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The plane was 1 3/4 hours leaving Abu Dhabi! We had a long, uneventful flight home.
So ends a dream holiday. 10 weeks went much too fast. Time to plan for the next one.

Abu Dhabi

Well here we are again after a 7 hour flight which left London about 3/4 hour late. Thought that was OK, because we were scheduled to have a 3 hour wait at Abu Dhabi, so we’d spend less time waiting. Not so. The 14 hour Abu Dhabi – Melbourne flight has been delayed by 55 mins, now leaving at 23:15 (local time). Should now arrive in Melbourne just after 7pm Wednesday.

London Heathrow – last night

Sunday 4 August:

Caught the tube to Westminster and then a river boat down river to Greenwich  and the Thames barriers. It’s not ‘til you see the barriers in real life that you realise the size of it. When we passed, one of the barriers was in the defence position. Not sure why, perhaps for testing. Cost to build it was about half a billion pounds and it has already been used more than 100 times.



We travelled under the millennium bridge that was closed only a few hours after it was opened because the rhythm of people walking over it caused it to sway very uncomfortably. (There was no problem with the bridge, it was how the Londoner’s walked!). It was braced and reopened.





Greenwich was very busy with a food display, music in the park with a beer  tasting/sales and people just enjoying themselves on the sunny day. We spent a while sitting under a tree listening to some great 60s rock ‘n roll. The maritime museum is in one of the old naval college’s buildings, so we looked through the museum and caught the boat back to Westminster. Took about 1 hour from Westminster to Greenwich and another half an hour or so on to the barriers. you realise just how much the river turns back on itself when you see buildings that were on one side of the boat appear on the other side later on downstream. There has been a huge amount of development along the river since we were last in London, with most of the old warehouses converted into expensive apartments. Some development though doesn’t appeal to us at all. The river cruise was a great way to see London from a different perspective and very relaxing.

Monday 5th August:
We caught a double decker bus (had to while in London) to a point along the  Regents Canal, called Little Venice, and went for a ride on a touristy narrow boat to Camden Lock and back, passing through the London Zoo. Unfortunately we were too low to see anything. Informative commentary along the way and a last chance to be on a narrow boat. Trying to hold on to the holiday. Still had a couple of hours before we left for the hotel at Heathrow, so we jumped on the tube and went to the London Canal Museum. Shut on Mondays. Walked to the British Library and had a look at some of their collection including original Beatles lyrics, original compositions by Bach and others, one of the 4 original surviving copies of the Magna Carta and many original books dating back to the 14th century.
After this, we went back to the hotel, collected our luggage and took the tube to the hotel at Heathrow. Had a great “Beef & Reef” meal at a pub 15 mins away and now back in the hotel, repacking ready for a 6 am getaway from the hotel tomorrow. Plane leaves at 9:15am.
Feeling quite sad about leaving.

Eurostar – somewhere between Paris & London

Looking out the window of the Eurostar, belting along at whatever fast speed we’re doing, passing many wind farms, heading towards London. How quickly the time has gone.

Thursday 1st:

 

Spent the morning walking through and around Ile St Louis and Isle de la Cite.  Huge queues to see Notre Dame and we were grateful that we’d seen it during earlier travels. Explored some of the left bank and visited the St Severin church, started by a monk in the 6th century. Some walls and pillars still remain.

 

 

 

Visited the famous bookshop in Paris, “Shakespeare & Co”. It’s been in existence for a long time and has provided accommodation for writers down on their luck. There is a reading room and people are encouraged to sit and read. Bought a book so we could get the shop stamp in the front. This is one book we can’t get rid of. (At least we can justify keeping this one).

 

 

Had a light lunch in an air conditioned Himalayan restaurant and went to the mainline station for a train trip to Versailles. The destination wasn’t the purpose as we’ve been there before, but it was the train trip we wanted. About one quarter of the trains that go to Versailles have been decorated inside to look like rooms of the palace and we wanted to see one. After letting 4 ordinary trains go and spending about 1 hour in the exciting environment of a hot, underground station, we gave up and caught the next train to the station nearest Versailles and returned to Paris. The photos here are downloaded from the internet to show what we didn’t see. Back home then, to cheese, bread, wine and the great view out our window. Again we were grateful of the portable air conditioner and we left it on all night. Had to pull up the sheet during the night.

Friday 2nd:

Back to the laundromat, thankfully for the last time, although if it meant continuing the holiday, we’d happily spend more time washing clothes.

We wanted to visit the catacombs, some of the many tunnels under Paris, where bones from many Parisian cemeteries were moved to after many cemeteries were closed. Some of the quarries around Paris collapsed impacting on some cemeteries with bones washing into some cellars, another urgent reason to relocate the remains. We thought that the catacombs would be a good place to visit on this hot day, where the underground temperature was 13 degrees. Unfortunately, so did half of Paris We spent almost 2 hours in the queue. It was worth it though, bit bind boggling seeing so many skulls & bones dating back to the 1700s. Around 5 million Parisians are stacked there. Back home for a very tasty felafel at one of the local Jewish restaurants.

Saturday 3rd:

Breakfast first then gave the apartment a bit of a clean before we left. Our landlady said that the apartment has never been left so clean, so we felt good about that. We tend to try & leave places better than we found them.

Caught the metro to the Gare du Nord, where Eurostar leaves from.

We’re slowing down now and about to enter the chunnel. Just been advised that the trip under the channel is about 20 mins. Last sight of France. Hello England again.

We arrived in London at about 2pm & got to the hotel at Euston around 3pm. We were able to check in straight away.  The Eurostar was great, smooth quiet, fast (300 km/h) and a much easier way to get from Paris to London. 2 1/4 hours. Great experience and we’ll do it again. Compare that to getting to Paris airport, waiting, flying, possibly 1 hour to get through UK immigration then close to 1 hour to get into London.

Having previously found a good coffee chain, Cafe Nero, we had a good coffee at one just  around the corner from the hotel.

 

 

 

 

We walked back to Kings Cross Station for one particular reason. Understanding the reason behind these photos is based on a bit of prior knowledge or having read the books.

 

 

 

 

 

After these photos were taken, one of us, (not whom you’d probably expect), looked at the map and noticed that there was a canal not far away and wondered if we should walk and have a look. We detoured on the way back to the hotel. We discovered that the local Sainsbury supermarket has their white wines in the fridge, so we felt that we should buy one before we got back to the hotel.

We’re now in our hotel in London and it’s 7:15pm (UK time). The bottle is now empty and we are about to go out and find a meal.