London!!!

After such a long time on the go, it was time to get to know london at a more leisurely pace. We had the experts (ben & ness) helping us along. They set us up with the essentials for any londoner such as an oyster card and a tube map and, of course, how to get home to their place! Other important information to know in london such as not to go to the dodgy areas and don’t eat from the fried chicken from the shop down the road.

It was when we got back to London that Nay finally agreed to see a doctor about her tonsillitis. By this time, the tonsillitis had been around for about 3 weeks and it was now time to get drugs as it was obviously not going away. So, we consulted the experts (ben and ness) about how to see a doctor and a medi centre was the way to go. Its not as easy as in Australia to see a doctor as you need to be registered and make an appointment. Luckily the medi centres are walk in places and no appointment is needed. 89 pounds later (eeekkk!!!), we finally had some drugs and a much happier nay! (well apart from the doctor checking her ears, only to find out that the infection had reached there, and that the ear looking implement caused a huge amount of pain for nay whilst she was getting checked up, that tears flowed from her eyes!!)

We managed to get heaps of sleep in the week that we stayed with ben and ness and also took our time at learning to get our way around. London is a great city with lots to see and do. Ness gave us some great ideas of what to do during the day and also the good and the bad touristy stuff to do. We saw all the usual things, Houses of Parliament, Westmininster, the London Eye, Harrods, Oxford Street a couple of funny looking bridges etc……. We also spent an evening in Greenwich which is a cute little town/city/suburb (not sure what to call it) on the thames. There is a huge park there with an observatory which is also where the Greenwich Mean Time line is.

On the weekend, we also headed to Kent, where Ben’s mum lives. We met Ben’s little brother, Stan. While Ben was visiting his mum, we headed to Canturbury where there is a huge cathedral. Canturbury is a gorgeous little town with lots of little cafes and shopping! While we were in Canterbury, we found a little café/food shop called Nasons – what a great name!!

Ness also took us to Brighton for the day, which is basically where the beach is and the world famous brighton pier! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very warm day (how unusual) so no swimming, but we did explore the pier and the beachside. It was completely packed and seeing we were kind of at a fair, it was time to eat like we were – as you can see from the photos we made ourselves completely sick on fairy floss and sugar soaked donuts!

So again, it was time to say farewell to ness and ben and time to explore paris and see dad!!!

Spain - Madrid, Valencia & Barcelona

After arriving back in Madrid after our busabout tour, it was time to explore Madrid. Madrid is a huge bustling city, which lots going on all the time. We stayed on the corner of the Gran via, which is basically the main road through the city. There were always lots of people everywhere (& lots of ladies of the night!)

On our first day in Madrid we decided it was time to see some art and get some culture. We visited the Prado art gallery which is a HUGE art gallery and basically took us most of the day to see it. Lots of interesting pieces of art and by some very famous artists such as Rembrandt. After visiting the art gallery is was time for a nap, looking at art is exhausting! We went to the largest park in Madrid (I can’t remember the name of it!) but it had a lake in the middle that you could hire little row boats and it took over an hour to walk from one end to the other, so that gives you an idea of the size of the park. The gardens were beautiful and so manicured, it was also very hot the day we went to the park so the thought of running through the fountains was becoming more and more tempting, but we did restrain ourselves.

Madrid is also well known for its shopping, particularly shoes. There are shoe shops on every corner and there are also some great clothing bargains. We didn’t buy too much and we could still lift our suitcases!

We also visited in Madrid, the old royal palace. It was amazing and soooo beautiful. All the ceilings were painted with artworks, there were even entire rooms made out of porcelin. Unfortunately we weren't able to take photos in the palace, but it was beautiful. The staircase was made out of marble and bannister was all gold.

Our next stop after Madrid was Valencia. We had planned to buy a train ticket on the morning to head to Valencia, and we arrived quite early and yet the whole train was sold out! We had 3 options, one of the options was to catch the slow train which wasn’t leaving until 12ish which would take about 5 or 6 hours to get to Valencia, the other option was to wait until 2pm for the fast train which would take 3 hours or go 1st class and have all the meals included in our trip. So, we decided to treat ourselves and go first class!! It was great, we were completely spoilt with everything included and therefore we arrived in valencia in style!

Valencia is an interesting city. There is an old city and a new city but the old city seems like a completely different place altogether. Unfortunately Nay was quite sick with the usual tonsillitis and could barely move one of the days so we did have to take it quite slow. We did get a bit worried at one point that she had contracted malaria as the body aches, fevers and headaches were so bad, but luckily she picked up and there was no need for a hospital visit. The one cool thing about Valencia is that it has a dry river bed running through the entire city which has been turned into parkland. You can hire bikes and ride around the park, however we just went for a stroll!

Next, it was onto Barcelona, the 1 city that jay and I had been looking forward to visiting for some time. The train trip was great, some of the trip went along the ocean and there were some great views along the way. Barcelona is another bustling city with people everywhere, particularly in La Ramblas which is the main street in the city, which is full of restaurants (where you can people watch for a price!) and street artists etc. There was also a massive food market where jay and I went everyday for our morning coffee and sometimes lunch. The food was so fresh that they cook it all in front of you. We also visited the Picasso museum which also had a special photography exhibition which showed photos into his private life that one of his friendsnds had taken, it was excellent!

On our last day in Barcelona, we went on a day trip to monserrat which is about 1.5 hours out of barcelona. Basically there is a monastry on this huge mountain and the rocks are in a very unusual formation. We had to catch a cable car to the top of the mountain which took 40 people (very squishy)!!!! From the top of the mountain, there were fantastic views and it was great to see into the lives of the monks that live there and the history.