Dear Athens, learn to drive.

Recently, we went to Athens for a few days, and chose to, for something different, do one of those 24hour hop-on/off tours. Not the red bus, our choice was about €3 each cheaper. High stakes !

To Athens, we go.

The sun was calling, so to Athens, we went. We'd been to a few of the Greek islands last year already, and this was an opportunity to go to the mainland.
So, after booking up a hotel for €80 for 3 nights, and about £300 for flights, we were good to go.

More of Exeter, then to tintagel !

- lots of breakfast. out to shops. underground passages. very cool. tried not to get red on light grey jumper / cardigan. had to almost crawl for one part. interesting. easter eggs. hit head several times - hard had good, but yucky. hear traffic up on street. people hid in during air raids.
- drove to tintagel. awesome castle hotel called camelot. amazing round table. cornwall is the most beautiful part of england. very farm-y. amazing coastline. cliffs. beautiful weather. amazing staircase. gorgeous place to stay. sea view room. very comfy bed.
- walk round tintagel castle. ruins. steep. over to island with more of castle. up for views over cliffs. down to merlin's cave. waterfall.
- back to hotel for welcome drink. rose and cab sav. took our free cheeses with us. went well together. sat outside on side of castle watching sun setting.
- into town for pub dinner. local ales and rattler cider. deep fried brie. chicken leek and bacon pie with mash and peas. just what I specifically said I wanted when walking out to dinner. burger and fries - actually cooked properly and crisp. lots of sauces. mousse more like ganache.
- sat at round table to look at photos. cool elevator with metal door.

Beach with Sand !!

Today, we discovered a beach, with Sand. In the United Kingdom! That's right ! They aren't all pebbles.

Oooh, a shiney car !!!

It's been almost a year since I last got to drive a car. So today, we picked up a VW Polo from Wembley. It felt a bit odd, but at least it was on the right side.

We've always agreed that, as much as possible, we would avoid motorways and definitely tollroads - we want the picturesque pretty English drive. Turns out it didn't work as well in this regard as it did in Italy. But anyway, onward and westward.

It was time

to pull the plug, and let the waters drain away from our trip to Bath. But we still had half a day or so, and some things to see.

From modern, to Ancient...

This relates to our second day in Bath, where, pleasingly, the weather cleaned up a little bit.
Today was also actually the day we went up the Abbey tower, despite my writing about it in an earlier post.

For Whom the Bell Tolls...

The bell (at least, the bell in the Abbey tower in Bath) is tolled by me. That's right. I'm the one who rang the bells in the abbey at random times, and not on the hour.

But it's ok, I was allowed, it was part of the tour.

Cambridge Photos!

I told you I might.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47930781@N03/tags/cambridge/show/

New photos

It's actually been ages since I've posted. However, in that time, we've been to Bath, Oxford and Cambridge.

You can see some photos of Bath here. I'll put up some of Oxford and Cambridge tonight.

I should mention, we're also planning our 11 day driving extravaganza, including a stay at Tintagel (the area reputed to be where Camelot, and Merlin's cave, are)

So stay tuned. I might even write about Bath, Cambridge and Oxford !!

Here's a photo to whet your appetite:

Bath !

We don't have one of these in our apartment. So we're off to Bath for the weekend. Of course, that doesn't guarantee we'll have a bath in our hotel room. However, some of the Hilton rooms do have baths, so we've asked if we can have one of those. We may strike out.

Not so wintry

Today is our planned trip to Winter Wonderland. I was really looking forward to this - outdoor ice skating rink, skating around in the snow, little snowwy thinggies falling on our faces and stuff.
Unfortunately, all the snow has gone away. There's actually a nice, clear blue sky out there.

Oxford St Christmas lights

Today, coincidentally, coincided with the American Express VIP shopping day on Oxford St here in London. Basically, they closed the street to through traffic, and only allowed pedestrians.

We needed to buy a proper winter jacket for Rhiannon - her leather jacket is not only old and sullen, but also not really keeping her warm. So despite the cold weather, the threat of the first snow of the year, 1 blocked nose, 1 chest cold, 1 head cold combined with spacey, out of this world feeling, we ventured down to Oxford st, leaving our warm, comfy abode about 2:00pm.

Finally...

We have uploaded a selection of photos from our week in Paris, including EuroDisney, Versaille, and that big pointy steel thing.

You can find them all in a slideshow here
Along with our entire France trip here
The Summer Odyssey here

And of course, the whole shebang here

There is over 600 shots in the summer collection, so have some spare time :)

Paris by Dots

Too lazy to reform this, so have some dot points about our week in Paris. It's taken us a while to get this up, oh well. We'll add some more photos at some point too.

Itchy and Scratchy Land - The happiest place on earth

Since I'm not a Simpson, I only got to go to EuroDisney. It's another of those things that you just "have to do". We'd pre-purchased tickets online for 47EUR each, to get access to two parks for one day. Saved us 20EUR each from buying on the day, and meant skipping the ticket line. It's unlikely you'd get time to see both parks though.

Moulin Rouge

It's one of "those" tourist attractions. You know, the place everyone knows about, and goes to see. We'd read heaps of reviews, some good, some bad, some idiotic (I mean really, complaining that it's not a place to take kids, surely you know that before?)

We reviewed a number of options, including the menus, and decided we'd be better getting dinner elsewhere and just seeing the 9pm show. And was it worth it ?

Family outing in Versaille

Ever been on one of "those" family driving trips ? surely, everyone has. Go left. No, go right. Sit down. Are we there yet. Change the radio station. Sit still. Open the window. CLose the window. Can we have Mcdonalds...

Well, today we went to Versaille. I'll write a bit more later, but for 30EUR for an hour using a 4 seater golf cart, it's much better than walking.

Paris - The Lourve and Not the Arc Triomphe

After a good night's sleep, a run to the shopping centre for some brunch, and then croissants with ham and cheese (how parisian!) we figured out that due to the weather, we would go to the Lourve rather than Versaille today. Once we got there, we figured out it's much better to pay 32 EUR for a 2day all-museum pass, which would get us into Versaille (15.50) and the Lourve (9.00) and the Arc de Triomphe, and the Musee D'Orsay and we could skip lines (priceless.) We figured this would be good value for money, even if we only did the Lourve and Versaille.

Arrival ala Paree

Despite our earlier issues with the trains, we were able to get on a train this morning at 6:08am. Well, the train was supposed to leave at 6:08. It eventually showed up at 6:28am, and left at 6:38. Still, we got into Paris on time.