Stonehenge and Bath

Hello there

This weekend we hired a car and hit the road. Our destination was Bath, a city situated above the only hot springs in Britain. Having our own set of wheels meant we could also visit the iconic rocks of Stonehenge on the way.

Stonehenge dates back somewhere between 3000-2000BC. Alot has been said about the monument. As a structure, it is impressive (the heaviest stone in the henge weighs about 45 tonnes). But the real allure (apart from getting a great new facebook photo) is the tangible sense of history. It’s sobering to stand in front of something that has been such a presence for some 4 to 5 thousand years.

The other thing to note about Stonehenge was that it was bitterly cold. The wind was absolutely fierce, so we walked around the monument at a relatively brisk pace (see below). Our faces were going numb. Ryan was taking a leaf out of Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks – obviously Stonehenge affects people differently.      After we had retreated to the warmth of the car it was on to Bath. Bath’s warm and bubbling waters have been drawing bathers for healing, worship or pleasure for thousands of years. The Romans were the first to establish the city (AD60s), building a substantial complex of baths and a temple. Much later it became popular with the Georgians (for the same reasons), leading to expansion and ultimately an abundance of amazing Georgian architecture. These days Bath is a World Heritage Site.

Once we had checked in to our accomodation (8 bed dorm in a decent hostel), we were off to explore. A happy coincidence – Bath was having a cheese festival the day we arrived, so we indulged on freebies (see below). Exploring the back streets was quite something. Many of the buildings are made from Bath Stone, which has a unique warm honey colouring. The results are spectacular, and perhaps none more so than the Royal Crescent (pictured).

Heading down the slope we reached the River Avon. The river is very picturesque, particularly with the Autumn colours. Our plan had been to go and take a dip in the springs, but at 25 pounds a pop (cheapest ticket) we thought better of it, and hit a pub instead.  The rest of the night was whittled away over drinks and food, before heading back to our hostel to crash. On the way we passed Bath Abbey, which looked great lit up…

Next day we visited the remains of the Roman Spa complex. This was very impressive, particularly the main pool with views back over the Abbey (see picture). The steam rising from the turquoise-green coloured waters was very atmospheric. All sorts of things have been found in the pool, as bathers throughout the century lost jewellery or made offerings to the gods. Alot of this stuff is now in display in the adjoining museum.

We all stopped for a while to soak in the healing vapours…

After the Baths Lesley head off to the Jane Austen centre, whilst the guys took a walk by the river. The picture below shows some of the gardens and Autumn colours – the River Avon is just behind the trees.

After a brief stop at an antiques market, we jumped in the car and head home via Bristol (to check out a cool suspension bridge and grab some lunch). All in all, a great weekend away. Monday morning was tough though! This weekend coming we will take a bit of a break…we bought a TV last week and are getting internet / cable this week, so we should be well provisioned for a couple of days in.

In two weeks we are flying to Stockholm for a few nights to check the place out 🙂 Gotta love cheap flights in Europe!

As always, will keep you posted, and planning on doing a blog post showing the apartment before then.

TL

Settling into London

Hello there,

It’s been a crazy few weeks since we last blogged…we’ve both started work and have now moved into our new home in London. We’ve also been joined by Ryan (one of Tim’s high school mates) who is staying with us for a few months before heading to Canada for a couple of years!

Its now the end of our third week in London (crazy…). After our epic real estate search (see last blog) there was one property we liked (and alot we didn’t). When it came to the business end of actually negotiating a contract we were on our own. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we got the place, but not without considerable effort and a bit of stress!

The apartment itself is located within Holland Park. It’s a 2 bed, 2 bathroom (perfect for subletting) with a fair amount of space, and a reasonable price tag. The main bedroom has an ensuite with a bath (Lesley was overjoyed) and the apartment has a private backyard shared with the people upstairs. A picture of the front of the place is below – we are actually on the lower ground floor (below street level) so the entrance is about where the lady is standing. We’ll put more pictures of the place up when we get setup…we are still in the cardboard boxes for tables stage.

In amongst all the setting up that we have been doing, we’ve also managed to see a bit of London (it seems like we’ve covered alot of ground… but then London is huge). Lesley is pictured below in front of Westminster and Big Ben. You’ll also notice the Thames is the same colour as the Cudgegong…(probably not in a good way)…You can also see the London Eye below…

We’ve also met up with another of Tim’s high school mates, Blake, who is working in a bar at Clapham. The reunion was made all the sweeter with cheap cocktails. The four of us also head to Soho to a place called Milk and Honey after work one night – it was a great venue, kind of like a prohibition era cocktail bar that felt like a rich persons lounge room. Blake knew the manager so we also got a private tour – will definitely be going back there.

This weekend we went to Brighton. We had fine English weather (?… when you live in London ‘just cloudy’ is decent). It’s a funny place with a big pier that has been converted into an arcarde / theme park (pictured below).

Of course we had a go on one of the rides (Lesley didn’t feel the need)…

After leaving the pier we went for a few ales and did a bit of shopping for the apartment. Randomly, it seemed half of Brighton was participating in a ‘zombie march’ (we learnt later that the event is called Beach of the Dead). This involved hundreds (if not thousands) of locals dressing up like zombies and then walking through town (with a zombie gait) shouting “Braiiiiiinnnnssssss!”… it was interesting haha. Caught a picture below.

Brighton was alot of fun, alot of great shops, and only an hour either way from London. We managed to pick up alot of Banksy canvas prints for the apartment (6 for 55 pounds) which look great.

Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that work hasn’t been that bad so far! Tim’s worst fears  have failed to materialise, to everyones relief. Lesley will soon be on a project that seems interesting and that will keep her busy for the next few months. So on that front, it seems like things should tick over nicely… but works work.

Next weekend we are renting a car and heading to Bath to see the Roman ruins. We’ll also do the drive to check out Stonehenge. As always, will keep you posted.

TL

Paris, London

Greetings from London

Well when we left you last we were catching our breath in Innsbruck. Our plans to do some hiking on the last day were scuttled by the weather, but we we were happy enough to just take it easy.

On Tim’s birthday we were up early to catch the train to Paris. The first leg was a very scenic trip from Innsbruck to Zurich (Switzerland) through the Alps. A bit of a novelty was passing through Liechtenstein, which is the only country in the world named after the people who paid for it (the royal family is estimated to be worth 3.3 billion pounds). Liechtenstein is the sixth smallest country in the world, so with the views from the train we’re confident we saw at least a third of it.

Our train was delayed from Innsbruck to Zurich, which meant we missed our next connection. Unfortunately, with the whole day spent travelling, we got to Paris too late to make the birthday dinner reservation (not helped by poor directions to our apartment). Whilst neither of us lost our cool, it was disappointing. Still, the views from the Paris apartment were great (see picture below). We ended up cooking Spaghetti Bolognese, and then going to bed early as Tims cold had really gone to the next level.

The next day we were up early for our Segway tour. After the trials of the day before, this was a real highlight. To begin with, we were each given a one on one instruction by our guide Ryan, who assured us that Segways required human assistance to actually fall over…

..soon enough we were getting the hang of it.. zipping through the streets of Paris on a sunny day. Lesley can be seen in the photo below with the École Militaire (military school) on her right.

It was a great way to cover a heap of ground. Owning a segway would be awesome but unfortunately they would set you back at least $5k… and they probably aren’t all that practical for carrying the shopping etc. Still, they were a blast to ride. Finishing the tour by the Eiffel tower was great, after seeing it all day from afar and the previous night from our apartment window.

That night we had a rescheduled birthday dinner in a fancy French restaurant. It was a great meal, and we ticked the boxes of trying frogs legs (pictured) and snails. Hard to see what all the fuss is about, as with the dressing they basically both just tasted like garlic…

One of the highlights was Lesleys dessert. This profitorle (pictured before Lesley demolished it) was nothing like the Woolies variety…

On our way back home from dinner we walked via Notre Dame. It had real atmosphere at night, as it was a bit of hang out for all the trendy young folk, and there were fire jugglers doing their thing.

The following day we hit the Louvre. As you can see, so did everyone else! The Mona Lisa is certainly popular with the tourists…we didn’t even try to get directly in front of it.

We particularly liked the sculptures. We recognised Michelangelo’s ‘Dying Slave’ from Liza’s National Art School drawings (in the centre of the photo), and Lesley recognised a bunch of the Roman Emperors. The Louvre was huge…so we only saw a small portion of it. More reason to go back to Paris in the future…

We had lunch in the Tuileries gardens. There were a bunch of chairs everywhere so we sat in front of a pond and watched the locals push small sail boats across the water. It felt very French. Finally, our last big tourist stop was Les Invalides. Napoleon Bonaparte was entombed under the dome of the Invalides with great ceremony in 1840. He still rests there today, in an incredibly epic sarcophagus (see picture). The sarcophagus is about the size of a large car, and actually contains 6 smaller coffins.

The dome of Les Invalides is plated in gold leaf. You can see the building behind us in the picture below.

The following day it was the end (?) of our holiday as we caught the Eurostar to London. This week has been nuts. The first couple of days we rushed about on the London underground trying to get our bearings and figure out in what area we might like to live. Thursday was then spent looking at 11 apartments (we are lucky that EY helps us out with a relocation service to book the appointments and also drive us around on the day). We made an offer on one place in Holland Park (West London), but we aren’t sure if it will be accepted. We will just have to take it one day at a time.

Otherwise we have been getting our bank accounts set up and that sort of thing. Tim has now signed his employment agreement with Macquarie, so he is resigned to another six months there, starting Monday. Our stuff got delivered yesterday which was great, so we have work clothes!

Amongst all this action we have managed to do one touristy thing so far, being the Tower of London. The White Tower (building on the right in the picture below) has been there for almost a thousand years (built by William the Conqueror).

We had lovely British weather for the tower (light rain and cloudy), so the atmosphere felt about right when we learnt about all the beheadings, torture and imprisonment that has taken place there. We also saw the crown jewels which were very bling, and King Henry VIII’s armour which was a crack up (see below)…

Another thing we liked was the animal sculptures dotted around the place (and made out of wire mesh). These are there to remind tourists of the fact that the Tower of London also housed all sorts of rare and exotic animals (which were gifts to impress royalty). These included lions, snakes, baboons, elephants, and even a polar bear which used to swim in the Thames! The sculpture of the elephant is pictured below.

Today and tomorrow we might do a bit more sightseeing, but we are both conscious of the fact that we have less than 48 hours before we start work, so want to get some relaxing done. Tim will probably watch the English Premier League games on TV…whilst Lesley has a Hello magazine to read.

To reflect a little, the past five weeks have been amazing. We had been hanging out for a break like this for years. We will start planning more weekends away after a couple of weeks to settle in here. Of course we will keep you posted.

TL