stones, baths and 2 smoking barrels

Today's journey west consisted of:

• Stonehenge
• Salisbury Catherdral
• Bath

Stonehenge
The day started out leaving at 8.30am from Paddington Station and heading to Stonehenge. Although the day was quite clear, there was also a very high level of fog around. It is a 5000 year old stone circle, construction started around 3000BC. Each of the larger stones weighs 4 tones, and were hauled 250 miles.

We had 40 minutes to check out Stonehenge, and take as many (funny) photos as we could before moving on.

Salisbury Cathedral
A short trip away from Stonehenge, and we found ourselves at Salisbury, which was the home of our next pit stop and mandatory rest break. Lunch for the 3 of us consisted of old fashioned bangers and mash at a pub right near the cathedral.

This is supposed to be one of the oldest gothic type cathedrals in England (if not the oldest?). The cathedral was constructed during 1220-1258. The spire was erected some 15 years later, at 123 meters, it is the highest spire in Britain.

Half the regulators wouldn't be who they are without the thing we saw today - the Magna Carta. This is one of 4 copies that still exist (Chico was very happy to say the least). The Magna Carta agreement was made between King John and his Barons in 1215.

Bath
With only 1.5 hours to spend here, we really were a bit rushed, and definitely would love to come back here (maybe when its a wee bit warmer). All the streets and buildings were very beautiful and definitely had a nice vibe to the place. The main part of our short stay here was to check out the Roman Bath spas, which were interesting, however we certainly rushed through it, and probably didn't get to take it all in as best we could. At the end of the tour, we got to sample some of the bath water (see the photo below) which I didn't mind, but Lisa and Chico couldn't handle it.

We had a quick stop at the fudge factory, packed a few blocks into our bags, and then headed off to do a quick run around the town to check out as much as we could before the bus left.

we were able to sample the Bath spa water

From Bath, it was full steam ahead back to London - the days are getting incredibly short here, with it getting dark by around 4.30pm. And thats about all we've got, so until next time.

a visit to Harrods....

So Lisa and me decided to continue our sightseeing of London this week, and on Monday we decided to check out Harrods at Knightsbridge.

So were walking through and see a familar face (Mohammed Al Fayed - the owner) and he's hurrying off in the opposite direction. We then see a whole bunch of people in suits and sunglasses and this obviously gets our attention so we decide to follow them to see what the story is.

Low and behold, its Annie Lennox and the other guy doing a quick photo shoot. We guess its for their new album that has just come out.

Comic Tour in Brussels

Below in this blog is a sample of the photos taken in Brussels of some of the street art around:

- - -

I would normally provide commentary on where they were and who's piece of work they all are, but it was straight out of a tour written up in lonely planet...

Mussels in Brussels

So maybe not the most original title for a blog but it certainly covers their national dish (mussels and chips), which we managed to have at 3 times during our weekend there. So, anyway a quick run down of the weekends highlights:

Fri 04/11/2005 (7pm)
So we leave Waterloo London via the Eurostar. It was Lisa and my first time, and as far as getting you somewhere, I was pretty content. Unlike airports, train stations are pretty much in the central part of town, which was the case for Brussels with only a short 5 min taxi ride to our hotel.

The train ride was 2.5 hours which meant we got in at around 10pm - we were feeling peckish, so headed straight to the grand place to check it out. Certainly looked very impressive when all lit up, and then headed to one of the many numerous restaurants littered around the place.

Finally, the night finished off with a bit more walking around and getting our bearings, and sampling some of Brussels many beers on offer.


Sat 05/11/2005
With breakfast out of the way at the hotel, we headed back off to the Grand Place to get some more photos, this time with daylight to help us out. It was then off to the large shopping galleries, which is home of NeuHaus, one of the oldest chocolate shops (1857) in Belgium.

Next came the Cathedral Des St Michel and then the Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art. There were some cool things here, but i'm sure we could have appreciated it a bit more if our french/flemish was a bit better.

It was then time for lunch, we tried to avoid the expensively priced 'tourist' restaurants near the grand place, but i don't think we made it far enough, or maybe arrived at a slow time of day, as the service was incredibly slow.



So next, we decided it was time to check out the Musee Bruxellois de la Gueze, which is a traditional working brewery. This was certainly one of my highlights for the weekend, getting a good feel and flavour for a beer brewery. There was a definitive smell as soon as you walked in, and the whole place had a bit of character to it. They actually do brew beer there, and it is done between November to April (the cooler months).


Sun 06/11/2005
Sunday, was filled with a visit to the markets, followed by Belgium waffles. A short tram (it was weird to see trams underground) and a train ride, and we arrived at the EU headquarters and the Parc Du Cinquantenaire.

After lunch (which was more Mussels for Lisa and me), we embarked on the street comic tour. It took just over an hour, and although we seemed to be going through fairly deserted streets, the actual art that we found splattered around the streets was definitely worth checking out (check the next posting which will have some of the sample photos).

Scotties in Town!

So this weekend, we had the lucky chance to spend the weekend with scottie....

Friday, Lisa and me headed to Chicos pad to hang out and wait for the boston-ite to arrive...

Friday night we went to an indian restaurant on Elgin Avenue. Considering we were the only ones in the restauratnt the entire time we were there, the food was surprisingly good. Followed this up with Chico taking us to a pub near by. Never thought i'd be going to Chico for advice on pubs to go out to.

Sat started out with baskie for me and Chico. Again, I was pretty buggered by the end of it - 2 hours inside a pretty hot gym. Feet were wrecked, but glad that I got to run around. Gave lisa a call and we met up with her at Nandos for lunch. The afternoon, we decided to go see Serenity - wanted to compare it to the 90% version we saw back home. It was just as good the 2nd time round, if not better! and i'm glad that Chico loved it too. Will try and copy the episodes I have on DIVX to DVD for him.

Sat night, we met up with Ev & Al - it was Al's farewell, which is a shame that he was heading back home... fitty expensive bar in SOHO. Round of drinks (for 3 people) cost 18 pounds!! guess we were paying for the atmosphere. got relatively drunk, and when the place was closing, the boys knew of a club called egg which was near kings cross station - so we all jumped into a fairly amusing mini cab.




Sunday, scottie headed back to Boston, and Lisa, Chico and me decided to do a bit of sight seeing, and check out the london eye.

Madam Tussauds

it wouldn't be a trip to the famous wax musuem without some funny photos taken.

Al & Jamie Alfred Hitchcock gives Lisa a fright

Who wouldn't resist an evening with big George...

Travel Diary for Scotland (Sept 19th-21st)

Tuesday Sept 20th
5am arrive in Heathrow Airport
7am Leave Heathrow for Glasgow Airport
8.30am arrive in Glasgow Airport
12pm head out to Hansel tea house for tea and scones with Edith & George then off to Ayr to view the sea town down south.

Karen & Phil come over at night, but Al is well and truely asleep by this stage

Wednesday Sept 21st
Off to Stirling via Falkirk Wheel
The falkirk wheel is based in Falkirk (no surprises there), and moves boats from one waterway to another.

We then visited the Wallace Monument in Stirling (statue to the right which appears at the bottom of the Wallace Monument), followed by a tour through Stirling Castle.

More of Lisa's family arrived on wednesday night to Edith & George's. We had David, Kim and their baby (they are based in Milton Keyne's), Paul & Monica (from South Africa), as well as Sandra (Edith and Mary's sister), along with Phil & Karen who we had met the previous night.

David & Kim Monica & Paul

Phil & Karen