Our Adventure away from... the final leg!

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week

~ Joseph Addison ~

London to Paris... on the Eurostar train.  Finally, I have done the Eurostar! Over the last couple of years I have booked people from work on the train from London to Paris and I always said that one day I would do the trip.. and now I have!

We didn't have a long visit in Paris but it was lovely few days.  The weather was very overcast while we there, (except when we were at Versailles), but at least there wasn't any rain until the very last minute... so our luck held!

As we didn't have a lot of time in Paris we had already planned what we wanted to do... Big Bus Tour, boat tour down the river, Versailles and lots of wandering the streets.... all of which we did!

So are you ready for heaps of lovely photos of Paris?

Day 1 was all about the Big Bus tour and travelling up and down the river enjoying the sights.

Some sights of Paris that may be familiar and some that may not be!!

Isn't it amazing what you see when cruising the rivers of a city?

Our little addition to one of the Bridges of Love in Paris!

Day 2 was our really big day out - we went to Versailles... eventually!  The train line to Versailles had some sort of problem and the trains had stopped..... so after waiting for over an hour we jumped on the first train to come in on that line and just went for a ride... we managed to find another train which stopped near Versailles and walked the rest of the way.

Oh boy, what an amazing place!  It was glorious, stunning, amazing... absolutely gob-smackingly beautiful and so golden!

And look who we saw there.... another one of Mitzi's ancestors!

The opulence in this most amazing palace leaves me speechless....

After wandering the halls of the palace for a couple of hours we then decided to wander the gardens.  No holiday is complete without a selfie!

We had the most amazing day at Versailles, and unfortunately ran out of time to go up to Marie Antionette's Estate which was a real shame... but there is always next time!

The gardens were stunning and we could have spent a whole day just wandering around the gardens without going near any other parts of this amazing palace and grounds.

Day 3 saw us wake to our last day in Paris.  We had a whole day to wander around the city a bit more before going out to the airport around 6pm.

A bit of shopping, bit more sight seeing, off to Notre Dame... a big last day in the City of Love!

Now that's the way to park a car!  Something I am not used to seeing here in Australia, small cars parked sideways... and plugged into an electricity port on charge!

Our last meal in Paris was in the same place as our first meal in Paris.... Le Saint Germain Cafe which just happened to be down the road from our hotel!  Perfect place for a lovely meal or just to sit and watch the Parisians go about their daily life!

Well, that's it for our epic journey...  we had the most wonderful time and as is always the case the two weeks flew by!

Thank you for coming along on my journey of holiday memories... I hope I didn't bore you too much!

Next post I will hopefully be back on track with a stitching update.

Til next time, happy stitching

Our Adventure away from home.... Part 2

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday

~ Author Unknown ~

Welcome back!  I have another post on what we did in London, and then one more post to show you what we did in Paris... and then that's it - no more holiday snaps!

Day 4

While we were in London we were very lucky to get our timing right so that we could do the full Tour of Buckingham Palace which included the Royal Mews, State Rooms inside the Palace and the Exhibitions. So we spent the whole day taking the opportunity to see some of the most amazing rooms in the Palace, places that I have only ever seen on TV.  We didn't take a lot photos during the State Room tour due to the high security of the areas, but we did take heaps while in the Royal Mews.

The Gold State Coach

Look who we found in one of the Royal Paintings - Mitzi's ancestor!

What a backyard!

Our tour around the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace was absolutely amazing.  It was very, very busy but the organisers have everything extremely well organised.  Fantastic day out!

Day 5

Well here are, almost at an end of our week in London, so today was a bit of a wander around day again using shanks pony!  We started off walking through Green Park and ended up outside Clarence House just in time for the changing of the Guard.

Changing of the Guard at Clarence House

From Clarence House we headed off towards Trafalgar Square to see the pigeons only to find out there are no more pigeons in the Square - but there was this rather gorgeous fellow!

The reason there are no pigeons in Trafalgar Square

And also there was this rather amazing bird...

The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square

From Trafalgar Square it was off to Regent Street and Oxford Street to visit to fantastic stores... Hamleys and Liberty. And who did we meet at Hamleys?

The Royal Family.... made out of Lego!  Totally amazing!!

Lego Royal Family

Mark chatting to the Queen!

They had other Lego creations in the store as well, but the Lego Royal Family were absolutely brilliant!

On the way out I managed to get a cuddle with the Hamleys' bear mascot!

Christmas display at Liberty

We then rounded our day out with visit to "The Vault" at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Another busy day of sightseeing done and dusted!

Day 6

Last day in London.... time to take stock and work out what we haven't yet seen that we really wanted to see.

After going past St Paul's Cathedral to take some outside photos (we forgot to do that the day we were there!), we walked over the Millennium Bridge on our way to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for a look around.  Unfortunately as the whole place was inundated with school children on tour we decided not to try and get in and do the tour, so it was off on a boat ride down the Thames to our next stop - the Houses of Parliament.

Millennium Bridge

Big Ben

We spent most of the afternoon at the Houses of Parliament including doing the guided tour of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.  Absolutely amazing tour!  We are so pleased that our timing coincided with the opening times of the Houses of Parliament to the public.

Nelson Mandela's plaque in the hall at Westminster

The Weekend

Friday dawned and it was the day that we were to leave London and head off for the weekend and the wedding of Hubby's niece.  We hired a car from London and headed out of the city and onto the British motorways to Essex to visit Hubby's old school, and then to the hotel to meet up with Hubby's family.

The wedding was fantastic and it was absolutely brilliant to meet all the Hubby's family at long last!

Wedding Flowers - aren't they beautiful

Sorry no photos of the wedding festivities, but how about a pic of the gorgeous flower decorations!

Sunday saw us in Hubby's old home town and meeting up with more his extended family, and then Monday after a wander around the town centre it was back in the car to head back to London in time to drop off the hire car and onto the Eurostar to Paris!

So that was our week in London.... next time I will show you some photo's of our four days in Paris.

Til next time, happy stitching

Our Adventure away from home.... Part 1

It's a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to.

~ Bilbo Baggins ~

So here we are finally... the first holiday post... from our holiday in September!  Well I did tell you that my days and months appear to have flown by way too fast this year!

So onward and upwards and into the breach once more!!

I don't know if we did anything that you would call adventurous on our holiday, but we did indeed go on a big holiday!  Maybe not a big holiday in the sense of a grand epic adventure or grand tour, but we did go overseas and end up on the other side of the world.

And what did we find there?

Day 1

We arrived in London in the early hours of Saturday morning, and after going to the apartment where we were staying in Queensgate to check in, shower and change (we paid for the night before so that we could do the early check in!); it was off to Waitrose's for the essentials - tea, milk and breakkie cereal... it was time to get out and start walking!!

And walk we did.... down to Hyde Park for a wander around, through Kensington Gardens and out of the park near the Australian War Memorial where we stopped to watch what looked like a police motorbike exercise.

Peter Pan Statue

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

Police Motorbikes - practice or real?

From there we walked through Kensington and stopped off at Harrods for a look see and finally back to the pub around the corner for dinner.

Day 2

Up and at 'em early - funny how you manage to wake up early when you're holidays!!

Another busy day planned starting with spending the morning at the V&A museum.  Amazing place to go and walk around; the exhibitions are just fantastic.  We had a great walk down memory lane while wandering around the "Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980's" Exhibition - especially for Hubby as he grew up in the UK and remembers the fashions... most of which didn't quite get to where I lived in the hot north west of Western Australia!!

Performance Art at the V&A Museum

From the V&A we caught the tube to Covent Garden where we had lunch at Jamie Oliver's restaurant "Union Jack".  After wandering around Covent Garden we made our way to the Embankment so that we could be in position to watch the last stage of the Tour of Britain cycle race.

Riders in Stage 8 - Tour of Britain Cycle Race

While the race was on we took the opportunity to walk along the Embankment up to the Houses of Parliament where we stood and watched the riders for awhile longer before heading over to Westminster Abbey and started heading back to the Apartment.  Another day over....

Day 3

Monday bought more grey skies.... but no rain luckily as we had decided that Day 3 was the day for our Big Bus Tour of London!  It is amazing what you can see from the top of a big red bus!

Under construction - facade of a new store in London

We absolutely loved the Big Bus Tour of London.  What a great way to see all the sights in one day!  We did get off the bus to visit Paddington Bear at Paddington Station as well as St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London.  We had planned to stop off at the London Eye but given the grey skies we decided not to as we probably wouldn't have seen much from the top anyway!!

Tower of London

I have been to the Tower of London before (when I went to London back in 1987) and I remember bits and pieces of the Tower and the exhibitions there but the main thing of course that sticks in my memory is the Crown Jewels!  Seeing them again in the setting of the 60th Anniversary of the Queen's Coronation was amazing - they were better than I remembered from the last trip!

While on the Warden's Tour at the Tower of London we were shown where in 1674 the bodies of two children were found...  these bodies were (and still are) thought to have been the bodies of the 2 little Princes in the Tower (sons of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville).  Now when I watch "The White Queen" I can remember that spot in Tower where the two Princes were taken too and later thought to have been discovered nearly 200 years after they disappeared.

And so ends Day 3.... and this post.  Stay tuned for the part two very soon.

Til next time, happy stitching

Last day of May....

Hello everyone!  Hope you are all doing ok....

I was doing a wee bit of blog stalking ealier while having a cuppa of tea and a bit of lunch - I know I should be working.... but for some reason I have no motivation for work this week!  May have something to do with the fact that today is my last day at work for the week as I am taking a couple of days leave while the Catmax man comes around to re-install Oscar and Felix's outdoor playground.  (They can't wait to get back outside in the fresh air again!) 

With my 2 days leave and my normal day off on Friday, and the Public Holiday on Monday for Foundation Day, I will have 6 days off!  Woo Hoo..... I feel a happy dance coming on... Just think of all those stitching hours that I will have!!!

Here's a little bit of WA history for you.  The Public Holiday on Monday is a Western Australian holiday to commerate the founding of the first British Colony in the state of WA.

The first Europeans to visit the Western coast of Australia were Dutch explorers in the 1600s.  Later a French party also visited the area.  However, many early visitors were not positive about the land's potential so they travelled further.  In 1826, the first British settlement, an outpost of the army, was established in Western Australia.  During 1827, Admiral Sir James Stirling led a number of explorations along Australia's west coast and recommended that a permanent settlement should be established in the Swan River area.  In 1829, he returned to the area with a navy vessel, HMS Challenger, and the merchant ship Barque Parmelia.

On June 1, 1829, Australia's west coast was sighted from the Parmelia, although the ship did not reach anchor until the following day.  Later that year, more ships arrived in the area and Perth was officially founded.  The area was known as the Swan River Colony until 1832, when it became known as Western Australia.  In 1834, Stirling, who was the administrator of Western Australia, decided to hold an annual celebration to unite the settlers, masters, servants and Indigenous Australians within and around the colony.  June 1 was the chosen date because it was the anniversary of the first sighting of Western Australia from the Parmelia and marks an important victory for the British navy over the French in 1794.

The public holiday on the first Monday of June is to celebrate
WA's Foundation Day

I am a very proud West Australian, although I was actually born in South Australia!  My parents moved over to WA in 1966 when I was a wee little 'un, and we have lived here since then, except for about 18 months in 1969/70 when we went back to SA for awhile.  But the call of the West saw us back here to stay.....

But, I digress - again.....

As I said when I started this post, I was having a quick blog stalk while having lunch and I noticed a giveaway that Krystaline at  Relentless Stitching has going at the moment.... the giveaway ends on 3rd June 2011.  So pop on over to Krystaline's blog and say hello....

Don't forget that tomorrow is the "New Moon" so it will be time to dust off the ORT's and upload a pic so that we can see how much they have grown over the month.

Til next time, happy stitching and may the only frogs you see be the ones in your garden!