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

Tour guides in London

Fans,

Tim's mum, Dianne, is in London for two weeks at the moment, so in the weekend we were playing tour guide around some of the famous sites of London. On Saturday we readied ourselves for a lot of walking. First stop was Covent Garden to check out the markets and boutique shops. Mum loved what she saw and will most likely be back during the week to explore some more. From there we walked to Trafalgar Square, where there was a Gay Pride parade, and continued on down The Mall to Buckingham Palace, where we caught the very end of the Changing of the Guard. Buckingham Palace was looking splendid - although Queen Liz was not at home.

Next we walked through St James's Park and grabbed some lunch in the park cafe. Mum was thrilled to see some squirrels up close. We managed to coax a couple of them over to us with a bag of almonds we had brought along. One of the squirrels ran across the path and under the foot of a guy strolling through the park...he still hasn't seen the squirrel! After lunch we made our way up to Parliament Square to check out Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.

The main stop of the day was at St Paul's Cathedral. We lined up for a while but eventually got in and had a fantastic tour through the cathedral. We sat and stared up in awe at the magnificent dome ceiling and the mosaics and paintings on the walls. We climbed the 400-odd steps right to the very top of the cathedral dome to take in the stunning views across London, stopping off at the Whispering Gallery and the Stone Gallery along the way. Luckily the weather had improved from earlier in the day and we got great views of London from the Golden Gallery at the top.
The rest of Saturday was all about rest, so we sat on the lawn outside St Paul's Cathedral in the sun before heading back to our 'hood and introducing Mum to the Famous Cock, one of our favourite local pubs. We had a few drinks and some dinner at the pub, with a cocktail at the Metro Bar in between and then called it a night.

On Sunday we went shopping on Oxford Street before the rain forced us back home - we had planned to show Mum Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus but cut our trip short. We sought shelter at home, with baked potatoes for lunch and watched the greatest tennis match ever unfold live on TV for the rest of the afternoon. Sadly we missed the end of the tennis as we had "afternoon tea" booked at The Ritz Hotel. It was Megan and Tim's second trip, but obviously Mum's first. We all had a fantastic time.

The ambiance in the Ritz was fantastic (with live piano music playing in the corner) and the food was brilliant - loads of different types of sandwiches, scones with jam and cream and amazing cakes and sweets. Tim got told off twice however (can't take him anywhere!); once for taking off his suit jacket midway through and hanging it on the back of his chair because it was hot inside - clearly not allowed - and once for taking a photo (which he knew was not allowed, but got one good one in before apologising and claiming ignorance). After high tea was finished, we rolled out the door and did a lap of Green Park to try to work some of it off. Another super day in London!








Trafalgar
Square










Beef-
eaters











Mum at
Liz's
house












St Paul's
dome


















Views from
the top










The Ritz

Outside

The Ritz

Wimbledon

Fans,

The day after we returned from Croatia we went to Day 2 of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in south west London. Doesn't that sound grand. We had applied for tickets in the ballot way back last year and ended up getting tickets for Court 1. We had an excellent line-up, probably better than that on Centre Court for that particular day. We saw Richard Gasquet, Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick and Jelena Jankovic, who all won their matches comfortably.

It was a perfect day weather wise - hot and sunny. We arrived around lunch time and sat on "Henman Hill" and ate our packed lunch. The hill was bursting at the seams so we were lucky to find a spot. They have a massive big screen TV in front of the hill so people without Centre Court tickets can still watch what is happening. We also had some strawberries and champagne on the hill...very Wimbledon of us.

After lunch we wandered around the outside courts and saw a few big names in their opening round matches - including Mikhail Youzhny and Ivan Ljubicic. Through a stroke of luck, we happened to spot New Zealand's own Marina Erakovic on Court 18. We stood and watched most of her first set, where she came from 4-1 down to win the set in a tie-break. There were a lot of Kiwis in the crowd supporting her, which was nice. Erakovic eventually lost narrowly in the 3rd round, a fine effort indeed, and she pockets over £28,000 for the tournament.

Then we settled into our seats on Court 1 to watch our line up. Sharapova had caused a bit of a stir with her outfit...again. She wore shorts rather than a skirt and a tuxedo style sleeveless shirt. She also arrived on court wearing a tuxedo style jacket. While not entirely convincing, she disposed of her opponent easily enough.

Andy Roddick's match was very entertaining. He won in straight sets but it certainly wasn't easy. A guy we had never heard of before called Schwank, pushed him hard and the pair had some incredible rallies. It really was good viewing.

Jelena Jankovic looked a lot more assured in her match and cruised to a win. She is Tim's pick for the women's title this year.

We also caught up with Kristen Gunnell and Neena Ullal (from our Russell McVeagh days) - Neena had just got off a flight from New Zealand and wound up at Wimbledon on her first day in the UK! For anyone heading to the All England Lawn Tennis Club in the second week, make sure you try the roast pork sandwiches with hot apple sauce...they are O for awesome.

Marina
Erakovic

Megs on
Henman
Hill










Henman
Hill












Line
umpires -
great
uniforms
















Court 1















Sharapova










Ditto...
in her
shorts












Roddick
serving













Jankovic

Zagreb, Croatia

Monday

On Monday morning we were up bright and early and we flew from Split to Zagreb, Croatia's capital and largest city. It was very hot in Zagreb and suddenly instead of being surrounded by beaches and water, we were surrounded by concrete and glass! Zagreb has a reputation as being a very commercial city with little character and charm. However, the Old Town in the centre of the city is actually very pretty.

We began our brief city tour by wandering through the Strossmayerov trg, a big park that runs from the main train station in the Lower Town up to the Trg Josip Jelacica (the main town square) in the Upper Town. The park was beautiful - an oasis of greenery amongst the medieval style buildings of the Old Town.

We passed through the main town square and saw the statue of Ban Jelacic. Jelacic was a 19th century governor who led Croatian troops in an unsuccessful battle with Hungary in the hope of winning more autonomy for his people. We also had a look inside the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (quite the name for a cathedral). It was very impressive.
From the cathedral, we walked around the Kaptol region of the Upper Town and stopped on Tkalciceva, the liveliest scene for bars and cafes. We stopped at one of the bars for a Coke, mainly to rest our weary legs! We walked down the long pedestranised street of Tkalciceva and past the Dolac fruit and vegetable market on our way to the Croatian Parliament building. If truth be told, the Parliament building was a little disappointing - rather unspectacular. Across from the Parliament is Ban's Palace, now the presidential palace. It too was a little bland. To get to the Parliament and Ban's Palace, we had to pass through the Stone Gate, which was once the eastern gateway to the medieval Gradec town and is now a religious shrine.

We needed to take a break in the shade of the park for an hour or so to escape the heat. We found a good shady spot next to one of the big fountains and cooled off. When our stomachs started rumbling, we went in search of lunch and ended up at a place called Nokturno. Again the food was very good and cheap. We had seen the sights we wanted to see so we filled in the rest of our time having a beer on Tkalciceva before heading back to the airport for our flight to London town.






Fountain in
Stross-
mayerov
trg

Statue of
Ban Jelacic

Cathedral















Bars on
Tkalciceva














Stone
Gate

Croatia's
Parliament











An Old
Town
street










Stross-
mayerov
trg

Hvar, Croatia - Part 2

Saturday

Tim got up early on Saturday and went for a walk around the waterfront. It was around 7.30am and while it was still very warm, the water was completely still and the town was quiet and peaceful. After Megan had arisen, we had a very good buffet breakfast in out hotel. It can be hard to get good hotel breakfast in foreign countries - it is sometimes below average or just really different foods to what we would expect to eat for breakfast, but this was very nice.

We then wandered down to the main harbour and caught a water taxi out to the Pakleni Islands, just off the coast of Hvar. We had been told that these islands (particularly Jerolim and Stipanska) had beautiful beaches and that they would be much less crowded. This was true. We spent the morning lying on the beach at Stipanska. There were hardly any people around and the water was perfect. We paddled in the shallow water, which came up to our knees, and could see our feet so clearly it was like there was no water at all.

A short water taxi ride back to Hvar saw us return to Cafe Pjaca for lunch. This time Megan had the burger, which really was quality and Tim had a club sandwich - equally solid. After lunch, we returned to the little bay near our hotel for more lazy sunbathing and paddling in the water. It was a pretty popular spot! Some more Croatian beer on our hotel room balcony followed before we headed into town for dinner at a restaurant called Hannibal. Tim had grilled fish and Megan had seafood pasta (Croatia is famous for its seafood). They also have excellent ice cream and gelato in Hvar, so we got ice cream on the way home.

Sunday

We were woken at 4.30am by a group of extremely loud, drunken Aussies skinny-dipping in the water right outside our window. Rather humorous in hindsight but not so fun at the time. We managed to get back to sleep once they left. Breakfast in the hotel was solid again and then we explored the Old Town some more. We think Sunday was the hottest day of the whole week, so it didn't take us long to find our way to the beach. This time we walked around past the other side of the main harbour to the next bay around, which has the impressive looking Amfora resort. We enjoyed another relaxing day on the sun chairs and cooling off in the water. Unfortunately we did turn a little pink, despite loads of sunscreen.

In the evening we caught the ferry from Hvar to Split and then caught a bus to a town just outside of Split, called Trogir, which is close to the Split airport. Trogir was a beautiful little village and we would have liked to have had a look around, but we arrived late on Sunday night and we had another early start on Monday, so we checked in to the Villa Jidro (which was really nice - two thumbs up) and went straight to bed.








Our little
bay










Our hotel:
Dalmacija Hvar
Villa Hotel

























Our bay
again











Megs at
Stipanska












Clear water
at Stipanska



























Exploring
Hvar
















Main
square















Megs in
Hvar