As the saying goes, “When in Rome do as the Romans do and fast on Sundays”. We arrived on a Sunday. We lasted till 2pm… good pizza though! We arrived at 10am in the morning. It was nice knowing we had three nights here and keeping our feet on the ground a little more than usual. Having said that, the pace didn’t change at all and we still managed to squeeze every drop of Rome and surrounding areas into our...
Well the 4:30am start wasn’t as bad as we had thought and we tried to sleep a bit on the train. The first hour was good as it was just Em & I in a compartment of 6 seats, so had a whole row to lie down and stretch out. It’s set out much like the seats on the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter. Three seats facing each other, with it’s own door to the corridor running the length of...
After our previous early morning train dilemmas we decided to order our taxi 45 minutes before our train left. Stocked up on some goodies for the train, and chance to catch up again on some work, which includes Issue 26 of the NZ Photographer magazine. A relatively quick trip given Nice is at the very south of France, it is crazy how fast these bullet trains get up to! About 300km/hr. Is a great feeling seeing cars on the motorway...
Another early morning start! Can’t wait to get to England in a few weeks time, where we will be staying with family, and get some nice sleep-ins for awhile! Our lovely host Anne dropped us off at the Epernay train station, where we had problems printing our ticket we had bought online. The credit card I had purchased them with didn’t work in the automatic ticket machine, and our train arrived before we could get to the one-man-operated ticket booth....
A wake up call of a bacon, ham, and mushroom omelet with a side of cocopops… a breakfast fit for kings! With our bags packed the night before, we quickly enjoyed breakfast, before heading downstairs to our waiting taxi to take us to Gare d’lest (East Train Station). Unfortunately today was Victoire 1945 in France (celebrating the end of hostilities in Europe in World War II), and the taxi driver seemed to take the longest route there, and we missed...
Wow. It’s amazing what difference and amazing bed can make to a nights sleep. We were lucky enough to have a super king in our room, and we could almost starfish without touching each other! If you’re ever staying in Paris and want a fine hotel, look no further that Hotel de Sers. I can highly recommend every aspect of the hotel, and made our visit to Paris so much more enjoyable. After an amazing breakfast in the morning I...
Another full on day. Oooosh. I’m sure our bodies will eventually give up, hopefully that’s on the flight home in 6 weeks time! As I said in my last blog, I had Richard & Laura’s wedding yesterday in a tiny village called St. Michael. I haven’t seen two people so in love with each other for so long, and was beautiful to see them both enjoying each others company so much, despite all the formalities of their big day. This...
Our third and final day in London. Another early start… 7am and we were out the door! A quick tube ride across to ‘Bank’, which is where all the major bank HQ’s are. Another good hearty breakfast at a little place not far from the station. We decided to shop around this time, after a bad experience on our first day where we spend NZD$55 on two coffees and two slices of cake! We forgot that nearly everyone here only accepts...
Well we are more than over our jetlag now, but these super long days are bloody tiring! Today was no different, as I write this it’s 11:28pm, we’ve just got home after we left at 9am this morning. Nothing like a good hardy breakfast to get you through the day, we noticed this nice looking place outside Waterloo station yesterday. NZD$15-ish for a full english breakfast with tea or coffee. Can’t go wrong with that! The restaurant is underneath the...
The day started much earlier than it would usually otherwise. We left my cousin Ben’s place in Elephant & Castle nice and early at 7:30am. We arrived into Waterloo Train Station where I introduced Emma to Cornish Pasties & Walkers Crisps. Yum! We headed straight for the London Eye, but after we discovered it didn’t open till 10am, we walked over the Westminster Bridge and down along the Thames River and just went exploring. We stumbled upon a Vodafone...
