lots of getting spun around and it didn't matter at all that we had no idea what we were doing, people showed us what to do in the ones in groups and we just copied in the ones that were just couples. there were even lots (well about four) people in Kilts, it was sooo cool!!! we were the youngest people there by far, maybe the only people this side of forty!!! but it didn't really matter :)
The next day (Monday) we headed up to Inverness on the Train. it was soo sunny so the train ride was really beautiful and the scenery was lovely, the hills became wilder and all covered in heather which is just coming out into bloom, a really pretty purple colour.
in Inverness we looked at the Castle, bit of a let down really, its only 200 years old (HUH 200 years soo young!! :)) and we couldn't go inside, its just the court houses!! but the view over the city from the top was cool. and we looked through the Inverness city museum which was really interesting, all about the history of the highlands and the geology of the area. so now we know what we're looking at when we go around the place.
in the afternoon we went for a beautiful walk along the river Ness, its soo cool you just walk for 10 mins out of the city into this woodland area and across some islands in the river and up the other side!!
the next day we headed off to culloden battle field but you'll have to wait to hear about that and cawdor and brodie castles and todays adventures in Ullapool and a tall suspension bridge!!
:) G + J
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Oh and driving
Okay, story time about driving in Britain.
(side note: Gem had noticed that i keep starting my stories with "okay")
So we hired a car from Morcambe (more-cam) to drive around the Lakes district. A quick rant: its really annoying that we have to pay an additional £11 a day because we've both under 25. When the car itself is only £16 a day!! if only i was 3 months older!.
I'm finding driving a bit different over here. In the Lakes district there are heaps of little lanes which only just fit two cars (if that!) and they all are bordered by stone walls so there isn't much room for error, not to mention they stop you from looking around the corners. Sometimes the roads are single lane tracks so if you meet another car barrelling down the lane, you have to slam on the brakes and then one of you has to back-up until you find a wee passing place or something to pass each other.
To add to it all, the indicator toggle is on the left and the wipers are on the right so i keep turning the wipers on when we go round a corner and indicate when it starts raining. =p
We found a couple of amusing signs along our travels. One is the "elderly people" and it has the best little picture on it. The other amusing sign was because of all the little laneways criss-crossing the area, all the roads seem to go to the same place! We were staying in Arnside and we found this sign that pointed to Arnside in two different directions! Though after we noticed this phenomenom and wanted to take a picture of it, we couldn't find one for ages!
(side note: Gem had noticed that i keep starting my stories with "okay")
So we hired a car from Morcambe (more-cam) to drive around the Lakes district. A quick rant: its really annoying that we have to pay an additional £11 a day because we've both under 25. When the car itself is only £16 a day!! if only i was 3 months older!.
I'm finding driving a bit different over here. In the Lakes district there are heaps of little lanes which only just fit two cars (if that!) and they all are bordered by stone walls so there isn't much room for error, not to mention they stop you from looking around the corners. Sometimes the roads are single lane tracks so if you meet another car barrelling down the lane, you have to slam on the brakes and then one of you has to back-up until you find a wee passing place or something to pass each other.
To add to it all, the indicator toggle is on the left and the wipers are on the right so i keep turning the wipers on when we go round a corner and indicate when it starts raining. =p
We found a couple of amusing signs along our travels. One is the "elderly people" and it has the best little picture on it. The other amusing sign was because of all the little laneways criss-crossing the area, all the roads seem to go to the same place! We were staying in Arnside and we found this sign that pointed to Arnside in two different directions! Though after we noticed this phenomenom and wanted to take a picture of it, we couldn't find one for ages!
Scotland the brave!!!
we have spent a lovely 2 days in pitlochry with my (G) mum's cousin Elaine and Henry. pitlochry is a sweetly touristy village on the way to the highlands. there are loads of wee walks around the area and lots of lochs and rivers everywhere. the first night we were here we went for a walk up to the dam and looked at the fish ladder (which is a series of 30 or so pools that the fish can swim between so they can still swim upriver to spawn, even with the dam in the way!).
Its been soooo good to sleep in a proper bed. While we were in Comrie we were sleeping on a double air mattress which was alright but not the best of sleeps. but before that we were staying in youth hostels that only have separate girls and boys dorms so we weren't even sleeping in the same room! We're such a lame old married couple who can't sleep too far apart.
Its been really relaxing here which is great since we've been so hectic since landing in London. And we've still been able to look around since Elaine and Henry have been talking us out on walks around the area. We've only done two touristy things in two days which has to be an all record minimum.
We looked at Blair Castle on Saturday which is another cool Scottish castle. It was white and fairy tale turrets (round tower). I (Jeremy) always thought of Scottish people back in the day as those highlanders like in Braveheart, but of course they had nobles and castles and all that too, i just never really thought about it. There was a piper at the entrance because they were having a wedding there and there were lots of people dressed up in kilts. Oh and Blair castle is only place in Britain that is allowed to have its own private army. queen Victoria liked it when she stayed there so she said they could have an army!!! apparently its mostly made up of old men now but they parade each year!!! i don't think they go to war anymore tho!!!
last night we went for a walk to see the black spout, a local waterfall, it was a pretty walk through the woods. the woods are really different to the forests in NZ, they have big tall trees like beech and oak then just bracken and stuff at ground level so you can see through the trees. apparently in the winter time red deer come down off the hills into the woods around the town.
we have seen a wee bit of wildlife so far, loads of rabbits obviously, and lots of molehills all over grassy areas (like the golf course!!!)but no actual moles (they don't come out much and only at night), Jeremy saw a fox as it ran in front of the car in comrie, that was exciting. we have seen grey squirrels in England but no red squirrels yet, although Elaine and Henry get them in their garden sometimes. we saw an eagle soaring in the sky above Queens View today which was pretty cool. they have loads of cute wee birds here which we've seen quite a few of but have no idea what they are.
Today we went for a drive to Queens View, a pretty lookout point over Loch Tummel, which is where Queen Victoria enjoyed to picnic when she came to the highlands. we then drove along the loch and visited a Crannoch!!!!!
a crannoch is a wooden hut over the loch where people lived about 2500 years ago!!! the one we were in was a reconstruction but they have excavated all the debris under where they were and found heaps of relics and stuff. it was really interesting and the exhibition also had how the crannoch people did crafts. Jeremy had a go at making fire from two bits of wood, he got a wee bit of smoke but no fire, the guy made it look so easy but j said its actually hard work!!! we also got to have a go a carving a bit of wood using a wooden lathe.
Tonight we are going to a ceilidh. Meredith should know what that is. All I (j) know is that it is some sort of Scottish music/dance.
we have planned the next leg of our journey, we are heading up to inverness tomorrow then spending a week touring around the highlands. we will then return to pitlochry and will attempt to get work after that. we have no idea where we'll be based but we'll let you know.
Love Gem and Jez
PS to add to the bank saga from before when we got to keri's house we each had two eftpos cards waiting for us and two different letters with the pin numbers on them so we now each have two bank cards one for the normal account and one for the savings and when we're allowed to have credit cards they'll be a different card again!!! what a mission!!! and we still do not have internet banking!!! its pretty ridiculous really but that seems to be the way they do things over here. o well, now we just need to earn some money to put in all these accounts!!!!!
Its been soooo good to sleep in a proper bed. While we were in Comrie we were sleeping on a double air mattress which was alright but not the best of sleeps. but before that we were staying in youth hostels that only have separate girls and boys dorms so we weren't even sleeping in the same room! We're such a lame old married couple who can't sleep too far apart.
Its been really relaxing here which is great since we've been so hectic since landing in London. And we've still been able to look around since Elaine and Henry have been talking us out on walks around the area. We've only done two touristy things in two days which has to be an all record minimum.
We looked at Blair Castle on Saturday which is another cool Scottish castle. It was white and fairy tale turrets (round tower). I (Jeremy) always thought of Scottish people back in the day as those highlanders like in Braveheart, but of course they had nobles and castles and all that too, i just never really thought about it. There was a piper at the entrance because they were having a wedding there and there were lots of people dressed up in kilts. Oh and Blair castle is only place in Britain that is allowed to have its own private army. queen Victoria liked it when she stayed there so she said they could have an army!!! apparently its mostly made up of old men now but they parade each year!!! i don't think they go to war anymore tho!!!
last night we went for a walk to see the black spout, a local waterfall, it was a pretty walk through the woods. the woods are really different to the forests in NZ, they have big tall trees like beech and oak then just bracken and stuff at ground level so you can see through the trees. apparently in the winter time red deer come down off the hills into the woods around the town.
we have seen a wee bit of wildlife so far, loads of rabbits obviously, and lots of molehills all over grassy areas (like the golf course!!!)but no actual moles (they don't come out much and only at night), Jeremy saw a fox as it ran in front of the car in comrie, that was exciting. we have seen grey squirrels in England but no red squirrels yet, although Elaine and Henry get them in their garden sometimes. we saw an eagle soaring in the sky above Queens View today which was pretty cool. they have loads of cute wee birds here which we've seen quite a few of but have no idea what they are.
Today we went for a drive to Queens View, a pretty lookout point over Loch Tummel, which is where Queen Victoria enjoyed to picnic when she came to the highlands. we then drove along the loch and visited a Crannoch!!!!!
a crannoch is a wooden hut over the loch where people lived about 2500 years ago!!! the one we were in was a reconstruction but they have excavated all the debris under where they were and found heaps of relics and stuff. it was really interesting and the exhibition also had how the crannoch people did crafts. Jeremy had a go at making fire from two bits of wood, he got a wee bit of smoke but no fire, the guy made it look so easy but j said its actually hard work!!! we also got to have a go a carving a bit of wood using a wooden lathe.
Tonight we are going to a ceilidh. Meredith should know what that is. All I (j) know is that it is some sort of Scottish music/dance.
we have planned the next leg of our journey, we are heading up to inverness tomorrow then spending a week touring around the highlands. we will then return to pitlochry and will attempt to get work after that. we have no idea where we'll be based but we'll let you know.
Love Gem and Jez
PS to add to the bank saga from before when we got to keri's house we each had two eftpos cards waiting for us and two different letters with the pin numbers on them so we now each have two bank cards one for the normal account and one for the savings and when we're allowed to have credit cards they'll be a different card again!!! what a mission!!! and we still do not have internet banking!!! its pretty ridiculous really but that seems to be the way they do things over here. o well, now we just need to earn some money to put in all these accounts!!!!!
Why no comments?
Why isn't anyone commenting on our blog? Doesn't anyone love us anymore? :(
If there is anything we should be talking about more or spending more time on, let us know. We're always keen to try and improve our bloggins style and get better at the whole live journal thing.
jeremy is such a geek, we're just sad cos we miss hearing from everyone at home if no-one comments then we dont know if anyone read it and we miss u. :(
If there is anything we should be talking about more or spending more time on, let us know. We're always keen to try and improve our bloggins style and get better at the whole live journal thing.
jeremy is such a geek, we're just sad cos we miss hearing from everyone at home if no-one comments then we dont know if anyone read it and we miss u. :(
Friday, 18 July 2008
Miles behind
So we're miles behind in our blogging. Its been quite hard to get sufficient time at a computer with internet in between our travelling. We only managed to put up those photos and a few blog stuff while we were in transit in Glasgow. So we're going to be a bit vague in blogging about what we've been up to in the last week.
In brief:
Still in the lakes district, the day after our excursion out to the stone circle, Pamela arranged a family outing on a real steam train from Carnforth to Ravenglass through some lovely scenery. We went over the bridge over the Morcambe bay (a big sandy tidal bay) (which is really long with 51 arches). Once in Ravenglass we took another rail trip on a mini-steam train on narrow gauge rails. It was called the Ravenglass & Eskdale railway and goes through some more lovely hillside scenery.
Next day we went to Sizergh Castle which is where Gem's Uncle Harry used to be a room steward. The gardens there are really nice.
That was the end of our trip in the Lakes. We dropped Auntie Kath back at the train station the next morning (and thankfully this time the train service was perfect and she got home with no trouble at all) and we caught a train up to Glasgow. We stayed the night there at a hostel right on the riverside. This turned out to be a little annoying as there we heaps of seagulls squawking away in the late and early hours.
The next day we headed up to Perth by train so we could catch the local bus through to Comrie to stay with Duncan and Keri (my cousin) which is where we are right now. It was a pain having our packs while we were in Perth because we couldn't really do any touristy stuff and we couldn't leave them in a luggage place because of these new age security reasons.
Its been really nice catching up with my Auntie Penny and Uncle David as they are over here vising Keri (their daughter). While we've been here we've been to Drummond Castle gardens and we went to Scone (pronounced skoon) Palace which is where the Scottish Kings were crowned and that was really cool to hear about the Scottish Royalty and how it all ties into the English royalty and the wars between them.
Anyway, we're about to head out to Pitlochry now so we'll blog more later and maybe flesh out the descriptions of what we've been doing.
Till next time.
Gem and Jez
In brief:
Still in the lakes district, the day after our excursion out to the stone circle, Pamela arranged a family outing on a real steam train from Carnforth to Ravenglass through some lovely scenery. We went over the bridge over the Morcambe bay (a big sandy tidal bay) (which is really long with 51 arches). Once in Ravenglass we took another rail trip on a mini-steam train on narrow gauge rails. It was called the Ravenglass & Eskdale railway and goes through some more lovely hillside scenery.
Next day we went to Sizergh Castle which is where Gem's Uncle Harry used to be a room steward. The gardens there are really nice.
That was the end of our trip in the Lakes. We dropped Auntie Kath back at the train station the next morning (and thankfully this time the train service was perfect and she got home with no trouble at all) and we caught a train up to Glasgow. We stayed the night there at a hostel right on the riverside. This turned out to be a little annoying as there we heaps of seagulls squawking away in the late and early hours.
The next day we headed up to Perth by train so we could catch the local bus through to Comrie to stay with Duncan and Keri (my cousin) which is where we are right now. It was a pain having our packs while we were in Perth because we couldn't really do any touristy stuff and we couldn't leave them in a luggage place because of these new age security reasons.
Its been really nice catching up with my Auntie Penny and Uncle David as they are over here vising Keri (their daughter). While we've been here we've been to Drummond Castle gardens and we went to Scone (pronounced skoon) Palace which is where the Scottish Kings were crowned and that was really cool to hear about the Scottish Royalty and how it all ties into the English royalty and the wars between them.
Anyway, we're about to head out to Pitlochry now so we'll blog more later and maybe flesh out the descriptions of what we've been doing.
Till next time.
Gem and Jez
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
We've added photos
Just click the photos link in the sideboard to the right. The new folders are London and Lakes.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
Not that we actually looked into Wordsworth's house, and not that there were any daffodils were about at the time, but we did look at the outside of Dove cottage. We had a nice we tour around part of the Lakes district with Pam and Andrew, although it did start with a bit of a hiccup. We were going to go to Hilltop farm (where Beatrice Potter lived) but although we all read the guide book none of us noticed that it is closed on Fridays! But we were still able to see lots of scenery and we had a nice walk around Tarn Hows (a lake).
The scenery is quite different from NZ. The farmland had cute stone walls instead of fences which are soo cool. and there always seem to be cows and sheep in the same paddock. around the lakes, although the mountains aren't very high (no snow at this time of year), they're still quite dramatic and they're beautiful reflections of the mountians in the lakes.
It was quite rainy and misty which kinda gives a cool feel to it. Although we got enough clear spells to eat our lunch in the dry and have a reasonably dry walk. We had lunch by Conniston water and continued driving north past Grassmere which is where Dove cottage is.
We got to Castlerigg stone circle which is near Keswick. Its really cool because you can go right up to the stones and touch them. There was a great view from there of the mountains right around the stone circle.
The scenery is quite different from NZ. The farmland had cute stone walls instead of fences which are soo cool. and there always seem to be cows and sheep in the same paddock. around the lakes, although the mountains aren't very high (no snow at this time of year), they're still quite dramatic and they're beautiful reflections of the mountians in the lakes.
It was quite rainy and misty which kinda gives a cool feel to it. Although we got enough clear spells to eat our lunch in the dry and have a reasonably dry walk. We had lunch by Conniston water and continued driving north past Grassmere which is where Dove cottage is.
We got to Castlerigg stone circle which is near Keswick. Its really cool because you can go right up to the stones and touch them. There was a great view from there of the mountains right around the stone circle.
Diamond wedding party
The reason we stopped off in the Lakes District was to visit my auntie Dot and uncle Harry who celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary on thursday. thats 60 years of marriage!!!
all their family had gathered and they had a nice lunch party at the local hotel with their friends from the village aswell. it was really nice to meet all the family whom i haven't met before. Pam and Liz, Dot and Harry's two daughters were their with their husbands Andrew and Mark. Also Liz's two children Mark and Michelle. Mark and his fiancee Katie brought up their two new baby twins who are only 11 weeks old, they were soo cute!!! and Michelle and her partner Martin had their 1 year old son Harvey who was also soo cute!!! its fun spending lots of time with little babies, we seem to be doing quite a bit of it lately.
an exciting thing about the diamond wedding anniversay was that they got a card from the Queen!!! it was awesome!!! the postman delivered it specially to the door. hopefuly we're going to put a photo of it up soon.
i think that antie dot and uncle harry really enjoyed the party, it was nice for all their family and friends to be there. its so amazing how fit and well they both are considering they're in their 90s. My auntie Dot is a bit dithery and forgets and repeats things a bit, i've lost track of the amount of times she told me how pleased she was to have travelled so many interesting places and how we should we should be making the most of it while we can. although it got a bit frustrating answering that question so many times she's exactly right. We should be making the most of our travels and so we are.
all their family had gathered and they had a nice lunch party at the local hotel with their friends from the village aswell. it was really nice to meet all the family whom i haven't met before. Pam and Liz, Dot and Harry's two daughters were their with their husbands Andrew and Mark. Also Liz's two children Mark and Michelle. Mark and his fiancee Katie brought up their two new baby twins who are only 11 weeks old, they were soo cute!!! and Michelle and her partner Martin had their 1 year old son Harvey who was also soo cute!!! its fun spending lots of time with little babies, we seem to be doing quite a bit of it lately.
an exciting thing about the diamond wedding anniversay was that they got a card from the Queen!!! it was awesome!!! the postman delivered it specially to the door. hopefuly we're going to put a photo of it up soon.
i think that antie dot and uncle harry really enjoyed the party, it was nice for all their family and friends to be there. its so amazing how fit and well they both are considering they're in their 90s. My auntie Dot is a bit dithery and forgets and repeats things a bit, i've lost track of the amount of times she told me how pleased she was to have travelled so many interesting places and how we should we should be making the most of it while we can. although it got a bit frustrating answering that question so many times she's exactly right. We should be making the most of our travels and so we are.
Monday, 14 July 2008
The joys of train travel
Well Gemma loves trains. She finds them really exciting even (i was going to say 'interesting' but she thinks 'exciting' is more betterer). But I don't... they make me sick. But thats almost irrelavent to our eventful train adventure north to the Lakes District.
We set off from Euston station about midday on Wednesday. The train departed on time but only made it about a minute out of the station before stopping for 15 mins. The lady on the voiceover explained that this was due to a different train hitting a tree!! (How this is possible i don't know, it must've jumped out and surprised it). Then a line fault meant we were diverted through the midlands rather than up the main line. Then, yes there is more, there was an electrical fault on the line so they had to get a diesel engine to tow us (slowly) along. We had to wait for ages for the diesel engine to arrive and get attached and at the other end had to wait for it to be de-attached. Then, since we were so late (like 2.5 hrs by now) they needed the train back in London for the next service and so they booted us all off at Crewe (3/4 of the way) so we had to rush to catch another train! We almost missed it and we all just crammed into the little exit/entrance way between carraiges. Fortunately some nice person gave Auntie Kath a seat but Gemma and I took up 2 persons worth each standing with our packs (so we just hung out in the exit).
In the end the train was 2.5 hrs late and so we missed getting our rental car because the shop had closed for the day! But we managed to get a taxi the rest of the way to Uncle Harry and Auntie Dots house and Pam and Andrew gave us a lift to our hotel.
Train travel is fun eh.
We set off from Euston station about midday on Wednesday. The train departed on time but only made it about a minute out of the station before stopping for 15 mins. The lady on the voiceover explained that this was due to a different train hitting a tree!! (How this is possible i don't know, it must've jumped out and surprised it). Then a line fault meant we were diverted through the midlands rather than up the main line. Then, yes there is more, there was an electrical fault on the line so they had to get a diesel engine to tow us (slowly) along. We had to wait for ages for the diesel engine to arrive and get attached and at the other end had to wait for it to be de-attached. Then, since we were so late (like 2.5 hrs by now) they needed the train back in London for the next service and so they booted us all off at Crewe (3/4 of the way) so we had to rush to catch another train! We almost missed it and we all just crammed into the little exit/entrance way between carraiges. Fortunately some nice person gave Auntie Kath a seat but Gemma and I took up 2 persons worth each standing with our packs (so we just hung out in the exit).
In the end the train was 2.5 hrs late and so we missed getting our rental car because the shop had closed for the day! But we managed to get a taxi the rest of the way to Uncle Harry and Auntie Dots house and Pam and Andrew gave us a lift to our hotel.
Train travel is fun eh.
Parliament
Okay so we've been out of contact for a week now. We've done lots of things and are going to slowly blog about them all over a few posts.
Tuesday 8th July
We were lucky enough to get a guided tour around the houses of parliament. We went along with Gem's cousin Pamela as part of a Liberal Democrat group tour. We saw the House of Lords which is very elaborate and ornate and has a huge big gold throne where the Queen sits once a year for the opening of parliament. We also saw the House of Commons which is very green (just like the one in the Beehive). Then Pamela's MP, Greg Mulholland, took us up to on of the Select Committee conference rooms and talked about what he does in Parliament and stuff. It was really really interesting to hear what an MP's job is actually all about. And strange that we've talked to a real MP in England but never met one in NZ. He's also the most famous person we've met so far (but not that famous cos theres about 600+ MPs).
We spend the rest of the afternoon with Pamela and had a look through the Jewel Tower which is one of the only remaining bits of the original Westminster Palace (the offical name of the Parliament building).
Afterwards we lugged our massive packs out to Ealing to stay with Gem's great Auntie Kath. She live in a real cute little terrace house and I trimmed her hedges for her.
The next day we headed out of London by train... but thats a story for another post.
And that was London.
Tuesday 8th July
We were lucky enough to get a guided tour around the houses of parliament. We went along with Gem's cousin Pamela as part of a Liberal Democrat group tour. We saw the House of Lords which is very elaborate and ornate and has a huge big gold throne where the Queen sits once a year for the opening of parliament. We also saw the House of Commons which is very green (just like the one in the Beehive). Then Pamela's MP, Greg Mulholland, took us up to on of the Select Committee conference rooms and talked about what he does in Parliament and stuff. It was really really interesting to hear what an MP's job is actually all about. And strange that we've talked to a real MP in England but never met one in NZ. He's also the most famous person we've met so far (but not that famous cos theres about 600+ MPs).
We spend the rest of the afternoon with Pamela and had a look through the Jewel Tower which is one of the only remaining bits of the original Westminster Palace (the offical name of the Parliament building).
Afterwards we lugged our massive packs out to Ealing to stay with Gem's great Auntie Kath. She live in a real cute little terrace house and I trimmed her hedges for her.
The next day we headed out of London by train... but thats a story for another post.
And that was London.
Monday, 7 July 2008
Henry the 8th i am i am
apparently that is a song... according to Jeremy, can someone confirm this? or is Jeremy just going mad?
We spent the day at Hampton Court Palace today, which was one of Henry the 8th's many palaces that he lived in throughout the year. its massive and has an amazingly beautiful garden.
we got two guided tours through different parts of the palace, the guides were dressed in period costume of the era the rooms were (Henry the 8th and William and Mary) they were really knowledgeable and told us heaps of cool information about the Palace and the court life. did you know that they had to keep moving to different palaces all the time cos after a few weeks in one place it would smell too gross to stay??? and did you know that Henry the 8th had a chap called the groom of the stool whose job it was to wipe his bum!!! haha but apparently everyone wanted to be it cos you got be spend heaps of time with the king!!!!
there wasn't as much gold today but there were some amazing tapestries hanging on the walls and heaps of massive paintings everywhere. some of the rooms were laid out exactly as they would have been in the time of the kings and with the original furnishings, like his actual throne and his actual bed!!! so we walked in the footsteps of actual kings and queens today, it was really exciting (especially for me cos i reckon royal people are super, in case you hadn't already figured that out!!!)
One of the most famous things about Hampton Court is the gardens and the Maze. we did the maze which was pretty cool, but it didn't take very long, the remaining maze now is way smaller than the original one. the rest of the gardens were stunning, each of the important rooms in the palace looks out onto a vista along the garden and they are laid out so beautifully.
And then we got WET, really WET just as we were leaving to go back to the train station it made thunder and lightening and bucketed down, we got soaking cos the wee umbrella doesn't protect from lots of rain cos it all falls off the sides of the umbrella onto you anyway!!!
this will probably be our last post for a few days, we're heading to my Auntie Kaths tomorrow and then up to Silverdale in the lakes district. we will probably next have internet once we're in the youth hostel there, in four days or so. we might try to post some photos then too so you all can see what we've been going on about!!!
lots of love Gem and Jez
We spent the day at Hampton Court Palace today, which was one of Henry the 8th's many palaces that he lived in throughout the year. its massive and has an amazingly beautiful garden.
we got two guided tours through different parts of the palace, the guides were dressed in period costume of the era the rooms were (Henry the 8th and William and Mary) they were really knowledgeable and told us heaps of cool information about the Palace and the court life. did you know that they had to keep moving to different palaces all the time cos after a few weeks in one place it would smell too gross to stay??? and did you know that Henry the 8th had a chap called the groom of the stool whose job it was to wipe his bum!!! haha but apparently everyone wanted to be it cos you got be spend heaps of time with the king!!!!
there wasn't as much gold today but there were some amazing tapestries hanging on the walls and heaps of massive paintings everywhere. some of the rooms were laid out exactly as they would have been in the time of the kings and with the original furnishings, like his actual throne and his actual bed!!! so we walked in the footsteps of actual kings and queens today, it was really exciting (especially for me cos i reckon royal people are super, in case you hadn't already figured that out!!!)
One of the most famous things about Hampton Court is the gardens and the Maze. we did the maze which was pretty cool, but it didn't take very long, the remaining maze now is way smaller than the original one. the rest of the gardens were stunning, each of the important rooms in the palace looks out onto a vista along the garden and they are laid out so beautifully.
And then we got WET, really WET just as we were leaving to go back to the train station it made thunder and lightening and bucketed down, we got soaking cos the wee umbrella doesn't protect from lots of rain cos it all falls off the sides of the umbrella onto you anyway!!!
this will probably be our last post for a few days, we're heading to my Auntie Kaths tomorrow and then up to Silverdale in the lakes district. we will probably next have internet once we're in the youth hostel there, in four days or so. we might try to post some photos then too so you all can see what we've been going on about!!!
lots of love Gem and Jez
The Lord Mayor!
Sunday 6th of July
Righto. So just had a quiet day today. The only tourist thing we did was go to a service at Westminster abbey. It turned out to be the annual Civic service or something and we got to see the Lord Mayor of Westminster (which is actually a woman so shouldn't it be Lady or something (gem says no)). We didn't get too much of a look at the abbey itself because we were only there for the service and had to stay in the nave (as we weren't nearly important enough to be up the front (we're just plebs)). We'll come back sometime later as proper tourists and get a tour which is apparently really good.
It rained after that so we didn't do any more sightseeing. But we did see some people trying to break the Guinness world record for the most people doing a Bollywood dance in Trafalgar square (and they did break it despite the rain)
Instead we went and visited my cousin Yean Hong and his wee baby. It was really nice to be normal people again instead of crazy annoying tourists. Baby was really cute and Gem was gushing as normal. It was really nice to meet Julian for the first time and spend time with family (i haven't seen Yean Hong for a decade).
Over and out
Righto. So just had a quiet day today. The only tourist thing we did was go to a service at Westminster abbey. It turned out to be the annual Civic service or something and we got to see the Lord Mayor of Westminster (which is actually a woman so shouldn't it be Lady or something (gem says no)). We didn't get too much of a look at the abbey itself because we were only there for the service and had to stay in the nave (as we weren't nearly important enough to be up the front (we're just plebs)). We'll come back sometime later as proper tourists and get a tour which is apparently really good.
It rained after that so we didn't do any more sightseeing. But we did see some people trying to break the Guinness world record for the most people doing a Bollywood dance in Trafalgar square (and they did break it despite the rain)
Instead we went and visited my cousin Yean Hong and his wee baby. It was really nice to be normal people again instead of crazy annoying tourists. Baby was really cute and Gem was gushing as normal. It was really nice to meet Julian for the first time and spend time with family (i haven't seen Yean Hong for a decade).
Over and out
Saturday, 5 July 2008
Where the Queen Lives
Saturday 5 July
Hello everyone!
Today we went to Windsor castle!!! it was so awesome!!! windsor castle is where the queen lives, sometimes, it seems that she actually lives in loads of palaces around the place but she goes here for most of her weekends, (how nice) anyway she was actually there when we were there and we know that cos her Royal Standard was flying above the round tower, which means she's in residence!!! cool aye??
we got a real train ( not the underground) from the actual Paddington Station to Slough (which it turns out is said to rhyme with though) and then changed to the Windsor train. it was really nice trip and good to get out of the city for a bit and see some of the countryside.
i brought some shoes in Windsor, turns out there are heaps of shops in windsor just by the train station, who would have thought!! they're just boring sandles but i need something to wear thats not sneakers, its still pretty hot here!!!
anyway enough rambling, what is actually interesting is the castle, it is huge and looks just like you expect a castle to look, not the fairy tail princess kind of castle but the knights in shining armour kind with battlements and arrow slits in the big imposonbg walls!!! its an impressive sight when you walk up the hill towards it.
we got audio guides to listen to whicvh were cool but got annoying after a while. they had some interesting information though. inside the castle grounds we had a look around and then went through the Sate Apartments whivch is where the kings and queens entertained, and got to see where the Queen holds massive important banquets, and where the Knights of the Garter are based (the olders order of chivlery). aswell as rooms from King charles the first's time and King Henry the eightths time. there were some amazing portraits and as with everything royal it seems, lots of gold on everything!!! it was all pretty overwhelming really but such an amazing place.
Also in the state apartments was the Queen Mary's Dolls house, now that might sound a bit dumb but it was actually one of the highlights, not a dolls house for kids but an actual miniature version how how the royals lived in the 1920s and everything actually worked, the hot and cold water plumbing, the electric lights, the mini vaccume cleaner and moterbikes, even the piano and the vaccume cleaner and the hose in the garden!!! it was soo detailed, even had a vault in the basement with mini crown jewls and the plates on the dinner table were real silver!!! it was sooooo cool!!!
after we'd oooed and ahhhed over all that we did some more and looked thorugh the St George's Chapel, which was also pretty spectacular. it is an amazing example of a gothic church and is very beautiful. the knight of the order of the garter all have their regalia up there too.
we stayed after the castle closed and attended the evensong service at the cahpel which was beautiful, the young choirsters have amazing voices and they were so small i think the youngest is about 7 years old!!!
right internet time is about to run out and i think i've rambled long enough
lots of love
Gem
Hello everyone!
Today we went to Windsor castle!!! it was so awesome!!! windsor castle is where the queen lives, sometimes, it seems that she actually lives in loads of palaces around the place but she goes here for most of her weekends, (how nice) anyway she was actually there when we were there and we know that cos her Royal Standard was flying above the round tower, which means she's in residence!!! cool aye??
we got a real train ( not the underground) from the actual Paddington Station to Slough (which it turns out is said to rhyme with though) and then changed to the Windsor train. it was really nice trip and good to get out of the city for a bit and see some of the countryside.
i brought some shoes in Windsor, turns out there are heaps of shops in windsor just by the train station, who would have thought!! they're just boring sandles but i need something to wear thats not sneakers, its still pretty hot here!!!
anyway enough rambling, what is actually interesting is the castle, it is huge and looks just like you expect a castle to look, not the fairy tail princess kind of castle but the knights in shining armour kind with battlements and arrow slits in the big imposonbg walls!!! its an impressive sight when you walk up the hill towards it.
we got audio guides to listen to whicvh were cool but got annoying after a while. they had some interesting information though. inside the castle grounds we had a look around and then went through the Sate Apartments whivch is where the kings and queens entertained, and got to see where the Queen holds massive important banquets, and where the Knights of the Garter are based (the olders order of chivlery). aswell as rooms from King charles the first's time and King Henry the eightths time. there were some amazing portraits and as with everything royal it seems, lots of gold on everything!!! it was all pretty overwhelming really but such an amazing place.
Also in the state apartments was the Queen Mary's Dolls house, now that might sound a bit dumb but it was actually one of the highlights, not a dolls house for kids but an actual miniature version how how the royals lived in the 1920s and everything actually worked, the hot and cold water plumbing, the electric lights, the mini vaccume cleaner and moterbikes, even the piano and the vaccume cleaner and the hose in the garden!!! it was soo detailed, even had a vault in the basement with mini crown jewls and the plates on the dinner table were real silver!!! it was sooooo cool!!!
after we'd oooed and ahhhed over all that we did some more and looked thorugh the St George's Chapel, which was also pretty spectacular. it is an amazing example of a gothic church and is very beautiful. the knight of the order of the garter all have their regalia up there too.
we stayed after the castle closed and attended the evensong service at the cahpel which was beautiful, the young choirsters have amazing voices and they were so small i think the youngest is about 7 years old!!!
right internet time is about to run out and i think i've rambled long enough
lots of love
Gem
That ANZ ad
Friday 4th July
Okay, so you know that ANZ bank ad with the Scottish dude coming over and setting up a bank accound in 20 mins. That was us, except replace 20mins with 1.5 hours. We can see why the Scottish guy was so shocked to get his bank acc so quickly. We spent with an hour and a half with the bank lady and we still have to go in on Monday once they've activated the bank no. and then they are still going to post our card 5 days later. Then i bet we still have to go in to put a pin on the card later! (and we have to wait 3 months before we're entitled to a credit card)
We met up with the Britbound people (a group we joined) and it sounds like they have lots and lots of cool events and stuff we can do. They arranged the bank account appointment for us and will also help set up our NI number for us too. We will have to come back to London to do some of the cool social events like the Monopoly pub crawl and High tea at the Ritz.
Once we escaped from the bank we headed down the river Thames on a city cruise boat. It was cool seeing the sights from a different perspective. There are heaps of new developement apartment blocks along the river and i bet they're all really expensive (£1mil+)
We got off the boat at Greenwich (not pronounced Green-Which) and strolled up to the Royal Observatory where they established the 0 degree Longitude meridian line). There was a queue to take a photo of the meridian line, i kid you not! So we didn't take one at the official spot, just round the corner instead. I (jez) found the exhibition on the Longitudinal problem really interesting (thats trying to find your longitude when at sea).
We also went to the planetarium next door and they had cool interactive exhibits and there were lots of kids that found it exciting (us too!)
We had tea at the pub at our backpackers which is way cooler than our first hotel. Its situated in an old nurses accomodation building and has like 300 rooms, its massive. We got free breakfast which was yummy.
Thankyou to everyone who emailed us and commented. Its so good to hear from everybody and what everyone is up to at home.
Cool bananas.
Love us.
Okay, so you know that ANZ bank ad with the Scottish dude coming over and setting up a bank accound in 20 mins. That was us, except replace 20mins with 1.5 hours. We can see why the Scottish guy was so shocked to get his bank acc so quickly. We spent with an hour and a half with the bank lady and we still have to go in on Monday once they've activated the bank no. and then they are still going to post our card 5 days later. Then i bet we still have to go in to put a pin on the card later! (and we have to wait 3 months before we're entitled to a credit card)
We met up with the Britbound people (a group we joined) and it sounds like they have lots and lots of cool events and stuff we can do. They arranged the bank account appointment for us and will also help set up our NI number for us too. We will have to come back to London to do some of the cool social events like the Monopoly pub crawl and High tea at the Ritz.
Once we escaped from the bank we headed down the river Thames on a city cruise boat. It was cool seeing the sights from a different perspective. There are heaps of new developement apartment blocks along the river and i bet they're all really expensive (£1mil+)
We got off the boat at Greenwich (not pronounced Green-Which) and strolled up to the Royal Observatory where they established the 0 degree Longitude meridian line). There was a queue to take a photo of the meridian line, i kid you not! So we didn't take one at the official spot, just round the corner instead. I (jez) found the exhibition on the Longitudinal problem really interesting (thats trying to find your longitude when at sea).
We also went to the planetarium next door and they had cool interactive exhibits and there were lots of kids that found it exciting (us too!)
We had tea at the pub at our backpackers which is way cooler than our first hotel. Its situated in an old nurses accomodation building and has like 300 rooms, its massive. We got free breakfast which was yummy.
Thankyou to everyone who emailed us and commented. Its so good to hear from everybody and what everyone is up to at home.
Cool bananas.
Love us.
Day of stairs
Thursday 3rd July
Okay so lots of stairs. We started off with the Shakespeare's Globe theatre which was totally awesome. They were rehearsing a new (modern) play and we got to watch them rehearsing a song. It was cool and we got to sit in the upper and middle galleries and its really close up. We are so going to see a proper Shakespeare play there when we're next in London. They're all sold out for the rest of this week.
Then we went to St Paul's Cathedral which is just wow. Its soo sooo big and elaborately decoraded. We climbed all the way up to the very top which is 587 steps high!! The veiw from the top was amazing and very high up and very freaky. We were lucky enough to attent a eucharist service while we were there (they have them 3 times a day!!)
Next up we took the tube down to Hyde park and had a look around Wellington Arch. It had more stairs. They also had an exhibition inside the arch on the New Zealand Anzac memorial which is also in Hyde Park Corner. Its a real cool memorial and surreal seeing such NZ cultural stuff in the middle of London.
We then walked down the Pall Mall past Buckingham palace to Trafalgar Square. They were going to show a Opera on a big screen in Trafalgar Square so we sat down to enjoy it. They were handing out big plastic ponchos (which I think are hilarious) and then it started to absolutely pour with rain. We stuck it out for about 5 minutes before giving up as we were totally soaked.
Gem and Jez
Okay so lots of stairs. We started off with the Shakespeare's Globe theatre which was totally awesome. They were rehearsing a new (modern) play and we got to watch them rehearsing a song. It was cool and we got to sit in the upper and middle galleries and its really close up. We are so going to see a proper Shakespeare play there when we're next in London. They're all sold out for the rest of this week.
Then we went to St Paul's Cathedral which is just wow. Its soo sooo big and elaborately decoraded. We climbed all the way up to the very top which is 587 steps high!! The veiw from the top was amazing and very high up and very freaky. We were lucky enough to attent a eucharist service while we were there (they have them 3 times a day!!)
Next up we took the tube down to Hyde park and had a look around Wellington Arch. It had more stairs. They also had an exhibition inside the arch on the New Zealand Anzac memorial which is also in Hyde Park Corner. Its a real cool memorial and surreal seeing such NZ cultural stuff in the middle of London.
We then walked down the Pall Mall past Buckingham palace to Trafalgar Square. They were going to show a Opera on a big screen in Trafalgar Square so we sat down to enjoy it. They were handing out big plastic ponchos (which I think are hilarious) and then it started to absolutely pour with rain. We stuck it out for about 5 minutes before giving up as we were totally soaked.
Gem and Jez
Thursday, 3 July 2008
The tower of London!!!!!! and more
Wednesday 2nd of July
Yesterday we went to teh tower of london, it was awesome, an actual Beefeater (the guys in the red costume, not a carnivore) took us around on a tour, he was really funny and told us lots of stories about who got their heads chopped off and who lived in the castle!!!
We looked at the crown jewels along with like a hundred million other tourists (man tourists are annoying! and lots them are matching!). They were very shiney (the jewels, not the tourists) and they had loads of massive diamonds and they're very big on gold stuff too (like the giant solid gold salt server thing)
We also got to see the Tower bridge go up!!! And also the cool machinery underneath it that makes it go. Jez was very interested in all of that, more than I was.
Then we went onto the HMS Belfast which is the only ship of its class (light cruiser) that remains from serving in WWII. Its been converted into a floating mueseum and we got to look at how it works and how all the sailors lived on board.
We've been catching the tube all over the place and Gem reckons that the lady is really chatty (this is the automatic announcement). She tells you what train you're on, what stop is next, what you can do from that stop, everytime the train pulls into a station (and the man also tells you to mind the gap!)
Okay children, until next time.
Gem and Jez
Yesterday we went to teh tower of london, it was awesome, an actual Beefeater (the guys in the red costume, not a carnivore) took us around on a tour, he was really funny and told us lots of stories about who got their heads chopped off and who lived in the castle!!!
We looked at the crown jewels along with like a hundred million other tourists (man tourists are annoying! and lots them are matching!). They were very shiney (the jewels, not the tourists) and they had loads of massive diamonds and they're very big on gold stuff too (like the giant solid gold salt server thing)
We also got to see the Tower bridge go up!!! And also the cool machinery underneath it that makes it go. Jez was very interested in all of that, more than I was.
Then we went onto the HMS Belfast which is the only ship of its class (light cruiser) that remains from serving in WWII. Its been converted into a floating mueseum and we got to look at how it works and how all the sailors lived on board.
We've been catching the tube all over the place and Gem reckons that the lady is really chatty (this is the automatic announcement). She tells you what train you're on, what stop is next, what you can do from that stop, everytime the train pulls into a station (and the man also tells you to mind the gap!)
Okay children, until next time.
Gem and Jez
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
London Day 1
Tuesday 1st of July
Hey Kids
So we made it to london ok and despite all everyone's dire predictions about english weather its really hot ( yes actually no kidding) we just about boiled yesterday with our jeans and hot plane clothes on!!!
The second leg of our flight was long. but we did get some sleep. the A380 was really cool, a tiny bit more room and big movie screens!! they served us tolberone for supper!!!
we arrived in London at 6am!! ahh but it took age4s to get through customs, after we had waited in the rest of the world line for ages the lady told us we could have gone through the British passports line which had about ten people in it!!!!
Jeremy survived his first trip on the tube, not eventful!! and we went and saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace!! that was really cool, it was way longer than we expected, they even had a brass band playing music and stuff!!
then cos we were pretty shattered we wandered round Hyde park for the afternoon and just chilled out in the sunshine!!! yes sunshine in London !!! i even got burnt!!
the hotel we're staying in is really small, only fit us and our packs into he room and have to go up three steps to get into bathroom which is super mini!!!
today's plan is to see the tower of London, the globe and st Paul's so will tell u all about it tomo
love Gem and Jez
Hey Kids
So we made it to london ok and despite all everyone's dire predictions about english weather its really hot ( yes actually no kidding) we just about boiled yesterday with our jeans and hot plane clothes on!!!
The second leg of our flight was long. but we did get some sleep. the A380 was really cool, a tiny bit more room and big movie screens!! they served us tolberone for supper!!!
we arrived in London at 6am!! ahh but it took age4s to get through customs, after we had waited in the rest of the world line for ages the lady told us we could have gone through the British passports line which had about ten people in it!!!!
Jeremy survived his first trip on the tube, not eventful!! and we went and saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace!! that was really cool, it was way longer than we expected, they even had a brass band playing music and stuff!!
then cos we were pretty shattered we wandered round Hyde park for the afternoon and just chilled out in the sunshine!!! yes sunshine in London !!! i even got burnt!!
the hotel we're staying in is really small, only fit us and our packs into he room and have to go up three steps to get into bathroom which is super mini!!!
today's plan is to see the tower of London, the globe and st Paul's so will tell u all about it tomo
love Gem and Jez
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