Troy’s Random Ramblings

These couple of days were spend at the french Château de Cruix in the Beaujolais vineyards near Lyon. We had a wine tasting, sampling the local wines. After dinner it was off to the bar where far too much Beaujolais was consumed.

Day 4 was a bit of rest and recuperation. Had a long walk to the top of a hill so we could take in the views. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been too kind to us and it was really, really cold. As a result about half of us on the bus have a bit of a cold, ranging from a runny nose to an extremely uncomfortable chest cold and cough.

(Sorry, there’ll be no clicky links for the next few days as I’m doing this from my phone and it’s far too painful trying to search Wikipedia on my phone. So my apologies for any spelling mistakes or typos.)

Woo hoo! Paris! After freezing in the line for the Eiffel tower we finally made it into the lift and were on our way up. A quick change at half way and we were on our way to the top of Paris – 365 metres up.

Unfortunately it was a little cloudy up the top, so the views weren’t quite as good as they could have been. Never the less it was still impressive. There were so many people waiting to get the elevator back down that I ended up taking the stairs from half way to the bottom.

After the Eiffel tower we walked to the Arc de Triomph, built by Napolean for his victorious armies to march through on their return to Paris. Around the Arc is a huge roundabout that is fed by 12 roads. Traffic here is just crazy, entering vehicles have right of way and apparently all insurance is void if you have an accident while on the roundabout.

Next on the list was a walk down the Champs Elysées – also known as the boulevard of diamonds and rubies because of the endless lines of headlights and tail lights. At the end of the Champs Elysées are a set of gardens, full of statues, that lead to the Louvre.

The Louvre houses such masterpieces as the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa along with thousands of other statues and art work. The building(s) that house all of this are just enormous, originally being the royal palace of one of France’s kings.

Just on from the Louvre is Notre Dame, a huge gothic cathederal and once home to Quasi Modo.

After a nice French dinner it was back to the Contiki camp ground for a few drinks and then bed.

Early start followed by a day on the bus. Had a quick bite to eat then a drive through Paris to see the Eiffel tower and heaps of other things.

Pretty quiet day today. Didn’t get up to much, bit of washing and a walk down Regent St. Followed by a few beers while Australia gave South Africa a bit of a touch up go the cricket.

OK, finally managed to find an internoodle place so that I could get the photos out of my camera.

The photo album link on the left has all the updated photos. I haven’t been able to clean any of them up, but you’ll get the general idea.

OK, I’ll just list what I did, and if I have the energy at the end of the list you might get a bit of a spiel.

London aquarium, Salvador Dali gallery, Tate Modern art gallery, Britain at War museum, Greenwich – including the Royal Observatory and finally a Jack the Ripper walking tour through the streets of London’s East End. After all that I am completely stuffed, though I did manage to fit in a couple of beers at a couple of pubs during the day. Tip for new players, “cask” beer is not served chilled, its still cooler than room temperature, but it ain’t cold. I won’t be doing that again.

Right, on to today. London aquarium, bit disappointing really, the Melbourne or Sydney ones are much better. I haven’t been to the Canberra one, but I think it would be better too. Sorry if you’re a fan of the London aquarium but it just didn’t cut it. The only saving grace it had was the large pool where kids could pat a sting ray, but that was about it.

Salvador Dali gallery. Well, this guy produced an impressive quantity of art, I’m sure most of you have probably seen his melting clocks at some stage or another. The interesting thing about him is that he wasn’t limited to just drawing, he also spent a considerable amount of time turning his drawings into three dimensional statues. The gallery was very interesting with a large cross section of his work.

After the Dali gallery it was on to the Tate Modern gallery and a stroll around a couple of their collections. I was fortunate enough to be there at the same time as a couple of school classes. I’m not sure if it was the noisy kids, or just me, but I’m still not sure why some things are classified as art.

After the Tate it was on to the Britain at War experience. Here you are taken back to the 1940′s and into a recreation of what an air raid shelter would have been like. Plenty of memorabilia from the period including a wedding dress made entirely from parachute silk. This museum wasn’t too bad but found the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill museum yesterday more interesting.

After leaving the Britain at War experience I walked over the London Bridge – this version has been in place since about 1973 as the previous one was sold to an American (see the Wikipedia link). Just over the London Bridge is another Christopher Wren construction, the Monument to the Great Fire of London. The Monument is 61 meters high, which is exactly the distance from where it stands to where the fire started.

A quick look at the Monument and then onto the Docklands Light Rail and off to Greenwich. After a bit of stuffing around, swapping trains and the like I finally made it to Greenwich, the home of Time. After climbing up the hill and admiring the view of the Royal Naval College I made it to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, which is where all time on earth is measured from, and also where all longitudes start. Greenwich being the location which the Prime Meridian is located. Strangely enough parts of the observatory and other buildings (called Flamsteed house) were also designed by Christopher Wren.

The observatory and displays were all very interesting, particularly the different clocks that were constructed throughout the 1700′s in an attempt to keep accurate time at sea. The problem being that the pendulum clocks of the time weren’t accurate enough at sea as they were affected by the ships motion too much. In the end a carpenter, who was a self taught watch maker, John Harrison, who eventually made a clock that was not vulnerable to the influences of external movement, temperature or humidity fluctuations. As a result sailors were able to calculate their position more accurately than before. In a test of one of his early time pieces on a Royal Navy ship they managed to avoid catastrophe entirely because of the accuracy of the clock.

After Greenwich it was back over the Thames and into the East End of London for a walking tour around the areas of the Jack the Ripper murders. The walking tour took us to the present day locations of a couple of the murders, as well as pointing out some of the buildings in the area that were present in 1888. Our guide was extremely knowledgable regarding Jack the Ripper and what life was like back in the 1880′s. There was no attempt by her to tell us who Jack the Ripper was, rather she just presented the facts as they are known in a reasonably unbiased manner. All in all it was a very interesting tour through the back streets and alley ways of the East End.

And that was day 3. Day 4 will be a little less busy as I have to leave the hostel I’m currently in and head to another one.

Another day of walking.

Where’d I get to today …. First off was the Wellington Arch and Aspley House. The Wellington Arch was commisioned by King George IV in the early 1800′s. In the late 1800′s the arch was moved about 500 metres or so to where it is now, to ease traffic congestion. Here’s some useless information .. in the 1800′s traffic moved through London at about 9-11 mph, at the beginning of the 21st Century traffic moves through London at, yep, 9-11 mph. The more things change the more they stay the same. Apsley House is the home of the Duke of Wellington, and also home to an impressive art collection with the first Duke being an avid collector of portraits. The Duke also didn’t mind the odd banquet or two, every year hosting a dinner with his fellow comrades from the Battle of Waterloo.

After wandering around some of the Duke’s house (part of the house is still used by the current Duke of Wellington and his family) I strolled down to Buckingham Palace, unfortunately the Queen wasn’t in today so I didn’t get a chance to have a cup of tea with her.

After looking around Buckingham Palace and the gardens nearby I wandered back towards the Thames and through the Admiralty Arch and then on to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill museum. The Cabinet War Rooms were very interesting, a snap shot in time of what it was like during the height of WWII. The rooms have been preserved exactly as they were during the war, with the exception of the cigarette smoke. The Churchill museum was also extremely interesting, detailing the life, both private and public of Winston Churchill from his birth to his death.

A couple of hours later I resurfaced and wandered past Big Ben, Westminster Abby and the Houses of Parliment before strolling over the Thames for a ride on the London Eye.

All in all another fairly busy day with plenty seen and a few photos taken. Tomorrow, more tourist things.

Busy day today, lots of walking (it is good for me).

Wandered from the hostel down to Fleet St and ended up walking along the Thames for a bit. Visited the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and London Bridge, walked over the Millenium Bridge and then finished the day off with a walk through St Pauls Cathederal.

Tower of London was very interesting, that small area of land has been used for many things over the years. The one thing it was never designed for is the one that it seems to have been used the most for. That is a prison.

The Tower Bridge was also very interesting and a remarkable feat of engineering. The two halves of the road that raise were steam powered until the early 1970′s when they were replaced with an electronic hydraulic combination.

St Pauls Cathederal was just plain impressive. An enourmous church built in the 1600′s by Christopher Wren. It took 35 years to complete.

Anyway, more later, time for a beer.

After what seemed like the longest time sitting in one place ever I’ve finally made it to London. The flight over wasn’t too bad, just full. So there was no chance of stretching out.

I think they tried to feed me dinner about 3 times. Landed in a grey and chilly London at about 06:15 local time and was clear of immigration and customs by about 07:30. Then it was onto the Tube and into London. I managed to get to Piccadilly Circus without too much hassle, now all I have to do is find the place that I’m meant to be staying at and see if they’ll let me crash there a little early. After 20+ hours in a plane, probably only getting 2 hours solid sleep, I’m completely knackered, there won’t be much partying for this little black duck tonight.

Tomorrow, tourist things galore.

Thank someone for the Qantas Club. Best money I ever spent. 90 minute stop over in Bangkok. At least I can get a decent coffee before getting back on the plane for another 12 hours or so.

Managed to watch Happy Feet, it was OK. Tried to watch The Prestige, but couldn’t make it all the way through. Next movie on the list for is Blood Diamond, hopefully that will keep me awake for a while.

Had an Indian couple (from the UK) beside me until Bangkok. Not sure if I’ll have anyone for the rest of the flight, be nice if I didn’t that way I can stretch out a little.

Time for coffee…