Valencia, Spain - Part 1

Saturday

Aside from the obvious disappointment of losing the America's Cup, we had a brilliant four days in Spain.

The painful results of races 5, 6 and 7, all of which were well within our control until the most horrible run of bad luck in sporting history rained on our parade, failed to dampen our spirits. After it went 2-2, we should have won the next three races to WIN the America's Cup, but a blown spinnaker in race 5, a freak wind shift in race 6 and a penalty turn in race 7 saw us lose our lead and lose each race. The final margin in race 7 (Alinghi by 1 second, after we were forced to make a penalty turn) sums up our campaign really - close but very unlucky. The general consensus around the viaduct in Valencia was that there was absolutely nothing between the two teams either in boat-speed or quality of personnel, and it is a shame that four years of planning and hard work and hundreds of millions of dollars can be wrecked by some bad luck.

We arrived in Valencia early on Saturday afternoon and we checked into our hotel in time to catch most of race 6 on TV. Our hotel (the 4 star Vincci Lys Hotel) was perfect by the way! We were surprised that we were able to get a hotel at all, but we managed to get an awesome one right in the centre of the city, for a very reasonable price.

After the race we caught the train down to Port America's Cup to soak up some atmosphere. There were plenty of Team NZ supporters but we were still hugely outnumbered by Alinghi fans - most Europeans wanted Alinghi to win so that the Cup stayed in Europe, however it seemed the Americans were behind us!

The viaduct area was great. We checked out the supporters gear at the stores (but most of the best stuff had sold out by the time we got there). Megan bought a Team NZ shirt and Tim bought a cap. Sadly we were unable to find a New Zealand flag anywhere. Then we wandered around, checking out the many different bars. The "Woolshed" was pretty cool. It was the unofficial New Zealand bar and it was full of Kiwis. The Foredeck Club was the most impressive. It was a collection of bars, cafes, shops etc and it had a trophy room where we got to see the Auld Mug close up. We were actually pleasantly surprised with the cost of drinks etc in the viaduct. It was around 2.50 euros for a beer, which is not bad at all when you're earning pounds. And the official beer of the America's Cup, Estrella Damm, went down rather well in the 28-33 deg temperatures.

Late on Saturday night, we found a nice restaurant near the viaduct and tried out some tapas and more Estrella Damm. Very nice.

Sunday

Sunday dawned a beautiful hot sunny day and we were extremely excited to be going out on the water on a spectators boat to watch race 7. After some pastries and freshly squeezed orange juice (from Valencia oranges of course), we did a bit of shopping before heading back to Port America's Cup. The find of the day was a T-shirt that Tim bought, featuring an icon from the past, Frosty Boy. Rather humorous T-shirt too, see below.

Sadly, race 7 was postponed on Sunday due to a lack of wind and the lack of a settled direction of wind. We were pretty gutted, although it was still fantastic to get out on the water and see the boats up close in their pre-start routines. It was also exciting to see some of the super yachts out on the water, including a huge silver beast, which we were informed was either Swiss billionaire (and Alinghi owner) Ernesto Bertarelli's boat, or his sister's boat. Very impressive.

Just before we received the bad news that racing had been abandoned for the day, we were treated to an extreme close up of Team NZ, as they sailed directly towards us and almost hit our boat, turning away at the last second. Very cool boat!

Once back on dry land, we did another round-up of the bars and as we wandered past Team NZ's base, we ran into America's Cup legend Paul Cayard and New Zealand Olympic gold medal winner / Team New Zealand grinder, Rob Waddell, both of whom were happy to pose for photos with Tim. Rob Waddell is a monster, he just about ripped Tim's arm out of its socket when he shook his hand. Both he and Cayard were great guys though!

Sunday evening / night was full of more bar - hopping around the viaduct, loads of Estrella Damm and a huge meal of tapas, meatballs, chicken wings, and a gigantic pork chop amongst things at a restaurant near our hotel.







Megan at
the viaduct












Megan and
the prize...













The Auld Mug

















Tim on our
spectator boat


















Team NZ
base











Megan on
spectator boat












The Foredeck
Club













NZL92












Coming
towards us












Getting rather
close












Alinghi's boats













Paul Cayard












Rob Waddell














Megan enjoying
an Estrella Damm
















Tim's new
T-shirt...
very nice

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

Fans,

It seems like ages since the last blog update. But only a week or so. On Tuesday night we caught up with Colin and Rachael for a few beers before they went north to Scotland, where they will be living for a few years. It was great to hear that we had a place to stay when we venture up that way, and likewise for them at our place when they come back down to London town.

We had a very full-on weekend. On Friday night we checked out another couple of pubs in our hood. The "White Horse & Bower" and "The Speaker" were both solid choices, good atmosphere and excellent service at the White Horse. I'd say we'll be back there before long. We then went 0/2 on London Indian. We were full of hope that the Indian restaurant round the corner from our place would be better than the crap we got from Tower Bridge a few weeks ago. It was, but not by a lot. No flavour, no spice. Kinda just coloured porridge-like goo posing as Indian. Disappointing.

On Saturday we went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Apart from the queue for over an hour (which we expected) it was amazing. We had a great time admiring the stunning likenesses of the dozens of wax figures and snapping plenty of cheesy photos. Some of the wax figures are incredibly life-like and almost a little creepy! Favourites...hard to say, but Megan was quite a fan of Sean Connery! Check out the photos below, but other stars not to make the cut here were Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Jonah Lomu, Pele, the Queen, Queen Mother, Diana, Princes Charles, William and Harry, the Beatles, and various other British singers, Hollywood stars, world and religious leaders etc etc and so on.

Worthy of a mention was Megan's stepping up to the penalty spot and slotting a goal past a virtual goalie, which gave her the right to lift the replica soccer World Cup! Frank Lampard should head down there and practice...oh and also worthy of a mention was the pole-dancing Britney Spears, whose chest actually moved to simulate breathing...

After taking about 50 photos, we headed to Chamber Live, where we had to negotiate our way through a series of dark rooms and corridors where several real life actors posing as serial killers were waiting to scare the crap out of us. It definitely worked, especially on Megan, who screamed the house down. Tim was worried she may faint or worse! There were loads of props of things like cages and body bags hanging from the roof etc and plenty of gruesome noises playing in the background and every now and then a "serial killer" would jump out from nowhere at us. Amazingly we survived!

We then went on a little trip through London's history in a little black cab, which was a lot less scary. Then our work was done. Later on Saturday afternoon, we managed to track down the now elusive old Routemaster double-decker red bus and we took a ride through central London. There are only a few of these traditional double-deckers left now and they only work two routes, mainly for tourists. It was a little bumpy, but we sure thought we were King of the Castle sitting upstairs.

After a spot of shopping we met up with Simon, Anthea and Pete, another Kiwi mate of Simon's, for some drinks and dinner in Kilburn. Very nice pub, although we were a little concerned with Pete's tales of being mugged and burgled on a regular basis.

On Sunday we headed north to Hampstead Heath. Hampstead Heath is a massive area of bush with the odd pond and grass clearing thrown in. It seemed to be a very popular spot too! We went on a big walk but probably still only saw half of it. Another place we will no doubt return to, perhaps with a frisbee. The shops in Hampstead also caught Megan's eye...







The Fresh
Prince












Brad
liked
Megan's
zip












The Beckhams














They put
Tom on a
step
so he wasn't
too small












Samuel L
Jackson
looking cool














Spidey
offering
Tim some
advice










The King
of Pop

The
Termin-
ator...

Megan's
favourite
















The
King












Jose Mourinho
looking happier
than normal















Tim
showing
Tiger how
it's done












Lance


















World Cup
winner

















Float like a
butterfly...
Sting like a
be-artch
















JT














Pole-
dancing
chest-
moving
Britney












Nelson
















Tim in
the
middle of
Hitler and
Churchill









Hopping
on the
"Route-
master"











Proud as
punch












The old
warhorse












Megan in
Hampstead
Heath










The
Heath












Big old
tree in
the Heath

Changing of the Guard and Hyde Park

After last weekend in Paris and a busy week at work for both of us, we decided to take it easy this weekend. After a big sleep-in, we had some shopping to do on Saturday. We still needed a lot of kitchen and bathroom things that the flat didn't provide us with, so we explored the many shops around Victoria Street and it was a big success. Megan was particularly stoked with the wok.

In the afternoon we took turns choosing a new pub in our area to try out. We had already tried The Royal Oak on the Friday night, which was quite small and cosy but very nice and about 12 steps to our front door, so it got a solid B+. On Saturday afternoon, Tim chose the Albert, which the fans will be pleased to hear, won The Standard Pub of the Year in 1984. It was also very nice, although there were a lot of old people there, possibly many of whom remembered the glory days of the Albert in 1984. Again a B+. Then Megan chose The Cardinal, which was very good. Slightly tacky decor, and a rougher crowd, but on the up side, they did have a dart board and a great selection of beers!!! Probably a B.

On Sunday we wandered over to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. We had to get there about half an hour before it started to get a good spot and the actual changing of the guard takes almost an hour itself, and if truth be told, we were a little bored by the end of it. Good to have seen it, but I wouldn't imagine it's one of those things where you go back for a second look. Still, quite funny when one of the 'beefeaters' couldn't stop sneezing!

Next up we went for a walk through Hyde Park...or about a third of Hyde Park, as it is massive! We grabbed some lunch and walked around the pond/lake thing, where they had paddle boats for hire (we are definitely going back to try those puppies out). We stopped for a look at the Diana Pricess of Wales memorial fountain, which is actually a man-made stream rather than a fountain. Megan dipped her feet in and informed Tim that it was very cold. We also had a look at the new New Zealand memorial in the corner of Hyde Park. Slightly less impressive than I had imagined. But still quite cool to see some 'Kiwiana' in the heart of London.

Then we had a relaxing afternoon, Megan reading and Tim cursing Roger Federer for ruining another multi. Honestly, you would expect the so-called greatest player of all time to be able to hit the ball OVER the net...

Two weeks til we head off to Valencia...very excite!




















































































Hyde Park


























Diana
memorial
'fountain'












Megan at the
NZ memorial