European Escapade with Dale Chapman

It's the morning of the eleventh day in England. We've been in Whitstable visiting my relatives for a couple of days now. They are pretty crazy, and i feel like i'm fitting in well. its been fun getting to meet my family, as well as re-meet a few. Actually some of them look like they've barely changed, or even look a bit younger than the last time i saw them. We wandered around Whitstable yesterday and went to Wetherspoons with the family for dinner and drinks in the evening. That was pretty good, though i could have done without a few drinks personally. We're off to Canterbury soon to see the cathedral and a few other things, and tomorrow its off to Dover to see Dover Castle and the white cliffs, so hopefully some new photos for those soon.

Dale Chapman, signing out

Its day 8 of our stay in London. I haven't put anything up lately because we've been up early and back late quite a bit recently. We went to Greenwich to see the Maritime Museum, the Meridian Line and the Observatory on Friday, which was good but probably not worth the five quid we paid to get in. On Saturday we had the family over for dinner, which Charles and I cooked, me doing a pad thai for dinner and charles doing crepes for dessert, both of which were succesful and which the family enjoyed.

Yesterday was one of our biggest yet, our tour of Stonehenge. we started the day with an amusing and charismatic tour guide named David, who kept us thouroughly entertained all the way through our journey. We first stopped in the city of Bath, where we toured the Roman bath's and heard some quite stupid questions from American tourists (I also got some fudge for us and Charles got us both delicious ice creams). The hotsprings were quite nice, though we could not swim in them, though judging by the colour (a sickly green), we probably didn't want to. Next on our journey was Laycock, where we had lunch at a lovely little pub and had the best steak and ale pie i've ever tried. We also had a tour around Laycock and saw some area's used as filming locations for Harry Potter, including number 4, Privet Drive, Godrics Hollow and the Hogwarts Great Hall. Finally, we arrived for our sunset viewing of Stonehenge, where we were given private access and allowed inside the stone circle unlike usual tourists. Managed to get some excellent photo's of the stones with the sun in the back. Finally our tour ended and we arrived back at Victoria coach station at about 10:30 pm, almost 12 hours after the tour started. Very long, but very enjoyable day, i reccommend it to everybody.

Today we're off to the British Museum and the British Library, before meeting up with a friend for a drink for our last night in London before heading out to Whitstable. Hope eerybody at home is well and enjoying my posts.

Dale Chapman signing out

Day 4 of my journey in Europe, and its still exceptionally hot! it was 28 today and not a hint of the rain that was supposed to hit today! We had a brilliant day, St Paul's Cathedral this morning was absolutely amazing! I'm not really much of a church fan, but the cathedral was so gigantic and so beautiful i couldn't help but spend a couple of hours exploring the galleries, the crypt and climbing all the way to the top to see a spectacular view of London city! The climb to the top is a bit of an effort, and at points hard for claustrophobic people, but well worth the effort.

After the Cathedral, we got walked across the Millenium Footbridge to see a performance a the Globe Theatre. Having not read 'Taming of the Shrew' i feel i followed it well, unlike a large number that weren't laughing at the jokes, for a lack of understanding. the performance was smashing, and the theatre itself was spectacular! We stood in the yard watching it like they did in the times of Shakespeare, made me a bit sore standing there for three hours, but was certainly worth it. We've just gotten back and had dinner at Lynn's and are preparing for a night out at a bar called the Peacock, as we both go to a pub in Northcote with the same name! Having a fantastic time!

Dale Chapman signing off

It's our third day in England and its still pretty hot here. bit of rain today but still very hot. Charles and I have had 9 hours of sightseeing via a hop on/off bus company, touring around the central London area. Trafalgar Square was spectacular, got to see the National Gallery, the Millenium Clock, and a man walking his pet ferret, something i particularly enjoyed. Went to Harrods, Westminister Abbey, Victoria Station, London Tower Bridge, saw Buckingham Palace and much much more! We're doing more tours tomorrow, and seeing a live show at the Globe Theatre, a performance of 'Taming of the Shrew' which we are looking forward to. Just got back to Lynn's and about to upload the 100+ photos i took today! Hope everybody enjoys them, though they may have a lot of photos of random, interesting looking buildings.

Dale Chapman signing out.

Day 1:

We’ve just arrived in London and the jetlag has hit hard! We had a 14 hour flight from Melbourne to Doha in Qatar, stepping off from a Melbourne temperature of 13 degrees celsius, to a stinkig hot and humid 32! After two hours stop over, it was back for a 7 hour flight to Heathrow airport in London. My cousin Geoff greeted us at th airport and took us to my mother’s aunt’s house, where we are staying for the next week while we are in London. Tomorrow we’re having a normal day of shopping and meeting some relatives. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet my cousin Amy tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll have a better impression on her than my own parents did, as she still remembers how much they made her walk around when they were here. So, to all my friends and family, Charles and I have landed in London safely, and are about to sit down with my great aunt Lynn for dinner, after which I’m most likely to crash for the night, since the jetlag is still in my system.

Dale Chapman, signing off.