Europe Post #7

Our second day in Paris was spent at Disneyland.  The kids had a ball and believe it or not they lasted all day from when we arrived at 10am till we left at 8.30pm... Trust me, it turned out to be an expensive day.  We reckon we spent 300 Euro - that's $450 AUD.

Here are the kids when we first arrived - you reckon they were excited?

The pink fairy castle at the entrance to Fairyland... Vicki will be happy to know that Megan finally saw her real life princess!

There was a carousel that Megan wanted to ride.  Anyone that knows Aiden, knows he is a wimp when it comes to rides that move under him... check out the first photo... he was sooking and whinging that he was too afaraid to ride the horse...then check out the grin in the second photo when it actually started moving...

There was a Buzz Lightyear ride where you sat in these carriages and went through a dark tunnel shooting the bad guys with you laser gun... it was waaaaaaaaaay cool!  Dave and Megan were sitting in the carriage behind Aiden and I.

This was the car ride Aiden really wangted to go on... Dave has his foot on the accelerator but Aiden is driving...that is one happy grin!

Megan and I in our "Princess Yellow" car.  (Turns out she fell in love with Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast... and Belle wears a yellow ball gown)

Megan's favourite ride was called "It's A Small World".  It would drive most people insane... we went on it 3 times!  You sit in a boat that goes through a tunnel with the song "It's a Small World" playing over and over and over again and there are dolls dressed up from all around the world... believe it or not it is actually quite well done.  This is the look of anticipation on her face when we are entering the tunnel for the second time (so she knew what was coming)

Europe Post #6

Now to the Dutch part of our trip...I will try my hardest to remember to say "The Netherlands".  I have been saying we were going to "Holland" but have since found out that is like calling Australia by the name "Victoria" or "Queensland"...

Thankfully, when we first arrived we were invited to our Uncle Chris and Aunt Willy's house for a meal... they are the instigators of this once-in-a-lifetime family reunion...  Here's a shot of Dave standing in their back yard... yep, that's right... EVERYONE here has water at the end of their backyard or their driveway crosses over a canal or there is water somewhere near the house... it is incredibly nerve-wracking when you have two young children...

 

We had barely set foot in The Netherlands when we took off and headed for France with Dave's mum & dad, brother, sister-in-law and family.  Coming from Australia is was down right freaky getting in a car and travelling through 3 different countries in one day!  Our first stop was in Antwerp in Belgium.  It seems that every European city has a "Market Square"... here are the buildings and statue in Antwerp... VERY impressive and VERY different to what I'm used to in Australia.

Next stop was Lille, just inside the French border.  Again, photos taken in the main square.

Of course, when you come to France you eat croissants!

Unfortunately, it took us the most part of a day to get to Paris, so we only had one day to look around.  Do I think we did Paris justice in a day?  Not at all.  We missed out on seeing the Notre Dame, I didn't get to Sacre Couer and no doubt there are many more interesting things that will just have to wait until next time...

What we did see was the Arc de Triomphe

and the Eiffel Tower...

We climbed to the second floor and trust me, that was A LOT of stairs.  Poor Dave had to do it all carrying 15kgs of added weight since Megan has pretty much refused to walk ANYWHERE since we got here...

This is the view from one spot... it was magnificent to say the least...

Next we found our way to the Louvre... this is obviously taken downstairs inside the building

And this is when we met with a HUGE disappointment... the sign says the Louvre is not open on Tuesdays... and yep, we were there on Tuesday.  We had decided to go in and at least find the Mona Lisa so we actually were quite disappointed.

This is the Louvre from outside... like all the buildings in France it was very classice and elegant.  I have to say that Paris is one of the prettiest cities I've been in and I love the style of architecture.

The 'thing to do' outside the Louvre is sit around the water fountain with your feet in the water (it WAS hot - about 32 deg C I think).  Here's our two having a play.

Europe Post #5

OK, I know it has taken a while to get to this post but trust me, we've been busy! 

Our last full day in Bristol was spent with Vicki at the Bristol Zoo.  It was pretty cool seeing some animals we don't usually see in our home zoo, like the okapi below, the prairie dogs, flamingoes, pygmy hippopotamus and of course, the gorillas (there were more but I can't remember right now).

We went to a hands on demonstration where Megan happily held this Tasmanian (that's in Australia) stick insect... of course Aiden wouldn't go near it!

After the zoo Vicki took us to see thre famous Bristol Suspension Bridge... it is veeeeeery high up!  Of course, it wouldn't be summer in England without rain LOL!  So we didn't get to walk over the bridge...

Here we are making our way back to the car... in the rain... that's English weather for you!  Vicki reckoned she's a local so she should have known better than getting caught out without an umbrella or a jacket...

Unfortunately, the next day we had to bid Vicki and Rob farewell and head over to the The Netherlands.  To say we enjoyed our time with them is an understatement... we had a blast!  Now I will wait patiently for them to come and visit me in Australia...

Europe Post #4

Yesterday we took a train into London to do some sightseeing.  It was a looong day, we left here at 9am and arrived home at 10pm.  3 hours was sitting in a train to London but other than that we walked the whole day... and unbelievably, Aiden managed to keep going the whole time (can't say the same for Megan, poor Dave had to carry a dead weight for most of the day).

Here are some happy snaps from our day...

As soon as we got to London we headed for the Underground

We walked through St James' park to get to Buckingham Palace

A happy snap of the group.... Rob & Vicki on the right.  Rob was our 'official' tour guide for the day... he set a fast pace but we managed to squeeze in a lot of stuff!

Next stop, Trafalgar Square... unfortunately, it was too hard to get a photo of the entire square

Another pic of Trafalgar Square... notice Big Ben in the background (to the right of Dave's head)

These were street buskers.  They were statues and when you put a coin in their bowl they would move slightly.  Vicki gave Aiden some money to have a go... I missed the photo op after this when he bent over to take his coin back out of the bowl... that's Aussie class for you!

The kids standing in front of St Paul's Cathedral.  The only disappointing thing of the day was not going inside, but it was quite expensive and I don't think the kids would have appreciated it

Our final sight... the Tower Bridge.  We were even fortunate enough to watch it open to let a boat through

So that's how you do London in a day...

We have been on the go since we've been here so today, at last, is a day of rest.  Aiden has been hassling Vicki about the zoo so I think that's the plan for tomorrow.

Europe Post #3

Our next day of sightseeing was to a town called Bath... in one word, beautiful.  It is so European... and VERY different to Australia.  The buildings are all made of the local Bath stone which is a light sandstone colour and there are actually hanging baskets of flowers everywhere... on shop fronts, on lamp posts...

At the moment there is a charity event where 100 lions have been decorated and placed all around the city... we managed to spot about 30 of them.

This is the Bath Abbey.  Again, Dave and I have never been in an old church like this so it was extremely impressive.  The detail everywhere like the ceilings and the stained glass windows were mind blowing.

To end our day we visited Audrey & Brian, some long, lost friends from Australia.

Europe Post #2

You wouldn't believe the day we had... Vicki took us into Wales to go castle spotting.  It was absolutely, positively AMAZING.  Dave and I have never seen anything like this so we were blown away.

The first castle is in Chepstow... this photo below doesn't do it justice AT ALL.  The right side of the castle is actually built on a cliff face overlooking an estuary and the whole thing extends quite a way back.

Here's an overhead picture I found on the net:

Vicki and I posing for a photo somewhere inside the castle:

I had to show you this... we stopped at a little pub for lunch and over here it is typical to have potato chips (crisps NOT hot chips) served with your lunch....

Next stop was Tintern Abbey... we weren't really prepared to be impressed.... but believe me, we were!  It was massive!  It is such a shame these beautiful buildings are in ruin.

Finally, we visited Raglan Castle... this was almost exactly like the stereotypical picture I had in my head of a castle.  The second photo is the view from the top of the tower (the tower is shown on the left side of the first photo).  We searched high and low for the resident princess but in the end had to convince Megan the princess was out shopping for shoes...

Europe Post #1

We're here!  Believe it or not, getting here was not too bad... We had 5 1/2 hours to Kuala Lumpur and the kids were VERY well behaved (not sure why?? but we were grateful).  We then had a 12 1/2 hour flight to Amsterdam and the kids slept for about 7 hours of that... so again it wasn't so bad.  Things turned a little pear shape by the time we had to sit around the airport in Amsterdam and the bus station in London... but all in all I don't think I have too many more grey hairs!

Our first day in Bristol was spent meeting Vicki & Rob's friends and watching Holland not win the World Cup... despite the loss it was a fantastic day and I now know the wonderful world of Pimm's (a VERY English alcoholic beverage).