Buddy

Fans,

On Friday night, Tim, Megan and Dianne met up in Covent Garden for dinner and drinks at Tutton's Brasserie followed by "Buddy", the Buddy Holly musical at the Duchess Theatre. It was Dianne's final night in London and we got a great deal on the dinner/musical combo through the Last Minute website.

We had a very enjoyable dinner at Tutton's - the food was great - and we had a good view out towards the markets at Covent Garden to watch the world go by. The musical, "Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story" opened in 1989 and has been viewed by over 20 million people, in over 16,000 performances worldwide. The Duchess Theatre in London's West End is quite small and cosy and the crowd was not huge, but we all thoroughly enjoyed the show.

All the favourites came out including Peggy Sue, Rave On, Oh Boy, That'll Be The Day and Maybe Baby. The guy who played Buddy was excellent, although all of the performers were very good. Any Buddy fans out there, get along to see it, definitely worthwhile.

Return to Paris - Part 2

Sunday

We were a little slower out of the blocks on Sunday after our long day of trekking on Saturday. We left the hotel around 10am and grabbed some breakfast from a little bakery along the road from where we were staying. The croissants / pastries are so much better in France - so fresh and soft! We made our way by metro to Le Louvre, the world's largest museum. The line was actually very short and we were inside in no time.

Le Louvre houses nearly 35,000 pieces displayed over its 60,000 square metres. It contains some of the world's most celebrated artworks and displays almost every genre of Art. In addition, the collection displays pieces of Egyptian, Oriental, and Islamic origin. Notable works include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Madonna of the Rocks, Jacques Louis David's Oath of the Horatii and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo.

Le Louvre is absolutely enormous. It has four floors and each floor is broken into three areas. It would probably take 2-3 days to see everything, so we had to make a call. We decided we most wanted to see the First Floor, which contains large format French paintings and Italian paintings from the 13th to 17th centuries, including Le Louvre's biggest draw card, the Mona Lisa, so we headed straight there. Well, if truth be told, we got lost on our way "straight there"...but we got there eventually.

We spent over an hour looking at the French and Italian paintings. We were particularly impressed by The Raft of the Medusa and The Consecration of Napoleon. Many of the ceilings in the museum are beautifully decorated as well, so there really is plenty to look at! We then arrived in the room that houses the Mona Lisa, which was bursting at the seams with people pushing to get a closer look at the famous piece. Surprisingly, we were allowed to photograph it (and all of the paintings actually). Just along from the Mona Lisa is the Apollo Gallery, which contains some treasures from the reign of King Louis XV, including his coronation crown. This room was surely one of the most impressive in the whole museum, not only for the treasures on display and the beautiful art work on the walls, but also for the stunning decorated ceiling (see photo below).

We wandered through the rest of the First Floor, passing by bronze sculptures and a section dedicated to the Renaissance era, full of huge tapestries and collections of china and ceramics. Then we arrived at the lavish Napoleon III apartments. These were spectacular - similar to the state apartments at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle (see pictures below). It is no surprise that the people of France revolted and overthrew the monarchy! Megan decided to return to the French/Italian paintings section we had come from to get a closer look at Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks and the Venus de Milo, while Tim and Dianne made their way to the Ground Floor to check out the 18th to 19th century French sculptures. There are literally hundreds of magnificent sculptures, each of them so detailed and precise. We were very impressed.

After a few hours in Le Louvre, we were rather hungry and we headed back to Ile Saint-Louis for lunch. The restaurant we had planned to go to claimed that they had finished serving lunch for the day (at 2pm), so we found another place along the road called Sorza that served Italian food. It was delicious - Megan and Dianne had grilled aubergine and spinach ravioli, while Tim was less adventurous and had spaghetti, tomato and basil. It was a nice little restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere, once the loud obnoxious American students had left (any Americans reading this blog, please learn to use your "inside" voice).

After lunch, we rolled back on to the streets of Ile Saint-Louis for a final look at a few shops (Megan bought a beautiful pink scarf and Dianne invested in a black beret - tres francais!). Then we headed back to the hotel to pick up out bags and made our way to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar back to London. There were some very tired legs on the journey home!

Au revoir

























Pyramid at
Le Louvre












Le Louvre












Megan at
Le Louvre













Inside

















Mona Lisa















Ceiling in
Apollo
Gallery














Painted
ceiling in
Napoleon
Apart-
ments









Napoleon
Apart-
ments












Ditto -
dining
room











Tim and
lion
sculpture













Angel
sculpture

Return to Paris - Part 1

Paris

On Friday evening Tim, Megan and Dianne caught the Eurostar train from the flash new St. Pancras international terminal in London (which Tim found to be not so flash due to the distinct lack of an ATM) to Gare du Nord in Paris. Despite queues and general incompetency at the London end, it was a lot easier and more comfortable than flying and the scenery, particularly in France, was beautiful.

We arrived in Paris around 8pm and checked into the Pavillon St Augustin hotel, which was very nice, and then wandered down the street for some dinner. We found a nice little cafe/restaurant not too far from the hotel where we had a relaxing light meal and a few drinks. We also saw the first of many ridiculously drunk Parisians we would see during our short trip. This guy was staggering all over the footpaths asking people for money - charming.

Saturday

Saturday was a huge day with plenty of walking. We left the hotel before 9am and our first stop was the Rue Cler markets, not far from the Eiffel Tower. Megan had done some research and discovered the market, which sells fresh fruit and veges, breads and pastries, cheese, fish, meat, flowers and loads more. We bought some pastries and fruit and sat in the Champ de Mars (a beautiful little park leading up to the Eiffel Tower) for a picnic breakfast. After breakfast we wandered down towards the Eiffel Tower and walked right underneath it, through the swarms of people queuing to climb to the top.

Instead of joining that queue, we caught a metro to Notre Dame on l'Ile de la Cite, where we joined the long but very fast-moving queue for a tour of the Notre Dame cathedral. The cathedral was very dark inside, but still very beautiful. Similar to some of England's large churches, there were a lot of statues, carvings, paintings and other art work decorating the inside of the cathedral, particularly in the many private side chapels, that run along either side of the nave. There are also magnificent stained-glass windows all the way around the cathedral, including two huge "rose windows", one on each of the north and south transepts. Notre Dame de Paris is a Gothic style Roman Catholic cathedral. Construction began in 1163 but the cathedral was only completed in 1345, as construction of different parts (including the towers and western facade) was begun much later.

After our tour we took shelter from a brief shower across the street from Notre Dame in a cosy little cafe. After our coffee stop, we walked around l'Ile de la Cite and the other small island in the centre of Paris, Ile Saint-Louis, checking out all sorts of shops. The shops in Ile Saint-Louis in particular are fantastic and we saw some very nice jewellery, art and crafts, specialty foods, chocolate and sweets and plenty of ice cream shops! We each had an ice cream from one of the Berthillon stores and they would have to be the finest ice creams we have ever had! The choice of flavours at this place was amazing and the flavours were so strong. Megan had pear and honey nougat, Dianne had chocolate orange and Tim had chocolate - all were fantastic!

Once off the islands, we walked along the north bank of the River Seine. We checked out the stalls that line the streets all the way along the river, selling postcards, books, photos and sketches of Paris and other souvenirs. Tim bought some small black and white sketches of some of the sites of Paris. Unfortunately while Megan and Dianne were queuing for a public toilet on the footpath, Tim wandered off to check out some more postcards and while he was gone, another disgusting drunk bum grabbed Dianne while he was walking past. He tried to grab another woman as well but was scared off before he got too close. Not quite the romantic Frenchman you would expect...

From there we walked through the courtyard of Le Louvre, past the glass pyramid and through the Jardin des Tuileries (Gardens). Le Louvre used to be a French royal palace until it was opened to the public as a museum following the French Revolution. We had decided to visit Le Louvre on the Sunday, so we marvelled at the beautiful exterior (and the sheer size - 60,000 square metres!) of the building and we carried on our merry way. Through the Gardens and past the Obelisk, which sits in the middle of the Place de la Concorde, we hit the Champs Elysees. The Champs Elysees was (as you would expect) packed full of people, but we enjoyed our stroll along the famous avenue, stopping in a few shops and also at the same cafe Megan and Tim had eaten at on their last visit for lunch. We had grilled chicken paninis and a cold drink, but best of all was the chance rest our legs - we had covered some serious ground by then!

At the end of the Champs Elysees is the beautiful Arc de Triomphe, honouring those who have fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. We climbed the 284 steps to the viewing platform at the top to take in the spectacular views of the city of Paris. Looking back down the Champs Elysees, you can see the huge structure of Le Louvre, further to the right and much closer is the Eiffel Tower and away in the distance to the north-east is the Basilica of the Sacre-Coeur Montmartre, perched on the hill-top overlooking the city below.

But the most entertaining view from the top is the cars driving around the roundabout directly beneath l'Arc de Triomphe itself. The traffic enters and exits the huge roundabout from 12 different streets that meet in the Place Charles de Gaulle, with l'Arc de Triomphe sitting proudly in the middle. There are no marked lanes in the roundabout and the traffic seems completely chaotic, with cars, buses and motorbikes cutting each other off and swerving all over the place. We were surprised we didn't see a crash while we were watching.

Back on ground level, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed some wine and beer, with our feet up, before heading out for dinner. We found a restaurant close to our hotel in the Opera district and we had an excellent meal (steak, filet mignon and roast chicken) and we enjoyed sampling some more French wine. To round the evening off we caught the metro back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up in blue - very pretty.

La Tour
Eiffel

Notre
Dame

A chapel
in Notre
Dame














One of
many
bridges













l'Arc de
Triomphe
















Champs
Elysees











Views
from top
of l'Arc de
Triomphe










Sacre-Coeur
Mont-
martre














Eiffel
Tower
by night















Paris
Opera
House

Tour guides - Part 2

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning, Tim took Dianne on another sweeping tour of London's attractions. First we walked along Islington's Upper Street, a lively street packed full of bars, cafes and shops. We checked out a few of the shops, but Dianne is sure to be back for a better look during her stay. We walked all the way down to Angel, where we caught the tube to London Bridge. There was a threat of rain all day but it never came to much, so we had a very enjoyable walk along the south bank of the Thames down to Tower Bridge.

After crossing Tower Bridge, we did a lap of the Tower of London - Dianne was very impressed - and then caught the tube along to Westminster, where we had a sandwich for lunch before hitting the Abbey. We wandered leisurely around Westminster Abbey for over two hours and we both thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The audio guide is a must-have; extremely informative and entertaining. Although Tim had already done a tour of the Abbey not long after landing in London (see earlier blog entry from May 2007), it was just as spectacular the second time and is definitely one of his favourite London attractions!

After leaving the Abbey, we walked along Victoria Street (in Tim and Megan's old neighbourhood) and stopped for a milkshake at Garfunkel's, which was ka pai! Then it was back on the tube and back into the rat race, as we returned to Regent Street to check out some more of the shops that we had missed on Sunday due to the weather packing in on us! We fought our way down Regent Street, stopping in at several shops, our favourite being Hamley's (the enormous 6-storey toy store), right to the end of the street, which took us to Piccadilly Circus (which Dianne found to be much more pleasant when it wasn't pouring with rain!).

Friday

After returning to work for Wednesday and Thursday, Tim took Friday off and took Dianne out to Windsor. We had to get up and going early, as it can take a while getting out to Windsor and back, and we needed to catch the Eurostar to Paris at 5.30pm on Friday evening. It was a big day for trains - we had 12 train rides in 9 hours!!!

We eventually made it to London Paddington station (via three tube rides) and then caught the train to Windsor (with a change at Slough). Slough was looking as lovely as ever... We arrived in Windsor around 10am and went straight to the castle. Once again, the audio guide was crucial - very informative. The tour was magnificent. Tim had also done this before (see blog entry from January 2008), but it was well worth doing it again, as there is so much to see and take in. We also got to tour St George's Chapel, which is within the castle grounds. Megan and Tim had not been able to see this during their first visit. Dianne had a great time and thought Windsor Castle ran Westminster Abbey close as her number 1 attraction.

We then had a pub lunch at The King and Castle pub, across the road from Windsor Castle, and had time for a quick look around some of the shops in the pretty village of Windsor. Then it was time for more trains back to London.






Tower
Bridge

Tower

of London

Churchill

statue in

Parliament

Square

Westminster

Abbey

Piccadilly

Circus

Windsor

Castle

St George's

Chapel -

Windsor

Castle

Queen

Victoria

statue

Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath

On Monday Tim, Megan and Dianne rose early to make our way to Golden Tours bus station. We were booked in for a day trip out of London to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. In a show of typical English efficiency, our bus was 40 minutes late in departing London, and once we finally left, the rain set in. Disappointing start, but by the time we arrived in Salisbury it had cleared and was actually quite nice.

Salisbury is a beautiful little town south west of London. The main attraction in Salisbury is the magnificent cathedral that dominates the town. It is the tallest cathedral in England, rising 120 metres. Unfortunately we were ushered through the cathedral rather quickly - you could easily spend 2-3 hours inside - but we only had about 30 minutes. The inside of the cathedral was beautiful. The stunning ceilings and stained glass windows are shown in the pictures below.

Another highlight of the cathedral tour was seeing one of the four original versions of the Magna Carta, one of the most important legal documents in Britain's (and New Zealand's) history. The Magna Carta was signed reluctantly by King John in 1215, conceding to the people some of the basic human rights that continue in our legal system today. The document was quite small and well guarded behind a glass case and an elderly woman...

After our brief tour of the cathedral, we had lunch in an historic pub called The Cloisters, in the centre of Salisbury. We all went for the bangers and mash option - free range pork sausages, potato and gravy, which was delicious. We had bread and butter pudding for dessert, which was very English, and not very tasty.

Back on the bus, next stop was Stonehenge. Megan and Tim got told off by the tour guide - Tim's third telling off in 24 hours - for talking while he was talking. We were much more exciting and interesting than him anyway, but once we started listening to him again we heard him explain to the bus full of tourists that "...the first time I saw it as a little boy I was very disappointed...it's spectacular, it's amazing, but it's just not very big...". Megan and Tim guessed that this may be his regular speech to the ladies, but turns out he was talking about Stonehenge.

We thought Stonehenge was actually about the right size - we weren't disappointed at all. It was very windy at Stonehenge, but we were grateful that it wasn't raining. Stonehenge really is stuck in the middle of nowhere and is very exposed to the elements. However, despite the wind, we remained dry and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Stonehenge was constructed in three main phases. The first phase (around 5,000 years ago) saw a circular ditch and a bank (a henge) created; during the second stage (4,600 years ago) a wooden structure was added at the centre; and finally during the third phase (4,500 to 3,500 years ago) the stone monument was constructed, arranged and re-arranged over a period of almost 1,000 years. The larger stones you see in the circle are Sarsen stones, brought from Marlborough Downs around 30km away. The smaller stones, known as Bluestones, are from the mystical Preseli Mountains in Wales, about 380km away.

The third and final stop on our day trip was the beautiful city of Bath. The city of Bath was founded in the valley of the River Avon, around naturally occurring hot springs, where the Romans built baths and a temple. Much later it became popular as a spa resort during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion and left a heritage of beautiful Georgian architecture in so many of the buildings we see there today.

Again, we could easily have spent an entire day in Bath, but we had less than a couple of hours to squeeze in as much as we could. We spent about half an hour in the Roman Baths, which was fascinating. The complex is a very well preserved Roman site of public bathing. We saw the Great Bath, the Sacred Spring and the museum full of artifacts from the Roman period, including objects which were thrown into the Sacred Spring, apparently as offerings to the goddess, as well as remnants of sculptures and tiles used at the Baths.

Next door to the Roman Baths is the Pump Room, where we each received a complimentary glass of spring water, straight from the ground. The water apparently contains 43 minerals and is very healthy, although it was warm and did not taste very nice!

After the visit to the Baths, we enjoyed meandering through the pretty streets of Bath checking out the shops and markets and the magnificent views of the river and the green hills in the distance. There is also an impressive looking church in the centre of Bath, which we did not have time to visit - Bath Abbey. Megan and Tim are already contemplating a return trip to Bath!

Salisbury
Cathedral

Alter











Outside
Salisbury
Cathedral

The
Cloisters
Pub

Stone-
henge







































Roman
Baths











The
Great
Bath


























Bath
Abbey













Bath
shops











Gardens
in Bath