Month: June 2013

The fun of changing countries via train today. We had an 11am train from St Pancras station in London, about half an hour via walk and tube from The flat at Tufnell Park. Short queue through immigration control and then wait for the train. Train picks up speed really quickly and I found my ears constantly popping. Trip takes about 2 hours plus an hour for change of timezone.

Transferring to the Paris Metro was fun trying to navigate our way down and up stairs. Once on a train they certainly go quick and throw you about. We had one change of line then off at Ecole Militaire. A very short walk to our apartment and was met by the owners son to exchange contract and last of money.
Amazing area we are in with being able to see the Eiffel Tower out one set of windows, and Napoleons tomb from others.

After a quick rest we went out for a walk to check out the local area, winding through various streets till we hit the Seine. We turned towards the tower and walking along the bank.
Stopping under the tower we gabbed some ice creams, Nerida had lemon, Dana strawberry and as usual I had had chocolate. We stopped in small grassed area to the side of the tower to eat these and relax.

Watched a police patrol go past with two of them carrying machine guns at the ready. All three in the group were in flak jackets. Is such a contrast to Sydney.

Wandered back down the Champ de Mars and picked up some bread, cheese and wine for dinner. Sitting here quite content in the warmth of summer after the cool days of London drinking a nice rose and deciding if we will go for the short walk up to the Hotel des Invalides (Napoleons tomb) to get a better look.

An hour after writing the last post about it being another cloudy day forecast, the cloud started to break and we’ve ended up with a beautiful mostly sunny day in the end.

The morning was spent wandering around the vast expanse of the Camden Markets. They are huge, but I wouldn’t say that there was anything that we couldn’t have got in Sydney. Dana picked up a few t-shirts and some bracelets. Nerida commented that if she was 10 years younger there were a lot of dresses she would have loved to get.
We came close to buying a nail kit for Dana that created transfers out of nail polish in finely etched metal that you then stuck onto the nails.

The number of shops selling goth and punk wares was also interesting, as was the sheer number of tattoo and piercing parlours. Was also amused by seeing some 50+ goths in full regalia wandering around.

Had some lunch at the markets, Dana had a huge slice of pizza, Nerida some sweet and sour chicken and I had a nachos. Never thought about putting diced carrot, corn and peas in with the mince and kidney beans but tasted good.

We then wandered to yet another section of the markets where Nerida and I had a really good espresso coffee each and Dana got a strawberry and banana smoothie. Took a while to make as the guy was flustered as he was running out of ingredients, but tasted great. Watched a boat rise through one of the locks on the canal while we drank the smoothie.

Started to wander back to the tube, stopping to look at some Doc Martins on the way. They had some on special in Dana’s size, but had a really high heel which we all thought wasn’t ideal. Otherwise the prices after conversion weren’t too different from what you’d pay in Australia.

As it was only early afternoon by now we decided to head into St James Park and enjoy the sun. The walk from St James tube station to Buckingham palace was along almost deserted streets and felt weird with how crowded the rest of London has been. looked at Buckingham palace again, but still didn’t see the queen.

Wandered through the park and had a sit on a seat for a while just enjoying the day. Saw squirrels again

and Nerida even tried out one of the deck chairs they have in the park

And said it was really uncomfortable and not worth the £1.50 per hour they charge.

As we headed back to Trafalgar Square for the tube noticed it getting very crowded and noisy. As. got closer we saw that the roads were blocked off and there were lots of rainbow flags and whistles. We’d manage to stumble onto the London gay pride march. Managed to find a tube entrance that wasn’t blocked and sunk below ground level and onto the tube.

After coming home, Nerida and I decided to head off the other direction from Tufnel Park to check out the shops that way as there was meant to be a larger supermarket than the mini Sainsbury we’ve been using, so hopefully better range for dinner. The Morissons was certainly bigger, but utter chaos. Found enough for dinner and escaped as quick as we could. Certainly more variety but not worth it in the end.

Back to the flat for some card games and packing for leaving Paris in the morning.

In our 5 days so far in London, I think that we’ve seen about 2 hours of actual sunshine. considering the sun is up for 16 hours a day it is a very low percentage.

Weather on the whole though has been very uniform at just cloudy and mild with temperatures between 12 and 20. Yesterday was the only day with rain and despite it trying all day we would have got only a couple of millimetres at best. Most of the time the ground was drying just as fast as the rain was falling.

Today looks like it is going to be yet another cloudy day with a top of 20. At least you can walk around all day without getting sweaty or dehydrated.

Hopefully next week in Paris will see some sun for us. Forecast suggests we might be in luck with temperatures in the low to mid twenties most of the week, though Wednesday looks like rain at this stage.

Today was for Dana with doing the Harry Potter studio tour. We got away about 8:15 and ended up getting 3 adult tickets for the train as there was no attendant and the machine wouldn’t do child day tickets.
When we got the Euston to change to the national line to get out Watford Junction, everything was in chaos due to an earlier fatality at Rugby which is on the line we wanted. Just as well we got away slightly earlier than we needed as well as having padded our trip too. In the end we ended up getting away at the time we had planned for, just on a train that was 20 minutes late.

Got out to Warner Brothers in plenty of time on the first transfer coach of the day. Our first double decker bus. Queues really short that early for the tour so straight through. Tour starts with a couple of quick movies, then into the main hall for a short talk then off on the self guided tour.

There are two studio’s to walk through, J and K. I’m sure someone in marketing laughed themselves silly coming up with that one.

Studio J is mostly filled with props and sets from the movies. Lots of information about each item. They also had a green screen area for photos of broom riding and the like which Dana had no interest in.

In between the studios is a small outdoor lot where we tried buttered beer. Which was a lot nicer than we expected it to be.

Studio K was mostly taken up with animatronics, models, drawings and the like. At the end is a full replica of Hogwarts as used in filming.

In all we spent about three hours going through. The guide at the start said 2 to 3 was the norm, but they’d had someone take 10 hours once.

After returning to Euston station we decided that it was too early to go straight home, so headed back to the British Museum to finish the rooms we didn’t get to on Monday. After about an hours wandering we grabbed an ice cream, then headed for the tube and home.

Started the day with a wander round the Courtauld gallery as Nerida wanted to see the impressionist works on display. Some amazing works for a private collection, including Van Gough’s self portrait with bandaged ear. They also have a Gauguin exhibition on at the moment.

From here we walked back to the Convent markets for a look. Both Nerida and Dana bought leather jackets, Nerida a tan and Dana a black one. I thought about one too, but in the end decided against it.
Thursday has a food market and we grabbed an early lunch, Dana a fresh pizza, I had pulled pork with beans and slaw, and Nerida had a grilled chicken skewer with slaw and backed potato. Some really good food all round.

From here we took a long walk through the heart of London to Regent street and into Hamleys toy store. We’ll come back at the end for some souvenir bears and Nerida has her eye on a small collectible Steiff bear.

From here it was short walk to Oxford Circus and then a tube ride to Knightsbridge and into Harrods. Walked around for a while shaking heads at excess on display. There were things like genuine Andy Warhol works on sale for £20,000 .

We took the tube back to Covent Garden for some coffee and gelato, then onto the tube and back home. Picked up a little light rain on the walk to and from the tube. Not enough to worry about and our first since getting here, as the rain on Sunday night when we landed didn’t affect us. Tomorrow has more rain forecast throughout the day.

I was running the pedometer app on the phone today and we did over 15,000 steps. No wonder we all have sore feet and Dana has crashed on getting back.

Hopefully a bit quieter tomorrow with doing the Harry Potter tour at Warner Brothers. An earlier start than normal to get out there for a 10am tour start though. Will mean a 8:15 get away instead of our normal 9:30 . Shouldn’t be too much of a problem with sunrise at 4:45.