Just lay back and think of England...

The last full day in London was an exceptionally busy one. I had held the possibility of catching up with Berns and another friend between sightseeing for a coffee or pint (when in London). It was not meant to be with visits to Soho, Canary Wharf, Canada water, the London Eye, Camden markets and then back to Covent Gardens – Drury Lane for a theatre performance. I think in all the only free time was when someone had to find a bathroom.

The London Eye was superb. Even if you are afraid of heights, which I am prone to at times, this was fine. It moves effortlessly through the arc of a circle, well technically it is the circumference but that sounds awkward. The views offered were unreal. From the summit, the people look figurine like and the city appears to be at a frozen in time. It was a great way to see just how big London really is. I loved it so much I even got sucked in to buying a touristy picture there.
Lord of the Rings was quite a spectacular, we watched it with our friend from Sydney, John Anthony who was in London at the same time and Troy's partner Mark who we were staying with. The set and staging were AMAZING. The highlight was when Gandalf the Grey was defeated by the demon and he falls into the fiery pit. It was probably the best piece of work I have seen for many, many years. Of course there were some aspects we didn’t necessarily agree with. Gandalf spoke too fast (they did pack nine hours of the movies into a three hour show) and at times just yelled. He just didn’t seem to command the scenes he was in. Galadrial was weak and wore annoying high shoes. Frodo and Sam were great and we think Frodo hurt himself in the last scene. He walked off limping…oops.

Some Lord Of The Rings montages, because everyone loves a montage. Even Rocky had a montage...




Camden markets was an experience for me. An eclectic mix of people that reminded me of a Newtown on steroids. Goths, punks and ravers walk side by side and there is a shop for every one. No matter what predeliction or fetish I am sure you will find it in Camden. Dan even bought a velvet jacket. Across from where he bought that there was this rave shop with intense music, imagine hardcore techno at 100 decibels, fluro and ultra violet lights (my white shirt lit up), a strobe and very big dungeon feel and you may come close. They had goggles for £200. Yes 200 POUNDS!

After getting up at 5am, we said our goodbyes to Mark and Troy on route to board the Eurostar to Paris. That was a great and smooth ride. At one moment you are in King Cross and before you know it your phone beeps to say you are on a new network and you arrive in Paris. If only we could get something like that to Melbourne, it would be fun.

As we left the station my first experience in Paris was someone asking me if I could speak English. Of course I said yes and she held out a piece of paper. As soon as I read the first line I knew… gypsy woman wanting money. Lucky for me I just said no and kept walking. After that I am developing my Daniel streak, or should I say my Europe persona. No looking at people, head down, holding onto the bag tightly and just walking through crowds with the occasional “excuse' moi”.

We boarded our transport (the coach) which would serve as a mobile home for the next 28 days and it already felt good to have someone do the driving and thinking for us. It works out every second day (give or take) we have a free day where we do what we want. The first being a whole day in Paris the do whatever it is that we want.

Challenge Update:

• Charlie, as you can see we have successfully completed your second challenge.

• Dea, your latest challenge will be exactly that.
• Wendy, we have collected yellow things from every major city up until the start of the tour. We will start again after the tour! It has been fun and not as easy as we thought.

Some observations:

• The people in Paris are by far the best looking people we have come across so far.
• I (Gareth) use a lot more parentheses (brackets) than Dan does in his writing.
• I (Gareth) get a little grumpy if I am hungry
• We had to look really hard for the exchange rate for Australian dollar against the Euro. Our hotel and other bureau de change didn’t have it listed.