2012 Holiday To London-NYC-Niagara - Day Ten

Reasonably early start this morning - headed down to the Greenwich Observatory, which was a bit of a walk from the station and not well sign posted, for a look. Entry was a bit expensive for what it was even though it was £15 for the three of us. The camera obscura was fascinating and the prime meridian was busy which made it difficult to take a photo. All the time pieces within the observatory have great history behind them but it was a tad boring.

The Greenwich Prime Meridian

Walked down the hill to the Maritime Museum, just to see the buildings, before rounding the Cutty Sark and purchasing lunch. Ventured down the tunnel to the Isle of Dogs, interesting it was, before catching the district light rail to Bank.

The Cutty Sark

Had enough time to visit Westminster Abbey, the missus wasn't sure about entering due to the expense, but a family ticket was the same price as for two adults, only £32. Fascinating building, with audioguide (Jeremy Irons did the English version), but it did creep the missus out a bit as there were so many people that had been buried there.

Northern entrance to Westminster Abbey

Visited St Paul's Cathedral, missus was tired by this stage (3:15) and wasn't sure if she wanted to enter as it was going to be much the same as the Abbey. But I made her enter. It is a magnificent building. The Boy and I went all the way to the top for a wonderful, albeit windy, view. Had to get downstairs to have enough time to view the crypt - very different to that of the Abbey. Using our 2-for-1 offer entry for the family was £19.40. Another wonderful building to visit.

Panorama shot from atop St Paul's Cathedral

Had dinner at Organic Planet in Torrington Place whereby I picked up lasagne and roasted potatoes for £3.99, before we got back to the hotel. Pleasantly surprised that the meal was quite nice. Clean up for everyone before I journeyed out to the fountain at Piccadilly Circus to meet Tomasz and his fiancee Pat for a drink. Tomasz is a blogger from Perth with whom I've conversed over many years but never met. Across the street from the pub was a Korean restaurant and, although they'd had dinner, they were very hungry and sat down for a meal. Great to finally meet them after our contact through blogging and Facebook for many years. We decided that we'd meet in Perth at the il Padrino Cafe for pizza early next year.


Pat and Tom and me
 
Hotel at 10:45 - time to ring my auntie as I had promised to before leaving London. Spoke until midnight. Can't believe that we are leaving - didn't get to do all that was planned.

Some observations about London in Sept:

 - The most widely spoken language seems to be Spanish, then Italian, German, Slavic, French and Scandinavian languages. There are a few English speakers about also.

- No flies are visible.

- Almost no service with a smile (except at our hotel).

- No-one thanks the bus drivers.

- Nobody seems to run red lights but almost everybody will cross the road against the signal. Late at night that is a bit of a problem as the bus drivers had plenty of opportunites to run idiots over.

- No sunscreen is required.

- Crowds take a lot of dodging and weaving to get through.

- Locals are quite helpful if you ask them for directions.

- Not too many fat people were in the centre of town and many of the people were tourists.

- British women have lots of makeup, are generally skinny and quite a few are tall.
Photo Album Vol I
Photo Album Vol II
Photo Album Vol III
Photo Album Vol IV (Final)

2012 Holiday To London-NYC-Niagara - Day Nine

Six o'clock start. Breakfast included a Slovak salad with meat - like a delicious coleslaw. Few photos before leaving for the station. Arrived just before 7:15 and only had 10 minutes to print the tickets, there was quite a queue but three machines available, and then had to reach platform 3. Did it with about four minutes to spare - phew! Really, not enough time spent with good friends in Peterborough.

Arrived at Kings Cross St Pancras at 8:30. Seemed like a very fast train ride. Back to the hotel before nine. The missus headed off to the Courtauld Gallery and then the Tate Modern whilst The Boy and I visited the Natural History Museum. We spent four and a half hours there and much of the time it was pouring with rain outside. Good day to be inside. After about two hours of lugging my bag around I noticed that there was a cloakroom but it was too late to bother with by then. The Boy loved the interactive displays which were well constructed to capture the attention of kids. We even went to the Investigate Room and were the only ones there. Especially impressive were the dinosaurs, mammals, giant sequoia, birds, volcanoes and Kobe earthquake displays. Well worth the visit.

Dippy the Dinosaur

Monument was our next stop - all 311 steps to the top. Great view but cold and windy. What an amazing structure. Had to meet the missus at 4pm at St Paul's Cathedral but I headed in the direction of the Tower of London by mistake. Realised my mistake and also realised how far apart the buildings were - a long way. Didn't seem that far on the bus. Got there in time, on foot, and the bells were chiming the hour when the missus came into view. As we approached the front door the guy in front of us was told that, "It's three second past four and St Paul's is closed." Bugger. Ventured back to the hotel.

Stairwell in The Monument - all 311 of them

St Paul's Cathedral

The Boy wanted a steak and ale pie and I was keen on a lunchtime, 12-5, special. First pub told me that the cook had gone out and wouldn't be back until after 5pm therefore my order would be invalid. It didn't matter that I explained how stupid it was that I was unable to order a meal before 5pm and have it served after 5pm but at the special price. The staff member just didn't get it. Dropped our stuff off and went round the corner to the Fitzrovia - tried the same tactic and was informed that the deal finished at five. "Yes, it's bang on five," I said. But the guy's system was telling him that it was one minute past five and it wasn't possible to even place the order. What is it with this country and being unbending towards rules? Watched the news whilst having dinner. Plebgate and floods were the top stories. Expecting gusts of up to 60mph tomorrow.

Later in the evening the missus and I did some souvenir shopping at Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square before having coffee and hot chocolate, both of poor quality, at Caffe Nero. Visited a few department stores before returning to the hotel.

Photo Album Vol I
Photo Album Vol II
Photo Album Vol III
Photo Album Vol IV (Final)

Trip to Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea - Jan 26th 2010

Day 3

Up at 6am to have breakfast. Caught a taxi at 7:03 to go to our ferry for a 7:30 departure. The ferry terminal wasn't too far away and also on Kowloon. I told the taxi driver at the taxi rank in front of the hotel that we needed the Macau ferry and showed him where the terminal was on the map. He drove us around the block a couple fo times and dropped us off at another taxi rank - without charge. He said that the first taxi would take us where we needed to go. Bit odd I thought as it really wasn't far away.

I told the next taxi driver where we were headed and only when he was about to pay a toll for the Cross-Harbour Tunnel did I realise that he was taking us the wrong way. It took a lot of explaining, and almost arguing, before the driver realised what the mistake was - the mistake of the first taxi driver. Not happy, Jan. Perhaps that is why it is called the Cross-Harbour Tunnel as we were getting quite cross. The driver considered dropping us off at another terminal on Hong Kong Island but I decided it was better to head to our original departure point. We arrived a few minutes after the ferry had left. The driver refused to drop his fare even though there had been a misunderstanding. Miky would have made him accept a lower, or non-existant, fare but I ended up paying the full amount of HK$116. It was less than A$20 after all.

At the First Ferry gate they seemed only too happy to inform us that our ticket was for the 0730 ferry and that we had missed it. I asked about putting us on the next available ferry, as it was the taxi driver who had made us miss our boat, and he made us wait in another area in front of the desk. Just before I became really angry I insisted that they tell us which ferry we could get on. We were given seats on the 8 o'clock ferry. Gee, that wasn't really that difficult. There was no need to make us feel like we were being punished even though we had explained that it wasn't our fault.

Surprise, suprise! Or should I say, "Supplies, supplies!"? There was plenty of room aboard. Arseholes. Nothing much to see on the way to Macau because all of the islands were shrouded in fog.

Plenty of seats available. No need to make us feel guilty.

View from ferry terminal upon arrival in Macau.

Our ferry.

Disembarkation was quick as was the immigration transfer. No problems with our visas as the Cathay Pacific clerk had mentioned in Perth. And to think that I'd wasted time running around at the airport in Hong Kong to verify this. The public toilet offered was even less welcoming than the immigration guy as it was disgusting and someone was smoking.

Visited the tourist info after a guy offered us a tourist trip. Taken for a ride more like it. They told us which bus to take into the city to Senado Square. We didn't know where to get off so listened to someone else who told another tourist where the stop was. First stop was a noodles restaurant for a snack as breakfast hadn't consisted of much. Interestingly they served us warm water as opposed to tea that we got in Hong Kong. We ate at about 9:50am and my beef wasn't that bad but nothing to blog about. So I won't. They didn't accept credit cards so Miky had to pay. Luckily they accepted HK$.

Excited tourists.

Pig knucket and boiled intestine anyone?

Senado Square in downtown Macau.

McDonald's in Senado Square.

Even more luckily one of the ladies working in the restaurant took us to the nearby national tourist centre. We had asked some questions but English wasn't their strong point. The tourist centre wasn't a really inviting building from the outside but they were offering free Senado Square tours in English. Fanny, our guide, also told us how to get to The Venetian Hotel/Casino for free via shuttle bus and talked about some of the other attractions in the city. She photographed us in front of St Dominic's Church.

St Dominic's Church.

Family pic in Senado Square.

Lovely cobblestoned streets.

Do you feel like you're in China?

All types of jerky available.

Nice statue.

A quick walk up the hill through throngs of people and shops selling biscuits and jerky we reached the ruins of St Paul's Cathedral. Only the facade remains and it is quite a sight. It also overlooks Na Tcha Temple and is a short walk across a cobbled road to the fortress. It's not a bad view of the city from atop. From up there you can see the grim reality of how many people live in apartments and appear to lock themselves up in birdcages. I mean, even six stories up the balconies are fully enclosed with bars.

Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral.

Notice the fake plants.

Looking back from steps in front of St Paul's Cathedral.

Closeup of facade of St Paul's Cathedral.

Part of old city wall on the right.

Na Tcha Temple.

Walls of Mount Fortress.

Guns of Mount Fortress.

Squalid living surrounding Mount Fortress.

Entrance to Mount Fortress.

Facade of St Paul's Cathedral.

One last photo of St Paul's Cathedral.

Lovely buildings in Macau.

Looks like a bird cage.

Walking back down the streets, as we had on the way up, we tasted chicken/pork/beef jerky, almost cakes and ate egg tarts (we bought these as they weren't samples). The tarts were very much like custard and quite delicious.

Did some clothes shopping at Giordano and Bossini. Quite cheap as they were outlet shops. Got a little bit lost when trying to find the Leal Senado building. Then walked up to St Augustine's Church, St Augustine's Square, St Joseph's Seminary and Church and Dom Pedro V Theatre before finishing at St Lawrence's Church. You wouldn't think that you were in China at all, would you? Walked down to Nam Van Lakes before heading to Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro to catch the 3A bus back to the ferry terminal.

European-style bank building.

St Joseph's Seminary and Church.

St Augustine's Church.

Bird cage opposite Theatre Dom Pedro V.

Theatre Dom Pedro V.

Run down apartments were in abundance.

St Lawrence's Church.

Almost feel like you're in Portugal, not Macau (China).

From there we caught a free shuttle bus to The Venetian. Again, Miky had read about this on a blog. The bus went over the impressive Sai Van Bridge and only took 15 minutes. Seeing as Macau is only 30 square kilometres, although it has a population of 550,000, doesn't take too long to get anywhere.

Inside the casino was amazing. There were canals and gondolas (MOK$108/adult and MOK$80/child), specialty shops and a huge gaming area filled with cigarette smoke where, unfortunately you're unable to take photos or videos, there were hundreds of gaming tables and machines. I haven't seen many attractive women in HK or Macau, must say that the Chinese tourists are better looking than the locals, but I spotted three of the most attractive girls together in the gaming room and concluded that they must have been working girls. After an hour and a half we'd seen about enough of the casino, purchased our almond cakes that others were buying by the bucketload, and caught the free shuttle bus back to the ferry terminal.

Overlooking Nam Van Lake (from bus).

Inside Venetian Hotel.

The Boy overlooking the Grand Canal.

More of the excited tourists.

Grand Canal inside the Venetian Hotel.

Beautiful artwork on the ceiling.

Gaming table.

Entrance to the Venetian Hotel.

Venetian Hotel shuttle bus.

View behind the Venetian Hotel.

The ferry was much busier on the way back to HK. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that the next ferry ran in the evening and the tickets were more expensive. Miky slept because she felt sick and The Boy and I played cards. Upon our return to HK we walked down Canton Street to head to SOGO for dinner. I had an eel and chicken bento box and okonomiyaki - delicious. Or, as Merrick Watts and I like to say, derishus. Had enough of Chinese food and the Japanese cuisine was nice. Back to the hotel just before 9pm. It was at this point that I discovered the phone in our room didn't work. So it wasn't the case that Disneyland didn't want to answer my call yesterday.

Friendship Bridge.

Looks like a bomb in the harbour.

Toilets at ferry terminal in HK.

Disabled toilet at ferry terminal in HK

Must sell those Ugg boots downstairs.

Arty shot - just for fun whilst waiting for the courtesy bus.