London (Europe Trip Part 1)

The beginning of the European leg of our holiday got off to an exhausting start with a marathon three flight journey to London.  Since we arrived at 6 am, we had to fight sleep for the entire day, so that jet lag didn’t get the better of us.  The fight was greatly assisted by the fact that Jane was having a “work” from home day, so we checked into our Wimbledon B&B and went over to see her, had lunch at the pub (really yummy veggie burgers), hunted for Wombles in the Wimbledon Common (didn’t see any) and then rejoined Jane, Neil and Anne (Jane’s mum) for dinner and drinks.  We were very proud of the fact we stayed awake for the whole day, taking our awake time to 48 hours.  Needless to say, we slept like logs for the first night – take that jet lag!

The next day we decided we needed to keep active and as Jane had a secret wedding dress fitting, we took off on our own to see the Tower of London and the Natural History Museum.  We loved the Beefeater tour (recommend getting on the first one of the day) and the Crown Jewels were amazing – we did the circuit passed them numerous times, to get a really good look at the Star of Africa diamond (the largest cut diamond in the world), in particular.   We wondered whether Kate Middleton had gazed with similar awe at the jewels as a little girl and had ever imagined that she would wear them one day!!  The NHM had two major highlights – the building itself is amazing, with such intricate detail of plant and animal themes on all the columns, walls, ceiling and floors, both inside and out (see photos on flikr).  The other was the statue of Charles Darwin presiding over the great hall (and his dinosaur friend).  The exhibitions were, of course, excellent.

Day 3 in London started early, as we both woke up before 5 am ravenously hungry (jet lag rears its ugly head).  Breakfast at the B&B wasn’t until 8 o’clock, but luckily we had a chocolate fudge brownie that we had bought the day before, but not eaten.  So at 6 am we were sitting in bed, eating a brownie, drinking tea and watching the BBC – jet lag conquered!!  The day then proceeded with a London walking tour with Jane and Anne – through Camden market and around the major parks.  It was a lovely day (and hot), so an evening BBQ at Jane’s was just the perfect end to a fantastic day.  This was also when we convinced Chris (Jane’s brother) that he wasn’t feeling well enough to go to work the next day, but instead needed a medicinal trip to the tennis to see the Wimbledon round of 16 matches!!

Our trip to the tennis was a fantastic day!  It started early with at 5:30 am Chris pick up and then we joined The Queue (they really do capitalise it – see the photos for proof).  Wimbledon is one of the only major sporting events in the world where you can still get tickets on the day, but you need to be committed.  We arrived in The Queue at 5:50 am and were numbers 2627 – 2629.  Although we queued for nearly 4 hours to get in, it was a fun experience.  The tennis was great.  We saw Bernard Tomic in his successful round of 16 match (and then saw a dejected Xavier Malisse catching the Eurostar the next day), some great doubles matches and Novak Jokovich (on the big screen).  The whole experience was topped off with delicious strawberries and Pimms, which we got free from HSBC (thanks for banking with them Chris!!).

The next day we took off to France on the Eurostar – these adventures are to come in Part 2, but check out our London adventure photos on flikr.

Click here for London photos

France (Europe Trip Part 2)

The real purpose of the trip to France was to watch Le Tour de France, but we just couldn’t pass up the chance of a few days in Paris.  We caught the Eurostar across the Channel (highly recommended) and headed to the Latin Quarter where our hotel was.  We then proceeded to walk our legs off for the next few days.  Over three days we visited Notre Dam, the Louvre (amazing, but super busy), the Luxembourg Gardens and palace (where the French Senate now sites), the Sacré-Cœur (with a giant skateboard ramp set up for some random Red Bull sponsored stunt), the Eiffel Tower and of course the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe.  We also just really enjoyed just wandering around and taking in the atmosphere.

I wouldn’t do our trip to Paris justice without mentioning the food – a major highlight and topic of conversation and planning.  We devoured numerous croissants, pain au chocolates, baguettes, other yummy pastries, macaroons (from the famous Laduree on the Champs Elysees – check out the website at www.laduree.fr), three course French meals, three course African meals, delicious Moroccan tagines and I really got into the Pastis and Luke the Pelforths.  Even with all the walking, I left Paris with an extra kilo, but it was totally worth it (except for a minor stress that I might not fit into the dress I bought for the wedding!!).

After Paris we got super saver deals (1.50 euro each) to Nantes on the TVG (French bullet train), hired a car and staked out a bit of footpath to watch the Tour.  We managed to catch some of each of the first three stages.  The first stage stakeout was at the 1 km to go mark and while we didn’t recognise anyone in the first pack to wiz by (although Cadel was there), we did manage to recognise Stuart O’Grady and the Schleck brothers, who were taking it at a slightly more leisurely pace (if only they knew what was to come).  The second stage was the team time trial and we got a great spot near the start, from which we could also see a downhill section near the finish.  We were so close to the action that the HTC team nearly ran over my foot (that Cav!!).  For the third stage, we staked out a spot right near the start so we could see the riders taking it slowly before the official start of racing.

It was so much fun being at the Tour and taking in the atmosphere – and of course our recollections are all the more fond for Cadel’s eventual victory.  The thing that really struck us, and that you don’t get a feel for on telly, is the sheer scale of the overall operation.  The number of team cars, team buses, official cars, medical support cars, press cars, TV motorbikes, neutral service vehicles, gendarmes and sponsors is unbelievable.  We were guessing for every one cyclist (and there are 200 of them to start) there must be at least 10 hangers on (and probably a lot more).  We were driving down the highway on the way to stage three and got caught up in the Katusha team bus-car-etc convoy, which was quite exciting.  This was until we noticed we also had 100+ gendarmes on our tail, which was somewhat less exciting since Luke was still a bit unsteady on the wrong side of the road!!

Our last night in France provided a real highlight.  We were staying in Nantes (a university town that our hotel guy in Paris had questioned the need to visit) prior to a 6 am flight to Turkey.  We’d had a quick look on the LP website for a dinner recommendation and decided on the Creperie Heb-Ken.  After a small drama finding it, we found the restaurant full of French students and proceeded to have the most delicious galettes (savoury crepes) and crepes (apple and chocolate was the winner) we had ever tasted.  It is a must visit for anyone thinking of going to Nantes!

So for France the highlights were the food (yum) and le Tour.  And the best thing about the Tour was that the fun continued in our next destination – Turkey (see Part 3).  Photos for France are on flikr.  There are, of course, a lot more from the Tour and also video – I will post this sometime soon (will have to wait ‘til August when my flikr upload limit is reset).

Click here for France photos

Turkey (Europe Trip Part 3)

We travelled straight to the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey to a small seaside town call Kas (pronounced “cash”).  Here the plan was to relax and go diving, which is exactly what we did.  Overall the diving was a little disappointing, primarily because we are so spoilt living in Australia and having been diving on the GBR and in PNG.  The water temperature was a lovely 25 degrees and the visibility was great at around 30 – 40 m, but there just wasn’t the marine life that we are used to.  The diving was primarily on rocky outcrops which were unusually shaped and made for some interesting swim throughs and caves.  There was also a large seagrass bed that the afternoon dive focused on each day.  We did see some turtles, barracuda and schools of herbivorous fish feeding on the seagrass and these were enough to keep us entertained, without wowing us.  It was really pleasant out on the boat (except for when Luke got a bit seasick and fed the fishes), and a nice respite from the hot temperatures on land.  My travel recommendation for anyone thinking of diving in Kas (and probably the Med more broadly), would be to definitely go for a dive, but maybe just plan for 1 -2 dives.  Diving photos are on flikr. Click here for diving photos

We also continued our Tour watching in Kas, and made some local friends in the process.  Since we were in Europe the Tour finished most days around 6 – 6:30 pm.  This gave us the perfect amount of time to do our diving and then wander up to the pub for a drink and to catch the last hour of the day’s stage.  We found the most reliable coverage at the Barcelona Bar and made friends with the owner, barman and neighbouring shop keeper (all of whom were going for Contador and had no idea who Cadel was – presumably that has now been rectified).  The funniest thing was that they would speak Turkish, we would speak English, we were in a Spanish bar and the Tour coverage was in French – not a common language amongst us, but we still all knew what was happening and the collective cheers and groans were understood by all.

From Kas we headed to Istanbul to catch up with Luke’s friend Aylin.  Since we’d both been to Istanbul before we didn’t feel the need to fight the cruise boats and other hordes of tourists and instead focused on the local haunts.  We did spend a day in the Grand and Spice Bazzars, buying Luke a tie for the wedding, Turkish Delight for people at home and a crazy chandelier for our future (yet to be discovered and purchased) house!  Aylin took us to some great local places that we never would have discovered for ourselves, like little tea gardens on the Bosphorous and lovely little restaurants.  It was also really interesting to hear about the current goings on in Turkey, where it seems the conservative government is slowly making a proudly secular state less so.  We were also introduced to just how big Istanbul is (~17 million) when we travelled for 1.5 hours at 11 pm on a Tuesday night on 4 buses, each of which was crammed full – and that was just to get half way across town!

The food in Turkey was also delicious and I was inspired to buy a Turkish cook book (in English), so that we can continue our own Turkish Food Safari in Troopy.

From Istanbul (and what a chaotic international airport that is), we headed to Santorini, Greece for the driving reason behind the Euro leg of our adventures – the wedding (to be continued in Part 4)!

Santorini (Europe Trip Part 4 – The Finale)

Of course the real reason for our trip to Europe was the wedding of my dearest friend Jane and her lovely then-fiancé-now-husband Neil.  J&N had booked the La Maltese Estate for their nuptials and had decided on a 3 day package.  This meant that the bride and groom, wedding party, families and friends from across the world (me, Luke and two of Jane’s other girlfriends) were holed up in a luxury and exclusive villa for the day of the wedding and two preceding days.  We had such a fun time, socialising and carrying on and then, of course, attending the wedding in our respective roles.  Jane was her usual organised self and the days preceding the wedding were planned with social activities – drinks, dinners, beach visits – and in between just general frivolity and catching up with old friends and getting to know new ones. 

Santorini itself is a beautiful place, as a caldera of a volcano that rises straight out of the ocean.  The sunsets are particularly spectacular (see photos on flikr) and the water is clear and warm for swimming.  In terms of activities, the main ones are shopping (which we didn’t do – expensive, even with the strong Oz dollar), eating (which we did do, of course) and drinking (which we also did, of course again).  On our last day, Luke and I also did a little sailing tour out to the active part of the volcano and some hot springs that we swam in.

But to the wedding ... it was absolutely beautiful and we had a wonderful time.  I spent some of the day with Jane and the other girls while Luke hung out with the boys.  We then did our daily Tour watching and glammed ourselves up for the first time since we left Sydney nearly 4 months ago.  Since we were staying at the venue, it was a short walk up to the wedding and a drink before the ceremony.  J&N were married just before sunset, overlooking the Mediterranean.  Jane resembled (but outdid) Pippa Middleton in a stunning slim fitting dress and Neil was very dashing in a light suit and pink tie.  They were married by a Greek celebrant who unintentionally added some humour to the proceedings by pronouncing their names Jaaaaane and Neeeeeeeeeeil.  After sunset photos, a lovely dinner, funny speeches and a lot of dancing, we fell into bed around 3:30 am – 9 hours after the wedding began.  What a night!!

Luke and I didn’t take our camera to the wedding, because we just wanted to look with our eyes (and not through a two inch LCD screen), so unfortunately I don’t have any photos on flikr.  The two below are from J&N’s official photographer and Jane’s sister in law (Amanda) has about a million more that are in the process of being organised.  When they are ready, I will post a link (if approved by the bride J).   Other photos of Santorini are on flikr. 

So that’s it – our European adventures in four parts.  We have spent the last 5 days hanging out in Brisbane, watching the last of the Tour (on the edges of our seats), catching up with everyone and getting organised for the next leg of our Troopy travels.  Tomorrow we roll out for Fraser Island, so stay tuned ...

Click here for Santorini photos