Byron in London

Day 1

First day back and the weather was miserable - typical London weather. In a way it was a good thing cos Byron was getting a misrepresentation, he was beginning to think that sunshine is the norm. We did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour and we mananged to stay on the top for the whole tour even though it was cold and rainy.

We went into Hamleys and even though I have been in London since Jan I had not been there yet. It took me so long to go through all the cool toys that I advised Byron to move on to Picadilly Circus without me and caught up to him there. He stood in the rain for this pic so it makes kinda special.

At Trafalgar Square Byron took his opportunity to feed the pigeons even though it is illegal. He said that the pigeons are quite ruthless and they don't care much if they land up pecking your hand instead of the food.

The Knights Templar had dragon statues placed at the entrance/exits to the old London centre. We also went to the Templar Church but it was closed. So instead took pics outside and I even tried knocking on the door in the hopes of getting inside.

Tower bridge is as awesome as always and Byron managed to stretch across the bridge, hands on each tower. Hee hee hee. We went on the cruise on the Thames and because it was right at the end of the day it was quite empty, was pretty cool. Managed to hear the commentry this time.

Day 2 (Windsor, Bath, Stonehenge)

Did a day tour to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. The places were all good but it was too much for one day and in general neither Byron nor myself were impressed with Evan Evans Tours.

We started off at Windsor Castle, lots of pretty gardens, lots of big rooms, and even a big doll house and a pretty church.

We managed to see the changing of the guards and it was quite funny there was this one guard who had his hat on skew. We went into the church in the middle of it all but apparently he was taken aside and given a very stern talking to for not being presentable. He is the guard that is all alone by the little guard hut thingy.

I noticed while we were there that alot of planes fly overhead and are generally still very low in the sky - I wonder how much help these guards would be if one of the planes just flew into the castle?

The next stop for our bus was Bath where we had lunch. We bought some pies and went and sat on the grass in the botanical gardens. Bath is very pretty, and is an absolutely lovely little town. The pigeons in the gardens were very friendly when you offered them pringles. There was one little pigeon with a leg and a stub and he hobbled as quickly as he can to get to the pringles but unless he had a head start he inevitably lost out. :( Shame he was really cute though. One of the flower beds in the garden was designed to be a picture of a flower with bees on it - REALLY cool.

After our lunch in the botanical gardens we did a little walking around before meeting back at our our bus to get tickets for the Roman Baths.

In the Roman Baths we saw lots of old carvings and statues, the baths were seen as a very sacred area. It makes sense back then they did not understand where this heated water came from. It was pretty cool though, all the references to the past describing how people would come from far and wide in the hopes of being cured by the water. Being there, I could actually picture it in my head like a movie. Probably just been watching too many movies. ;)

From Bath we went to Stonehenge, my landlords told me the night before that they think it is a very spooooooky area. I reckon it is kinda cool how these enormous rocks are just standing there in the middle of nowhere but I wouldn't really call it spooky. It was kinda wierd though how the birds all collect themselves at the top of the stones, and then for no apparent reason all fly off at the same time. After circing all together for a couple of minutes they all settle again simultaneously. Wierd but I didn't get any funny spooooky feelings while I was there.

We got back from our tour and went walking through London, got some really beautiful night shots of London.





Departure :(
A day that started with packing bags. Byron packed up all his stuff, I packed up the stuff I wanted Byron to take home for me. We then went to Green Park and had a picnic. Green Park is by Bucking ham Palace so after Byron finshed getting his beauty sleep and making himself look pretty by picking flowers we went to get photos of Buckingham Palace.

After our afternoon of relaxing we went to the airport and I had to say goodbye. Missing home like crazy, so it was difficult.

Edinburgh Festival

Arrival

In Scotland again - YAY! I think I might have to make one more stop here before I go back home to SA. Thalia was also in Scotland so we got together with her for drinks . We had our first round at the Grassmarket Pub, Byron, Allan, Thalia and I. Lee then joined us and we went to the Underbelly. From there we went to the Spiegel tent, another one of the festival venues. On our way there we passed the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, and a group of guys told us that little Greyfriars Bobby fell in a cement mixer and it is not just a normal statue. Apparently if you look long enough you will see his eyes move. If you hadn't figured it out they were a little drunk.

Day 1

This morning Byron and I headed out to see what the Edinburgh festival had to offer. We found out very quickly that the festival definitely has ALOT of pamphlets to offer. Half way up the Royal Mile we also discovered that there are free mini street acts all day basically to advertise the official acts for the evening and give you a reason to take a pamphlet.

In awe of all the things happening around us we still managed to get distracted by some guy stripping down to his jocks in the middle of the street. We were reeled in and made ourselves comfortable to watch his advertising. He was pretty funny and had his act sorted. He managed to get some little girl to stand with her arms up as his hat stand and then he proceeded to walk a tight rope that was just being held up a a bunch of men from the audience. It all worked though cos we stayed after to get his pamphlet to find out when his show was.

We continued our way up the Royal Mile and stopped outside Camera Obscura. Had a good laugh at our reflections in the funky mirrors.

We then made our way down the mile and met up with Allan who led us to a refreshing walk up Arthur's Seat. This is a number one recommendation of things to do while in Edinburgh. Not only do you get a gorgeous all round view of Edinburgh but it is also free. WOO HOO!

The good scenery did not stop there. We then made our way to The Scotts Monument (dedicated to Sir Walter Scott) and we decided to climb all the stairs to make our way to the top. WOW! And I am not referring to the view, although it was beautiful, I am referring to the very narrow, tight spiraled staircase to get to the top. The thing that made it worse was that there was only one stair case for going up and down but the staircase is too narrow to have two people pass each other. Got stuck at the top for a while waiting for a chance to go down in the hopes no one was on there way up.

From the top of the Scotts Monument there is a beautiful view of Edinburgh Castle and because of the festival there were all sorts of dancing going on in the gardens at the bottom of the monument. These guys were wearing these funny hats with long ribbons attatched to the top. As they turned their heads in circles, the ribbons would make big circles too. They would then start spinning in circles at the same time their heads were going round. I am really not sure how they managed to do all this without falling over, it was pretty impressive.

After climbing the stairs and waiting our turn to get back down we made our way to The Royal Botanical Gardens. As we went we passed a key garden, this is basically a park/garden that is only accessible to the people who live in the area. You get a key to the garden when you buy a house in the area hence Key garden. As we passed we saw a guy sitting casually reading his book - he is obviously one of the privileged few.

That night we decided to embrace the festival and booked tickets for a comedy show, with Stuart Goldsmith and Jimmy McGhie. Stuart was the guy that Byron and I saw earlier doing his street act advertising. So basically his advertising did the trick. It was a good show, Byron and Allan were too scared to sit in the front so we landed up in the second row. It was quite funny too cos at the beginning of the show they did the normal thing of finding out where the people in the audience come from. When he thought he had covered most places and asked if there were any other places I shouted out South Africa and I could feel both Byron and Allan cringe on either side of me. I still survived to tell the tale.

Day 2



Byron and I booked ourselves onto a Loch Ness Hunter day trip with Haggis Adventures today. I saw some of the same sights that I saw on my Skye High Tour and some new ones. We stopped at Glencoe and once again I was told of the story where the Campbells committed the crime of betrayal on the Mac Donald clan. This time there was no snow on the peaks and instead there was a tinge of purple from the flowering heather, there was also guy playing the bagpipes. Took a pic of me with the heather, just seemed fitting.



Our main stop for the day was the Loch Ness, hence the name of the tour. We went on a boat ride out onto the Loch to hunt down little Nessie but unfortunately he must have been sleeping. Not in the mood for any socialising. We did manage to get a beautiful pic of the Loch though, we even got a volunteer to take a pic of the both of us together. We did alot of little stops aswell but can't really remember what they were , but it was a great trip and our guides, Fraser and Martin were very entertaining. Fraser is on the left, Martin on the right.

Amsterdam

Arrival

Beautiful Amsterdam, tulips, windmills, cheese, wooden clogs ... none of these things did we actually see. Our flight arrived in Rotterdam and then we caught a bus to the train station which took us to Amsterdam. We found our hostel and went for a walk in the park across the road. We found out later that the park is Vondel Park and is a tribute to a guy by the name of ... Vondel, who is considered to be the Dutch Shakespear. Unfortunately we didn't have time to read any of his work while we were there but the park is very pretty.

After making our way through the park we went to explore the town a little and found a chess game on the go. I thought it was quite interesting how there was quite a crowd there watching - don't think that would happen at home. I suppose it might have been some kind of tournament but anyways the guy with the long beard in the pic was one of the players. I could just picture him playing chess and doing nothing else with his life hence no time to shave and he is probably the senile mad man that no one has managed to beat yet. ;) We also quickly learned that there are lots of bicycles in Amsterdam so when walking you have to make sure you are not in a cycle lane, and when crossing the road watch out for trams, cars and bicycles - all of which are coming from the wrong direction cos they drive on the wrong side of the road.

That night we headed to the red light district, we found an article with a guide to the district, telling you where to go and what to expect to pay. Anyways we followed the guide as a walking tour through the district and it was quite an experience. There was this one girl who was kinda doing a show in her window and you could see it from a mile away. Outside her window there was a huge mob of men all staring in her direction. Kinda funny actually.

Day 1

We started our day on a hop-on-hop- off canal boat ride and our first hop-off was at the Amsterdam Zoo. It wasn't too bad we saw some new animals that we had not seen before but alot of the enclosures seemed to be empty which was a little annoying. The Zoo also has a planeterium which we considered going to since I have never been to a planeterium well at least not to my recollection. It kinda seemed that they just had different themed shows of sorts though anyways we decided not to.

The first animals we saw was this bull type thing with horns don't know what it was called cos I couldn't find the sign and a llama. I thought this llama looked especially cute and funny, he kinda looks like a horse in a llama costume or something.

In the petting zoo there was this crazy goat that almost chased me down as we entered and almost immediately went for my zoo map. It was kinda cute but I think he might be a little confused.

In general it seems as if the animals in the Amsterdam Zoo are all a touch confused because we later came across a crane who thought that it was a fountain statue. Byron and I think we might have discovered the problem to all their confusion though. I am not sure when last you went to a zoo but on the sign of the enclosure they often have a map of the world and they colour in the sections that the enclosed animal comes from. Byron and I discovered that Lions and Hyenas and in fact most of the animals we saw do not exist in South Africa. In fact from what we saw it seems that the Amsterdam Zoo believes we don't have any animals in SA. No wonder the animals are confused. I decided to include a pic of a lioness since most of you South Africans have probably never had the opportunity to see one of these foreign animals.

We then went off to be educated in the art of Torture, ha ha ha ha ha. Read the laugh with an evil overtone to add effect. This spikey rolly thing would have people lie on it and get stretched and at the smae time they would have these spikey rolly things rolling underneath them. OUCH! They had all sorts of wierd torture things one of them being a type of coat of shame and you would be forced to walk down the streets in it, doesnt sound too bad except that you probably had people throwing things at you and getting shunned by people you know.

We then made our way to the flower market, closest I came to seeing the Tulips of Amsterdam and in fact the flower market was more like a flea market. They did have flowers as well and lots of garden type stuff, bulbs, seeds etc. I suppose they are kinda aimed at the tourists or maybe it has become that way over time. Lots of fake wooden tulips as well. You can see they have decorated the tops of the stalls with fake tulips all in a row.

After a day of confused animals, torture tips and smelling wooden flowers we looked for a place to have dinner. Landed up at an Italian restaurant AGAIN. And can you believe the place was called Mimmos. Who would have thought? Anyways very friendly spot and they got real happy when we said Graci instead of Thank you, they even asked if we speak Italian. After dinner we went walking to get some pretty night photos of Amsterdam. The canals are beautiful at night and a dinner cruise in Amsterdam I think could be very romantic.

Day 2

We started today getting back onto our canal cruise - our tickets were valid until 12pm. We made our way to Anne Frank House. Close to the Anne Frank House is this triangular monument into the canal, called the Homomonument. It is a monument to all the homosexuals who suffered in the war, I always knew that the Jewish people had to wear stars on their coats to label themselves but apparently homosexuals had to wear a pink triangles. I can't imagine how it must have been to live during a time of that much discrimination. The queues outside the Anne Frank museum were scary and I noticed it was open til late so we decided to come back later. Instead we walked back down the canal towards the Heineken Museum and Van Gogh Museum. On the way we passed the preparation for a concert on the canal. It looked like it had a full ochestra and everything. The canal was jam packed with boats - it was quite impressive to see.

We continued our walk and stopped off at the houseboat museum. After having a look I have decided that a houseboat sounds cooler than it really is. It is quite cosy inside but with all the docking expenses and rates are more expensive, it lands up being more expensive than a house. This might actually be worth it if you could use the boat do some cruising etc but the house boat does not have an engine the only way to move it is by tugging it with a tug boat. There are no more docking areas available in Amsterdam anymore so the only way to get a docking place is to buy an already docked houseboat. Was still quite interesting though.

After the houseboat museum we made our way to Van Gogh Museum. I must say out of all the art museums we had been to I think I enjoyed Van Gogh the most - I even recognised some of the paintings.

All our walking had made us thirsty so off to get a pint. Got to the Heineken Experience and we were glad we had decided to buy our tickets from the hostel - we got to skip the queue. YAY!!! It felt pretty cool walking past all the people and going straight in. I quite enjoyed the Heineken experience, alot more interactive than the Guinness Storehouse. Our first event was the life experience of a Heineken bottle. We actually got jostled around as if we were Heineken bottles getting labelled, filled, capped, boxed and shipped off. Pretty cool. They even had a flight of stairs made out of the green glass used for the bottles.

After being bottled we had the opportunity to taste the Heineken before the yeast had been added and fermentation had started, it tasted just like Horlicks. We then got a pit stop and our first free glass of Heineken, it was not a pint but I think it was bigger than a half pint. Anyways once again it suprised me, it didn't actually taste that bad. I have decided beer tastes better from the source.

They also had this big world globe and as you turned it you could select different countries where they sell Heineken. We chose SA and they show a little video about the country and its history. We thought it was quite funny because the video was very rural, and we understood why people are suprised to find out that we have electricity and streets and buildings etc. From the video it looks like all South Africans live on farms and camp around fires at night, drinking Heineken.

For dinner we got food and sat in Vondel Park and chilled for a bit. I have grown quite accustomed to sitting in the park relaxing. Want to try do it more often back home. Anyways we went back to the hostel to rearrange ourselves and off back to Anne Frank Museum. Byron decided not to go to the museum so he apparently waited for me outside. I am still wondering if he didn't run off to the red light district though because once I came out of the Anne Frank museum he was not around...hmmm. ;) Anyways the Anne Frank museum was quite inspiring I think I need to read her book. I didn't take any pics and I am not too sure why, maybe I wasn't allowed to. It was cool though.

We did go back to the red light district one last time - we decided to check out the Erotica Museum. The museum itself was basically a whole lot of pictures but dating back to the beginning of porn or something like that. The last room in the museum was basically a photo opportunity and that was pretty cool.

Departure

Our flight to Scotland left from the Amsterdam airport in Schiphol which is apparently the 4th largest airport in the world. There were lots of shops and we took a pic of a really comfy seat for those long waits between flights. We need some of those in Joburg.