The travels of Tim and Megan

Monday, July 9, 2007

Tour de France and paddle boats

Saturday was the first day for a long time that felt like summer -it was sunny for most of the day and must have even broken 20 degrees! After some time at the gym and a spot of shopping, we met up with Anna and Guy to watch the Tour de France prologue. This happened to go down Victoria Street, about 200m from our front door, one of the bonuses of living in the same 'hood as the Queen I guess.

There was a pretty big crowd for the prologue although at least three-quarters of them were police and security guards. In true English style, they were standing around taking up space and issuing nonsensical orders -we got told to hurry up and slow down within 20 seconds by two different officers patrolling the bridges over the course. We watched the start from just outside Buckingham Palace on Constitution Hill (which isn't even a hill (or a constitution)) and then we moved through to St James' Park and watched some more on a big screen right next to the finish line. The cyclists were amazingly fast but all that energy made us a bit sleepy in the end, so we decided it was time for a drink.

Since the smoking laws have now come into force (woohoo!) we finally made it over the threshold of another local, the Barley Mow, which had previously scared us away with its overpowering stench. However, the pollutants are now forced outside and it turned out to be pretty cool, other than the useless service from the vacant barmaid. Back at the flat, we had a glass of bubbles for Margaret and Tony who were married in NZ on Saturday - sorry we couldn't be there! Then we had dinner in yet another pub, the Bag o' Nails, which got an A+. Very nice.

Sunday was even better, more sun and warm temperatures. Londoners are astounded by this good fortune - it is all they are talking about today (Monday) at work. Anyway, we headed for Hyde Park to try out the paddle boats in the Serpentine. Having spent half an hour in a Hyde Park paddle boat, we now consider ourselves experts on the subject, so some tips for any fans who might want to give a crack in the future. Fast and furious paddling will lose you speed - maximum speed is gained with about three-quarter strength paddling - and you can do much better donuts with little to no paddling. Our first donut attempt with fast paddling took a little over a minute, not very impressive. Important tips because once the novelty wears off after 5 mins you will inevitably turn to attempting to outgun others/run over ducks to use up the next 25mins and you will not want to be left embarrassed by others (read: small children)/ducks.

In the afternoon, we made some chocolate dipped strawberries to accompany the Wimbledon mens' final on TV. In the blue corner we had the 4 times defending champion and world number 1 Roger Federer, supported by Tim, and in the red corner we had the world number 2 and king of clay and biceps, Rafael Nadal, supported by Megan. It turned out to be one of the greatest tennis matches we had ever seen, with Federer eventually beating Nadal to win his 5th consecutive Wimbledon final, Tim attempted to be humble in his victory...

We then met up with Jackie and Simon (Jackie and Megan have been friends since school) for a few drinks and dinner at a good old Wetherspoons pub. They had to dash off to Heathrow to pick up some poor soul who had somehow spent 36 hours getting from NZ to London and we strolled home, reflecting on another great weekend in London, long live the sunshine!

Crowd watching
Tour de France

Big screen at
St James' Park

Definitely
our favourite

Squirrel

Enjoying the first
sun in weeks

Our toast to
the McBrides

Paddle boats
Hyde Park

Excellent
paddling
technique

Better than being
courtside

Tim in his
new T shirt

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Valencia, Spain - Part 2

Monday

Monday dawned bright, clear (and full of wind...). We started as we meant to go on with one of those buffet breakfasts that hotels specialise in. We are very fond of such arrangements! Our hotel outdid itself and we almost outdid our stomachs with fresh fruit, croissants, pain aux chocolats, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, sausages, cereal and yoghurt, the best orange juice you have ever tasted, cold meats and cheeses and chocolate tarts for dessert (?). After that, we rolled out the door to explore Valencia.

We knew nothing about Valencia and so we did what tourists do when they know nothing about a city - we took a bus tour. Our journey through the city on a fine double decker bus confirmed what we had already suspected, Valencia is a very cool city. We enjoyed the historical aspects, and once again marvelled at the feats generations past managed in order to build either city protection or religious houses. Something a bit different about Valencia - the residents got sick of the river running through the city flooding all the time so they diverted it elsewhere and the green riverbed is now an enormous mass of sports facilities, gardens and parks. Very nice...

Valencia's other chief boasting point is the staggering City of Arts and Sciences - a four pronged complex with Imax theatres, a planetarium, a modern science museum and "the largest aquarium in Europe". Megan was extremely keen to see the aquatic life so off we went. The science museum was good, but as most of it was in Spanish only, we struggled to get the most out of it. The aquarium was much better. The sharks, performing dolphins and tropical fish were all great, but the favourite was the beluga whale. He made it all worthwhile (check him out below).

More tapas and more drinks followed that night, including a third night in a row for patatas bravas - fried potato with mayonnaise and chilli sauce (but keep to the Spanish, it sounds exotic and much healthier).

Tuesday

Tuesday dawned bright, clear (and full of wind...again...). Valencians seem to be truly spoilt for sunshine. We sped off to the beach and made a patriotic sandcastle. The beach was beautiful and very popular. It demonstrated something you have to admire about Europeans; they don't let having an imperfect body stop them throwing on some togs (and throwing them off again for that matter - loads of topless Spanish girls, Dave) and having fun in the sun. Of course, this does have a line which constantly gets crossed with speedos and the like.

Then we were off for a final time to the viaduct to wave off the boats and watch the start of the race before heading to the airport. We had a snack and a few beers in the Defender bar - very nice other than the fact it was swarming with Alinghi fans, as you would expect. We got the bad news as we arrived at the airport, pretty gutted all round. More bad luck was to follow including two airport delays, over an hour waiting at immigration and the absence of Megan's suitcase at baggage claim (not the first time) meaning that by the time we arrived home, it was past midnight and we were extremely hungry (1am Spanish time). Not much is open past 10pm in central London but full credit to the golden arches, it made a bad night a little bit better.

So in summary, despite some minor disappointments, one of the best holidays we've had. Valencia is an amazing city. If the next Cup is in Valencia, book tickets, we have an excellent hotel recommendation...

At least the
Americans didn't
win it...

The local
drop

Entrance to
City of Arts
and Sciences

City of Arts
and Sciences

Tim thinking
of jumping in

Giant genetic
thinger -
science museum

Shy dolphin

Beluga Whale

Megan in the
main town square

Tim - same
place

Valencia flag

The bull ring

Old railway
station

The beach

Our brilliant
tribute to Team
NZ

Team NZ
heading out
to battle

NZ (famous?)
sports supporter
Sonny

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.