Day 26 - Our last day in Paris

As we had to check out by 10am we were up early to try to pack all our goodies into our suitcases and bags. We had no idea how much they weigh, but hoped that the suitcases would weigh no more than 46kg combined. My suitcase is half full of books! We also managed a quick breakfast, before we struggled with our bags to the train station.

After we had stored our bags in a locker at the main train station we did a practice run of the route to the airport train from the lockers. It might sound silly but it was actually a good idea because the train station was so big, and a lift and an escalator we needed were not working!

With that sorted we headed off to Montmartre the home of the beautiful domed church Sacre Coeur that we could see from our hotel. When we arrived we tried to take photos and were harassed by about 20 street venders grabbing at our hands trying to make friendship bracelets to sell us! It was hot again, so we caught the funicular up the hill. Up the hill there were more street venders selling bags and eiffel tower key rings. Then the police came and they were off like a flash, picking up their wares in a blanket with strings. It was amusing to watch.

When we went into Sacre Coeur it was time for mass. We sat for a while watching the priests do their thing and the nuns singing. Later when we were looking around the church we saw the congregation taking communion. Interesting. The church itself is more spectacular on the outside than the inside, but there is a huge mosaic of Jesus and some other nice mosaics.

We investigated going to the top of the church, but there was no lift. It was only 300 stairs, but we were already sweating just from being outside in the heat!

We moved on to the artists area of Montmartre. They are all very friendly trying to get you to stop and have your picture drawn. Lucky I was there, because Stef would have stopped at them all and come home with 50 pictures! We looked around all the artists and them chose the one who had the best picture. Stef went first, while I had a look around at the cafes and other artwork, then we swapped. We were pretty impressed with the end result. Check it out for yourself, but please excuse the blurry picture.

After our picture was drawn we chose one of the many cafes for lunch, randomly, because they all had pretty much the same food. Stef had a toasted sandwich that had the cheese on the top and grilled - genius. She wasn't that satisfied but I really liked it, will have to try at home. I had a salmon, shrimp, kiwi fruit and grapefruit salad, which was very yum.

Stef was getting a bit ancy at lunch, worrying that I was going to make us miss the plane on purpose so we wouldn't have to go home!

We wandered around Montmartre, which is a beautiful area for wandering, with cobbled streets and pretty houses. We found the Montmartre cemetery, with little house like tombs on top of each grave. We carried on until we got to the Moulin Rouge. By this time Stef was really ancy (it was about 2.30pm and our plane leaves at 9pm), so we took a few quick photos and hopped on the metro back to the main train station to grab our bags and head to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport it was 4.30pm (we had coffee at the main train station) and the flight attendants told us we couldn't check in until 6pm... so we sat in the check in area, and Stef caught up on her diary.

When it was finally 6pm we queued to check in. It took about 30 mins before we were at the front of the queue, and the whole time Stef was nervous about our bags! My bag was 27.5kgs and Stefs was 23.7kgs. Excluding our two extra carry on bags, we have an extra 24.7 kgs in our checked luggage alone! Hope it doesn't cost too much to post all the goodies home to Invercargill - those big Eiffel towers were quite heavy!

Luckily the lovely French man put our bags on, after a moment of hesitation where Stef and I just looked at each other and held our breaths.

Au Revior, Europe. New Zealand we are looking forward to seeing you in 25 hours.


Photos:

Us at bottom of Montmartre hill
Stef getting drawn
Our artist and our drawing
Stef at Montmartre
Us at Moulin Rouge
Waiting to check in at airport

Day 25 - Paris Museums!!

This morning I promised Stef a visit to four museums, and she was so excited she could hardly contain herself! We started the day of well, I spilled my coffee on myself - luckily Stef was nice enough to share with me.

Our first museum was the Louvre; we arrived around 9:30 and I told Stef to expect to be here until around 2pm, she was so happy! We were able to get in very easily with our pre-purchased tickets, which was great. We headed first the the Mona Lisa, which was already busy. Unfortunately as you have to stand so far away from her you cant fully appreciate her beauty.

We decided to hunt down the art pictured on the museum map, about 20 pieces in total. We managed to see all apart from 2-3 which were on loan to other museums. We saw sculptures, paintings, napoleons apartments and the remains of the original palace on the site. We also saw heaps of the other artwork (and more egyptian stuff) as the pieces we were hunting were all over the museum. In general we concluded that painters really liked to paint naked women and Jesus, and sculptures liked to sculpt naked men.

Stef's favorite thing at the Louvre was ... leaving. Just kidding, she really liked the Napoleons apartments. I really liked the statue with wings and no head.

During our hunt for the art we had to go up and down about a million flights of stairs, and walked at least 10km!

When we finished at the Louvre, we walked to a nearby bridge, one of the two in Paris that people have covered with padlocks representing their love (or just that they had been to Paris maybe?). We had been forewarned of this and came prepared with a padlocked engraved with our names, 20-05-04 and 20-02-2010. We placed it on the bridge and hopefully it will still be there if we are lucky enough to return to Paris in the future.

Our next museum was the Musee l'Orangerie. This museum has 8 huge paintings of the water lillies by Monet. They are beautiful paintings and painted in such deep rich colours. I especially liked that they were kept in an air conditioned room! At this museum we also saw paintings by a number of other impressionists including Renoir, as well as some paintings by Picasso.

As this museum is located in the Tuilleries gardens we felt it was compulsory to stop in one of the cafes for afternoon tea - crepes of course. This time topped with chocolate cream sauce, mmm. I love the rows of shady trees in this garden.

As it was getting late we decided to skip the third museum (Musee d'Orsay). I had been before, and, well, Stef isn't the biggest fan of museums or art. Our last museum for the day was the Musee Rodin. You may have heard of Rodin's sculpture, the thinker. If not check out the picture. This museum was a bargain, only €1 to enter the garden area, where many of the sculptures were, including the thinker, and we got to use the toilets for free.

In this garden we also found the sculptures that inspired Beyonce's single ladies dance. See the picture and decide for yourself. I hope the museum gets royalties!

As we had to go via the Champs Elyses to get to our next destination, we decided to drop in to Laduree again for some more delicious macaroons. We also found an Adidas shop with French rugby jerseys for Stef.

As it was our last dinner in Paris (and our last real dinner in Europe) we decided to go to the Latin Quarter. We were pretty hungry so chose the first decent looking French restaurant. Stef ordered snails... they were surprisingly delicios and much better than what we imagined(I though they would be like leather and stef thought they would squirt juices). They tasted like what they were cooked in - butter and garlic. The texture was kind of like mussels, but less chewy. I would definitely recommend trying them if you get the chance to. The rest of our dinner was delicious, and we even had some entertaining street performers come along while we were dining. And two free coffees thrown in for good measure too.
Altogether a great last night!

Tomorrow we have to check out and lug our bags to the train station to store them for the day. We are then going to explore Montmarte where artists (stef is soooo excited) and the moulin rouge are, before heading to the airport to catch our flights home. Stef is really looking forward to her cups of teas, newspapers and magazines (in English!) and watching sport. I have been so busy I don't really miss things from home (just people), but I cannot wait to get into my bed!!

See you soon!

- Heidi xx

Photos:

- Stef trying to use the snail tongs
- "Single Ladies" sculpture
- Stef trying the snail
- Our padlock
- In the shade in the Tuilleries garden
- Stef and the Mona Lisa
- Stef on the lock bridge
- Me with Rodin's thinker
- Me in the original Louvre
- Stef in Napoleon's apartments

Day 24 - Paris: Versailles

Bonjour te whanau. Kei te pouri au! (u like that acknowledgment to Maori language week...couldn't remember the word for sick!!lol)
Throat swollen and growing bacteria but have to keep going!! Suck it up and on w the show!!

Off to Versailles today. Bit of a mish to get there...like four trains and an hour later we arrived!

OMG WHAT A PLACE! Far out, I have not seen anything like it! Tad extreme and egotistical for the time period I feel.

Anyway....we thought we were all special and cool having pre purchased our tickets. We rock up and there this massive line snaking through the cobbled courtyard! "stink for u lot lining up for tickets in the scorching sun!" I was thinking to myself. We just going to flash ours to security and in we go........lol

Turns out, not quite. Down down down we walk to the end of the snaking line. and join it!! So much for pre purchasing ... Maybe we have more luck At the louvre tomorrow!! Wasn't all bad tho - added to the tan (cos it summer over here smithy!), re filled the drink bottle and listened to riviting Americans go on and on about acronyms used in speech now a days...

Line moved quite fast and we were allowed in. People for Africa inside too. We grabbed our audio guide then I went to the loo. Now this was an experience! Cleaning lady decided to mop the toilet floor so she barricaded off the area that held 8 toilets and we could only use three. I was number 23 in the que!! Finally wen it was my turn the toilet had no seat!! Is this normal?? At least this helped me to reaffirm my dislike for public toilets!

While I was having my experience H was having her very own. She grabbed a map and this very helpful man gave her a copy of a booklet for the porcelain china section of the palace. Wasn't til she looked at it more closely that she read ".....for children between 7-12 only. " A compliment perhaps?? Hehe hehe hehe

The palace insides were mind blowing. Flash as and beautiful. How people lived like this I have no idea. Didn't they ever just wana hang out in shorts and a t shirt or even their pjs. Their clothes were humongous and man they must have roasted in summer.

I must apologise here as I am not one for all the fact and figure remembering like Hs blog entries! Reading all the info charts is boring and I sometimes tune out wen the audio guide goes on and on about stuff cos I tend to people watch "I wonder where those two are from ?" .... "really, jeans on a day like today?!" ... "don't u want to tie ur long hair up to keep u cooler?!" etc etc
BUT I do remember something.....
One of the kings decided that they were the king and queen of the people , so the people should be able to see them being like normal people. People would cram in to watch the king and queen eat their dinner at times and people could even watch the king and queen getting dressed!! Weird much.

Had a good nosy thru the palace along with the population of invercargill before grabbing a bite to eat and exploring the vast garden area! French baguettes filled w salmon for H and chicken for me were washed down w water before dessert of delicious macaroons! Spoilt much!! Sat in the shade in the dirt as we were starving! Funny thing is if we had kept walking a bit further there was a grass strip and benches! Too funny!

We walked down past amazing gardens with well looked after plants and well manicured hedges and trees. Old nana gray-holland was happily snapping away at flowers and bushes. I thought only old people liked that sort of thing but apparently not! Lol

We came to the most amazing pond/lake area u have ever seen! A ginormous water fountain sprouted in the first pond and beyond it was a part where u could rent lil row boats! H was all keen for that but not me! I remember all too well her reassuring words " oh I wont tip u off this jet ski....jet skis are safe as, we won't tip out!" in another water related activity in the past!!!

We settled for hiring bikes to explore Marie Antoinette's whare and the huge gardens! Had to wait a bit for a bike lock to be returned but then we were free to ride ride ride!

The size of this place would probably be the equivalent to &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
It's huge and so the bikes were a great idea!!

The whares were beautiful .... Again I apologise as I do not have any facts or figures to share u with u although I can say... Didn't these ppl get sick of living in a room where everything is the same in ur face colour? Wouldn't want to drink too much and come home to that!!

Continued our ride and had heaps of fun. Stopped for a rest (40 winks) beside the furtherest away pond/lake.
Woken by an annoying American like two hundred meters away singing "u don't no ur beautiful, nah nah nah na na nah" over and over again!! Lol-no jokes, for like ten minutes!!

Returned our cool az bikes and grabbed a refreshing ice cream before sitting in the grass to watch the world go by. Aghhhh so relaxing!! Hehe

Left the beautiful palace of Versailles about 6ish. Grabbed a bite to eat on the way back to the train station as well as some ....cough cough .... Souvenirs! Lol.

Caught only three trains back to our hotel this time - still took an hour lol

What an awesome day! Paris u really are putting on a splendid show for us!
Keep the beautiful weather coming please!!

Thank u mrs jeffares for writing on the blog! Ur comments make me laugh!! I really do believe that ur extraordinary ict skills would be maximized on the ict team.....just putting it out there!! Hehe

Dad- how are u? Haven't heard from u in awhile and I've sent u a few emails but no response?? Don't make me worry!! Xoxo

Hope the rest of u r all fit and well . Keep smiling - its nearly the end of week two!! Whop whop!!

Xoxo
Stef

Day 23 - Paris: to queue or not to queue

First on our agenda today was a visit to the towers of Notre Dame to see the gargoyles and Quasimodo's bell. We are a bit jaded, so had a sleep in and arrived at Notre Dame at 9.50am, with the tours due to open at 10am. The sign at the beginning of the queue said they let in 20 people every 10 minutes. As we walked down the queue I counted... 240 people. By my calculations that makes 2 hours, so we decided to move on.

We look around the nearby island, our boat tour guide informed us the houses were all built in the 18th C and they have been looked after well. We found one of the many bridges of padlocks, one side was so full people were putting there padlocks on other people padlocks. From there we could see Notre Dame and it was on fire! Well there was smoke pouring out one side of it, but we couldn't see or hear any fire engines...

We walked up the hill to the Panthoen, a big secular church built after the reformation of France where they overthrew the King. Inside was a pendulum that proved the earth revolves around the sun. It also tells the time. The hours 1 - 24 are written in a circle on the ground, the pendulum hangs on a string from the ceiling, and at any time it will be swinging towards the correct time on the ground, with neither the numbers or the pendulum being moved at all!

Also in this church were the tombs of many dead people that represent freedom and science, notably Marie Curie (won a Nobel prize) and Victor Hugo. We don't have any iPhone pics at this church!

Just outside the Pantheon we stopped at a cafe for morning tea. We had crepes with caramel ice cream, whipped cream and salted butter caramel sauce. They were delicious, or better than delicious, I just can't think of a better word! Salted butter caramel is amazing!

After our crepes we wandered down to another garden - the Luxumberg garden. It was very hot so we sat in the shade for a while. There were many people sitting in the sun sunbathing, but we were way to hot for that. The gardens were very pretty, but we couldn't stay there all day so we decided to go to the Catacombs.

We arrived at the Catacombs at 2pm to another very long line. An employee told us that the line was over 2 hours long and that even if we waited we might not get in because they close at 4! Needless to say we did not wait.

Remembering the queues for the louvre, I decided to try to find a ticket agent to buy tickets in advance. We found this at a shopping mall and also purchased our tickets to Versailles. Whew, we will get to go into some attractions here in Paris lol!

We wandered around some more Paris streets, soaking up the atmosphere and admiring the architecture, until we came to the ugliest building in Paris. It is called the Pompidou centre and it should not have been allowed to have been built. Outside this we stopped to rest and watch some amazing street performers do stunts that were worthy of being in the circus.

Our last stop for the day was Opera. We saw the beautiful Opera house and visited galleries lafayette, a seven story department store. We purchased some salted butter caramel lollies, mmm. The store also had a top floor that gave beautiful views. We headed home around 7pm as Stef has infected tonsils. So im guessing tonsilitis. If anyone can express post some antibiotics that would be great!

Only a couple of photos today because Stef was sick :(

1. View from galleries lafayette
2. Inside galleries Lafayette
3. Our salted butter caramel crepes

Day 22 - Paris Highlights Walking Tour

Last night we arrived in Paris around 9.30pm and managed to lug our bags and suitcases up flights of stairs and through tight gates on the metro to get to our hotel. The lady at the reception does not speak english, so checking in was fun. Thank goodness the hotel has an elevator because we are on the 6th floor!

We are so happy to have a room to ourselves. This is the first time we have since leaving vienna around 17 days ago. We also have a tv - luxury. I watched private practice in French with French subtitles. This morning we had to give our key back to the receptionist, which was weird.

We caught the metro to the island in the middle of the Seine (the Paris river) and found our way to Notre Dame. It was quite busy with tourists but the queue to get into the church was moving quick so it only took us around 10 mins to get in. The church is very dimly lit and has beautiful stained glass windows.

When we came out I had a delicious crepe, with strawberry filling. It was as good, if not better, than the crepes in Dunedin. We had a look around he souvenir shops but did not buy anything - perhaps dragging even more stuff on the metro to get to the airport is putting us off! We did not go up the Notre Dame tower as we plan to do that tomorrow.

We then wandered down the road towards the Louvre, stopping to take pictures here and there of monuments and beautiful buildings. Part of the way we were walking along the banks of the Seine and saw a makeshift beach with people sunbathing!

We had a rest at the Louvre and sat just appreciating the impressive and gorgeous architecture of the building - and people watching. We saw army(?) men with automatic guns walking around, which was intimidating. We took the compulsory picture of the glass pyramid and fountains, them moved on to the Tuillaries Gardens.

The gardens run down from the Louvre and have two ponds, many flowers and large shady trees. One one side is a fair type amusement park where I used the toilet. We then found a kebab shop and had huge focaccia-like bread filled with kebab chicken.

At the end of the gardens is the place de la Concorde with a large obelisk covered in hieroglyphs, and then the beginning of the Champs Ellyses, a beautiful, tree lined street filled with high end shops. Part way down this street we saw people queuing to go into Abercrombie and Fitch. There were even car sales yards inside shops. We stopped at Laduree which sells macaroons (not the coconut biscuits covered in chocolate). Dad had recommended it so we though we had better try some - they were delicious! Unfortunately very fragile so we could not get any to bring home.

At the end of the Champs Elyses we found the Arch du Triomphe. There was a bit if a queue for tickets (10 minutes), so I bought the tickets while Stef had a look around the base of the arch. We climbed the stairs - not too many - and had a view of the crazy drivers in Paris!

To save our legs we caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We found a park near the tower and had a snooze in the shade of the trees. Feeling refreshed we went to find the tower entrance. There were thousands of people in the queue for tickets and the line was moving very slowly. I thought it would be at least two hours to get to the front. Only one of the lifts was operating!

We had a two flavoured ice cream to cool down - its very hot again - and decided to go on a river cruise. The cruise took and hour and had commentary about the sights we were passing. We saw heaps of beautiful buildings, and saw some of the buildings and had a different view of some of the monuments we had passed on foot.

At the end of the cruise we were dropped of at the Eiffel Tower and we decided to take the stairs option. The queue was still about 10 minutes and the sign said it was about 20 minutes of stairs. We could still take the lift from the 2nd floor which was great. In total it was 671 stairs to the 2nd floor! Luckily the first floor was about half way and it was a good excuse to rest on our way up.

When we finally reached the top of the Eiffel tower, it was a bit nerve wracking. The tower was shaking and shuddering. It was built 123 years ago!! And it is pretty far off the ground, with no real capacity for emergency exit. But the views were amazing and totally worth climbing all those stairs. We could see to the edges of the city and beyond. The arch du Triomphe which had looked massive was now a tiny play toy.

It was around 9pm and still quite light at this stage. We had not had dinner because the light tricks you into thinking its not that late. We tried to find somewhere to eat, but the restaurants up the tower required bookings. We found our way down and bought stodgy overpriced food off a nearby street vender.

-Heidi xx

Photos:

Relaxing at the Eiffel Tower
The Louvre
Pyramids at the Louvre
Stef up the Eiffel Tower (spot the shadow)
Arch du Triomphe
Seine river cruise
Eiffel tower shoes (sorry Helen they don't sell them any more)
Yum licorice macaroon
View from top of Eiffel tower
Me on the Arch du Triomphe looking up the Champs Elyses
On our way to Notre Dame
Sitting at the river for dinner

Day 21 - London: British Museum & Twickenham

Today woke up feeling really crook - throat sore, head pounding and my ears hurt too ... Sad sad face!! Would loved to have slept in for longer but we are in london people and it's our last day!

Sucked it up and off we went! Had 2 wrestle with our heavy, oversized bags (6 altogether) down 6 flights of tiny London stairs as this hostel doesn't have a lift! Lol...no injuries to report just to say that it is sooooo much easier to go down then up!

Dropped four of our six bags off at the train station before tubing it to the British Museum. Very cool building aesthetically ... Inside it is humongous. As we were on a tight time schedule we decided to look for the top ten things the museum had to offer...as the map suggested ... We didnt make it up!!

We were lucky enough to see the gold medals the Olympians will be awarded - I enjoyed that... Other than that we strolled thru the museum on a mission. I thought it would be a great place to take ur class on a field trip. Give them a map with the things they need to find and a camera to prove they found it and away they go... Would keep them entertained for hours...leaving the teachers free to .... ( il let u fill in the rest ; ) hehe

Seen some cool things ... Heidi said they were so I guess they must have been:

- a stone from back in the day that tells us how to decipher another language??
- plenty of mummies and their tombs
- lots of old jars and clay pots ( fun times)
- and the stone friezes from the real parthenon in Greece ( H said "ud b real angry if u were a Greek " and this man overheard her and he said " we are" )

Finally that was done with and we could move on to more exciting things ....Twickenham !!

Caught a tube n an overground train out there and walked ten minutes and ta da we were there!! Had a very cool shop to browse in before our tour started. Sadly the tour was a tad biy disappointing - our guide was a tired old man who was boring and then to top it off there was no grass because they had ripped it all up to re sow and fix the drainage in time for the rugby world cup in 2015. In a more positive manner we got to sit in the royal box and pretend we were cool ( while looking at a big rectangle of dirt ...lol)
It's a beauty of a stadium with not a bad seat anywhere - they even have a hotel attached where u can book a room that looks out onto the field-how awesome would that be on game day!! I'd be down for that and it only costs twelve thousand pounds - bargain lol.

Visited the supposed "world rugby museum" next and again was disappointed-our one in palmy north is way more 'worldly' than this one!! A lot of olden day stuff ... Boring!! No cool memorabilia or signed pics etc sad face!!

So that was our day! Hung out at st Pancras station til it was time to board the Eurostar! Got a stamp In my passport on a whole diff page for once so that made me smile!!

Looking forward to Paris ... Hope u r all well! Stink about the warriors...where does that leave us on the table now? Oh and please please please can someone or all of u record the opening ceremony of th Olympic games for us plz plz........



- Stef xoxo

Photos:

Me at Twickenham
Me with our train to Paris at St Pancras station in London
Me with ancient Greek discus thrower at British Museum
Me at Twickenham with English Rose

Day 20 - London: Westminister

Our adventures on day 20 saw us exploring the Westminster side of the city... Or as our Thames cruise guide called it, the place with the people who spend the money.

Our first stop was Westminster Abbey. It was already open when we arrived (despite us being there 20 mins before the guide book said it opened) and we received a free audio guide which was great. It was special to see the place where we watched Prince William and Kate get married. Because of the way the church is laid out, Pretty much the only people that would have been directly able to see them directly would have been members of there families. We also noted that the "room" they went into during the ceremony was not a room, just a wall with doors.

Unlike many of the other great cathedrals we have been in, Westminster has been a lot more worn down, perhaps as it is older. Many of the tiles on the floor were very worn down. There were many secret rooms on the tour which were very beautiful. The audio tour helped us find many famous tombs including: Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, and many, many other royals and royals friends.

When we finished Westminster it was around 11am do we decided to head to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. We saw the guards practicing on our way there, and heard the band warming up with Simply the Best - Tina Turner. The area outside Buckingham Palace was packed with thousands of people, as if the queen herself was going to come out (she didn't). Luckily we managed to find a spot behind a parked vehicle and could still see the guards marching. A few sets of guards marched into the front gates, and then we couldn't see them any more. I jumped up on a fence to see them, they were pretty much just marching around.

We decided to move on to the Queens Gallery. We couldn't go into Buckingham Palace because the Queen is still in London (presumably to open the Olympic games). The Queens Gallery had an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings from 500 years ago. These drawings are incredibly accurate and way ahead of the medical knowledge of doctors at the time. He was also very close to figuring out how the heart circulates blood, which would have been an incredible breakthrough. However he did not complete his work, and his drawings where in archived for 400 years. This was a surprisingly interesting exhibition.

After a quick stop for lunch (and some cheap souvenirs) we went next door to the royal mews (the Queen's stables). Again this was better than expected. Many of the royal carriages were on display, as well as two horses and one of the massive Bentley's that the Queen travels in! The highlight of the Mews was the gold state carriage used to transport the king/queen to their coronation for the past 200-300 years. It is carved from wood and coated with gold. It weighs about 8 tonnes and is pulled by 8 horses, slowly. It doesn't fit out the doors of the room it is stored in, instead it takes the Mews staff 2 days to pull down a wall and then maneuver the carriage out a hidden door.

Next we decided to try to find Harrods. We took a number of one stop train journeys, before looking up the actual location on google. When we stepped into Harrods we were in the rich section, Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. we wandered around in awe that this was all one massive shop. Even the escalators were impressive, decorated in Egyptian style.

We stumbled across a sundae bar that was so cute we had to sit down and have one. It was a fun experience but the ice cream was very average. I won't tell you how much it cost because I'm sure you will have a heart attack when you convert it to NZD!!

After a bit more looking around we found the sports section with gorgeous shoes that even I encouraged stef to buy (no picture and they are packed - but they are bright pink with bright green laces).

Our next stop was No. 10 Downing St, as we didn't have time to pass by in the morning. This was a bit disappointing as we couldn't even tell which one was the prime ministers house. We got some pictures of the heavily armed guards though. After walking up to Trafalgar Square, passing by Horse Guards Parade, we headed home for a rest and to drop our goodies off.

We met out friends from Dunedin, Claire and Andy for dinner and they took us out to a nice restaurant in Covent Garden. When we arrived it was still happy hour so I ordered a cocktail for £3.75 (double it for NZD) which was delicious. Luckily in England they use measures. In Europe they just pour the alcohol in until the glass is about 3/4 full and all you can taste is the alcohol.

After dinner we walked to Leicester Square, which was very busy, had another drink and headed home to pack our suitcases for Paris!

- Heidi xx

Photos:

Hoards of people waiting at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard
Stef with the Harrods bears
The gold state coach used for coronations
$$$ ice cream sundae at Harrods
Me at Westminster Abbey
Guards marching into Buckingham Palace