Col & Rens UK Trip

Our bus arrived much earlier than we thought and arrived at 5am. It was still dark and we arrived at where we were staying which was an apartment and there were no lights. We weren't sure whether it was 24 hours or not but we buzzed reception and amazingly were able to check in. By 6am we were asleep and were able to get a few hours of good sleep before getting up to look around Prague.

We had been to Prague before so today has really been a very quiet day. The first quiet day in a long time so its been handy to be able to relax. Our room is actually 4 rooms and has a couch to sit and a fridge so its been a nice change from the shared bathrooms. We explored Prague a bit and then returned home. Before returning home we went to the corner store and bought a bottle of wine and a big bag of chips and it came to about $6 Australian. I like Prague. Once back in the room we relaxed and added the photos onto the Blog. We headed out again and walked some more and had a nice tea and a bottle of Champagne with tea. We are now back in the room for an early night before our 8am bus to Salzburg in the morning.

The day after in Salzburg we have a Sound of Music tour which should be interesting. I have never seen the movie so it will be nice to see a bit of the Salzburg and Austrian countryside.

11 Sleeps and we fly home...

We arrived in Prague this morning at 6am and amazingly were able to check into our room, which is the best room of our holiday. It is a suite with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and also a couch to sit on. It has a full PC so i have been able to get a few photos off the ipod.

Northern Island - First 2 of Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge. Next 2 of Giants Causeway


Travelling down west border of Ireland. First photo is of the castle we stayed in. Second of Kylemore Abbey. Third is of Ross Castle in Killarney.


Cardiff. First photo is of inner keep of Cardiff Castle. Next 2 are of photos of Dr Who exhibition.


Bath. First of Roman Baths and second of Stonehenge.


Oxford. First of a bridge between campuses of a college. Next 2 are of St Christs Church. Staircase used in Harry Potter and the dining room that Hogwarts dining room was inspired from.


London and Amsterdam. First photo of a monkey from London Zoo. Next photo is of our room on the ship in Amsterdam. Very Cramped. Next photo of Windmalls from our 5 hour tour.


Copenhagen. First photo of Travoli amusement park which was near where we stayed. They had all decorations up for halloween. Second photo of Royal Palace and last photo down the main canal.



Berlin. Night photos of Berlin Festival of Lights. First 2 photos are of Brandenburg Gate. Next of Bodemus Museum with TV Tower in background. Next of Lustgarten Museum. Next is of Gendarmenmarkt. Last night photo is in Sony Plaza on Potsdamer Platz.


Still Berlin. First photo of 80m section of Berlin wall. Second photo is Checkpoint Charlie. Next 2 pictures are from Berlin Zoo.

We arrived in Copenhagen and walked to our hotel. It was nice to be staying in a nice room where you could actually walk around. It was also to be in a hotel for the night and not a bus.

We had a boat cruise down the canal and river. It was a nice ride and went past a few of the main attractions in Copenhagen. Some of the bridges were so small that if i stood up while it went through i dont think i would have anything above my waist.

Next day we walked to the Royal Palace and saw changing of the guard, saw the little mermaid statue as she is from Copenhagen (apparently), a couple of churches, and other stuff that we cant really think of. Our bus that night didnt leave until 11:45pm so to fill in time that afternoon we went to the movies. We saw the Devil wears Prada. It was even in English which was handy.

We boarded our bus to go to Berlin. Yay

We arrived in Amsterdam about 8:30am and made our way to our hostel which was actually a docked boat. It was without doubt the smallest room we had ever seen. It was bunks but between the bunks and wall we couldnt even pass each other. One person had to be on the bed for the other to pass. Interesting...

We had a snooze after a fairly sleepless night. We walked around the city and just got a brief feel for Amsterdam and what was around. We had Tibet for tea which was not only cheap, but pretty tasty too. They use very few vegetables so it was pretty much just a plate of meat. Excellent.. After tea we had a nice walk around the red light district. One Word. Interesting...

The next day we went on a 5 hour tour of Holland. It went through and stopped at old will mill areas, clog makers, and cheese makers. We tasted lots of cheese which was pretty cool. We had some mini pancakes with syrup on them which were supposedly typically dutch. Tasty..

That night we had a bus to catch leaving at 11:15pm and arriving in Copenhagen at 1:30pm the following day. A nice 14 hour bus ride...

We left Oxford on the train and arrived in London. We walked and checked into our hostel which actually wasnt too bad. We worked out will have stayed in 9 different places in London in our 8 months over here. We think that was the lot but there may have even been 1 or 2 we couldnt think of.

That night we had tickets to see Mary Poppins. In Leicester Square was the opening night of the London film festival and they had the red carpet out for the stars arival for Last King of Scotland. We watched a bit but no one we knew arrived. After that we went to see Mary Poppins. We both really enjoyed it. It was no surprise Renee would enjoy it, but i was really surprised by how much i like it. Im writing this on a german keyboard and the z and y are in different places.

Next day we went to London Zoo and spent a fair part of the day there. That night we caught a bus to Amsterdam. Left at 8pm, arrived at 8:15am.

We arrived in Berlin and checked into hostel. It was probably the most modern building we have stayed in our whole trip. Pretty cool.

We spent the day looking around and had Doner kebabs for tea. In Berlin at the moment is the festival of lights which pretty much means all the main highlights of Berlin are lit up at night. A lot of them are normally lit up but they have blue and red lights and make it look really cool. We have lots of photos...

Next day, which is today for us we spent the morning looking around Berlin, and then went the Berlin Zoo for the afternoon. It has 14000 animals and is one of the biggest zoos in the world. It was pretty cool.

We are now sitting back in the hostel waiting so we can go and catch our 11pm bus to Prague which arrives at 6am. Should be interesting....

Well its Tuesday evening here and we catch a bus tomorrow to London to stay for a day before leaving to Europe.

Last update was pretty much as we were about to leave Ireland for the UK again. The Monday morning we were up pretty early and had a nice breakfast where we were staying. They had a full fruit platter and cereal, as well as bacon and eggs so the variety was nice. Wasn't totally unhealthy... just a little. We were flying out at 9pm that night so we drove down around the southern coast and around to Cork. We went to Blarney Castle and saw the rock that you are supposed to kiss. We both didn't bother with that and just enjoyed the castle itself.

As we were returning the rental car that night we were trying to run the petrol down as low as possible as we had to return it empty. Unfortuantely we pushed it probably a little far which ended in me going for a nice little walk. We were probably only had to drive another 30kms to the airport at that stage which was a bit of a bugger. Oh well..

We had a quick stop in at Kinsale before going to the airport which was a nice little town. Had a quick meal there and then dropped off the rental car and flew out of Ireland.

We returned to Liverpool at about 11pm and boarded a bus to get back to Manchester. We then caught a taxi and stayed the night in our now old house. The last night we were staying in Manchester and we were both pretty happy to begin the UK part of our trip which also means we closer to coming home.

We went to Skipton and caught up with family and friends while there and stayed the night. Next morning we went to Cardiff. We looked around that afternoon quickly and just had a look in the main city part and the outside of the castle. It all looked pretty cool. Next morning we went to the castle and looked around inside and went on a tour. It was a pretty cool castle on the inside. The rooms were very well done so it made it a bit different from some of the other castles we had seen. We walked down to the bay and spent a fair part of the afternoon down there. Near the bay was the Dr Who Experience. Im not a big Dr Who fan but i was interested to see it as all of the new seasons of Dr Who are filmed in Cardiff. They had Cyberman and Dyleks, as well as K9. Interesting to see, but probably would have meant more to both of us if we had seen more than 1 episode.

We left Cardiff the next morning for Bath. We were worried with that train as we had bought the tickets originally for the Saturday and paid £3 a ticket, but then decided we were going on the Friday. Friday tickets were £10 if paid in advance and £13 if you just bought them on the train. The tickets were checked as we went onto the platform, on the train, and as we left the station at Bath. No one noticed the date so that was handy and saved us a bit of money. We stayed at a hostel in Bath and in a Dorm. I forget how interesting dorms can be :-)

We went to the Roman Baths the first afternoon and had a fair walk, pretty much doing the full route the scenic buses go on. The next day we went to Salisbury and to Stonehenge. Stonehenge was good to see, but it wasn't quite what we both expected. Salisbury was a nice little town.

The next day we spent in Bath again. We looked around Bath some more and generally had a pretty quiet day. It was Sunday and we both felt like a Sunday Roast so we thought we would go to Wetherspoons. They have a good roast and comes with a glass of wine for £5.50. Good Deal. We walked around for ages looking for it and eventually found it, only to find they were totally out of roasts.

Next day we left for Oxford. We walked around the city and just had a quiet afternoon taking in the sights.

Next day is today. Yay. We went to Christs Church College and saw the Dining Hall that the Harry Potter hall is based on. Filming was done at the college for 5 weeks for both the first 2 Harry Potter films and the main staircase in the films we were able to walk up and down. Exciting...

I am now wasting time on an internet cafe PC as we needed to change a few of our plans for when we return from Budapest. We received a phone call this morning advising that the flight we had booked was now cancelled. Changing the flights to 4 hours later meant we now arrived in London at 5pm on a Friday night. Busy time. Now discount train tickets even when bought in advance so a trip from London to Skipton would have cost $400ish Australian. In the end we booked another nights accommodation and travelling to Skipton early on Saturday morning. An unwanted inconvience, but oh well... at least we had time to plan it all.

Tomorrow night we are going to see Mary Poppins so that should be interesting. The next day we going to Tower of London which should also be interesting. We picked up a coupon which gives us a free entry thus saving us £14.50. Yay.

The following night at 8pm we leave for Amsterdam so probably no SMS messages will be sent during this time from either of us as it is ridiculously priced outisde of the UK. This is the beginning of our European Leg and will also mean 3 weeks until we are home. 3 weeks until we have a sandwich toaster, our own cuttlery, our own bathroom, our own deep fryer, our own television. Ahhh... It will be good to be home.

Its Sunday night here and tomorrow night we board a plane and fly back to the UK. Its been a pretty full on and exciting week in Ireland as some of you might already know.

Tuesday we flew out of Liverpool mid afternoon arriving in Belfast. We picked up our rental car and met up with Renees friend Brett. We checked into our hostel and then went out for tea. We had a quick tour around Belfast and then had a drink at a bar close to our hostel before going back to hostel.

The next morning we were up fairly early to get moving and the fire alarm went off. Not for the first time on our trip, a false alarm. As we left the hostel the alarm was still going off. We drove all the way along the coast stopping at a few castles and other scenic stops. The 2 main stops were the Giants Causeway and the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. The causeway is rocks on the beach that were all hexagon in shape caused by volcanic eruption 60 million years ago. The rope bridge is exactly that, a rope bridge. Its between little islands and is suspended 90 feet above the sea. Both were really good. That night we stayed in another hostel that was really nice. Only 2 other people in the place and we didn't see them at all.

Thursday morning we left early and drove to the west coast of Ireland and drove through Donegal. We saw the cliffs of Donegal which are Europes largest cliffs. Interesting that we could see most of the cliffs but the fog at a particular point cut off all visibility. From the cliffs we drove back through Donegal and down to Sligo. In Sligo we were staying the night in a castle. We walked around the grounds which were really nice. At the castle we had a 3 course meal and bottle of wine in the grand dining room. As some of you will already know, afterwards we went for a walk and shortly after were engaged. I managed to keep the ring hidden in our 2 bags while travelling so it was nice that it was still a surprise.

The next day we drove down the coast and stayed the night in Galway. Its interesting how one second you can be driving along the coast and the next second driving beside a river with mountains all around. That night we stayed in a bed and breakfast. That was nice and equally as exciting as walking down the street and finding free wireless from another bed and breakfast. If you received an email from Renee or I it was from stolen internet.

Saturday we drove from Galway to Killarney. We saw more coast, cliffs and castles along the way. The bnb here is nice and has a really breakfast. We have our priorities straight :-)

Sunday, this morning we drove around the ring of Kerry which is circular coastal road. We had a relaxing afternoon and then went to an Irish bar and had tea. I had an nice Irish stew and Renee had some prawn dish. Pretty tasty. That pretty much brings you fully up to date with what we have been doing.

Since picking up the car we have driven about 1300km. Its nice to be driving and not relying on public transport. As Homer Simpson says.. 'Public transportation is for jerks and lesbians'.

Well its 2pm on Monday the 2nd of October 2006 and tomorrow we begin the remainder of our travelling tomorrow morning. We leave the house early in the morning and fly to Northern Ireland. We are there for a week and fly back on October 9th. We in Skipton for a couple of days and then off to Cardiff, Bath, Oxford with a day trip to Stonehenge at some point. We stayi in London one night and from there we going to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Salzburg, Munich and Budapest. From there we flying back to London and return to Skipton. From there we are back in London one night and flying home on November 6th.

Hopefully throughout the trip the places we are staying at will have wireless and we will be able to check emails, be on Messenger or ICQ, and maybe even use Skype a little.

Graeme was flying home on Wednesday of this week so he came down on the Monday with his neighbors and dropped his luggage at our house on Monday after work. He went out for tea with them people and I went down to an Indian place to have Thai food. Renee had a going away tea with people from her work which was good. The food was really tasty and everyone is friendly. Its the second time i have been out to tea with people from Renees work and both times it amazes me how well everyone gets on. Every one chats and genuinely seems to like each other. Its almost unheard of!!

Midway through the feed Graeme joined us and sat and watched us eat. Somehow he managed to get some of mine and Renees meals. Not only that, but people left before dessert so he managed to get a full dessert as well. Not a bad effort. The 3 of us got a lift back to our house which was a time saver. I think job wise Renee was the luckiest out of the two of us. I sat there and entered the same kind of form over and over again all day. Renee had a job were she actually had responsibility and proved herself an assett to the company.

It was kinda organised that Graeme would be sleeping in the spare bedroom upstairs the 2 nights he was here. Funnily the nights he was here, the house had 2 extras staying here as well and the bedroom was taken. In the end he got a fold out camping mattress on our floor with a sleeping bag. Might not have been the most comfortable sleeping arrangement for him, but it was free accommodation.

Tuesday night the 3 of us went out to tea to a pub just down the road nicely named 'The Cock'. The food wasn't too bad and it was pretty cheap which meet both my requirements. Wednesday morning and Grom was on a flight back home.

Friday afternoon we both finished at 4pm and that was it for work. I went straight home and Renee had a few drinks with a couple of people from work. We eventually went out for a cheap meal again to 'The Cock' to celebrate the end of working part of the holiday, and welcoming the final travelling before returning home. Its Saturday night here now, yesterday being the Friday that we finished work and we have begun packing up.

Hopefully throughout our travels i will be able to update the blog occasionally and we should be able to send and receive emails most of the time.

Work this week seemed to drag on. I think it was not because the work itself was the bad, but we started booking a lot of hotels and transport for our trip and were getting excited about that. In total we booked 17 hotels across 8 countries, 3 flights, 4 train rides and 11 bus rides. We have created a folder which contains all our reservation information. Hopefully we haven't forgotten anything or we are really gonna struggle to figure out what we are doing. A lot of the hotels are fairly cheap and dodgy, but some aren't so bad. We have booked a night in a castle in Ireland and are staying on a boat in Amsterdam.

Anway... The weekend itself was a quiet weekend. It was the first weekend in a while where we didn't have to be up earlier on the Saturday than during the week for work. It was nice to get up and have absolutely no plans at all. Eventually we went shopping and went to ASDA WalMart store which isn't far away. Its a cross between Safeway and KMart. They have everything. I bought a pair of jeans from there and we also bought some interesting donuts. Its sad when the highlight of the weekend is the donuts. Anyway... I thought they were cool.

Its been a long time since this was last updated. I seem to start every entry with that which makes me think im lazy. Id think about that some more but i really can't be bothered.

Saturday 16th September we caught an early train from Manchester to Stratford Upon Avon. Our train went through Birmingham and we had to change train stations and we had about 25 minutes to do it. We only just managed to get the next train we needed by seconds, and im not exagerating. We had to run the last past and the train was moving before we even sat down. We got there early afternoon and checked into our Bed and Breakfast. A nice change from some of the other accommodation we have stayed in recently.

We then started looking around and walked down the street towards the Holy Trinity church, which is the site of Shakespeares burial site. We had a look in there and below are a photo of the outside of the church, and a picture of where he is buried.


We continued walking down the street and looked around. There were lots of nice things including theatres, shops etc. There were 3 main theatres in Stratford all showing various Shakespeare productions. One of them had Patrick Stewart in that was showing that day and another poster showed Ian McKellen, who coincidentally grew up in Wigan which is only about 20 minutes from where we currently live. Below are a couple of photos which really have no point.


Now we started to going to some of the places which Shakespeare made famous. The first one was his birthplace and childhood home. The interior of the houses are all done up with furniture from the period in which he would have lived which made it interesting to walk around. Its strange walking on a second floor and looking down seeing light between the floor board. They creaked too which was kinda uneasy.


The next place to see was Nash's House. Shakespeare purchased this house in 1597 and was also where he died in 1616. There are 3 gardens attached to the house. The first is a private garden which only people who go through the house have access too. The photo below is of this garden. The other gardens are public gardens and have statues from various works of Shakespeare.


Now is Halls Croft. This house apparently belonged to Shakespeare daughter. The outdoor yards of all these places were really well done. They are all really big which is a nice change from what we have seen over here in normal residential houses. The first photo is from the street and the second is looking through part of the garden back at the house. After this we had a nice tea and then had a relatively early night.


The next morning we saw Anne Hathaway's Cottage which was the most interesting of the houses that we saw. We were up early and enjoyed a nice cooked breakfast at our BnB. We were waiting at the cottage for the 10am opening on the Sunday morning. Before it had even opened about 5 buses had pulled up waiting to enter.


After the Cottage we walked to the train station and caught a train from Stratford Upon Avon to Warwick. We had prebooked tickets the Warwick Castle so wandered down there for a look. We had seen castles previously on our trip but this is the first castle that lived up to my expectation of what a castle is. The castle itself is owned by Madame Tussauds and a lot of wax mannequins were around depicting scenes from early days when the castle was in use. The castle had shows throughout the day and we saw an Archery show which really wasn't that exciting. A guy shooting arrows for half an hour gets a little boring. We saw a Birds of Prey show which had a bird trainer with different birds feeding them and getting them to fly around the castle. That was fairly spectacular actually. Even stranger was when we were working around later and the birds are actually tied by there legs to a standing pole and are on exhibition during the day for photos. No cage or anything around them, just them tied to a little bench they stand on. It just seemed bizarre. Another interesting thing we saw was the shooting off of a trebuchet. They have people running in the wheels to pull the firing arm backwards and then they let it off, hurling a 100kg rock over 300 metres. First 2 photos are of the castle itself. Third of some of the wax works. Forth of a White Head Bald Eagle. Fifth of the trebuchet.


After the castle we had a nice little tea at an Italian place in Warwick. Strangely it was 6pm on Sunday night and only about half the restuarants seemed open. Not much seemed to be going on in Warwick.

And for absolutely no reason at all... Finally the reason behind by height is explained. And no, thats not my pram.