The Concert

Last night we attended the Surbiton Royal British Legion Youth Marching Band concert, which my relatives play in. It was such a great event to see such a vast range of young people participating and enjoying themselves.

The Surbiton Royal British Legion Youth Marching Band

Yazmin Sinclair

 Jamie Sinclair

Ross Millard

To be or not to be, that is the question...

A visit to the Globe Theatre today was a treat for me, the Shakespeare fan! It isn't of course the original Globe theatre of Shakespeare's days, but a replica of the original. However it is amazing
and when you step inside you really feel like you could be back in the days when the great master wrote his brilliant plays. There's no roof on the theatre and our tour guide explained to us that you can stand in the yard and get right up to the stage. I don't know if I'd survive for two or more hours standing while watching a play!

Tower Bridge

There is an exhibition in the top of Tower Bridge and as this is the most well known bridge in the world (even if by the incorrect name, it isn't London Bridge) we had to see it.

The exhibition covers all aspects of the bridge, why the bridge was required, requirements of the bridge construction and now how the use of the bridge has evolved into a tourist attraction.

It was also great to see so many different school groups attending and learning about this bridge and also other famous bridges throughout the world.

As the Thames River was also at low tide we also spotted a man scavenging for items along the shore.

The Exhibition is in the upper area of the bridge and provides great views both east and west.

Katie up high in the Exhibition

Looking west with The Shard (the highest building in Europe) on the left hand side

The final part of the Exhibition was looking through the old steam driven machinery on the south side that raised and lowered the bridge.

Down in the Machinery room

Katie with the Tower of London on the left and Tower Bridge on the right, in the rain.

Tower of London

There is no point me trying to sum up the history at the Tower of London, so I won't even try. Our time at this place was wonderful, we were able to see some of the history we have both only been reading about over the years.

We were able to see the crown jewels and if I recall correctly Katie did say
she would love to take them, but wouldn't as that would be stealing.  I didn't tell her that there was about an inch of glass she would need to get through, the many guards, security cameras and who knows what else.

We were unable to take any pictures inside the vault which is a shame, the photo below was taken from http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/stories/crownjewels and is Katie's favourite. If you see her wearing it then she has gone back on her word and broken into the vault.

We also saw the ravens on the grounds and thankfully they were all on site and healthy.

We explored the site and the many towers and the many stories inside. It is truly a great place.

London Eye

Sometimes i wonder where the names come from for new attractions, and the London eye is one.  The first thing I think is back before my time would the term London Eye have meant anything?

Would the name have once been an optometrists business, a newspaper who knows, I don't.

We visited the London Eye today by chance really.
Originally we planned to use our London pass and ride the London ferry included in the ticket, but when we arrived to redeem, the ticket master advised the specific boat was not running as the Thames was on high tide.

We figured at this point we would go on the London Eye again. Last time we had our wonderful local guide Norma back in 2010. This time however we just had our little map and some new touch screens (Samsung Galaxy tablets).

The timing for us was just brilliant, last time it was daylight, however this time we had sunset and then dark.

Many photos were taken, here are some.

Leaving Paris

This morning was a slow start as we had packed most of our bags last night, but it is getting that little bit harder to fit everything in our bags and suitcases.

We opted for catching a taxi to Gare De Nord, the station where the EuroStar to London would depart. Carol arranged for a taxi to be waiting down on the street for us, the driver was helpful

and loaded our bags into the boot of the car. When we got into the taxi we noticed the meter was already at 10 euro. It appeared as Carol had made a phone booking the driver had taken the order a little early and chose to sit in the street with the meter ticking.

On arrival at the station we noticed there was a lot of Police to the point the road in front of the station was blocked, there were many police sitting in vans and also a police tow truck. The taxi driver mentioned something bout the police but I have no idea what he said, it was in French.

We were dropped off pretty close to the station, as close as the driver could get and then it was just a matter of going through all the border crossing details and security scans. 

As we had a few Euros left Katie purchased herself some perfume and I purchased some Paris souvenirs. 

Now travelling on the EuroStar I opened up the GPS application on my phone which shows the speed we are doing, and I would call it pretty fast at 291Km/h

Red, white or rose?

Queue's and rain may have beaten us, but we still got to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower.

We woke to a cold, wet and pretty much grey day in Paris. After another sumptuous breakfast (I will never get sick of the croissants here) we were off for our "behind the scenes" tour of the Eiffel. It was just fantastic. I just love being near the Eiffel tower, let alone up on it.
There's something special about the mighty steel structure which was only expected to last for around 20 years. 124 years later, it's still standing strong and is simply beautiful.

Shannon found the tour a while back and booked it online. We were taken below ground, underneath the tower and explained the history behind the making of it. We were then taken inside the "foot" of one side to see how the tower worked - hydraulics, etc. This is what Shannon was waiting for! Pistons! Machinery! Spinning things! I shouldn't joke...it was actually very interesting and quite amazing that after all this time, she is still able to carry millions of visitors annually, up to the top. Last time we were in Paris a couple of years ago, we went all the way to the top. But maybe it was because it was windy and raining or we were just tired, but we left it at the 2nd floor this time, which is of course as equally impressive.

We left the tower in search of our afternoon wine tasting! Woohoo! With our Paris pass we had booked in a 1 hour wine tasting session at O'Chateau. We learned all about how to taste a wine properly...smell...swill...etc..the white and rose were really nice, the red a bit too strong for both of us...but that however, didn't stop me from finishing every drop! ha!

Tomorrow we leave the city of light and head for London. Although it was a little wet this time round, my love affair with Paris has not come to an end.

Mr & Mrs Walsh from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower

Katie from one of the behind the scenes areas of our tour

Walking down from level 1

Katie waiting for wine tasting and education session

What we like and dislike about Paris

For us today was a slow day and we only visited Musée d'Orsay. We were unable to take any photos inside and for me it would have to be one of the least interesting places we have visited so far. (Katie enjoyed the Van Gogh and Monet pieces)


So, on that note we thought we would create a list of the likes and dislikes in Paris.

Likes

1. Crepes
2. Metro System (underground)
3. Eiffel Tower
4. Arc de Triomphe
5. Champs de Elesyes (for Katie shopping, me the cars)
6. The white wines (for Katie)
7. Croissants
8. St Chappel (best stained glass windows we have seen)
9. French dogs
10. That Paris has cleaned out all the illegal street sellers (jingle boys)

Dislikes

1. Some Parisians
2. The total lack of public toilets 
3. The smell of urine in public places 
4. Poor queueing systems (always long and never moving)
5. The 70 stairs to our B&B
6. Grumpy shopkeepers in bakeries
7. Uncooked hamburgers (medium means medium not raw inside)
8. The Paris Story - what was promised to be a 4D spectacular was a lousy doco
9. Bad attitude of some Parisians
10. Tacky souvenir stores, run by non Parisians

Whilst queueing I was planning our next attraction and how to get there

The Metro

 Katie wating in line with a number of interesting statues in the background. 

They may look nice but the ladies in the shops are normally bitter and sour

Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour from the heart of Paris! We arrived in the city of light yesterday afternoon after a long and tiring train day. We were grateful that taxi ride to our accommodation for the next few days, was short! We opted to stay in a B&B for our time in Paris and it's really lovely.
Carol, our host, is British but has been living here for 13 years so knows the ins and outs of the city and of course it's nice to have an English speaking host! Her B&B is on the third floor (no lift) of an apartment building overlooking a busy street near Notre Dame. The place is decked out in everything Parisian and the breakfast this morning was something else. So many pastries - it's a good thing we're walking several kilometres a day!

We took advantage of our close proximity to the famous Notre Dame cathedral last night and took a stroll to check it out. It was late in the day and many people were going inside for evening mass. It's just huge inside and a very impressive building. We wondered what an earth was going on when men in suits started ushering everyone to the sides of the building. We were making way for the procession! Mass was about to start and the priest was making his grand entrance. It was quite a sight to see - a young boy swinging his incense followed by a few other holy men carrying golden encrusted bibles and of course the priest. I was more excited by the organ and the choir!

Today, after Carol's huge breakfast, we set out for a day in the city. We started at Saint Chapelle and after a half hour wait in the queue to get in, were rewarded with the sight of the beautiful stained glass windows that line the cathedral. Shannon was great at working out the bus system and we used it quite a bit. Although the metro is just as easy, we figured we'd see a bit more of the place on a bus. We went to a place called 'The Paris Story'. It was basically just a documentary about Paris and was built up to be something that it just wasn't -disappointing. After a quick lunch we headed for Arc De Triomphe for the views from the top. We did this on our last trip and I had forgotten (or maybe repressed the bad memory) the gruelling climb to the top. Step after step after step. Haha! It's all worth it of course when you get to the top and have uninterrupted views over the whole city.

We then took a river cruise on the Seine for a different perspective of the city and of course ended up at the Eiffel Tower. We will visit it properly Wednesday. I never get sick of staring at this beautiful monument. After quite the full day we decided to head back to our B&B for a while before dinner. We were getting tired after hours of walking. We found a bus and got on only to discover we were to be squished in like sardines - literally. You could not move on the bus and it got too much, we had to get off! We eventually made it back via the metro and found a Brasserie for dinner. It was mostly nice although my so called burger was practically raw. Apparently medium in Paris means cooked for 5 seconds on each side, I'd hate to see what rare looks like! What better way to finish a crazy, but wonderful day in Paris, than with a chocolate crepe fresh off the pan? Delicious!

Random man playing the saxophone on the train...

The day of trains

How many trains does it take two Australians to get from Interlaken, Switzerland to Paris, France via the scenic route?

FOUR

First half of the journey was the Golden Pass Panoramic section and required two separate trains and a change at Zweisimmen 

Katie on first train, with spinning seat and me, travelling in reverse without spinning seat.

The reason for change of trains is due to the width of the track, from Interlaken to Zweisimmen the track is standard gauge, but as the line is much windier from Zweisimmen to Montreux the track has been laid narrower and a change of train is required.

The Swiss are currently developing a system to be installed at Zweisimmen. Here the trains will pass over and automatically have the wheels re aligned to the next section removing the need for passengers to change trains.  This is not due however for a number of years.

Katie on second train with panoramic windows

 From the window of the second train looking at Montreux and Lake Geneva

The second part of the journey, requiring another two trains started at Montreux, we changed trains this time for an ICE (inter city express) and scooted around the northern edge of Lake Geneva in 50 minutes. All the time we have been using our rail pass and thus allowing us to sit in first class.  It has been well worth the little extra as most times our carriages have only had about four or six others on them.

From the window of the third ICE train.

Our last train we had high hopes for.  It is the TGV Lyra, high speed train from Geneva to Paris all totally reserved seats, and this time again in first class.  What is disappointing? The train is noisy, constant whirring noise, vibrations, no power outlets, small windows that aren't aligned well with the seats giving poor outside visibility, rattling windows, not many options for food, broken toilet door.  All of these things don't sound like much but when we are travelling in first class we expect a little better. Maybe it is just because we have left Swiss rail system and are now riding one of Frances train's of economic crisis.

Carriage number 10

Paris, here we come!