May 2008

Bonjour All, apologies for the delay in posting but we have been quite busy. Since our last update we have visited the Lourve, the Effiel Tower, Versailles, the Arc de Triumph and a couple of other art galleries. Climbing the Effiel Tower was great fun and it provided us with sensational views of Paris and some much needed exercise (after london). The Musee de Orsay was quite spectacular, housing the best of impressionalist art from Monet, Pissario, Van Gogh and others. The techniques used were very impressive showing just how talented such artists were. The De Orsay was far superior to the more famous Lourve, which a part from Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo was quite average (we prefer the National Gallery in Canberra). The gardens within the Chateu of Versailles provided some of the best sculptures we have seen in Europe so far, particularly of Encaladus which was a sculpture of a gold man struggling to break free from being buried in a pool of rocks. This was the only sculpture so far I felt I could relate to somewhat !

Tomorow marks our last day in Paris before we head off to Amsterdam, so stay tunned for some "interesting" upcoming blogs !

Au reviour

Evening All, todays update comes from a very wet Paris. It seems everywhere we go, rain follows us. It bucked down when we left England and so far Paris has been the same (no global warming over here!). After our West End show, our sensational host Josh and old mate Ollie took us around some of the night spots that London has to offer, which included: a bowling alley with kareoke rooms, a bar, a dj and a cinema; a club called shunt under London Bridge, which was absolutley massive filled with art exhibitions, old trucks, a table tennis table and even a mini theatre; a rock and roll pub; and by far the best, an Itallian restauraunt with a Frank Sinatra impersonator singing whilst walking around the tables where people were eating. All showed how poor both Canberra and Adelaide's night scene are. However having all these great places comes at a cost, a lot of alcohol is cosumed by all and Amelia and I both felt our belts tighten somewhat. They amount the Poms drink cerainly put the Aussie's to shame. As for Paris, we have seen the Notre Dame (filled with tacky soveniers throughout such as prayer cards and candles), the concierge and the effiel tower from a distance (we will go closer when the rain stops). Oh yeah, we have already eaten crepes, crossiants and baquettes so all we have to try now are frog legs, snails and foie gras (whatever that is).

Au Revior

G'day All, reporting from sunny England where the temperature is a warm 25 degrees (better than the reported minus 3 in Canberra overnight). Since our last entry we have travelled to Buckingham Palace and caught the last of the changing of the guards, which was quite a good show ! The guards do look quite stupid with their massive hairy hats (resemble marge simpson somewhat). Still they had guns so we pretended to respect them. From here went went to the Imperial War Museum which had the Trench and Blitzkrieg Experience which were pretty good. There was a large Holocuast section which was quite intense. We went straight from there to an East End show so we went from War to singing Muppets which was an interesting combination! The show we went to was called Avenue Q which was really cool, it was like Muppets but not a kids show as they had a sex scene and a song called 'Internet is great for Porn'! It was hilarious! After that we met up with Ollie and Fritz and went out for some drinks and crashed at his place. All in all we had a good night, especially Amelia who loved dancing some dude named Sanchez from South America !

Toodles

We arrived in London from Cambridge yesterday and are staying with our friend Josh (Idol for the footy boys) in the outskirts of London. Today we went to the Tate Modern Muesem and saw a heap of Picasso's as well as some Warhol's and Mattisse's. While in town we also had a look at Big Ben and walked down many Monopoly streets including Pall Mall, the Strand, Picadilly Circus, Oxford St, Regent St, Trafalgar Square etc!!! We are thinking of catching a show tomorrow night in the West End which should be good fun (as long as it isn't Grease the musical) (Simon won't let me see Dirty Dancing the musical either) as well as having a chat to some guards with fuzzy hats and some Beefeaters! I also purchased a soccer strip today so I now offically support Aston Villa (sorry Norwich but you had no shirts anywhere !). It is funny to note that Aston Villa is actually in Birmingham, not in London, but I have had a soft spot for them ever since Aussie Mark Bosnich played with them !

We also plan to have some tea and scones soon, or at the very least some fish and chips.

Note 1 - We are trying to add some photos so have a look at our next post !

Note 2 - Dad, I grabbed you a soccer top today as well but they didn't have your size in Everton and Reading wasn't in the shop, so you now have a new team to support. The good news is that Stan Lazaridis used to play with them, the bad news is that they just got relegated !

Cheers

Simon & Amelia