When we first arrived we jumped on a open-top tour bus, while a lot more expensive than a standard public transport bus it does a big loop around the city getting you close to all the tourist attractions, and provides commentary through headphones in your chosen language as you drive. So while not only easy and carefree, it’s also very informative and educational.

We got to our hotel, right next to the Vatican City, and then set out on foot to explore the immediate area, before hopping back on our tour bus to do the other half of the circuit we hadn’t done en route from the Train Station to our hotel.

We jumped off at the Colosseum. Wow! What an amazing feat of human engineering. It really is hard to appreciate the sheer size from photos, but try your best.

Buying tickets in advance has paid off so far the whole trip, but no more so than here, the line looked hours long winding it’s way around the entrance way. Two minutes after arriving we were inside looking around!

Where the floor used to be inside the arena is no longer there, but this allows you sights down into the old dungeon areas where the slaves were kept before their fights.

For those that don’t know the Colosseum was an arena used for fighting games. Slaves, prisoners or those just wanting fame and fortune are entered into the games where they must fight each other, often with the addition of a couple of wild animals namely lions and tigers (and bears. Oh my?).

Just over the road is the old Roman town and wandered around the ruins for a couple of hours. It really is so hard to picture what these ruins and left over structures once were. Plenty of photos of this area, so will let them do the talking.

Back on the tour bus, we continued our circuit back home for the night before an early start to Pompei.

Now I was going to throw all three days of Rome into this one blog, but the given the sheer brilliance of day two, it just had to be in it’s own blog. Go on now to read day two, Day trip to Pompeii and Amalfi Coast or continue reading day three below.

Up nice and early on day three, the close proximity to the Vatican had paid off, but lack of signposts had us running around the city trying to find the entrance for our guided tour. At one point I yelled to Emma that I felt like Tom Hanks. Arriving with seconds to spare we started out three hour tour of the Vatican City.

Starting in the Vatican Museum, the history of the Pope and the city was talked about in depth before wandering the museum looking at all the sculptures, paintings, and tapestries on the walls.

Our guide gave us all ear pieces so we could hear her better.

It was then into the Sistine Chapel which features some of the worlds most brilliant art works. Wall to ceiling is coverage in amazing works, painted directly onto the stone. This chapel is the place where the Papal Conclave takes place (the process by which a new Pope is selected)

Then into the St. Peter’s Basilica which is amazing on it’s own. Blessed Pope John XXIII is displayed in a glass coffin when his body was discovered so perfectly preserved 38 years after he died.

Outside they were setting up for the popes weekly ceremony where 10,000+ people are expected.

Meandering around the city again we headed to the Spanish Steps. We then called it a day and headed back to the hotel. The last couple of days I have been getting progressively sicker. What a place to get a case of the man flu! Rather than trying to push through it, a good nights sleep and some rest seemed like the best idea.

Up early again at 7:30am we headed a short distance to the Piazza Navona.

After looking at the amazing statues and fountains here we walked to the Trivi Fountain, where they say by throwing a coin into the fountain it will ensure you return to Rome.

We headed back to our hotel, grabbed our bags, and jumped on the next bus to the train station. We are now on the train from Rome to Venice where we will be spending two days.

After 4 hours we arrived in Pisa. We found a luggage storage place at the Train Station, so left our bags there as we headed out to wander the streets of Pisa.

It’s always hard walking any streets with Emma as she has an obsession with shopping, almost giving my mother a run for her money!

We got to the Leaning Tower after an hour, and had a few token photos. Couldn’t come this far and not do them – haha.

On the way back to Pisa Train Statin dripping with sweat we noticed this sign!

After a half hour train ride we had arrived in Florence, and from the moment we stepped off we knew these couple of days were going to be memorable.

We walked the 1km to the hotel, our backpacks being as hellish as ever! Which luckily would be the last time, as later this day we bought two brand new suitcases with WHEELS!! They’re nice and big so they fit all our stuff & the backpacks too. Now we look a bit nicer turning up to the flash hotels, rather than looking like backpackers haha.

We arrived at Platinhome’s Piazza Republicca hotel for our first night. They have another hotel nearby where we spent our second night in Florence.

It’s probably worth noting that this blog will be about both days in Florence, and I am currently writing this on the train from Florence to Rome.

We went inside and met the lovely Maarja, who showed us our room and all its features. From the second you step into Platinhome you feel relaxed, almost like you’ve just stepped into your own home – they are that welcoming!

After the 20min walk from the hotel in 31*c heat, we were ready for a shower. Lucky for us the shower not only had two monsoon shower heads with changing-colour lights, it also had a cold mist button which filled the giant glass shower with cold mist! Amazing.

We headed out to explore for a bit, found the amazing Duomo which dates back to 1296, it’s constructed out of real marble of the colors it looks, rather than painting it as is often done elsewhere.

Back to the hotel for a few hours of photos around both hotels (check them here) then we were back in our room getting ready to go out for dinner to a restaurant that Marrja had recommended.

We had an hour or so to kill, and when we stepped back into the room it was flooded with the most brilliant colours of red and yellows I have ever seen.

Our apartment was the penthouse suite of the hotel, and we were spoilt with a 360 degree view across the skyline of Florence. This was taken a couple of hours before the sunset, but I’m sure you get the idea – it was spectacular.

Standing on our deck, Veuve in hand, Emma commented that this was the most amazing sunset she had ever seen and that this moment “couldn’t get any better”. Boy was I about to prove her wrong!

I popped inside quickly, and then suggest she do a long panoramic video of the skyline and finish on me and I’ll wave and say hello… Far from the truth as you will see below.

After ten minutes of hugs and tears we woke our parents up in New Zealand to tell them our exciting news – WE ARE ENGAGED!!

We then headed down to reception to meet Maarja who was waiting for us, and we explained why we were late coming down, and she was equally as excited for us after learning why.

We headed down the street to a lovely restaurant right under the beautiful Duomo.

I’m not sure if Maarja mentioned to the staff our exciting news, but they were overly friendly and the food was devine!

Having been told previously I couldn’t leave Florence without trying a 1kg T-Bone, I decided what better time to celebrate.

A bottle of wine, dessert, and lemmonchello later, we were back at our hotel finishing our glasses from Veuve from before. It couldn’t have gone more perfect!

Everyone is asking to see the ring, so here’s a few close up photos of it.

For those that want to know (i.e. women), the ring was designed by Pacific Jewellers on Lambton Quay. I went in there with months worth of hints and things Emma had said she liked. Pulling aspects of different designs together saying I like this band, but this basket, and this diamond with this size, I sure gave Colin from Pacific Jewellers a fun task haha. It has a 0.5ch diamond set in the middle, with 16 0.129ch diamonds around the outside, all housed in white gold, all custom designed from scratch. The filigree basket also has two pink diamonds in either side, which are Emma’s favourites!

Pacific Jewellers were amazing during the whole process, after a few visits narrowing down the design, seeing 3D drawings of the basket, and everything else I was confident the ring was going to be exactly what I wanted.

Getting the call it was ready, I jumped in the car and raced to town for a “meeting” – aye Emma

It was perfect! I knew she was going to love it!! I left it with them, and got Julia to pick it up for me to minimize Emma finding out. It then spent the next week hidden in my room, before being hidden in my carry on bag with my laptop and camera equipment. Needless to say this bag did not leave my sight at all during this trip so far!

After a bit too much champagne, red wine, and limoncello from the day before our heads weren’t on fine form when we woke up for day two in Florence. We didn’t get up to an awful lot, but it was lovely just going out for an amazing breakfast, walking the streets and discovering one of the last remaining bridges in Europe that still has shops on it (as they used to be).

We also found the Il Porcellino (Italian “piglet”) by luck, which is a giant bore. You put a coin into the gaping boar’s jaws with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck and rub the boar’s snout to ensure a return to Firenze, a tradition that has kept the snout in a state of polished sheen while the rest of the boar’s body has patinated to a dull brownish-green.

After a bit of a splash out for our celebratory dinner, and the want to try a range of yummy Italian goodies, we headed to a supermarket not far from our hotel and bought one of everything we could find that looked yum! The whole shop totalled on NZD$55!

The bottle of wine was only NZD$5!

We laid it all on in our room before enjoying it during the night as I worked on photos from the last couple of days, and listening to some interesting Italian radio station.

Our second room had the most amazing bathroom ever! His and hers matching sides, with a giant bath in the middle. A huge monsoon shower head above rains down on you, and after two long days in Florence I’d have to say that bath was amazing! It was nice to finally find a bath I could stretch out in, being 6″4′ tall that’s always been a dream haha.

So this morning we were up at the lovely hour of 7:00am, which was awesome after being up till 2am editing photos. We’re now on the train flying through the Italian countryside, about half an hour out of Rome.

Three huge days are planned, so unsure when the next blog will be out, but I trust the length and significant important to this one should keep you fueled for a few days.

Chao! (Goodbye in Italian, said “chow”)

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 flying past the window as we speed through the countryside.

We arrived in Nice around 1:30pm, where we decided to catch a taxi. There was one dodgy looking bloke in the stand, who told us it would be $35 for a taxi about 5minutes drive away. We opted for the bus, who charged us $8 for a $1.50 ticket (which we only discovered later on). Needless to say we need to start being a bit more careful as everyone over here is trying to make a quick buck!

We arrived at our hotel, nice and basic, but central to Nice, and less than 5 minutes walk to the train station, which will be very handy in the morning when we have a 5:30am train!!

Ditching our bags, we head out on the streets wandering around submerging ourselves in French culture.

A few hours later we headed down to the beach and soaked up some rays for a bit, which was a nice change from the rest of the fast paced holiday.

Back to the hotel we got changed and headed to the train station, heading off to Monte Carlo for the evening.

The plan had been to go into the casino, but arriving there I have never felt so out of place in my life. Ferrari after Ferrari pulled up at the entrance as the mega-wealthy tossed their keys to the awaiting valet staff. Lamborghinis, Bugatti Veyrons, Aston Martins, Rolls Royces, and Mclaren F1′s – they were all there!

So we wandered around, admiring the cars and amazing super yachts instead. We busted out the tripod too and had some photos… First the standard posie one, then something more us! haha.

After relaxing by the water for a bit, it was back on the train for an earlyish night before our hellish awakening of 4:30am!

Discovering nothing was open for dinner at 10pm between our hotel and train station, we opted for McDonalds – cheap and easy, and in this case, the only thing open!

Sad to see France off in the morning, but very much looking forward to Pisa and Florence tomorrow, and our second stint of luxury accommodation!

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. I managed to talk to the conductor in what little french I knew, and we managed to get on board without our tickets which was a sigh of relief.

30 minute train ride back to Paris, we arrived into Gare de l’est, the same station we had left from. After our previous encounter with the Paris taxi’s we decided to try the bus service. After awhile we worked out there was a bus that went direct from Gare de l’est to Gare de Lyon, which was only a short distance from our hotel.

A half hour journey across Paris we arrived at Gare de Lyon. One can only imagine how much the taxi would have cost us, upward of NZD$70. And for the price of NZD$2 each we did the same journey!

We walked to our hotel, which I had read about a few months ago as being an amazing hotel for photographers and design folk. The hotel is called The Color Hotel, and everything is plain white, with bright colours scattered throughout. Every room is the same, but a different colour of the spectrum is used. Usually NZD$310 a night, we managed to get it cheaper online before we left for around NZD$140 which was a great score.

Asides from being an awesome hotel, it’s close proximity to Gare de Lyon was the main draw card. After ditching our bags, we walked back to the the station before catching a train to Disneyland Paris! It was a nice change from looking at amazing scenery and soaking up history, to just being a big kid!

We had tickets to both the Disneyland & Walt Disney Studios Parks, so we headed to the latter first, and did everything there that we wanted to do. The highlight of this park would have to be the Hollywood Hotel Tower, you’re seated in an old lift, with a single car seatbelt across your lap. Before you know it your lift is at the top of a tower looking out across Disneyland before plummeting to earth faster than gravity. It’s not so much the ride that scares you, but more the single seat belt holding you in place. Here’s Emma right after we took the plunge.

The Finding Nemo Turtle Ride was also heaps of fun! A rollercoaster through the dark with the carriage rotating 360 degrees at the same time.

We crossed over to the main Disneyland park, which was very similar to L.A.’s Disneyland which I have visited many times previously. With the obvious difference that all the characters and videos are played in French with English subtitles. The highlight in this park would be tough to narrow down to just one, but given we did Space Mountain twice, if I had to choose one, it would be it.

If you asked Emma what her highlight was it would probably be… let the photos do the talking.

We decided to go on a Wednesday as we thought the park numbers would be low, meaning short queue times. Which we were spot on with, and also Tuesday being a public holiday, it was even quieter again! Which meant more fun, and less waiting!

Here’s the view from the back of Disneyland from the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

We headed to an all you can eat buffet dinner on the Main Street, which was great value. We sure got our moneys worth!

9pm and we’re on the train back to Paris (Gare de Lyon) and a quick walk back to our hotel before catching up on 2 days without internet. We have a 7am train to catch in the morning, so am up till 2am to make myself tired (and I have that much catching up to do) so I will sleep on the train, at least that’s the hope.

Tomorrow we’re on a 6hr train to Nice, where we are staying one night, and heading to Monte Carlo for the afternoon – excited!

We arrived in Reims and jumped on the only bus outside waiting, luckily Mrs Organised aka Emma, had printed a map of Reims so with little dialog we managed to tell the bus driver where we were going.

It was evident when we arrived at Veuve Clicquot that this was going to be good! From the massive golden gates as you enter, to the reception littered with Veuve Clicquot paraphernalia.

We waited a short time before the tour started, where we learnt a lot about Madame Clicquot, how she came to bare the famous name (She married his son), how she came to be in control (her husband died), and why she added “Veuve” to the start of the brands name, formally Clicquot Ponsardin (Veuve is French for Widow).

After a slight history lesson, it was down into the limestone cellars under the champagne house. There are 25kms of caves which provide a perfect environment for the champagne to blossom into the fine drop it is.

After the caves, we entered the boutique, time to try a glass or two. First up on our pallets was the La Grande Dame 2004 Vintage, followed by the 1998 La Grande Dame Vintage.

The “standard” Veuve, if you can call it that, is a blend of this years stock with the last three previous years (80% current, 20% combination of previous years). This produces a wine consistent across the ages, mellowing out the highs and lows.

The vintage ranges are produced using only the current years grapes, and if they aren’t up to quality, a vintage is simply not made, and those grapes are donated to the standard Veuve. This means the tastes from vintage to vintage can vary quite dramatically.

After Veuve we headed to the Reims Cathedral, a few minutes by bus down the road. While walking was usually our preferred method of transport, we had our two massive backpacks with us. So far we have resented these bags, and wished we had bought suitcases. I just hope there is a time where we are glad that we have backpacks, but so far they have been less than ideal.

Back to the train station, we were off to Epernay, the other main city in Champagne. We were greeted at the station by a lovely local called Anne, who showed us to our accommodation for the evening, a little French cottage style apartment called Enchantee. Was very quaint!

Ditching our bags,we set off on the streets to Champagne Avenue, that is its actually name not a concoction of my witty brain. This avenue is the most expensive street in France, with over $500 million in wine stored in the limestone cellars below.

As today was a bank holiday, many of the houses were closed, but that didn’t stop us wandering up the street in awe.

An hour of exploring, and tasting at the one house we found open, we headed to Moët (which is at the start of the street). We were booked in for the Grand Vintage tour, a visit to the caves below before tasting two grand vintages at the end.

The crazy thing about how these bottles are stacked, is they might look massive from the front, but they are stacked 30 meters back into the caves!

Awesome chandelier made out of champagne flutes.

Emma’s personal hero, Dom Perignon.

After this very informative tour, and decadent tasting, we headed to a wine cellar & degustation restaurant to try some more varieties of the liquid gold. 10 glasses of champagne later we headed back to the hotel, where we tried to play some strange French board games, in the end we made up our own rules.

We couldn’t get over how cheap champagne was! A bottle of Veuve Clicquot from either the cellar door (“boutique” as they call it here) only cost NZD$50! On a GOOD special you can get this for $65 back home, but is usually around $90 a bottle standard pricing.

We bought one bottle of Moet from the cellar door, which was a limited edition bottle which you can write messages on with a special pen that’s included.

We bought a bottle of Veuve, from Veuve’s boutique, which came with an award-winning ice bucket. It started its life as cardboard, and comes flat packed in the side of the box (adds on about 8mm’s to the width of the standard Veuve box) which houses the bucket. Not sure if we’ll open it before we leave (who am I kidding!) but when we do, I will post a photo of the awesome bucket!

From the degustation cellars we bought a bottle of vintage champagne from the founding winery in Champagne, Gosset, which opened its doors in 1584.

We headed to bed reasonably early by our standards, not without first downing an Equalize each.

After an amazing breakfast in the morning I set about the hotel, camera in hand, snapping some great photos of the hotel, these will be in my Hotel de Sers Portfolio shortly. But here’s a couple to tease you.

We then headed for Champ Elyesse, which is one of 12 roads that  heads toward the Arc de Triomphe. Apparently the second your car enters this monster roundabout you have no car insurance. After a few hours wandering the streets shopping, we stopped in at a little cafe for lunch. At first I was a bit wary of ordering a “beef burger” that was NZD$45, but when it arrived it was so worth it! The most tender piece of beef, with sauce almost identical to BigMac sauce, but ten times better.

Just around the corner we discovered a Ladurée shop, those familiar with French food, will know Ladurée is the crème de la crème of French pastries and yum things! Emma’s macaroon obsession kicked in again.

Finishing lunch, we crossed the Seine River to the Louvre Museum. Speed museuming, our new favorite game, saw us see all the worth while things in just under an hour. Of course the highlight being the Mona Lisa.

Not too far from the Loruve is the Notre Dame Cathedral. The view inside was amazing!

Here’s a photo of me, Emma’s not too bad behind the camera either!

Right outside this cathedral is “point zero”, the point from which all distances in Paris are measured. All the street names and postcodes are relative to this point, the further away you get, the higher the number. A great idea back in the day, and a point which we stood on and could happily say we were at the center of the city of love!

On the way back to the hotel, we saw yet another Range Rover. There are heaps of them over here, but we saw only a few of these new ones. How sexual are these new Range Rovers!

Back to the hotel for a few more photos of another room, and back out the door for a bit more shopping. We then ventured up to the Arc de Triumph, crossed (under – thank god!) the roundabout, and climbed the 384 stairs to the top.

The view at the top was amazing, and again our luck was in order, as we saw the Eiffel Tower twinkle as its 20,000 lights were flashing on and off for 5 minutes (it does this every hour on the hour during the night).

The time was about 10pm, so it was back to the hotel ready for our 7am start. With our breakfast order hung on our door handle, it has never felt so good falling into bed as we prepare to say Au Revior to Paris in the morning.

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 morning we were up at the crack of dawn, and in a taxi to Ashford to catch the Eurorail to Paris. The total journey was 2.5hrs, so was expecting at least an hour underwater in the chunnel. However after about 20 minutes we resurfaced and it took us awhile to realise we were actually in France, and not the UK. Blasting through the country side was amazing as these train gets up to 300kms/hour!

We got into Paris’ Gare du Nord (North Train Station) around 12:30, and realised how close it was to the Palais Garnier, the opera theatre that Phantom of the Opera is based on. We jumped on a two-day hop-on hop-off bus, and headed straight for Palais Garnier. We had pre-booked our tour tickets so went straight inside, stashed our suitcases, and explored the 1,979-seat opera house.

Today was election day for France, so everywhere we looked there were news crews, hoards of police and military, and as I write this now at 12:20am there are screams and chants coming in our window as the new president was announced a few hours ago.

After arriving at the magnificent Hotel de Sers, we headed 5 minutes down the road to the Eiffel Tower. While we had seen it a couple of times already while making our way to the hotel, nothing compares to standing right underneath this monstrosity looking up.

After my father and sister set the bar of walking only a few years ago, we too decided to flag the lifts, and opt for the stairs instead. Besides, the line to the ‘stairs only’ was about 2minutes, as opposed to the line below, which we were told would be at least 2 hours!

And there was a great sense of accomplishment when arriving at the second floor (half way up). The view from here was amazing, but it doesn’t compare to the very top, so we jumped into the lift to the top (we would have walked, but it’s lifts only from here).

After arriving at the top, there’s only one thing to do, a glass of champagne looking over one of the greatest cities in Europe.

Everything I’d read said it would be strange to not see someone being proposed to while at the top, and infact we saw two couples. After spending half an hour at the top, enjoying the views, we headed back for the stairs and wandered back to the ground. A quick walk over the road provided some great vantage points of the Eiffel Tower, and we arrived just as it was lit up in all its glory.

We then decided to head back to our hotel, Hotel de Sers, and ordered room service of French Fries, and popped the cork on our Veuve we bought in Dubai on the way over.

Goodnight Paris, we’ll see you again tomorrow.

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 cash, so I had to briskly head to the closest cash machine (they don’t call them ATM’s).

After breakfast we headed in St Pauls Cathedral’s direction, and ended up walking past Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Barbecoa, which also has a butchery in it with amazing produce hanging up for purchase. Probably wasn’t the best sight for Emma (the vegetarian) but she was still impressed by the shop.

After circumnavigating St Pauls we decided to head inside, but just our luck the cathedral was closed for a service till 1pm.

Not wanting to waste any time, we crossed the Thames River via the Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

Given our early worm performance, the Globe wasn’t yet opened. So after discovering that amazing food place yesterday not far away, we headed 15mins away to get some supplies to take with us to Tenderton (although not all four of the yummy cakes made it to the train ride we are currently on)

On our second visit we discovered it was called Absolutely Starving. While we weren’t, after our huge breakfast, we were foreseeing us being hungry tomorrow and even later this evening.

After stocking up, we headed back to The Globe Theatre as it was opening. The theatre is the closest replica they could make based on what little records exist about the original theatre. Globe to Globe is currently going on at the globe, which is all 37 Shakespeare plays in 37 different languages being performed by various theatre companies from all over the world. The good news was we got to see a rehearsal taking place of Richard II in Arabic, the bad news was that because it was taking place I wasn’t able to take any photos. But here’s one google gave me, so you know what we were looking at.

We then headed back over the Millennium bridge back toward St. Pauls Cathedral, and went down into the crypts where the cafe is. But unfortunately couldn’t see much, because of the service taking place.

After that we jumped back on the tube and head toward Kensington Palace.

We walked through the amazing Kensington Gardens and discovered a giant pond littered with ducks and swans. Those that know Emma, will already know we then spent 10 minutes sitting pondering life at the pond (Have been wanting to say that all day!)

We then went into Kensington Palace, which is a royal residence which the British Royal Family has been residence in since the 17th century. It was Princess Dianes home from 1981 until her death in 1997. The Palace has just finished a major overhaul and there are now four exhibitions on display. Discover stories from Queen Victoria’s life told in her own words in the new Victoria Revealed exhibition; master the games of royal court in the magnificent King’s State Apartments; get a glimpse of a modern Princess in a small but special exhibition of some of Diana’s dresses and uncover the secrets of a fragile dynasty in the beautiful Queen’s State Apartments.

Again dressing up was in order, no time to hold Emma back.

After leaving the palace we strolled through the other side of Kensington Gardens, discovering Emma’s new favourite animal, squirrels. Before I knew it our lovely cakes were being fed to the little critter. Who was pretty excited to have some yummy food.

The Royal Albert Hall is just over the road, we popped in there to see how long the tour would take. Unfortunately it was an hour long, and we were running short on hours by this stage in the day. We were umm’ing and ahh’ing, but then when I heard photography wasn’t permitted inside that was the nail in the coffin. Telling a photographer they can’t take photos inside, is like telling a food lover that they can’t eat anything bar rice.

The National History Museum is just around the block, so we headed round there. The line into the museum was a mile long, so weren’t able to venture inside. A shame really as I wanted to see the Animal Inside Out exhibition, although I’m still not sure if I could have talked Emma into that, I wasn’t given the chance.

Next up was Harrods Department store. If you’re not familiar with Harrods, think every designer label you can think of, double it, and spread them over 6 floors filling an entire block.

There’s even a Veuve Champagne Bar, a standard yellow label bottle would only set you back NZD$150! (Rip off when compared to the bottle we bought in Dubai for NZD$55)

We left Harrods and quickly jumped on the Tube back to Elephant & Castle. We packed up out gear, and then hailed the first london cab we could find. Another thing ticked off our list.

We’re now on the train headed for a tiny village (literally one B&B, a golf course, and not much else). My first wedding is here tomorrow, so once we arrive I’ll be doing my usual night-before routine of preparing everything, catching up with Richard & Laura, and having a look around the ceremony & reception areas to get some ideas and inspiration for tomorrows big day.

Now I think about it, I’m probably not going to be able to upload this blog till we’re in Paris. My iPhone wont tether to my MacBook (Good one Vodafone UK!) and I’m very doubtful that our B&B will have wifi.

Cancel that, there is limited internet at the B&B so have been able to upload this after all.

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 rail bridge, and fittingly called Arch.

After breakfast and loosely planning our day, we headed toward the Tower of London. En route there we found a cool design shop, where we bought an umbrella. It’s black with a white silhouette of the iconic London skyline. But when rain hits the white it explodes in a pattern of colour! Didn’t get enough rain today to get a proper photo, and hopefully we wont! (but if/when it does, at least we’ll look good in the rain).

Also got a nice view of the London Eye through the trees.

We jumped on a cruise boat on the Thames River, and headed up towards the Tower of London. Was a good way to see a few sights, and our feet were pretty excited about not having to do any work for half an hour. We passed under London Bridge, and can confirm it is infact not falling down as the song goes.

Again chance was on our side, as we arrived at the Tower of London, which is right next door to the Tower Bridge, just as the bridge was rising. Apparently this only happens 2 or 3 times a day nowadays.

The Tower of London was amazing. So much history and interesting things to gork at, we found ourselves easily spending three hours here. Highlights would have to be seeing the crown jewels in all their glory, and all the armour from kings throughout the ages.

The Ravens in the Tower of London plays an important part in the towers history. Legend has it that failing to keep ravens at the Tower of London will mean the great White Tower will crumble and a terrible disaster shall befall England.

A two minute walk along the cobblestones and we were at the Tower Bridge. The exhibition lets you get right up inside the bridge, walk along the top, and then visit the engine rooms that lift the bridge.

From there we headed for Churchill’s War Museum. Yesterdays visit to his War Rooms was about him and the war, but todays war museum looked more at the life of everyday people during the war. From sitting in air raid shelters listening to sounds above, to trying on gas masks and hats.

Just over the road was an amazing shop, selling the yummiest looking food we’ve seen since we arrived. Was very hard getting Emma out of this shop. Three bags of goodies later and we were on the street again, heading for Tate Modern.

On the way our course ventured under yet another rail bridge. However this bridge was different, and the entire roof of the tunnel was covered in LED lights, which made for an amazing light show.

Tate Modern is the largest modern art gallery in the world, and better yet it’s all free. We checked out the main attraction first, which was Damien Hirst’s greatest piece of art “For the love of god”. A lift-size platinum cast of a human skull, set with 8,601 flawless diamonds and a 52-carat diamond set on the forehead.

Also on display was Kusama’s collection, which we saw last year at Wellington’s Art Gallery.

By now it was 5pm, and we decided to head home get changed and head out to the theatre. We popped into my dads favourite bar in London, The Clarence, where we had planned to catch up with a friend who now lives here, but she’s useless and ended up at the wrong bar. We only had 15 minutes to relax, before heading down to Haymarket and entering Her Majesty’s Theatre. Besides seeing one of the greatest productions of all time, Phantom of the Opera, the thing that made this visit extra special was watching it in the same theatre it started in 25 years ago. The show is the longest running production ever and has been performed there over 10,000 times!

This wrapped up around 11pm, where we promptly called it a night, jumping back on the tube and heading home. It’s now into the wee hours of Friday, Emma is asleep on the bed, and I am sticking true to my word of blasting another one of these out. Have decided these must be done the ‘night of’, as opposed to the ‘morning after’. Not only do I have the worst memory in the world (hence writing it all down) but it takes up a bit of time, which I’d rather be doing at the end of a day, rather than eating into the next.

Tomorrow we have half a day in London before catching a train out to Ashford. We have two nights in a tiny village called Tenterden. On Saturday I am the official photographer for Richard & Laura’s wedding which I am very looking forward to. Also being able to relax the day before is looking very nice at the moment.

Incase the internet coverage in the countryside is limiting I may not be able to do another update till we arrive in Paris on Sunday morning after the wedding. Our first of four luxury hotels is here, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit excited about staying at the Hôtel de Sers for two nights.

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 shop, where I picked up a UK sim for my iPhone so I can keep connected while here, and roaming around Europe. We then made our way to pickup our London Passes, which gives you free access to nearly everything the city has to offer, and queue jumping at the attractions that usually interest a lot of tourists.

Emma has an obsession (to put it lightly) with macaroons, and when we happened upon this amazing store she had no choice but to buy some. Much cheaper than home, and heaps more tastier too! Although I’m sure the ones in France will be the winners, hands down.

Besides having a great taste for men and food, Emma also has great taste in fashion. Somehow she managed to home in on Bond Street, like a carrier pigeon heading home. Bond Street is home to YSL, Gucci, Chanel and Tiffany’s. And yes, it is the same Bond Street from Monopoly.

We then continued roaming the streets, which we favoured more than the great tube system, as we kept discovering things that were completely by chance. The next such case was a tiny little Piccadilly Market, outside the St James Church.

After a quick stop here, we ended up in Green Park, which wasn’t really a park at the time, as they were in the process of laying new grass. Probably in preparation for the influx of tourists for the Olympic Games in a few weeks time.

Green Park backs onto Buckingham Palace, so before we knew it we were there watching the changing of the guards. I’m still sure if we had planned to get there in time to watch this take place, we would never have made it. Once again chance was on our side and was amazing to watch.

On the opposite side of Buckingham Palace is St James Park. We made our way through this park which is home to squirrels, ravens, mullet ducks (really! a duck had this sweet mullet half way down his head) and pelicans. Besides being a shortcut through to our next stop, St James Park really has to be seen to be appreciate.

Right opposite the exit of St James Park is the Churchill’s War Rooms. Deep beneath the bustle of London lie the original Cabinet War Rooms which sheltered the people at the heart of Britain’s wartime government during the Blitz. In 1940, shortly after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill stood in the War Cabinet Room and declared: ‘This is the room from which I will direct the war’. Today, you can step back in time to explore the secret headquarters where Churchill and his staff changed the course of history.

Apart from being a very informative & educational attraction there was also opportunity to dress up in his famous boiler suits and don a bowler hat and cigar. No one else seemed to be playing with them so of course we didn’t think twice about partaking and entertaining the friendly staff stationed in this area.

A quick stroll away is Westminster Abbey, which up until now I thought was just an amazing church used for the coronation of Kings and Queens, Lady Diana’s funeral, and of course Prince Williams recent wedding to Catherine Middleton. However inside Westminster Abbey is also where many of the nation’s Kings and Queens are actually buried. Principal among them is St Edward the Confessor, King of England from 1042 to 1066, whose shrine is at the heart of the Abbey. Also buried or memorialised here are over 3,000 great men and women including Queen Elizabeth the first, Queen Mary of Scots, Shakespeare, and Sir Isaac Newton. Sadly we weren’t allowed to take any photos inside.

On the way to Westminster Abbey, we passed the ANZAC memorial. It was recently covered in poppies after ANZAC day last week.

We also passed 10 Downing Street which is David Cameron’s office is (UK Prime Minister). A friend and fellow photographer is based there, so were lucky enough to grab this quick photo with him.

Finally it was time to give our feet a rest, as we jumped aboard the tube to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Will let the photos do the talking here.

After a good few hours it was time to jump back on the tube and head for the London Eye which we had previously missed out on for being too early (first time in my life). However, now the time was in the middle of peak hour, and the tube system turned into this manic intertwined regime for most people on their way home from work. For those not familiar with the tube system, it’s a huge network of 11 underground train lines totally 400km’s. A casual 3.4 million people use the system any given day! To get from A to B, you usually have to catch a tube to one station, get off, walk through some tunnels, up some stairs, and get onto another line before heading off in another direction. All while still underground. You don’t usually surface till you arrive at your final destination.

Asides from the London Eye itself, there is also a great 4D attraction which has you flying over London with a friendly seagull showing you all the sights and sounds. 4D is an ellaboration on 3D, where you wear 3D glasses, but your other senses are subject to falling snow, gusts of wind, bubbles and even splashes of water.

After spending far too much money on our first day we opted to try English McDonalds for dinner, before catching the tube home where we literally crashed.

9 hours later we have woke up ready to start round two! I could tell you everything we’re about to do, but as we are opting for chance a lot is unknown, and besides, it would ruin the surprise wouldn’t it.