10/7/2014

Day 20

Waking up early while ones on any kind of holiday is a pain and I personally don’t like it. Even if it is while I am overseas and sightseeing. This time I had to because we were going sightseeing tour of London. This tour also included some tourist shopping as well.

My sister can’t really remember London that well. So it was more of a recap but I found that I also picked up some new places along the way. Some interesting things I haven’t seen before.

That evening we went to see the Lion King show at the theatre. It was incredible!! I have never seen such as incredible show before. Well Phantom of the Opera was of course amazing. The Lion King was manly made out of puppets. Also been from South Africa made it even more special, since it is based in Africa:)

That show is definitely worth going to see. Even if you fly to London, just for the show.

Tower Bridge

My sister

9/7/2014

Day 19

This morning we headed to London. We drove to the station and took a coach to London. The trains are quite expensive for 4 people from Bristol to London.

We have arrived in London and walked to our hotel to check in. We are just now chilling.

London

It is nice to have a quite room which is not on the streets. Later we went to find dinner and then head to bed for an early night.

8/7/2014

Day 18

Today we went on a tour of Bristol, while Lara and Penny went off to a horse show. So Clive was the tour guide for the day. We went to the SS Britain Ship which has been docked in the Bristol harbour as a museum. This ship was the first ship to take passengers to Australia. It was very interesting about how it shaped history and how people lived on board for so many months at a time and some of the 3rd

1st class

class living conditions were not that great, but of course the 1st class passengers had the luxuries. 

Living conditions of 2nd and 3rd class

2nd and 3rd class

7/7/2014

Day 17

We are going to see my friend Tiana today!! I can’t wait! I haven’t seen her in years. We picked her up at her flat (getting lost in the process) for the day. Then we headed off to Cheddar Gorge and that was beautiful. When we got there we first had coffee and cake, because it was cold and wet (summer for England). Then we walked up on top of the Gorge. It was so green and beautiful. Afterwards we drove down the country side and looked for a pub to have lunch in. This was an interesting experience with Britain’s narrow roads. Then afterwards we drove back to Bristol to drop off Tiana off at her place and then drove back to the other side of Bristol to where we are staying.

Cheddar country side

6/7/2014

Day 16

We are now in England and we are going to be staying in Bristol for 4 nights. Last night we docked in at around 10:00 pm. My dad’s friend Clive came to pick us up and drove us back to their place which were we are staying.

This morning we woke up late and then had a late branch. Later that day my sister and I went clothes shopping and with a tour around the town. Then we went back for tea. Then after chilling for a bit we went for drinks at this pub in the town. It gets dark so late here it takes a while to get used to it. Then walked back to have supper.

5/7/2014

Day 15

We are going to England and leaving France behind!!

Today we boarded a ferry to Poole (England). We took the train from Caen to Cherbourg to the harbour to board the ferry. While on the train to Cherbourg the weather changed from sunny partly cloudy to misty and raining. We had to wait a while at the harbour to be able to pass security and passport control to be able to board the ferry. To me it looked more like a ship. The ferry can carry passengers and cars as well. The ferry had places to sit and places to eat and look out across the channel. There were quite a lot of children on board.

I actually felt sea sick when crossing the channel and apparently we were having a smooth channel crossing even though it was cloudy and raining. I would hate to know when the channel is actually choppy! I had a good supper of stew. It tasted so good for a ferry’s food. The only food I actually had that day was salad for lunch. I felt too sick to read so luckily the ferry had free WIFI so I managed to get connected, so I could talk to people back home in South Africa.

4/7/2014

Day 14

Woke up early again and to get picked up to go to Mont-Saint-Michel. This is a monastery which is a bit like a castle and there are villages around it and it is on an island. The monastery and village is medieval style. Our guide showed us around Mont-Saint-Michel said that there where hotels on the island but they were very expensive and they are usually for the honeymooners. The village is full of shops and restaurants (pubs would be the better term). Our guide took as round the Monastery with its chapel and a beautiful view of the sea. We managed to walk out of there just after lunch time before the masses of tours buses and people arrived.

Mont-Saint-Machel

3/7/2014

Day 13

This morning we woke up early and went down to breakfast and afterwards headed off to the Normandy beaches and see the museum, which was emotional, but interesting all the same. Just seeing the beach were the battle took place brought everything in perspective as well and I learnt a lot. There is so much detail I didn’t know about the battle of D-Day in South of France. How those men sacrificed everything for their country and for their freedom. After the beaches we drove to a graveyard where all the Americans and French soldiers where buried. All the tombs are white and the grass is always cut and the graveyard is kept clean and beautiful.

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Graveyard

2/7/2014

Day 12

We arrived in Paris. To me it was not how I remembered Paris. The one bumper of walking across Paris to get to another train station was that we couldn’t stop at tourist sites long enough. I wished I could have gone into Notre dame cathedral to light a candle for Kieron and I because the queue was so long and we didn’t have enough time. Then we caught a train to Caen by now I am so tired and my head is sore, so time to sleep. I do miss my other half.

Outside Notre Dame Cathedral

1/7/2014

Day 11

We drove to Venice airport to drop off the car then decided to take a water taxis to the main town of Venice for the day.

After spending some time there with having lunch and my sister nearly breaking my parents bank account with shopping. Then later in the afternoon we went back to the train station, picked up our bags from the locker room and boarded an overnight train to Paris.

People think that European overnight trains are better than South Africa but not this train. The bank beds where uncomfortable and we had to buy our breakfast and supper which the food wasn’t the greatest.

Next stop Paris.

The streets of Venice

The canal

Overnight train