Well, we are now back in Australia after what has been an amazing year traveling overseas. How quickly it went!
We have managed to add some more photos from San Francisco, our drive from San Fran to LA along the Pacific Coast Highway 1 and Los Angeles. Of course there are still more photos to plough through from the remaining stops on the way home, but we'll let you know when they are ready.
Now that we are back and our lives are slowly getting back to normal, we look forward to catching up with you all soon.
Sunday 30 November 2008
Sunday 16 November 2008
A little bit of Canada
Aloha everyone,
We are in Hawaii at the moment and it's less than 2 weeks from coming home. Travelling has been pretty full on for the past few weeks, so adding new photos and updating any blog has been too hard.
But... we have now added photos from our Canada travels through Toronto, Calgary, the Canadian Rockies and Vancouver. As usual, the links are on the right column of the blog.
Will try and get the other photos from San Fran, Hwy 1 drive, LA, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas really soon, but might have to wait until we're back in Adelaide.
We are in Hawaii at the moment and it's less than 2 weeks from coming home. Travelling has been pretty full on for the past few weeks, so adding new photos and updating any blog has been too hard.
But... we have now added photos from our Canada travels through Toronto, Calgary, the Canadian Rockies and Vancouver. As usual, the links are on the right column of the blog.
Will try and get the other photos from San Fran, Hwy 1 drive, LA, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas really soon, but might have to wait until we're back in Adelaide.
Saturday 25 October 2008
New York and Miami photos.
We are currently in Vancouver at the moment and having a great time staying with friends. Off to San Francisco tomorrow though which we are really looking forward to.
In the meantime, we have added our New York photos and pics from Miami Beach, the Everglades and Key West. Enjoy.
In the meantime, we have added our New York photos and pics from Miami Beach, the Everglades and Key West. Enjoy.
Sunday 19 October 2008
New photos from DC
We've just added some of our photos from Washington DC. New York pics are not far off. The link is to the right-hand side.
We are currently in Calgary and spent 3 days driving through the Canadian Rockies this week. Tomorrow we fly over to Vancouver. 5 weeks to go...
We are currently in Calgary and spent 3 days driving through the Canadian Rockies this week. Tomorrow we fly over to Vancouver. 5 weeks to go...
Tuesday 7 October 2008
On the road in the USA…
Well as you may or may not know, we are currently in Miami in the US of A. The blog has been difficult to keep on top of as we have been on the go for over a month now. We have been making the effort to take notes so we can remember what we've been up to, so eventually we'll get it done.
In the meantime, we've added some photos from our 3 weeks in Turkey (click here) where we spent 5 days in Istanbul and then got on a hop on-hop off bus tour around the country. We visited Gallipoli, Troy, Canakkale, Pergamum, Ephesus, Selcuk, Koycegiz, Saklikent Gorge, Fethiye, Kas, Olympos, Egidir, and Goreme (Cappidocia). Also from Kas we did a day trip on a ferry over to the Greek island of Castellorizo which is where Anna's family originates from. We had an awesome time and would thoroughly recommend going to Turkey as there is so much to see and do, and a lot of diversity in the environments too as you will see in the photos.
Now the USA... On the 24th of September after a one day stop in London, we jetted off for Washington DC. There is surprisingly a lot to do in DC, and we were there for 3 full days and still didn't have enough time to see everything that we wanted to.
After that we spent a week in New York, which has been our favourite city ever visited. Now we know what the "I LOVE N Y" T-shirts are all about. (Yes, we did buy one for a whole $2). It really is that good - so much variety in the different boroughs and very multi-cultural, not to mention it is massive. I think 8.2 million people live in New York.
Miami has been ok. Its a bit cheesy and dirty, but there are certainly some good things about it. The beaches on South Beach (where we are staying) is really good. Yesterday we took a tour to the Everglades for some gator spotting on a massive Airboat. Tomorrow we head out for a full day tour down to Key West along the Florida Keys which should be great.
We'll get the photos up soon as we can, there are a lot of them!
In the meantime, we've added some photos from our 3 weeks in Turkey (click here) where we spent 5 days in Istanbul and then got on a hop on-hop off bus tour around the country. We visited Gallipoli, Troy, Canakkale, Pergamum, Ephesus, Selcuk, Koycegiz, Saklikent Gorge, Fethiye, Kas, Olympos, Egidir, and Goreme (Cappidocia). Also from Kas we did a day trip on a ferry over to the Greek island of Castellorizo which is where Anna's family originates from. We had an awesome time and would thoroughly recommend going to Turkey as there is so much to see and do, and a lot of diversity in the environments too as you will see in the photos.
Now the USA... On the 24th of September after a one day stop in London, we jetted off for Washington DC. There is surprisingly a lot to do in DC, and we were there for 3 full days and still didn't have enough time to see everything that we wanted to.
After that we spent a week in New York, which has been our favourite city ever visited. Now we know what the "I LOVE N Y" T-shirts are all about. (Yes, we did buy one for a whole $2). It really is that good - so much variety in the different boroughs and very multi-cultural, not to mention it is massive. I think 8.2 million people live in New York.
Miami has been ok. Its a bit cheesy and dirty, but there are certainly some good things about it. The beaches on South Beach (where we are staying) is really good. Yesterday we took a tour to the Everglades for some gator spotting on a massive Airboat. Tomorrow we head out for a full day tour down to Key West along the Florida Keys which should be great.
We'll get the photos up soon as we can, there are a lot of them!
Saturday 30 August 2008
Reading Festival YouTube videos
Just before we leave London to head to Turkey, I've quickly knocked up a some video clips from the footage shot on the camera last weekend at the Reading Festival. I only went on the Sunday, mainly to see Metallica (thus 3 videos of them alone), but there is also one of Feeder and Tenacious D.
For those of you who may be interested in seeing them, here they are.
Enjoy!
Matt
PS We're nearly done with the Prague blog (even though we went there in early June!), but with leaving London and traveling to Turkey on Monday, it's been hard to find the time to keep up. Must run now, we're off for farewell drinking before we leave in a couple of days. Bye!
For those of you who may be interested in seeing them, here they are.
Enjoy!
Matt
PS We're nearly done with the Prague blog (even though we went there in early June!), but with leaving London and traveling to Turkey on Monday, it's been hard to find the time to keep up. Must run now, we're off for farewell drinking before we leave in a couple of days. Bye!
Saturday 16 August 2008
Photo and text blog update - scroll down to read them!!
The whole blog task has proven to be harder to keep on top of than we first thought, but we are getting there. If you scroll down we have now added new blogs for:
And also photos of: So be sure to check them out!
And also photos of: So be sure to check them out!
Monday 7 July 2008
More photos added
After returning from 4 days at the Glastonbury Festival last Monday, we've just added some photos for everyone to check out. Top right column people…
You will also notice that there are photo galleries for Barcelona and Prague which we visited last month, but still haven't got around to blogging about it, so in the mean time you can see the photos.
This weekend we just went to the O2 Wireless Festival held at Hyde Park in London. We went on Saturday to see Fatboy Slim headline for the day, and then saw Powderfinger, Ben Harper and Counting Crows yesterday. It was ok, but was fairly disappointing after the whole Glasto experience.
Will blog more soon… only 8 more weeks in London before we head off on more travels!
Matt also made up a couple of YouTube video from his camera video at Glasto too.
Click here to see the first one
And here for the second one...
Click here to see the first one
And here for the second one...
You will also notice that there are photo galleries for Barcelona and Prague which we visited last month, but still haven't got around to blogging about it, so in the mean time you can see the photos.
This weekend we just went to the O2 Wireless Festival held at Hyde Park in London. We went on Saturday to see Fatboy Slim headline for the day, and then saw Powderfinger, Ben Harper and Counting Crows yesterday. It was ok, but was fairly disappointing after the whole Glasto experience.
Will blog more soon… only 8 more weeks in London before we head off on more travels!
Thursday 29 May 2008
Hola from Barcelona
25 - 28 May 2008
Now to another rather big blog update. This is our second trip in what has been a very busy month for us, and at this point it doesn't look like slowing down until around July.
Now to another rather big blog update. This is our second trip in what has been a very busy month for us, and at this point it doesn't look like slowing down until around July.
On the very wet and early morning of Sunday the 25th of May we left Gatwick Airport for our flight to Barcelona. The flight was with Easyjet - a budget airline, where we bought return flights online for £100 each. If its one thing we've learnt over here is that you get what you pay for. We soon realised that maybe getting cheap flights wasn't really worth getting up at 4.30am for a 7am flight.
We arrived in Aeroport de Barcelona around 9ish and caught an "express train" into the centre of the city - which took around half an hour. From the centre we jumped onto the Metro (aka Underground) and caught the green line to a stop near our hotel, Hotel Concordia on the street, Avinguda del Paralel. After a quick unpack and sniff around the hotel, we hit the streets, even though the weather was quite average - wet, but not too cold. Barcelona on this Sunday was quite different to last time we had visited the city (both on separate trips). It was particularly quiet on the tourist side of things too, and with the combination of cloudy skies and rain, it perhaps took away some of the great memories we have of the city. After walking randomly around the Old Town part of the city, we decided that it was time for lunch and chose a random restaurant in the hope of finding some tasty paella. Our mission was a success, as we enjoyed a seafood paella for two. Our waiter spoke next to nothing of English (normally its a pretty safe bet that they will speak at least "some" English), so it made for a lot of amusing hand gesturing and pointing, but we got there in the end.
After lunch we decided to embrace the Lonely Planet and try one of the walking tours. The weather was not being too kind to us at this point, in fact it was raining quite heavily, but we were determined to get out and see things. We started near where we had lunch, and walked around the old town, seeing many of the famous sights. It is truly fascinating walking around the narrow streets of old town Barcelona - it's one of the world's great cities. Matt stopped off to grab a refreshing gelati, while Anna was constantly disappearing into random shops, much to Matt's frustration. That evening we stopped off at a tapas bar for some drinks and nachos, which resulted in Matt getting us lost on our way back to the hotel. Instead of taking 15 minutes to get back, it took nearly an hour - but to his credit, we did get there eventually…
The next day started with a bit of a sleep in. The weather was looking much better than the previous day and we decided to see parts of Barcelona that neither of us had seen before in previous visits. The best way to accomplish this was to get onboard one of the Barcelona Hop-on Hop-off tourist buses. These buses which can be found in many cities around the world are definitely worthwhile if you are short of time. Our first stop off the bus was overlooking the city at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. We didn't actually go inside, but were amazed by the stunning panoramic views of the city. From there, the bus took us through the harbour and back into the city, where we stopped off to see some of Antonio Gaudi's architectural masterpieces on Carrer Gran de Gràcia, such as the famous Casa Batlló and Casa Milà - two of the most unique buildings in the world. This was also the main shopping street with all the top fashion brands scattered along the street. Next we thought it would be nice to take some piccies for Gaudi's most famous (unfinished) building, the Sagrada Familia. Matt had a urge for an icecream, so we sat at McDonald's with the church right behind us.
Sagrada Familia or the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882 by public subscription. A year later Gaudí became director of the project, a post he would hold for more than 40 years until his death in 1926. Work continued on the church based on Gaudí's general plan and studies. Unlike many churches, it survived during the Spanish Civil War, when many churches were burned; it was and is seen as a kind of symbol for the city of Barcelona. It is still unfinished today and it is anybody's guess when it will be completed. It is a combination of Modernista elements and a unique version of the Gothic style.
The final stop for the day was our highlight for the day, Gaudi's Park Güell. Park Güell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914. The park was amazing and well worth the visit - click the previous link to read more about this amazing place. We posed with the multi-coloured mosaic dragon fountain at the main entrance and walked to the top of the park to witness the best views over the city we'd ever seen. Gaudi's unique architecture and style is certainly visible here – truly an amazing place to visit.
That evening, we had dinner in a restaurant in a lovely open square just off from La Ramblas. We started chatting with a Finnish guy who was over for business, as he sat next to us at dinner. (The tables were extremely close together). After dinner we drank some more, sampling some of the €1 Spanish sangria (which is like a punch really). The night was still young when we left our new friend, as we headed off to meet fellow Adelaidian's.
It was past midnight before we found where Paul, Mel and Mira were staying in a nice apartment not too far from our hotel. It was a little exciting to see them all after several months of being away from home and not seeing them. We left the apartment after several more drinks and some great catch up sessions.
Day 3 started with breakfast at a small café down the street from where our hotel was. A rather random thing happened there too, as there was this old man in there who kept staring at Matt. He then walked over to him, yelling some abuse in Spanish (which we obviously didn't understand). Fortunately, a waitress intercepted him at the last moment and kicked him out. Random....
After breakfast, we met up with Paul, Mel and Mira at their hotel and walked down Carrer Gran de Gràcia - once again looking in several designer shops. We stopped off for some lunch, and also had several jugs of sangria to wash down our meals. It wasn't too bad, but a cheap 2-course meal, but it did the job.
From there we walked to see Gaudi's La Pedrera, and this time waited in line to go inside and up to see the roof too. We had an audio tour headset included in the entrance fee and walked up several flights of stairs through the apartment which was set up as it would have been in the early 1900s. The roof was our last stop, which is truly amazing and also very unusual too. The roof-top contains several strange, yet intriguing, sculptures which are very popular with the tourists.
On the way back to La Ramblas, Mira decided that it would be a good idea to visit the Louis Vutton store and bought a saucy little red hand bag. This soon rubbed off a bit to Anna, and she decided that she should buy a nice looking trench coat in Zara. That evening we went back to the same restaurant as the night before (the food was good, and the menu was huge), as we were hungry for some paella.The paella was awesome, and so was the sangria! After dinner we headed back to their apartment for some more drinks, as a lot of the pubs were closing a bit too early for our liking, plus Mira was run down with the flu.
On the final day, we checked out from our hotel and walked down to the other's apartment to drop off our luggage. From there we caught a taxi to La Ramblas in search of the food market, but we never found it. Time was short, so we decided to move on and walk down to the harbour to take a look.
We all walked around Port Vell and ordered a round of mojitos, but Matt ordered a beer instead. He assumed that a "grande cerveza" would be a pint, but was shocked to see that a 1 litre beer came out, especially as he had only about 40 minutes to drink it! He got through it, and we caught another taxi back to the apartment to collect our luggage and headed out to the airport. Flying with a budget airline often brings delays... well it did this time, as our flight was delayed by around an hour. When we arrived back in Gatwick Airport, we caught the Gatwick Express train back to Victoria Station, then onto a tube to get home and unpack, ready for work the following morning.
Adios amigos.
We arrived in Aeroport de Barcelona around 9ish and caught an "express train" into the centre of the city - which took around half an hour. From the centre we jumped onto the Metro (aka Underground) and caught the green line to a stop near our hotel, Hotel Concordia on the street, Avinguda del Paralel. After a quick unpack and sniff around the hotel, we hit the streets, even though the weather was quite average - wet, but not too cold. Barcelona on this Sunday was quite different to last time we had visited the city (both on separate trips). It was particularly quiet on the tourist side of things too, and with the combination of cloudy skies and rain, it perhaps took away some of the great memories we have of the city. After walking randomly around the Old Town part of the city, we decided that it was time for lunch and chose a random restaurant in the hope of finding some tasty paella. Our mission was a success, as we enjoyed a seafood paella for two. Our waiter spoke next to nothing of English (normally its a pretty safe bet that they will speak at least "some" English), so it made for a lot of amusing hand gesturing and pointing, but we got there in the end.
After lunch we decided to embrace the Lonely Planet and try one of the walking tours. The weather was not being too kind to us at this point, in fact it was raining quite heavily, but we were determined to get out and see things. We started near where we had lunch, and walked around the old town, seeing many of the famous sights. It is truly fascinating walking around the narrow streets of old town Barcelona - it's one of the world's great cities. Matt stopped off to grab a refreshing gelati, while Anna was constantly disappearing into random shops, much to Matt's frustration. That evening we stopped off at a tapas bar for some drinks and nachos, which resulted in Matt getting us lost on our way back to the hotel. Instead of taking 15 minutes to get back, it took nearly an hour - but to his credit, we did get there eventually…
The next day started with a bit of a sleep in. The weather was looking much better than the previous day and we decided to see parts of Barcelona that neither of us had seen before in previous visits. The best way to accomplish this was to get onboard one of the Barcelona Hop-on Hop-off tourist buses. These buses which can be found in many cities around the world are definitely worthwhile if you are short of time. Our first stop off the bus was overlooking the city at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. We didn't actually go inside, but were amazed by the stunning panoramic views of the city. From there, the bus took us through the harbour and back into the city, where we stopped off to see some of Antonio Gaudi's architectural masterpieces on Carrer Gran de Gràcia, such as the famous Casa Batlló and Casa Milà - two of the most unique buildings in the world. This was also the main shopping street with all the top fashion brands scattered along the street. Next we thought it would be nice to take some piccies for Gaudi's most famous (unfinished) building, the Sagrada Familia. Matt had a urge for an icecream, so we sat at McDonald's with the church right behind us.
Sagrada Familia or the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882 by public subscription. A year later Gaudí became director of the project, a post he would hold for more than 40 years until his death in 1926. Work continued on the church based on Gaudí's general plan and studies. Unlike many churches, it survived during the Spanish Civil War, when many churches were burned; it was and is seen as a kind of symbol for the city of Barcelona. It is still unfinished today and it is anybody's guess when it will be completed. It is a combination of Modernista elements and a unique version of the Gothic style.
The final stop for the day was our highlight for the day, Gaudi's Park Güell. Park Güell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914. The park was amazing and well worth the visit - click the previous link to read more about this amazing place. We posed with the multi-coloured mosaic dragon fountain at the main entrance and walked to the top of the park to witness the best views over the city we'd ever seen. Gaudi's unique architecture and style is certainly visible here – truly an amazing place to visit.
That evening, we had dinner in a restaurant in a lovely open square just off from La Ramblas. We started chatting with a Finnish guy who was over for business, as he sat next to us at dinner. (The tables were extremely close together). After dinner we drank some more, sampling some of the €1 Spanish sangria (which is like a punch really). The night was still young when we left our new friend, as we headed off to meet fellow Adelaidian's.
It was past midnight before we found where Paul, Mel and Mira were staying in a nice apartment not too far from our hotel. It was a little exciting to see them all after several months of being away from home and not seeing them. We left the apartment after several more drinks and some great catch up sessions.
Day 3 started with breakfast at a small café down the street from where our hotel was. A rather random thing happened there too, as there was this old man in there who kept staring at Matt. He then walked over to him, yelling some abuse in Spanish (which we obviously didn't understand). Fortunately, a waitress intercepted him at the last moment and kicked him out. Random....
After breakfast, we met up with Paul, Mel and Mira at their hotel and walked down Carrer Gran de Gràcia - once again looking in several designer shops. We stopped off for some lunch, and also had several jugs of sangria to wash down our meals. It wasn't too bad, but a cheap 2-course meal, but it did the job.
From there we walked to see Gaudi's La Pedrera, and this time waited in line to go inside and up to see the roof too. We had an audio tour headset included in the entrance fee and walked up several flights of stairs through the apartment which was set up as it would have been in the early 1900s. The roof was our last stop, which is truly amazing and also very unusual too. The roof-top contains several strange, yet intriguing, sculptures which are very popular with the tourists.
On the way back to La Ramblas, Mira decided that it would be a good idea to visit the Louis Vutton store and bought a saucy little red hand bag. This soon rubbed off a bit to Anna, and she decided that she should buy a nice looking trench coat in Zara. That evening we went back to the same restaurant as the night before (the food was good, and the menu was huge), as we were hungry for some paella.The paella was awesome, and so was the sangria! After dinner we headed back to their apartment for some more drinks, as a lot of the pubs were closing a bit too early for our liking, plus Mira was run down with the flu.
On the final day, we checked out from our hotel and walked down to the other's apartment to drop off our luggage. From there we caught a taxi to La Ramblas in search of the food market, but we never found it. Time was short, so we decided to move on and walk down to the harbour to take a look.
We all walked around Port Vell and ordered a round of mojitos, but Matt ordered a beer instead. He assumed that a "grande cerveza" would be a pint, but was shocked to see that a 1 litre beer came out, especially as he had only about 40 minutes to drink it! He got through it, and we caught another taxi back to the apartment to collect our luggage and headed out to the airport. Flying with a budget airline often brings delays... well it did this time, as our flight was delayed by around an hour. When we arrived back in Gatwick Airport, we caught the Gatwick Express train back to Victoria Station, then onto a tube to get home and unpack, ready for work the following morning.
Adios amigos.
Thursday 22 May 2008
Ladies & Gentlemen we're off to Egypt … زود بالجند هتاف للترحيب
It has been a long time since our last blog entry, but life has been very busy for us for the past couple of months. Balancing travel and working full time has been quite hectic at times, but it's been good. This will be an extra long blog and you will see that there are links to Wikipedia for you to click if you want to read more information. Don't forget too that there are heaps of photos to see - links on the right hand column of the blog. Happy reading.
Day 1 - London to Cario
At the start of May we took a 9 day (well really more like 8 day) tour to Egypt. We left on the Saturday afternoon from Heathrow Terminal 3, thinking we were flying BMI, but in the end it was Egypt Air. Luckily, all went smoothly and although the plane was like something straight out of the 70's, we landed in Cairo late Saturday evening after a 5 hour flight. From there we were escorted through what must be the slowest immigration line ever, and once that was over we boarded a coach en route to our hotel about 30 minutes from the airport. It was along this journey that we got our first taste of how randomly different Egyptian life really is. Traffic rules? No, there really aren't any, but everyone makes good use of their horns with constant polite "I'm here, look out" tooting. Once at our hotel/resort it was quite late, and with a bright and early morning start ahead of us we crashed out and went to bed.
Day 2 - Giza and Saqqara
This was to be the first of many early mornings on our Egypt experience, with a prompt and quick buffet breakfast, where met fellow Aussie couple, Sean and Tanya. After a quick munch, we were divided into groups (we were Group "A") with our tour guide, Sherif (pronounced Sher-eef) and then off to see the Pyramids of Giza - which was surprisingly close to our hotel. What we found amazing as we caught our first glimpse of the pyramids, was just how close they are to the city. Cairo is to the east side of the Nile River and Giza is on the west side - they are pretty much joined together. The weather was quite hazy - most likely from all of the pollution in the city, but the experience to actually have these marvels of man-made structures all around us, was just amazing. As we have been adapting to the cooler UK climate, we struggled a bit with the heat, even in the low 30's.
Sherif was a fantastic tour guide, so full of knowledge and, as he is an Egyptian himself, very passionate about his history and culture – not to mention, Sherif is very, very funny. He would have an introduction which as we approached each new location on the bus, he would announce into the microphone - "Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the time of your lives, you've all been waiting for…" Needless to say, it became a running joke over the length of the tour, and we even asked if he could say it just so we could film it.
We visited all 3 of the Pyramids of Giza, starting with the largest one, the Pyramid of Cheops, we then moved to see the 2nd one, Khafre's Pyramid, which is the one which still has some of the limestone outer layer showing at the top. From here we took the opportunity to take a camel ride, which was certainly a unique experience when the camel decided to run. It was pretty damn hot at this stage as it was approaching 11am, but we decided to follow the line of other tourists inside Khafre's Pyramid. The entrance was tiny, a bit over 1 metre in height which made for a slow, hunched walk down into the tomb of the pyramid. It was a bit of an uncomfortable experience, as it was hot, very humid and dark, and the lack of oxygen made you feel really light headed. Once we got into the tomb there wasn't much to see, but it gave us an opportunity to stand up straight and breathe a bit, before going back up the tunnel again.
Day 1 - London to Cario
At the start of May we took a 9 day (well really more like 8 day) tour to Egypt. We left on the Saturday afternoon from Heathrow Terminal 3, thinking we were flying BMI, but in the end it was Egypt Air. Luckily, all went smoothly and although the plane was like something straight out of the 70's, we landed in Cairo late Saturday evening after a 5 hour flight. From there we were escorted through what must be the slowest immigration line ever, and once that was over we boarded a coach en route to our hotel about 30 minutes from the airport. It was along this journey that we got our first taste of how randomly different Egyptian life really is. Traffic rules? No, there really aren't any, but everyone makes good use of their horns with constant polite "I'm here, look out" tooting. Once at our hotel/resort it was quite late, and with a bright and early morning start ahead of us we crashed out and went to bed.
Day 2 - Giza and Saqqara
This was to be the first of many early mornings on our Egypt experience, with a prompt and quick buffet breakfast, where met fellow Aussie couple, Sean and Tanya. After a quick munch, we were divided into groups (we were Group "A") with our tour guide, Sherif (pronounced Sher-eef) and then off to see the Pyramids of Giza - which was surprisingly close to our hotel. What we found amazing as we caught our first glimpse of the pyramids, was just how close they are to the city. Cairo is to the east side of the Nile River and Giza is on the west side - they are pretty much joined together. The weather was quite hazy - most likely from all of the pollution in the city, but the experience to actually have these marvels of man-made structures all around us, was just amazing. As we have been adapting to the cooler UK climate, we struggled a bit with the heat, even in the low 30's.
Sherif was a fantastic tour guide, so full of knowledge and, as he is an Egyptian himself, very passionate about his history and culture – not to mention, Sherif is very, very funny. He would have an introduction which as we approached each new location on the bus, he would announce into the microphone - "Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the time of your lives, you've all been waiting for…" Needless to say, it became a running joke over the length of the tour, and we even asked if he could say it just so we could film it.
We visited all 3 of the Pyramids of Giza, starting with the largest one, the Pyramid of Cheops, we then moved to see the 2nd one, Khafre's Pyramid, which is the one which still has some of the limestone outer layer showing at the top. From here we took the opportunity to take a camel ride, which was certainly a unique experience when the camel decided to run. It was pretty damn hot at this stage as it was approaching 11am, but we decided to follow the line of other tourists inside Khafre's Pyramid. The entrance was tiny, a bit over 1 metre in height which made for a slow, hunched walk down into the tomb of the pyramid. It was a bit of an uncomfortable experience, as it was hot, very humid and dark, and the lack of oxygen made you feel really light headed. Once we got into the tomb there wasn't much to see, but it gave us an opportunity to stand up straight and breathe a bit, before going back up the tunnel again.
We then returned to the bus and headed down a road toward the Great Sphinx of Giza, which is to the east of the pyramids. It was really amazing to see the Sphinx in real life as it is such an iconic image of Egypt.
From here we got back onto the nicely air-conditioned bus, and drove through Cairo to Saqqara - a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, featuring the world's oldest standing step pyramid. While in Cairo though we stopped off to get some cash and food supplies in a supermarket. Here we got to see just how crazy Cairo is and now we know where all of the world's old cars go, right here. (I think Cairo would have to have the world's biggest collection of white VW Kombi's). At Saqqara we entered through the Funerary complex of Djoser, and then saw the step pyramid at Saqqara which was designed by Imhotep for King Djoser (c.2667-2648 BC). It is the oldest complete hewn-stone building complex known in history.
That evening we experienced exactly what the term "Egyptian time" meant… We were to catch an over-night train from Cario to Aswan which was meant to arrive somewhere around 8pm. 9.30pm came around, and we were still waiting in the station. As we had 2 litres of vodka in our bags (duty-free from the airport), we decided that it would be a good idea to buy some 7-UP lemonade and make up some drinks. As Egypt is a muslim country, they do not drink, so we had to be quite sneaky about it to help deal with the pain. The station was unlike any other train station we had every been to, and hygiene was certainly not high on the priority list here. It was hilarious to watch people sprinting to catch the moving train, throwing their bags in the open door then reaching for a hand to pull them inside. Like we said, Egypt is pretty random.
Eventually the train arrived and we were allocated our sleeper cabins which were really more like cupboards, but we got by. The room was basically a 2 seater with a sink, and magically (after we ate dinner) it was transformed into a double-bunk bed. Surprisingly we slept quite well and arrived in the morning in Aswan.
Day 3 - Aswan
In the morning we had arrived in Aswan, we left our train and took a bus which drove us through Aswan and the River Nile. We embarked a ferry type of boat which took us to our hotel/resort. We had some time here to chill out, shower up and enjoy some poolside swimming time. The resort was really nice and literally right next to the Nile, as you could see it while sitting beside the pool.
Later that afternoon, we re-grouped and headed off to see the Philae Temple. Sherif made this very entertaining as he involved some of our group to act out the story as he told it - very amusing to watch. The hieroglyphics and wall carvings here were amazing and the temple structures are really massive. Egypt was just getting more and more amazing.
After visiting Philae we returned back to Aswan to embrace the street markets. We were told the markets were better in Cairo, but it was still great to see the markets here. They were quite touristy but there were lots of locals still about, and you were constantly hassled as you walked along the roads, but it can be quite fun and the people were really friendly. It's funny how they try to guess where you are from in an attempt to get you to buy things from them. They says things like "I'll help you spend your money", which can be quite amusing. We were on the look out for some indigo, which is a bright blue powder that is great for brightening your whites in the wash. Matt thought it looked cool, but Anna was quite excited to give it a go. We were a little grossed out by how meat was just left out in the hot weather without any refrigeration, but the locals didn't seem to care much - guess they are used to it.
Later that night we had dinner at a local Egyptian restaurant. It was a little strange that we couldn't order any alcohol with our meals, but instead we enjoyed a local soft drink called Fayrouz. Dinner consisted of a combination of stewed meats, vegetables, rice and pitta bread, which was really tasty and filling too. When we had finished our meals we heard some drums banging and several people entered the restaurant complete with dancers. For the next hour we were entertained and even "volunteered" to became part of the entertainment. In the end nearly everyone in the restaurant joined up and congo danced their way around the room. It was a great night out, even if we were completely sober, which was probably a good thing as we needed to be up at 4am the next morning.
Day 4 - Abu Simbel and felucca cruise
We started the day extra early with a 4am wake up call to catch a plane to Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan.
As we were now much further south, the days were getting hotter and hotter. It reached around 40ºC while we were here at Abu Simbel, which was mainly the reason why we left so early in the morning to get there. Even though it was quite early (around 8am), there were still hordes of tourists there, which became annoying all packed inside the temples.
Over time the temples had become more under threat from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, so between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was cut into large blocks, dismantled and reassembled in a new location – 65m higher and 200m back from the river, in what many consider one of the greatest feats of archaeological engineering. Another amazing fact about the Temple of Ramesses II is that the axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that twice a year, on October 20 and February 20, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculpture on the back wall. These dates are allegedly the king's birthday and coronation day respectively. (thanks for Wikipedia for that...)
It was breathtaking to walk around a corner and then be consumed by the massive mountains which contain the two Temples of Ramesses II, a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari. The feeling of open space was amazing here, as everything was just on such a big scale - with the temples on one side and the great Lake Nasser on the other.
After exploring the temples we flew back to our resort in Aswan for a swim and some chill out time. From the airport, we stopped to visit the Aswan High Dam. Located near Aswan, the world famous High Dam was an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. The Dam is 11,811 feet long, 3215 feet thick at the base and and 364 feet tall. Today it provides irrigation and electricity for the whole of Egypt and, together with the old Aswan Dam built by the British between 1898 and 1902, 6km down stream.
That afternoon, we left the resort and were divided up into groups of roughly 12 people and climbed aboard our felucca.
A felucca is a traditional wooden yacht, where the deck is covered with cushions and pillows and is an area where you eat, sleep and relax on. There is also a canopy which stretches over the decking, so you have protection from the sun. All our bags and luggage was stored below the decking beneath us.
We were onboard the felucca for 2 nights and 2 days. It was such a relaxing time, having literally nothing to do but relax. We spent the first few hours zig-zagging slowly down the Nile River (which is a northerly direction), with cool breezes from the Nile helping us deal with the heat of the sun. It was awesome and just what we needed. Many of us simply snoozed or read their books while enjoying a few Stella beers (an Egyptian brand). This trip gave Matt the opportunity to rip into his book which he had barely started, it is Slash's (the guitarist from Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver) autobiography, and it's brilliant.
The first afternoon, all 3 of the feluccas docked on a bank which was close to a local Nubian house. Our crew cooked for us while we had time to explore some of the local farms - well actually the farmers themselves were probably more interested in us. From the outside the Nubian house reminded Matt of the Mexican strip-club in the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn", with its brightly coloured walls and generally simple characteristics. Inside the walls were a series of rooms which lined the outer edges, while the middle section was open for activities and other work. To the relief of many, there were toilets and "showers" here too, although basic they were better than nothing (well nearly - Matt struggled to use them and chose to "wait" instead). After our meals on board our felucca we headed back to the Nubian house for some social time. To the right side was a type of lounge area with many cushions and pillows, where we all grouped up with a few beers from our feluccas and enjoyed some time out and smoked some apple sheesha.
Day 5 - Felucca on the River Nile
The following day was much the same pattern - relax and cruise further along the Nile. In the early evening as the sun was getting lower all of the feluccas were docked again. We were entertained by several locals playing soccer (football to us Londoners), which looked fantastic as the red dust from the sunset was kicked about. There were a few youngsters there too which made for some great candid photo opportunities as you will see from the photos. The sunset was quite captivating to watch as it descended deep into the palm tree lined horizon. Later that evening after dinner, each of our groups were given the task of performing an act which had to be Egypt related. We kind of copped out a bit, and decided to take the piss out of our guide Sherif and imitate him while we reenacted one of the stories he had told us. It was basically one guy in our group, Sean, who pulled it off while the rest of us were moved around like pawns. Still it was very amusing. After that we danced around a fire to the sounds of some Egyptian drummers - it was just fantastic. When the dancing was done with, we played a series of games, including one where Anna was wrapped up like a mummy in toilet paper. Very funny to watch - well for everyone except Anna anyway!
That evening we had to do some sailing in order to reach our pick up point further downstream, so we climbed back onto our feluccas, set up our bedding and set sail. Something really funny also happened when Matt was setting up for bed. He was moving the sleeping bags (which were still rolled up tight) and threw Anna's out the way to clear some space, but her sleeping bag bounced on a pillow and went straight overboard into the Nile. Without thinking about it twice, Matt leapt overboard and saved the sleeping bag from getting too wet. Fortunately it wasn't too deep, but needless to say Matt ended up with the wet sleeping bag that evening, while Anna enjoyed a nice and dry evening…
Day 6 - Kom Ombo, Edfu and Luxor
We slept incredibly well that night as we drifted along quietly down the Nile, when suddenly we were awoken by Sherif telling us to wake up and pack up - it was 6am and time to move on once again. Our bus was waiting for us, so on we went towards our next stop which was Kom Ombo to visit the temple.
Located in the town of Kom-Ombo, about 28 miles north of Aswan, the Temple, dating to the Ptolemies, is built on a high dune overlooking the Nile. The actual temple was started by Ptolemy VI Philometor in the early second century BC. Ptolemy XIII built the outer and inner hypostyle halls. The Temple known as Kom Ombo is actually two temples consisting of a Temple to Sobek and a Temple of Haroeris. The Temple has scant remains, due first to the changing Nile, then the Copts who once used it as a church, and finally by builders who used the stones for new buildings.
The temple had some interesting things about it that made it unique, such as the wall hieroglyphic of the woman giving birth in an upright, squatting position, and images of fruits on the walls. Also there were mummified crocodile corpses which were pretty cool too. Next we travelled further north in the direction of Luxor, stopping at Edfu to visit the Edfu Temple of Horus.
The Temple of Edfu is an ancient Egyptian temple located on the west bank of the Nile in the city of Edfu. It is the second largest temple in Egypt after Karnak and one of the best preserved. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BCE. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt. Inside the temple's pylons is a large courtyard. Just before the entrance to the first of two hypostyle halls is a welcoming statue of Horus. Inside the hypostyle halls are dominated by a forest of towering columns.
The temple's size was massive and really had a great presence about it. The enormous columns inside the temple rose up towards a high ceiling and were covered with masses of hieroglyphic markings. The lighting inside too was very moody and atmospheric. The shear solidity of the rock made the temples reasonably cooler than the outside temperatures. The photos on the blog probably don't do it justice, but the outside shape of the temple is very recognisable and unique.
From here, we continued to travel northbound and after sometime reached the city of Luxor, where were were taken to our resort/hotel for some chill out time and the chance to finally take a shower and use the 'facilities'!
When we were all cleaned up we spoilt ourselves with some room service and Matt ordered fish and chips while Anna ordered a pizza, both of which were surprisingly fantastic meals! After 2 days eating quite simple food on the felucca, a decent sized Western meal was just what were craving. The afternoon was spent by the pool which was just fantastic. It overlooked the Nile River and the palm tree banks there also.
Later that evening all of us boarded our bus and traveled back into the town to experience the Luxor Temple. If you travel to Luxor (ancient Thebes) then it will be hard to miss the spectacular Luxor Temple situated in the center of Luxor city. The Temple of Luxor was built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II around 1400 BC and its main purpose was to celebrate the festival of Opet. Many rulers built on to the temple yet it always remained a place of worship for Christians and later Muslims. A mosque built inside the temple still exists and is one of the highlights of the site.
It was getting quite dark at this stage and the lit up temples looked absolutely amazing, set against a deep blue sky. For us it was the most amazing temple out of the many that we visited on the trip. We drove past it the next day, but it didn't look half as exciting in daylight, so if you go there, make sure you go at night.
That evening everyone in the group went into the city and enjoyed a banquet style meal at a local restaurant. It wasn't too bad, and was fantastic value really considering what you paid. A recommended jeweler was set up outside the restaurant whom had some wonderful jewellery ranging from necklaces to pendants, to bracelets to rings. We both thought that these would make great gifts and had some custom pieces made for our families, as you could get your own name written on a cartouse with hieroglyphics. Our jewellery would be ready for us in two days at our hotel back in Cario – not a bad turnaround for personalised jewelery. It was another early one that night (well pre-midnight anyway), as we had another 4am morning ahead of us…
Day 7 - Luxor, Valley of the Kings and Queens
So there we were up at 4am to meet down in the lobby by 4.30am in preparation to watch the sunrise while floating around in a hot-air balloon through the skies over the Valley of the Kings. Doesn't sound too bad does it? Well let me tell you, it was amazing - although we could have done with less haze. Our morning journey started in a boat in Luxor where we were briefed on the standard do's and dont's and all the legal jargon that goes on so that if you fall out of the balloon the company is not liable. The boat took us towards the launch area where we were taken to in a van. When we arrived, we were surrounded by fields filled with various crops and found the ground crew inflating the balloons, which made for some spectacular images and looks like a tricky thing to do.
Each balloon basket can carry 30 people, so yes, they are pretty darn big, with divisions in them so that 4-5 people fit into each section. The sides of the baskets were quite high, so even Matt felt safe dispite his unsettling fear of heights. What we weren't prepared for was the intense heat which comes from the flames as they boost up the hot-air. The heat was intense and at times you felt like you needed to feel the top of your head to check if your hair was still all there. Once we got high up in the sky, the views were just incredible. The sense of open space and the huge scale of the surrounding land was just awesome. The skylines were filled with many other balloons, all spread out across the countryside.
Looking down from the balloon you could see life from a very unusual perspective. We even saw inside some man's bedroom as he woke up, as most housing does not have any roofs, because it only rains once every few years. After about an hour of being in the air, it was time to descend back to Earth. Surprisingly, it took quite a while to come down and we were followed by a small group of children who were running along beside us. The landing was just as gentle as was the launch. The basket kissed the ground and only made a few bounces before it came to a halt. After a quick group shot and a Certificate of Participation presentation, we jumped back into the vans and headed off. We also had the opportunity to get a DVD video of the whole experience which we knew would be cheesy and badly produced, but for £10 who really cares.…
Sherif, our guide, decided that to avoid the crowds, we would start with the Valley of the Queens which is a place in Egypt where wives of Pharaohs were buried in ancient times. Exploring the rock and sand mountainous valleys reminded Matt of the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars, where R2-D2 gets taken by the Jawas (nerd…). We looked in 2 tombs here, those being the Tomb of Amenherkhepshef & The Tomb of Tyti. You could feel the heat in the Valley, even though it was still early in the morning, you could tell that it was going to be a hot one. Back into the bus for a short drive to see the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, (sounding like "hot chicken soup") which was just amazing.
Also called The Temple of Deir El-Bahri, it is one of the most characteristic temples in the whole of Egypt, due to its design and decorations. It was built of limestone, not sandstone like most of the other funerary temples of the New Kingdom period. It is thought that Senimut, the genius architect who built this Temple, was inspired in his design by the plan of the neighboring mortuary Temple of the 12th Dynasty King, Neb-Hept-Re. The Temple was built for the great Queen Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty), to commemorate her achievements and to serve as a funerary Temple for her, as well as a sanctuary of the God, Amon Ra.
The temple starts with a climb up 3 levels to the top, and offers amazing panoramic views looking back to the valley. We spent quite some time exploring the amazing colours in the hieroglyphics here, as it is quite rare to find such vibrant colours still there after so many 1000's of years. We were sort of conned by one of the local people here as he offered to take our photo. We knew that he would expect money, but for what we paid him (3 Egyptian Pounds), it was totally worth the photos, especially the one with him posing with Matt. Classic shot.
From here we traveled to visit the Valley of the Kings, which is probably more well know as it contains the tombs of famous pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and Ramesses VI.
The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom.
The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, across from Thebes (modern Luxor), within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley (where the majority of the royal tombs situated) and West Valley. The area has been a focus of concentrated archaeological and egyptological exploration since the end of the eighteenth century, and its tombs and burials continue to stimulate research and interest. In modern times the valley has become famous for the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (with its rumours of the Curse of the Pharaohs, and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.)
The Tomb of Tutankhamen was not included in the normal entrance fee, and we decided against it as almost nearly everything has been removed and is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but in hindsight we regretted the decision. We explored inside the tombs of Rameses I, Rameses III and Rameses V. The heat was quite intense by now and without having enough water Matt was struggling a little bit, mainly inside the tombs themselves as they were really humid and low on oxygen.
Next was lunch and a visit to the Karnak Temple – yes another temple. We never realised how many great temples there are in Egypt. There are a lot of them, but they are all certainly worthwhile visiting.
The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt. This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes. The complex retrieves its current name from the nearby and partly surrounding modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5km north of Luxor.
The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is probably the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo. It consists of four main parts (precincts) of which only one is accessible for tourists and the general public. This is the Precinct of Amun-Re, and this it is also the main part of the complex and by far the largest part. The term Karnak is often understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, as this is the only part most visitors normally see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Montu, the Precinct of Mut and the Temple of Amenhotep IV (dismantled), are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, as well as several avenues of human and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amon-Re, and Luxor Temple.
The massive columns in the Hypostyle Hall (I think we fit 11 people holding hands around the base of one) and sculptures in Karnak really make it feel like an outside museum. The site too has two huge obelisks, that were carved from one piece of granite and transported up stream to this site. It is really difficult to comprehend how everything was constructed at such a huge scale so long ago. Really impressive.
That evening we were back on our smelly trains on our way back to Cairo. This time though we didn't upgrade to the sleeper cabins, which for £30 we would do in a second. A "seater" is basically a slightly-reclining chair in a train carriage where the lights don't even dim all night, that you have to share with around 30 other people. However, braced with ear-plugs, eye shades, and the fact that we were really tired, we managed to get through the night until around 5am, when some random Egyptian man began to yell at his mobile phone. After initially wanting to stick his phone somewhere rather nasty, we later found out that his house was burning down, so in the end we felt a little sorry for him. The day began with some excitement too as we were awoken from a dazy snooze with "we have 10 minutes until we need to get off", from our guide. Then 1 minute later, it was… "5 minutes guys, hurry up". To then "Oh, no. We have to get off now!". Needless to say, we have never packed up our sleeping bags and belongings faster before.
Day 8 - Cairo & Egyptian Museum
The day began with check-in back at the same hotel/resort that we started our tour at Cairo, which was fine with us as we only had spent a very short time here to begin with.
Our first stop for the day was at the Egyptian Museum, which has the greatest collection of Egyptian antiquities. It's most visited section would be the treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb. Chariots, gloves, jewellery, the famous mask - many of the antiquities from his tomb are displayed here.
Tutankhamun's tomb contained four gilded shrines nested one inside the other. All four of these shrines are on display in the museum. They are lined up in order of decreasing size. The innermost of these covered a stone sarcophagus which remains in the tomb. Inside the stone sarcophagus were three coffins - the innermost being made of 110 kilograms of solid gold. Inside that lay the pharaoh himself wearing the famous gold mask. Tutankhamun remains in his tomb to this day.
Of course there is much more to see here and so much history, and it is amazing to see how well preserved some of the tools and clothing are. We were also facinated by the animal mummies too, as they were in some ways really weird but intriguing also.
We left the museum and was taken to a flower essence place where an old Egyptian man explained all about how perfumes are made from the same flower essences found here. They smelt just like the real products, but at a fraction of the cost. we bought a pack of them as they would make great gifts too.
That afternoon the group visited a street market in Cairo, where were had about an hour or so to explore and barter on what ever we desired. Matt was after a doll for his mum, and also bought a T-shirt and magnet. It was decided that we should buy a sheesha, as they were so incredibly cheap. We bought the deluxe model which only cost 150 Egyptian Pounds, an absolute bargain. The next problem will be shipping it home without the glass base breaking! The photo here shows the amount of choice in a sheesha shop.
Day 9 - Cairo to London
Our last day of the tour was spent at the hotel before we had to check out. The remaining hours left were spent relaxing by the pool, making the most of the hot sun before we went back to cloudy London. We exchanged contact details with many of the tour group and had transfers to the Cairo Airport. Different people in the group flew back home (most of them to London) all at different times, but ours was at 3pm.
It was a long and rather boring wait after checking-in at the airport. Cairo Airport is what you would call, "basic" and having to kill 2 hours there was quite a challenge. A group of us went to McDonald's as Matt is facinated by the differences in the menus around the world. This McD's even had a special wrap-style burger called a McArabia!
Later that evening we arrived back in London at Heathrow Airport, caught the tube home and rested for a few hours before preparing to go back to work the following day.
As expected Matt went crazy with his camera, taking s
hots of nearly everything there was. (At the end of the trip he totaled somewhere near 1000 photos, which were later culled down to 600 or so). We also had the compact digital too, of which Anna took some very cool shots. Highlights of them can be viewed in the photo column at the top right.
In summary - a fantastic experience that we would thoroughly recommend, and remember that there is so much more to Egypt that simply the pyramids. So if you get the chance to go, take it, you won't regret it.
That evening we experienced exactly what the term "Egyptian time" meant… We were to catch an over-night train from Cario to Aswan which was meant to arrive somewhere around 8pm. 9.30pm came around, and we were still waiting in the station. As we had 2 litres of vodka in our bags (duty-free from the airport), we decided that it would be a good idea to buy some 7-UP lemonade and make up some drinks. As Egypt is a muslim country, they do not drink, so we had to be quite sneaky about it to help deal with the pain. The station was unlike any other train station we had every been to, and hygiene was certainly not high on the priority list here. It was hilarious to watch people sprinting to catch the moving train, throwing their bags in the open door then reaching for a hand to pull them inside. Like we said, Egypt is pretty random.
Eventually the train arrived and we were allocated our sleeper cabins which were really more like cupboards, but we got by. The room was basically a 2 seater with a sink, and magically (after we ate dinner) it was transformed into a double-bunk bed. Surprisingly we slept quite well and arrived in the morning in Aswan.
Day 3 - Aswan
In the morning we had arrived in Aswan, we left our train and took a bus which drove us through Aswan and the River Nile. We embarked a ferry type of boat which took us to our hotel/resort. We had some time here to chill out, shower up and enjoy some poolside swimming time. The resort was really nice and literally right next to the Nile, as you could see it while sitting beside the pool.
Later that afternoon, we re-grouped and headed off to see the Philae Temple. Sherif made this very entertaining as he involved some of our group to act out the story as he told it - very amusing to watch. The hieroglyphics and wall carvings here were amazing and the temple structures are really massive. Egypt was just getting more and more amazing.
After visiting Philae we returned back to Aswan to embrace the street markets. We were told the markets were better in Cairo, but it was still great to see the markets here. They were quite touristy but there were lots of locals still about, and you were constantly hassled as you walked along the roads, but it can be quite fun and the people were really friendly. It's funny how they try to guess where you are from in an attempt to get you to buy things from them. They says things like "I'll help you spend your money", which can be quite amusing. We were on the look out for some indigo, which is a bright blue powder that is great for brightening your whites in the wash. Matt thought it looked cool, but Anna was quite excited to give it a go. We were a little grossed out by how meat was just left out in the hot weather without any refrigeration, but the locals didn't seem to care much - guess they are used to it.
Later that night we had dinner at a local Egyptian restaurant. It was a little strange that we couldn't order any alcohol with our meals, but instead we enjoyed a local soft drink called Fayrouz. Dinner consisted of a combination of stewed meats, vegetables, rice and pitta bread, which was really tasty and filling too. When we had finished our meals we heard some drums banging and several people entered the restaurant complete with dancers. For the next hour we were entertained and even "volunteered" to became part of the entertainment. In the end nearly everyone in the restaurant joined up and congo danced their way around the room. It was a great night out, even if we were completely sober, which was probably a good thing as we needed to be up at 4am the next morning.
Day 4 - Abu Simbel and felucca cruise
We started the day extra early with a 4am wake up call to catch a plane to Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan.
As we were now much further south, the days were getting hotter and hotter. It reached around 40ºC while we were here at Abu Simbel, which was mainly the reason why we left so early in the morning to get there. Even though it was quite early (around 8am), there were still hordes of tourists there, which became annoying all packed inside the temples.
Over time the temples had become more under threat from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, so between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was cut into large blocks, dismantled and reassembled in a new location – 65m higher and 200m back from the river, in what many consider one of the greatest feats of archaeological engineering. Another amazing fact about the Temple of Ramesses II is that the axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that twice a year, on October 20 and February 20, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculpture on the back wall. These dates are allegedly the king's birthday and coronation day respectively. (thanks for Wikipedia for that...)
It was breathtaking to walk around a corner and then be consumed by the massive mountains which contain the two Temples of Ramesses II, a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari. The feeling of open space was amazing here, as everything was just on such a big scale - with the temples on one side and the great Lake Nasser on the other.
After exploring the temples we flew back to our resort in Aswan for a swim and some chill out time. From the airport, we stopped to visit the Aswan High Dam. Located near Aswan, the world famous High Dam was an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. The Dam is 11,811 feet long, 3215 feet thick at the base and and 364 feet tall. Today it provides irrigation and electricity for the whole of Egypt and, together with the old Aswan Dam built by the British between 1898 and 1902, 6km down stream.
That afternoon, we left the resort and were divided up into groups of roughly 12 people and climbed aboard our felucca.
A felucca is a traditional wooden yacht, where the deck is covered with cushions and pillows and is an area where you eat, sleep and relax on. There is also a canopy which stretches over the decking, so you have protection from the sun. All our bags and luggage was stored below the decking beneath us.We were onboard the felucca for 2 nights and 2 days. It was such a relaxing time, having literally nothing to do but relax. We spent the first few hours zig-zagging slowly down the Nile River (which is a northerly direction), with cool breezes from the Nile helping us deal with the heat of the sun. It was awesome and just what we needed. Many of us simply snoozed or read their books while enjoying a few Stella beers (an Egyptian brand). This trip gave Matt the opportunity to rip into his book which he had barely started, it is Slash's (the guitarist from Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver) autobiography, and it's brilliant.
The first afternoon, all 3 of the feluccas docked on a bank which was close to a local Nubian house. Our crew cooked for us while we had time to explore some of the local farms - well actually the farmers themselves were probably more interested in us. From the outside the Nubian house reminded Matt of the Mexican strip-club in the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn", with its brightly coloured walls and generally simple characteristics. Inside the walls were a series of rooms which lined the outer edges, while the middle section was open for activities and other work. To the relief of many, there were toilets and "showers" here too, although basic they were better than nothing (well nearly - Matt struggled to use them and chose to "wait" instead). After our meals on board our felucca we headed back to the Nubian house for some social time. To the right side was a type of lounge area with many cushions and pillows, where we all grouped up with a few beers from our feluccas and enjoyed some time out and smoked some apple sheesha.
Day 5 - Felucca on the River Nile
The following day was much the same pattern - relax and cruise further along the Nile. In the early evening as the sun was getting lower all of the feluccas were docked again. We were entertained by several locals playing soccer (football to us Londoners), which looked fantastic as the red dust from the sunset was kicked about. There were a few youngsters there too which made for some great candid photo opportunities as you will see from the photos. The sunset was quite captivating to watch as it descended deep into the palm tree lined horizon. Later that evening after dinner, each of our groups were given the task of performing an act which had to be Egypt related. We kind of copped out a bit, and decided to take the piss out of our guide Sherif and imitate him while we reenacted one of the stories he had told us. It was basically one guy in our group, Sean, who pulled it off while the rest of us were moved around like pawns. Still it was very amusing. After that we danced around a fire to the sounds of some Egyptian drummers - it was just fantastic. When the dancing was done with, we played a series of games, including one where Anna was wrapped up like a mummy in toilet paper. Very funny to watch - well for everyone except Anna anyway!
That evening we had to do some sailing in order to reach our pick up point further downstream, so we climbed back onto our feluccas, set up our bedding and set sail. Something really funny also happened when Matt was setting up for bed. He was moving the sleeping bags (which were still rolled up tight) and threw Anna's out the way to clear some space, but her sleeping bag bounced on a pillow and went straight overboard into the Nile. Without thinking about it twice, Matt leapt overboard and saved the sleeping bag from getting too wet. Fortunately it wasn't too deep, but needless to say Matt ended up with the wet sleeping bag that evening, while Anna enjoyed a nice and dry evening…Day 6 - Kom Ombo, Edfu and Luxor
We slept incredibly well that night as we drifted along quietly down the Nile, when suddenly we were awoken by Sherif telling us to wake up and pack up - it was 6am and time to move on once again. Our bus was waiting for us, so on we went towards our next stop which was Kom Ombo to visit the temple.
Located in the town of Kom-Ombo, about 28 miles north of Aswan, the Temple, dating to the Ptolemies, is built on a high dune overlooking the Nile. The actual temple was started by Ptolemy VI Philometor in the early second century BC. Ptolemy XIII built the outer and inner hypostyle halls. The Temple known as Kom Ombo is actually two temples consisting of a Temple to Sobek and a Temple of Haroeris. The Temple has scant remains, due first to the changing Nile, then the Copts who once used it as a church, and finally by builders who used the stones for new buildings.
The temple had some interesting things about it that made it unique, such as the wall hieroglyphic of the woman giving birth in an upright, squatting position, and images of fruits on the walls. Also there were mummified crocodile corpses which were pretty cool too. Next we travelled further north in the direction of Luxor, stopping at Edfu to visit the Edfu Temple of Horus.
The Temple of Edfu is an ancient Egyptian temple located on the west bank of the Nile in the city of Edfu. It is the second largest temple in Egypt after Karnak and one of the best preserved. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BCE. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt. Inside the temple's pylons is a large courtyard. Just before the entrance to the first of two hypostyle halls is a welcoming statue of Horus. Inside the hypostyle halls are dominated by a forest of towering columns.
The temple's size was massive and really had a great presence about it. The enormous columns inside the temple rose up towards a high ceiling and were covered with masses of hieroglyphic markings. The lighting inside too was very moody and atmospheric. The shear solidity of the rock made the temples reasonably cooler than the outside temperatures. The photos on the blog probably don't do it justice, but the outside shape of the temple is very recognisable and unique.
From here, we continued to travel northbound and after sometime reached the city of Luxor, where were were taken to our resort/hotel for some chill out time and the chance to finally take a shower and use the 'facilities'!
When we were all cleaned up we spoilt ourselves with some room service and Matt ordered fish and chips while Anna ordered a pizza, both of which were surprisingly fantastic meals! After 2 days eating quite simple food on the felucca, a decent sized Western meal was just what were craving. The afternoon was spent by the pool which was just fantastic. It overlooked the Nile River and the palm tree banks there also.
Later that evening all of us boarded our bus and traveled back into the town to experience the Luxor Temple. If you travel to Luxor (ancient Thebes) then it will be hard to miss the spectacular Luxor Temple situated in the center of Luxor city. The Temple of Luxor was built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II around 1400 BC and its main purpose was to celebrate the festival of Opet. Many rulers built on to the temple yet it always remained a place of worship for Christians and later Muslims. A mosque built inside the temple still exists and is one of the highlights of the site.
It was getting quite dark at this stage and the lit up temples looked absolutely amazing, set against a deep blue sky. For us it was the most amazing temple out of the many that we visited on the trip. We drove past it the next day, but it didn't look half as exciting in daylight, so if you go there, make sure you go at night.
That evening everyone in the group went into the city and enjoyed a banquet style meal at a local restaurant. It wasn't too bad, and was fantastic value really considering what you paid. A recommended jeweler was set up outside the restaurant whom had some wonderful jewellery ranging from necklaces to pendants, to bracelets to rings. We both thought that these would make great gifts and had some custom pieces made for our families, as you could get your own name written on a cartouse with hieroglyphics. Our jewellery would be ready for us in two days at our hotel back in Cario – not a bad turnaround for personalised jewelery. It was another early one that night (well pre-midnight anyway), as we had another 4am morning ahead of us…
Day 7 - Luxor, Valley of the Kings and Queens
So there we were up at 4am to meet down in the lobby by 4.30am in preparation to watch the sunrise while floating around in a hot-air balloon through the skies over the Valley of the Kings. Doesn't sound too bad does it? Well let me tell you, it was amazing - although we could have done with less haze. Our morning journey started in a boat in Luxor where we were briefed on the standard do's and dont's and all the legal jargon that goes on so that if you fall out of the balloon the company is not liable. The boat took us towards the launch area where we were taken to in a van. When we arrived, we were surrounded by fields filled with various crops and found the ground crew inflating the balloons, which made for some spectacular images and looks like a tricky thing to do.
Each balloon basket can carry 30 people, so yes, they are pretty darn big, with divisions in them so that 4-5 people fit into each section. The sides of the baskets were quite high, so even Matt felt safe dispite his unsettling fear of heights. What we weren't prepared for was the intense heat which comes from the flames as they boost up the hot-air. The heat was intense and at times you felt like you needed to feel the top of your head to check if your hair was still all there. Once we got high up in the sky, the views were just incredible. The sense of open space and the huge scale of the surrounding land was just awesome. The skylines were filled with many other balloons, all spread out across the countryside.
Looking down from the balloon you could see life from a very unusual perspective. We even saw inside some man's bedroom as he woke up, as most housing does not have any roofs, because it only rains once every few years. After about an hour of being in the air, it was time to descend back to Earth. Surprisingly, it took quite a while to come down and we were followed by a small group of children who were running along beside us. The landing was just as gentle as was the launch. The basket kissed the ground and only made a few bounces before it came to a halt. After a quick group shot and a Certificate of Participation presentation, we jumped back into the vans and headed off. We also had the opportunity to get a DVD video of the whole experience which we knew would be cheesy and badly produced, but for £10 who really cares.…Sherif, our guide, decided that to avoid the crowds, we would start with the Valley of the Queens which is a place in Egypt where wives of Pharaohs were buried in ancient times. Exploring the rock and sand mountainous valleys reminded Matt of the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars, where R2-D2 gets taken by the Jawas (nerd…). We looked in 2 tombs here, those being the Tomb of Amenherkhepshef & The Tomb of Tyti. You could feel the heat in the Valley, even though it was still early in the morning, you could tell that it was going to be a hot one. Back into the bus for a short drive to see the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, (sounding like "hot chicken soup") which was just amazing.
Also called The Temple of Deir El-Bahri, it is one of the most characteristic temples in the whole of Egypt, due to its design and decorations. It was built of limestone, not sandstone like most of the other funerary temples of the New Kingdom period. It is thought that Senimut, the genius architect who built this Temple, was inspired in his design by the plan of the neighboring mortuary Temple of the 12th Dynasty King, Neb-Hept-Re. The Temple was built for the great Queen Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty), to commemorate her achievements and to serve as a funerary Temple for her, as well as a sanctuary of the God, Amon Ra. The temple starts with a climb up 3 levels to the top, and offers amazing panoramic views looking back to the valley. We spent quite some time exploring the amazing colours in the hieroglyphics here, as it is quite rare to find such vibrant colours still there after so many 1000's of years. We were sort of conned by one of the local people here as he offered to take our photo. We knew that he would expect money, but for what we paid him (3 Egyptian Pounds), it was totally worth the photos, especially the one with him posing with Matt. Classic shot.
From here we traveled to visit the Valley of the Kings, which is probably more well know as it contains the tombs of famous pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and Ramesses VI.
The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom.
The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, across from Thebes (modern Luxor), within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley (where the majority of the royal tombs situated) and West Valley. The area has been a focus of concentrated archaeological and egyptological exploration since the end of the eighteenth century, and its tombs and burials continue to stimulate research and interest. In modern times the valley has become famous for the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (with its rumours of the Curse of the Pharaohs, and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.)
The Tomb of Tutankhamen was not included in the normal entrance fee, and we decided against it as almost nearly everything has been removed and is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but in hindsight we regretted the decision. We explored inside the tombs of Rameses I, Rameses III and Rameses V. The heat was quite intense by now and without having enough water Matt was struggling a little bit, mainly inside the tombs themselves as they were really humid and low on oxygen.
Next was lunch and a visit to the Karnak Temple – yes another temple. We never realised how many great temples there are in Egypt. There are a lot of them, but they are all certainly worthwhile visiting.
The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt. This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes. The complex retrieves its current name from the nearby and partly surrounding modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5km north of Luxor. The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is probably the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo. It consists of four main parts (precincts) of which only one is accessible for tourists and the general public. This is the Precinct of Amun-Re, and this it is also the main part of the complex and by far the largest part. The term Karnak is often understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, as this is the only part most visitors normally see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Montu, the Precinct of Mut and the Temple of Amenhotep IV (dismantled), are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, as well as several avenues of human and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amon-Re, and Luxor Temple.
The massive columns in the Hypostyle Hall (I think we fit 11 people holding hands around the base of one) and sculptures in Karnak really make it feel like an outside museum. The site too has two huge obelisks, that were carved from one piece of granite and transported up stream to this site. It is really difficult to comprehend how everything was constructed at such a huge scale so long ago. Really impressive.
That evening we were back on our smelly trains on our way back to Cairo. This time though we didn't upgrade to the sleeper cabins, which for £30 we would do in a second. A "seater" is basically a slightly-reclining chair in a train carriage where the lights don't even dim all night, that you have to share with around 30 other people. However, braced with ear-plugs, eye shades, and the fact that we were really tired, we managed to get through the night until around 5am, when some random Egyptian man began to yell at his mobile phone. After initially wanting to stick his phone somewhere rather nasty, we later found out that his house was burning down, so in the end we felt a little sorry for him. The day began with some excitement too as we were awoken from a dazy snooze with "we have 10 minutes until we need to get off", from our guide. Then 1 minute later, it was… "5 minutes guys, hurry up". To then "Oh, no. We have to get off now!". Needless to say, we have never packed up our sleeping bags and belongings faster before.
Day 8 - Cairo & Egyptian Museum
The day began with check-in back at the same hotel/resort that we started our tour at Cairo, which was fine with us as we only had spent a very short time here to begin with.
Our first stop for the day was at the Egyptian Museum, which has the greatest collection of Egyptian antiquities. It's most visited section would be the treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb. Chariots, gloves, jewellery, the famous mask - many of the antiquities from his tomb are displayed here.
Tutankhamun's tomb contained four gilded shrines nested one inside the other. All four of these shrines are on display in the museum. They are lined up in order of decreasing size. The innermost of these covered a stone sarcophagus which remains in the tomb. Inside the stone sarcophagus were three coffins - the innermost being made of 110 kilograms of solid gold. Inside that lay the pharaoh himself wearing the famous gold mask. Tutankhamun remains in his tomb to this day.
Of course there is much more to see here and so much history, and it is amazing to see how well preserved some of the tools and clothing are. We were also facinated by the animal mummies too, as they were in some ways really weird but intriguing also.
We left the museum and was taken to a flower essence place where an old Egyptian man explained all about how perfumes are made from the same flower essences found here. They smelt just like the real products, but at a fraction of the cost. we bought a pack of them as they would make great gifts too.That afternoon the group visited a street market in Cairo, where were had about an hour or so to explore and barter on what ever we desired. Matt was after a doll for his mum, and also bought a T-shirt and magnet. It was decided that we should buy a sheesha, as they were so incredibly cheap. We bought the deluxe model which only cost 150 Egyptian Pounds, an absolute bargain. The next problem will be shipping it home without the glass base breaking! The photo here shows the amount of choice in a sheesha shop.
Day 9 - Cairo to London
Our last day of the tour was spent at the hotel before we had to check out. The remaining hours left were spent relaxing by the pool, making the most of the hot sun before we went back to cloudy London. We exchanged contact details with many of the tour group and had transfers to the Cairo Airport. Different people in the group flew back home (most of them to London) all at different times, but ours was at 3pm.
It was a long and rather boring wait after checking-in at the airport. Cairo Airport is what you would call, "basic" and having to kill 2 hours there was quite a challenge. A group of us went to McDonald's as Matt is facinated by the differences in the menus around the world. This McD's even had a special wrap-style burger called a McArabia!
Later that evening we arrived back in London at Heathrow Airport, caught the tube home and rested for a few hours before preparing to go back to work the following day.
As expected Matt went crazy with his camera, taking s
hots of nearly everything there was. (At the end of the trip he totaled somewhere near 1000 photos, which were later culled down to 600 or so). We also had the compact digital too, of which Anna took some very cool shots. Highlights of them can be viewed in the photo column at the top right.In summary - a fantastic experience that we would thoroughly recommend, and remember that there is so much more to Egypt that simply the pyramids. So if you get the chance to go, take it, you won't regret it.
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Highgate Cemetery, Richmond Park & Windsor
Highgate Cemetery in North London
12th April 2008
We met up with the Seymour's and secured some cover as the hail past over us and when it was safe we headed off on the tube for our outing to Highgate. Some may think that the Highgate Cemetery is a rather unusual place to visit, but we discovered it on the "Top 10 places to visit in London" lists. Not only are many famous people like Karl Marx buried there, but it is truly a unique experience going there. It is one of the best-known 'garden cemeteries' of the Victorian era. The curving pathways wind between trees and make it a popular place to visit. The cemetery is overrun with plants and trees, and many of the gravestones look like they have been there for centuries. Matt embraced the opportunity to take many photos, some of which turned out great. (You can see some of them on the link on the right side of the blog.)
After visiting the cemetery, we walked back towards central London and discovered Hampstead Heath, which is London's largest ancient parkland, covering 3.2 km² (320 ha; 791 acres). This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, running from Hampstead to Highgate. In the south of Hampstead Heath lies Parliament Hill, which offered pretty decent views of London, although the weather was a bit average. While we were there we saw some cute squirrels, as you will see on the photos.
Deer spotting at Richmond Park
19th April 2008
The following weekend we caught a bus to Richmond Park, which has to be the biggest park we have ever been to. It is a 955 hectare (2,360 acre) urban park near central London, and is Britain's largest urban walled park, as well as the largest of the Royal Parks in London. It is close to Richmond, Ham, Kingston upon Thames, Wimbledon, Roehampton and East Sheen. The park is also famous for its Red and Fallow Deer, although I think we went to the wrong part of it, as we only saw one of them... It was a nice afternoon walk though nonetheless.
A visit to the Royal town of Windsor
26th April 2008
It was a beautiful sunny day for UK and we headed off to catch a train from Paddington Station around 11am. We caught an overground train to Windsor changing trains at Slough and immediately took a liking to the town after getting off the station and walking through the shopping mall, where you are surrounded by the world famous Windsor Castle. We were surprised by how quickly you can walk around Windsor - it's actually not very big.
By the time we had settled in, it was nearing time for lunch, so after a quick look around the main street, we decided the get some lunch at the Crooked House of Windsor... a special little crooked timber-framed building, which is now a gastronomic jewel in Windsor’s crown, serving over 50,000 guests annually.
After lunch we decided that it wouldn't be a trip to Windsor without going inside the Castle. So after a rather boring 45 minutes or so queue we made our way inside. It took a couple of hours to walk through all the amazing rooms inside Windsor Castle, and it was really amazing to see how everything was so well maintained.
Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror. The castle's floor area is approximately 45,000 square metres. Together with Buckingham Palace in London and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, it is one of the principal official residences of the British monarch. Queen Elizabeth II spends many weekends of the year at the castle, using it for both state and private entertaining. Her other two residences, Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle, are the Royal Family's private homes.
As usual, many photos were taken and we even got to annoy a traditional Royal guard and take our photo next to him! You can see some photos on the "Windsor" link on the right side.
Afterwards, we looked through the Lonely Planet guide and walked to a really awesome English pub, where we stopped for a couple of quick pints. People even had their dogs inside too which was a bit strange to us, but since then we've seen quite a few dogs in pubs and other buildings too.
There were many white swans hogging the banks of the River Thames as people were feedings them. We bought a ticket and took a boat ride down the Thames as the sun began to set. It was really relaxing and we're definitely glad we did it. The next stop was a walk across the Thames from Windsor to Eton, a neighbouring town. As it was starting to get late in the day, pretty much everything was beginning to close, but we did manage to walk around quite a bit and get a feel of the place.
After that it was back on the train to London. We ended the day with a quick dinner at home of baked beans on toast.
12th April 2008
We met up with the Seymour's and secured some cover as the hail past over us and when it was safe we headed off on the tube for our outing to Highgate. Some may think that the Highgate Cemetery is a rather unusual place to visit, but we discovered it on the "Top 10 places to visit in London" lists. Not only are many famous people like Karl Marx buried there, but it is truly a unique experience going there. It is one of the best-known 'garden cemeteries' of the Victorian era. The curving pathways wind between trees and make it a popular place to visit. The cemetery is overrun with plants and trees, and many of the gravestones look like they have been there for centuries. Matt embraced the opportunity to take many photos, some of which turned out great. (You can see some of them on the link on the right side of the blog.)
After visiting the cemetery, we walked back towards central London and discovered Hampstead Heath, which is London's largest ancient parkland, covering 3.2 km² (320 ha; 791 acres). This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, running from Hampstead to Highgate. In the south of Hampstead Heath lies Parliament Hill, which offered pretty decent views of London, although the weather was a bit average. While we were there we saw some cute squirrels, as you will see on the photos.
Deer spotting at Richmond Park
19th April 2008
The following weekend we caught a bus to Richmond Park, which has to be the biggest park we have ever been to. It is a 955 hectare (2,360 acre) urban park near central London, and is Britain's largest urban walled park, as well as the largest of the Royal Parks in London. It is close to Richmond, Ham, Kingston upon Thames, Wimbledon, Roehampton and East Sheen. The park is also famous for its Red and Fallow Deer, although I think we went to the wrong part of it, as we only saw one of them... It was a nice afternoon walk though nonetheless.
A visit to the Royal town of Windsor
26th April 2008
It was a beautiful sunny day for UK and we headed off to catch a train from Paddington Station around 11am. We caught an overground train to Windsor changing trains at Slough and immediately took a liking to the town after getting off the station and walking through the shopping mall, where you are surrounded by the world famous Windsor Castle. We were surprised by how quickly you can walk around Windsor - it's actually not very big.
By the time we had settled in, it was nearing time for lunch, so after a quick look around the main street, we decided the get some lunch at the Crooked House of Windsor... a special little crooked timber-framed building, which is now a gastronomic jewel in Windsor’s crown, serving over 50,000 guests annually.
After lunch we decided that it wouldn't be a trip to Windsor without going inside the Castle. So after a rather boring 45 minutes or so queue we made our way inside. It took a couple of hours to walk through all the amazing rooms inside Windsor Castle, and it was really amazing to see how everything was so well maintained.
Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror. The castle's floor area is approximately 45,000 square metres. Together with Buckingham Palace in London and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, it is one of the principal official residences of the British monarch. Queen Elizabeth II spends many weekends of the year at the castle, using it for both state and private entertaining. Her other two residences, Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle, are the Royal Family's private homes.
As usual, many photos were taken and we even got to annoy a traditional Royal guard and take our photo next to him! You can see some photos on the "Windsor" link on the right side.
Afterwards, we looked through the Lonely Planet guide and walked to a really awesome English pub, where we stopped for a couple of quick pints. People even had their dogs inside too which was a bit strange to us, but since then we've seen quite a few dogs in pubs and other buildings too.
There were many white swans hogging the banks of the River Thames as people were feedings them. We bought a ticket and took a boat ride down the Thames as the sun began to set. It was really relaxing and we're definitely glad we did it. The next stop was a walk across the Thames from Windsor to Eton, a neighbouring town. As it was starting to get late in the day, pretty much everything was beginning to close, but we did manage to walk around quite a bit and get a feel of the place.
After that it was back on the train to London. We ended the day with a quick dinner at home of baked beans on toast.
Sunday 27 April 2008
God Save The Queen
Just a super quick blog for those who check regularly. We went out to Windsor on the weekend, and have added some photos - see the link on the right-hand column.
We will write a proper blog soon though…
Don't forget to leave your comments, we love hearing from everyone!
Tuesday 1 April 2008
Blog, blog, blog, blah, blah, blah
So what have we been up to lately? Seems like so much has happened, so this might take a while.
What happened over Easter then? We decided that we'd stay in London after researching our Easter travel options, as it was going to cost a fortune, and the weather was going to be terrible too. It turned out that Matt got the flu (again) for the first couple of days, but this didn't stop us getting out and about.
Over the Easter weekend we visited a few more London sights including the Bank of England, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern. Not to mention that Easter Monday brought the first sign of London snow. Logically, you would expect it to snow in winter not spring, however this is London after all.
Last week was quite a busy one both at work and socially, as we went to three theatre productions in 7 days. The first was Stomp - a performance that uses the body and ordinary objects to create percussive physical theatre. Then Anna scored some bargain half-price tickets to see Chicago on Wednesday, which Matt surprisingly enjoyed. The seats were 6 rows back, and the live music and performance was very entertaining. Last Saturday we watched a high energy dance theatre called Into The Hoods, as Anna got 50% off tickets on lastminute.com.
We bought tickets for the O2 Wireless music festival at Hyde Park which is held over 4 days from the 3rd to the 6th of July. We are going to the Saturday and Sunday shows. Saturday has Fatboy Slim and Underworld, while a change of pace on Sunday with Counting Crows, Ben Harper, Powderfinger and Donavon Frankenreiter.
After spending an hour or so last Monday night attempting to buy tickets for the Reading Festival and thinking that they were all sold out, Matt was ecstatic to discover that he could buy some today. Metallica are headlining the Sunday shows, and it was one of his goals to witness the glory of another Metallica thrash session...
While we are on the topic of festivals, the grand-daddy of all festivals went on sale this Sunday morning, 9am GMT - the Glastonbury Festival held at Worthy Farm on 27th, 28th and 29th June. Working together in teams, Operation Worthy Farm was headed up by Jay Edmondson, and proved to be a huge success as we all managed to get through (eventually) and bought tickets! Awesome!! Well done to all of those involved.
So as you can see, we have been very good at spending money. So much so that Matt was down to £58 in the bank, and Anna was down to £46. But now we're back in saving mode as we need to prepare for our 3 month travel extravaganza in September to the end of November when we return home.
Some more exciting travel news, is that we have booked in 2 holidays for May. The first is a 9 day discovery through Egypt, starting at Cario, we work our way south to Abu Simbel, spending 2 days on a felucca. Also, we are meeting up with a group of friends in Barcelona and spending a few days with them as they will be traveling through Europe.
Anna finished working at Tower Hamlets Friday week ago and is now working for Hackney Social Services as a JARP co-ordinator. She is really hating the distance as its taking around 2 or more hours one-way each day. She's in the process of looking for something more convenient, let's hope she gets a new job much closer to home.
Last weekend was the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, which conveniently starts at Putney Bridge. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible, but the crowd still came out in their 1000's and lined the banks of the Thames down to the finish at Chiswick Bridge. After the start, we rushed back home to catch the end on the tele.
The next day we caught the tube over to North Greenwich, where we saw The O2 Arena, aka the Millennium Dome. A massive dome structure which is a popular venue for big artists, complete with its own mini-shopping district inside the dome.
The main purpose of our trip east was to visit Greenwich Park and see where the prime meridian line where longitude is defined as 0.
Greenwich Park is the oldest enclosed Royal Park. Situated on top of a hill, we enjoyed views across the River Thames and The O2. The main highlight was probably seeing so many squirrels all in one place. They came out in great numbers, being encouraged my people feeding them peanuts, which made for some amazing photo opportunities. Things were'nt helped by the dogs that kept chasing after them!
This weekend we went for a walk through the crazy punk-territory of Camden and checked out the markets there. We were rained out, but still enjoyed the unusual shops and surroundings. No doubt we'll return on a day when the sun is out.
What happened over Easter then? We decided that we'd stay in London after researching our Easter travel options, as it was going to cost a fortune, and the weather was going to be terrible too. It turned out that Matt got the flu (again) for the first couple of days, but this didn't stop us getting out and about.
Over the Easter weekend we visited a few more London sights including the Bank of England, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern. Not to mention that Easter Monday brought the first sign of London snow. Logically, you would expect it to snow in winter not spring, however this is London after all.
Last week was quite a busy one both at work and socially, as we went to three theatre productions in 7 days. The first was Stomp - a performance that uses the body and ordinary objects to create percussive physical theatre. Then Anna scored some bargain half-price tickets to see Chicago on Wednesday, which Matt surprisingly enjoyed. The seats were 6 rows back, and the live music and performance was very entertaining. Last Saturday we watched a high energy dance theatre called Into The Hoods, as Anna got 50% off tickets on lastminute.com.
We bought tickets for the O2 Wireless music festival at Hyde Park which is held over 4 days from the 3rd to the 6th of July. We are going to the Saturday and Sunday shows. Saturday has Fatboy Slim and Underworld, while a change of pace on Sunday with Counting Crows, Ben Harper, Powderfinger and Donavon Frankenreiter.
After spending an hour or so last Monday night attempting to buy tickets for the Reading Festival and thinking that they were all sold out, Matt was ecstatic to discover that he could buy some today. Metallica are headlining the Sunday shows, and it was one of his goals to witness the glory of another Metallica thrash session...
While we are on the topic of festivals, the grand-daddy of all festivals went on sale this Sunday morning, 9am GMT - the Glastonbury Festival held at Worthy Farm on 27th, 28th and 29th June. Working together in teams, Operation Worthy Farm was headed up by Jay Edmondson, and proved to be a huge success as we all managed to get through (eventually) and bought tickets! Awesome!! Well done to all of those involved.
So as you can see, we have been very good at spending money. So much so that Matt was down to £58 in the bank, and Anna was down to £46. But now we're back in saving mode as we need to prepare for our 3 month travel extravaganza in September to the end of November when we return home.
Some more exciting travel news, is that we have booked in 2 holidays for May. The first is a 9 day discovery through Egypt, starting at Cario, we work our way south to Abu Simbel, spending 2 days on a felucca. Also, we are meeting up with a group of friends in Barcelona and spending a few days with them as they will be traveling through Europe.
Anna finished working at Tower Hamlets Friday week ago and is now working for Hackney Social Services as a JARP co-ordinator. She is really hating the distance as its taking around 2 or more hours one-way each day. She's in the process of looking for something more convenient, let's hope she gets a new job much closer to home.
Last weekend was the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, which conveniently starts at Putney Bridge. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible, but the crowd still came out in their 1000's and lined the banks of the Thames down to the finish at Chiswick Bridge. After the start, we rushed back home to catch the end on the tele.
The next day we caught the tube over to North Greenwich, where we saw The O2 Arena, aka the Millennium Dome. A massive dome structure which is a popular venue for big artists, complete with its own mini-shopping district inside the dome.
The main purpose of our trip east was to visit Greenwich Park and see where the prime meridian line where longitude is defined as 0.
Greenwich Park is the oldest enclosed Royal Park. Situated on top of a hill, we enjoyed views across the River Thames and The O2. The main highlight was probably seeing so many squirrels all in one place. They came out in great numbers, being encouraged my people feeding them peanuts, which made for some amazing photo opportunities. Things were'nt helped by the dogs that kept chasing after them!
This weekend we went for a walk through the crazy punk-territory of Camden and checked out the markets there. We were rained out, but still enjoyed the unusual shops and surroundings. No doubt we'll return on a day when the sun is out.Friday 21 March 2008
Go the Spurs!
Last Wednesday we went to White Hart Lane see Tottenham play Chelsea in the football. Was a cracking match, ended up finishing in a 4 all draw! We sat with the hard-core Hotspurs fans, right next to the Chelsea supporters, which made for an entertaining crowd.
Check out the video on YouTube below and enjoy the chanting!
Check out the video on YouTube below and enjoy the chanting!
Friday 14 March 2008
Photo update
I've come across a great way to show you all our photos - using Google's Picasa Web Albums. We are able to store tonnes of photos on it and allows you to view them as a slideshow, or you can click on the thumbnails and zoom in per photo.
I've set up links to each of the different albums, which can be found in the top right-hand column.
Enjoy!
-Matt
I've set up links to each of the different albums, which can be found in the top right-hand column.
Enjoy!
-Matt
Saturday 8 March 2008
New home away from home
Back to the blog...
Since our last entry we have been quite busy, mainly with work though. Last week was very busy for both of us and we hardly saw much of each other at all, with a few late nights at work. Plus on top of work, we made the move to our new home in Fulham!
Around a month ago we gave notice to our old place and found a share apartment located quite close to Matt's work. We moved in last Saturday and Sunday, splitting up the chore of carting all of our accumulated belongings across London. Taking 1 hour and 15 minutes just one way from north to south-west, it was a painful journey that hopefully we won't be doing again. It's funny how much extra stuff you can build up in just 2 months! So here we are, sharing an apartment on Fulham High Street with an Irish couple, who are just great to live with. Now that we are living here, we have high expectations to improve our social life.
You can click here to see where we're living on Google Maps.
Matt now can walk to work in around 20 minutes which is great, but if he's feeling lazy there is a bus stop just across the road, which takes him to work. We are just located near Putney Bridge, which leads onto Putney High Street, filled with all kinds of retail shops and supermarkets. Very convenient! Other bonuses here are that we have Sky TV and super kick ass broadband - Matt absolutely loves it!
Putney BridgeMatt has made another exciting purchase, a Nikon D40 digital SLR camera, as he is keen to get more out of his photography while we are traveling. Its a great entry level camera that has just come down in price too, making it even more of a great purchase. He is still stuck in the learning stage though, but the possibilities are endless. (Note: that these photos were not taken with his new camera).
Two weekends ago, we scored some "half-price" theatre tickets down at Leicester Square for the production called Avenue Q, which has been running here for about 3 years. It's a comedy musical which cleverly involves the use of puppets blended with human actors. Was really great, and we're going to make sure that we see even more shows as there are just so many productions running here.
Outside of Avenue Q
We have been attending a couple of Expo's lately. Matt got free tickets thru work to attend the Wedding Expo at Olympia. We watched a stunning fashion show full of amazing and strange dresses. Anna was walking around picking up various brochures while Matt was quite bored throughout the whole thing. We managed to score some free chocolate too, bonus. The other Expo we went to was a free TNT Travel Show, attending a couple of seminars, where we got some great ideas to travel through Turkey and Egypt. Hopefully we will get a good deal. Anna went to a dance expo on Sunday while Matt spent the afternoon taking photos around Westminster in the freezing cold with fellow Aussies, Daniel's x2.
Friday 15 February 2008
"You all right, yeh?"
It has been a while since the last entry, nearly a month now... so lets get back up to speed.
Australia Day was a really great day/night out for both of us, hanging out with some familiar Aussie faces and meeting new ones, while drinking several pints of beer and snake-bites! Things did get fairly messy though in traditional Aussie style! For those of you who missed it, Matt posted a video on YouTube, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1kES362tOs
Matt has started working full-time now, after doing a bit of freelance work from home before starting at Whippet, located in south-west London and no where near where we are living. This takes us to our next bit of exciting news - we are moving! It's just wasn't working for us living where we are now, which is basically the other side of the city from work, friends and a good social life. It is taking Matt anything from 1 and a quarter hours, up to 2 hours to get between work and home, not too good. So for the past 2 months really, we have been in search for a new place to move into. It's been such an annoying task really, as there are so many factors involved in finding the right place - like location, price, moving date, facilities, how many people living there etc etc. We gave 1 month's notice for our current place and fortunately the moving in date for the new flat is one day before our current lease runs out. Nice. So, we are moving to Fulham High St, which is just over Putney Bridge and 20 minutes walk from Matt's work (no more expensive £28 weekly travelcards for him). Anna will be able to catch one tube to work instead of a bus, train, tube and a further 10 minute walk to her work.
HMS Belfast
We have adjusted to every day life now and the weeks are starting to fly by, but we are still making the most of our weekends. Each weekend we are exploring all the different areas of London, which is all a bit touristy, but still really interesting. We have been to Portobello Road Market, the National History Museum and the Museum of Childhood. The other week we went to the Borough Markets which is near London Bridge, which was a really great place to see and buy fresh food. So many people though and the best chorizo we have ever had (Anna queued up for well over 30 mins to get some, but it was definitely worth it). Still want to get over to Canary Wharf and see the "new" side of London, where you find high-rise buildings and can get some great retail therapy too.
Museum of Childhood contains many toys from Star Wars to He-man
Borough Market
Last weekend was Chinese New Year, so we headed into China Town to see the parade, 1000's of other people and some spectacular fireworks displays. It was a good day out with fellow Aussies Daniel and Anthony.
China Town
We both enjoyed a lovely meal in Clapham at a French restaurant for Valentine's Day. Wasn't the cheapest meal we have had (in fact it was the most expensive one), but certainly the best tasting food we've had since leaving home.
This weekend we are going to try and get some cheap theatre tickets from Leicester Square, so fingers crossed we can get something decent, although I'm sure what ever we see should be a great experience…
Matt is really excited about his recent ebay purchase...a new guitar at a bargain price of £36 delivered.
Until next time, stay tuned for the next blog....
Australia Day was a really great day/night out for both of us, hanging out with some familiar Aussie faces and meeting new ones, while drinking several pints of beer and snake-bites! Things did get fairly messy though in traditional Aussie style! For those of you who missed it, Matt posted a video on YouTube, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1kES362tOs
Matt has started working full-time now, after doing a bit of freelance work from home before starting at Whippet, located in south-west London and no where near where we are living. This takes us to our next bit of exciting news - we are moving! It's just wasn't working for us living where we are now, which is basically the other side of the city from work, friends and a good social life. It is taking Matt anything from 1 and a quarter hours, up to 2 hours to get between work and home, not too good. So for the past 2 months really, we have been in search for a new place to move into. It's been such an annoying task really, as there are so many factors involved in finding the right place - like location, price, moving date, facilities, how many people living there etc etc. We gave 1 month's notice for our current place and fortunately the moving in date for the new flat is one day before our current lease runs out. Nice. So, we are moving to Fulham High St, which is just over Putney Bridge and 20 minutes walk from Matt's work (no more expensive £28 weekly travelcards for him). Anna will be able to catch one tube to work instead of a bus, train, tube and a further 10 minute walk to her work.
HMS BelfastWe have adjusted to every day life now and the weeks are starting to fly by, but we are still making the most of our weekends. Each weekend we are exploring all the different areas of London, which is all a bit touristy, but still really interesting. We have been to Portobello Road Market, the National History Museum and the Museum of Childhood. The other week we went to the Borough Markets which is near London Bridge, which was a really great place to see and buy fresh food. So many people though and the best chorizo we have ever had (Anna queued up for well over 30 mins to get some, but it was definitely worth it). Still want to get over to Canary Wharf and see the "new" side of London, where you find high-rise buildings and can get some great retail therapy too.
Museum of Childhood contains many toys from Star Wars to He-man
Borough MarketLast weekend was Chinese New Year, so we headed into China Town to see the parade, 1000's of other people and some spectacular fireworks displays. It was a good day out with fellow Aussies Daniel and Anthony.
China TownWe both enjoyed a lovely meal in Clapham at a French restaurant for Valentine's Day. Wasn't the cheapest meal we have had (in fact it was the most expensive one), but certainly the best tasting food we've had since leaving home.
This weekend we are going to try and get some cheap theatre tickets from Leicester Square, so fingers crossed we can get something decent, although I'm sure what ever we see should be a great experience…
Matt is really excited about his recent ebay purchase...a new guitar at a bargain price of £36 delivered.
Until next time, stay tuned for the next blog....
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