Europe 2011

2011-07-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

This blog is a diary of our holiday to Europe in June/July 2011. To navigate to the various days it's probably easiest to click on the link to that day on the right of this post.

To enlarge the photos, double-click on them.

The "Nuts and Bolts" of our holiday

2011-07-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Quite a few people have asked me who I booked various bits of our holiday through etc. so I thought I'd list it all here:

LONDON:

Transfers: Our airport transfers in London were done through Exclusive airports

I am a firm (very firm!) believer in private airport and train station transfers. I know many people will argue that there are MUCH cheaper ways to get from the airport to your hotel - they are completely correct and if it works for them, cool beans! BUT we are no good at lugging lots of luggage (and heaven knows we always have lots of luggage!) onto buses, tubes or trains and up and down stairs and escalators. We get very grumpy. There is shouting and cursing and sometimes there are tears….

Trust me, there is nothing nicer than seeing a man, in a suit, at the door, holding a board with your name on it eager to usher you and your (very heavy) suitcases into a nice clean vehicle and transport you to your hotel with the minimum amount of fuss! It SOOO works for me!

We did one trip (from Richmond station back to our London hotel) without a transfer on this holiday and I VOWED, through gritted teeth (and some tears) that we will NEVER, so help me, do it again!! Next time there will be a man, in a suit, at Richmond station waiting to usher me (and my very heavy luggage) into his vehicle....

Oyster card: We did all our travelling in London using our oyster cards. It really is the way to go – you can use the oyster card on tubes, buses and trains – all you do is shove the oyster card against the big yellow disc that is prominently displayed as you enter the tube/climb onto the bus etc. You can top the oyster card up via ATM-type machines in the tube stations or at many shops. You can buy your oyster card at the visa application centre when you go to apply for your UK visa.

Hotel: This is a difficult one for me as I’m very torn about the hotel we stayed at. It was the Luna Simone Hotel in Belgrave Rd. This hotel gets RAVE reviews on Tripadvisor.com but I’m in 2 minds about it. There is indeed lots to like about it: It’s a really small hotel, the location is excellent, there are lovely little restaurants and a good pub very close by, the breakfast is basic (egg, bacon, beans, toast etc) but very good, the hotel is clean, there is free Wi-Fi and a computer available, the No.24 bus stops literally at the door (The number 24 bus is brilliant because it stops at really convenient places eg Victoria station, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Leicester square etc), the staff (I believe it’s owner run) are very friendly and helpful. My problem with the place is that the rooms are really small and very basic (although I must say that the bathrooms, although tiny, are nice and mod) and there is no lift, so lugging your (very heavy) suitcase up the stairs is not a lot of fun. Having said that, the hotel is very competitively priced for what you are getting. Would I stay there again? Probably

London walks: We LOVE the London walks. You don’t need to pre-book, you just pitch up at the start of the Walk, pay your £8 and off you go.

Tickets for shows: I bought our tickets for Ghost and Riverdance through Ticketmaster

RAIL:

Rail Europe: I bought our Eurostar tickets through Rail Europe (the South African site) BUT be careful, their prices aren’t always the cheapest, so check the Eurostar website as well. Our Ellipsos Trenhotel tickets were also bought through Rail Europe, but it worked out literally thousands of rands cheaper for my friend in the UK to buy them through their UK website and for me to wire the money to her via a Moneygram.

Seat61.com: if you’re planning a rail trip, this is your go-to website!

PARIS:

Transfer: Paris-taxi.net (Note: This was a VERY pretty "man in suit"!)

Hotel: Hotel des Grands Hommes The most fantastic hotel - it's got it all... location, decor, amazing staff. I booked directly through the hotel's website.

Conciergerie.com: I had pre-booked our Paris Visite Metro cards, our train tickets to Versailles as well as our Seine Cruise and Illuminations tour through Conciergerie.com and I found their service very good. The envelope with all our bits and pieces was waiting for us, as promised, on arrival at our hotel and the tour we booked through them was excellent.

Paris visite cards: Work exactly the same as the Oyster cards, but come in the form of a little ticket. Best way to get around the Paris Metro and you can use it on buses and the funicular at Montmartre as well.

Classic Walks Paris: The walking tour we did of the Latin Quarter was done with Classic Walks Paris the guide was a super chap and I would definitely do another of their walks. They also do the Fat Bike Tours around Paris.

Versailles:

· Getting there: Take the RER Line C, bound for Versailles Rive Gauche station. Come out of the station, cross the road and turn right, walk to the main road where you’ll clearly see the palace, on top of the hill to the left (alternatively follow the crowds!). It’s best to aim to leave Paris at about 08:00 as you want to get to Versailles before the tour buses arrive.

· It is a very good idea to pre-book your tickets to Versailles as the queues to buy tickets on arrival are very long. If you have purchased your ticket on the internet beforehand you can by-pass the long queue and enter through Entrance A (you still have to queue, but not for as long!) I got our tickets direct from the Palace of Versailles website

· There is a little train that runs around the extensive grounds, stopping at the Petit Trianon and the Grand Canal, I would strongly recommend catching this train, or hiring a golf cart, as the grounds are HUGE. The train wasn’t very well publicised on the day we were there (perhaps because of the rain?) but it’s worth looking for it, it’s parked a little to the back of the palace and you buy the tickets at a small booth nearby before boarding the train.

Montmartre: So worth a visit, I still have much I want to do in Montmartre! In my opinion, the best way to see Montmartre is to catch the Metro to Blanche station – come out of the station and you are at the famous windmill of the Moulin Rouge and the Little Train of Montmartre starts right there. Buy your ticket, hop on the train either do an entire round-trip (which we have yet to do!) or get off at the huge dome of Sacre Coeur, stop to admire the view and then walk the short distance to Place du Teatre and wander the streets around there. Once you have had your fill of that area (it’s yet to happen to me!) catch the funicular down the hill, turn right and walk to Abbesses metro station, stopping at the “I love you” wall right near the station. Of course, this is just what I like to do in Montmartre, there are many other options including walking tours with various companies (incl Classic Walks Paris), guided tours and self-guided walking tours: (this is a great one, even if you just use the map and wander at will)

SPAIN:

Transfer: I wouldn’t recommend the transfer company we used for our inward transfer. Outbound we used the same driver that our tour company used to transport us to the start of our tour in Granada, who was great, but doesn’t have a website. Next time I would probably use these people.

Top tours: I booked our tours in Spain with Top Tours. They were fantastic.

Club La Costa: We booked our timeshare in Spain through RCI and stayed at Club La Costa. Prior to our holiday I had seen some rather grim reviews for CLC, so was expecting the worst, but we loved our time at the resort. Club La Costa on the Costa del Sol is a really big resort, split into various sections, each with their own swimming pools. There is a little “train” that goes round the resort and you can hop-on and hop-off at various stops.

There are numerous restaurants throughout the resort, ranging from more upmarket to poolside “hamburger and chips” type places. On site you will find a small supermarket, a little deli and a gift shop. There is entertainment provided each day of the week for children as well as adults – face-painting, quizz nights, archery lessons…. that kind of stuff. Entertainment is offered in at least 3 or 4 of the restaurants each night – while we were there, there was a show with music from the 80s, a Latin American dancing exhibition, a karaoke night, another musical show of some sort, the Paella evening and flamenco show that we went to etc etc.

The resort offers a full programme of excursions to various places – you can read about the excursions on offer here: There is also a shuttle bus to Fuengirola offered twice a week, another to Marbella and one to Puerto Banus, all very reasonably priced. Free wi-fi is offered in the reception lounge as well as in some of the restaurants.

The unit we stayed in was lovely, not over the top fancy, but perfect for us. We had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an open-plan lounge/dining area and a lovely big, private verandah, the kitchen was small, but had the basics there was a washing machine in our unit which was wonderful after 9 days without any laundry facilities. Our unit was lovely and private, I think some of the units near the pools would have a problem with passers-by being able to see in. Dad’s unit was also very nice, he had an air con, which we didn’t, but he only had one bathroom.

I really enjoyed our stay at CLC and would love to go back sometime.

DUBLIN:

Transfers: Tour Dublin

Tour Dublin: We did our private tour of Dublin with Kieran from Tour Dublin. He was absolutely wonderful – friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. He tailor-made our tour to our exact specifications… I’d highly recommend him to anyone wanting to tour Dublin or surrounds.

Irish Highlights: Our tour of Ireland was with Trafalgar Tours. We’re great fans of Trafalgar!

DUBAI:

Transfers: Arabian Adventures - Booked by travel agent

Hotel: Hotel Al Manzil This was a fantastic hotel, right next to the Dubai Mall. The staff were the most friendly I have ever come across. Highly recommended.

Desert Safari: Orient tours I booked through Viator

Half-day tour of Dubai: Orient tours I booked through Viator

Ski Dubai: I would strongly suggest pre-booking ski-lessons at this website. You need to be there one hour before the lesson.

Taxis: We got around Dubai by taxi – they are very plentiful and not too badly priced. There is a metro, but the nearest stop to our hotel was at an awkward place, that would have involved walking in the heat, so we skipped the metro this time.

Holiday Round-up

2011-07-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

I loved this holiday, I felt it was just the right mix of busy-busy-busy and kick-back-and-relax. I enjoyed doing a lot of our travelling independently this time, but then the tour came at just the right time and it was so nice to hand over the organisational responsibilities to the tour director.

Highlights for me:

· The morning Paula and I spent in Notting Hill and Portobello market – this was not only a lovely sightseeing adventure, but it was the best quality time Paulz and I have spent together probably ever!

· Seeing Colin Firth…. I’m childish like that!

· Our Paris hotel, it was really lovely

· Fete de la Musique in Paris - absolutely awesome evening

· Seine cruise. I love Paris and viewing it from the Seine is magical

· The train trip from Paris to Madrid – something so different

· The San Miguel market in Madrid GOT to go back there!

· Swimming in the Med – loved the family time we spent on the beach in Spain

· The village of Mijas

· Riverdance in Dublin – wow!

· The day we spent in Dublin with Kieran, going to all the Guinness family places

· Seeing the Smiths…. Always a highlight. Lis and Trev go to so much trouble for us every time we stay with them. They drive all over the place fetching and carrying us, take us to lovely places, allow us to completely take over their house, their laundry, their lives…. AND Lis leaves our favourite choccies on our beds for us, makes the best cup cakes in the world and her special “house coffee” is the bomb.

· The New Forest. My love-affair with the New Forest continues…

· Debenhams (‘nuff said)

· Ghost the Musical

· Dune bashing

· The fountains outside Dubai Mall

Biggest laugh of the holiday - a toss up between Grant’s “wardrobe malfunction” (don’t ask!!) on the way back from Putney and Grant throwing a cushion at the head of a crotchety old woman on the train between Madrid and Malaga (unintentionally!) Oh and let’s not forget Grant’s seal impersonation in Ireland… you see why we love holidaying with Grant!! He keeps us laughing ALL the time!

Biggest disappointment – the weather on the day we did the Ring of Kerry

Biggest surprise of the holiday – how much scaredy cat me loved the dune bashing. As Rox said, I was wearing my triple X “big girl panties” ;-)

Best hotel – Hotel des Grands Hommes in Paris

Best meal – Tapas at Oscar’s in Mijas

Worst meal – the lunch we had in Granada, which was unfortunately also the most expensive meal of the holiday!

Day 29

2011-07-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

I didn’t sleep at all well last night, probably something to do with the fact that I can’t cope with caffeine, but had 2 caffeinated coffees while watching the skiing yesterday (some people just never learn!) We had an early start as we had to be at breakfast by 06:45. I had a really good breakfast of fruit salad, yoghurt, poached egg with tomato, mushrooms and potato cake and chocolate mousse! I kid you not!

Our transport arrived at 07:25 and we set off for Dubai airport. Got to the airport and Rox and I accomplished our mission of buying bottles of Baileys to bring home. We did the usual hanging about that happens in airports and finally boarded our plane right on time.

I found flying in the day waaaay better than flying at night, I’d never do a night-time flight again if I could avoid it.

We landed right on time at Durban airport, and then waited an hour for our luggage to arrive on the carousel… not the best welcome home ever!

And that was that! Holiday over!

Day 28

2011-07-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

We got up fairly early and had breakfast before our tour guide picked us up for our 4 hour tour of Dubai city. The guide was a very friendly chap and he took us on a really nice tour. We went onto the palm island and stopped outside the Atlantis hotel,

got good views of the Burj al Arab

went to the Dubai museum (much more interesting than I had expected),

as well as the Jumeira mosque,

caught a water taxi across Dubai Creek to the Spice and Gold Souks ( I enjoyed the Spice Souk, but the gold souk just wasn't my thing at all)

this hideous ring is yet another of the world records in Dubai

and saw various other bits and pieces.

Our guide dropped us off at the Dubai Mall where we took a walk past the huge glass wall of the aquarium (another World Record) and then went and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. One of our silly family traditions is to have a meal in a Chinese restaurant in every country we go to…. I have no idea why!

After lunch Paula and Grant did the "At the Top" thing (they caught a lift to the 124^th floor of the Burj Khalifa (it's not really at the top at all!) at a speed of 10m per second, it took 59seconds to get to the top, you do the maths!!) and Dad, Rox and I returned to our hotel for some down-time.

Double click to enlarge:

The photos below are taken from "At the Top" - the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa

In the photo above, our hotel is on the extreme left, just above the road

View of our hotel (zoomed right in!)

At 4pm we met Grant and Paula and we caught a taxi to Mall of the Emirates. I had pre-booked an hour long lesson for Grant, Rox and Paulz on the ski slope there. Dad and I went and had coffee at a restaurant with a good view of the ski slopes and got to see the family having their lesson. What fun! I thought they all did really well, but Rox especially seems to have a knack for skiing.

After the skiing fun was over we headed back to Dubai Mall for a pizza supper and popcorn dessert (Weird, but that's what we felt like!) We timed it just right to see the fountains do their thing at 9pm. This time the music was Arabic, the fountains were awesome, but I definitely preferred last night’s show.

Day 27

2011-07-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

Although our flight from London to Dubai was fairly short – just over 6 hours, there was a time difference to contend with. According to our body clocks, we landed in Dubai just after 3am, Dubai time was trying to tell us it was after 6am! Shew, we were tired! I clearly don’t cope well on only 3 hrs of dozing time…

Anyway, we got to our hotel, the Al Manzil, and it was really stunning and the reception staff were outstanding, so that brightened things up somewhat. We grabbed some breakfast at a café attached to the hotel and then made our way to Dubai Mall (a very short walk away) via a bridge that gives the most awesome view of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building/man made structure in the world!)

Dubai Mall is something to behold – it’s huge (the largest shopping mall in the world I gather…. Dubai is simply bursting at the seams with World Records) and beautiful, full of all the major shopping names from around the world.

We had a wander around and then made our way back to our hotel, where our rooms were ready for us.

By this time it was HOT! It’s a very different sort of heat, dry and the air feels quite thick, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected and we coped fine as long as we minimised our time out of the air-conditioning.

We all headed up to our rooms to shower and catch a nap before our trip out into the desert. To be honest I was not looking forward to the Desert Safari at all… I was really tired and it was not my scene, or so I thought! As it turned out, it was sooo much fun and something I would recommend to anyone who goes to Dubai. We were collected at 4pm in an air-conditioned land cruiser and then drove out to a central meeting point, where all the other people going on the safari met us – there must have been about 8 other vehicles in total.

Having all gathered, we set out in convoy driving along a tarred road until we got to the desert “proper”. And then the fun started! We stopped so that the drivers could let down their tyres and then we hit those dunes with a vengeance. I have never been more terrified in my life, but I loved it! We went roaring up dunes and skidding down them this way, that way and every which way. Our driver wasn’t satisfied until we were all shrieking!

We stopped for a really nice photo op, deep in the desert and then set off again, next stop was at a camel farm, and then we made our way to our dinner stop.

We came to a sort of oasis in the desert, huts set out in a circle, with large cushions to sit on and tables, as well as a few little “shops”. The girls and Grant did some dune-boarding and Paula and I got mendhi on our hands (all complimentary.) There were also camel rides available, you could watch a chap doing sand art (amazing!) and there was a guy with a falcon.

We were free to help ourselves to soft drinks, but alcoholic drinks had to be paid for. The supper was really good: salads, flat breads, dhal curry, basmati rice, chicken and beef. There were Arabian sweetmeats for dessert as well as coffee and tea. After supper there was entertainment by a belly-dancer – she was really good, much better than the one in Egypt!

After the camels had done an amazing walk past, it was time to go back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!

On the way back our tour guide suggested that he drop us off at the fountains at the Dubai Mall (they’re conveniently situated directly between our hotel and the Mall) I am so glad he suggested this as the fountain display turned out to be one of the highlights of our holiday. We got a really good spot and waited for about 20 minutes for the display to start, more and more people were gathering as time went by, so I’m glad we got there early! At 9:30pm the Burj Khalifa started to twinkle with lights and then the fountain display began. The Prayer by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion was playing and the fountains moved in time to the music…. You had to see it to believe it, it was the most beautiful thing I have seen in the longest time! It literally brought tears to my eyes….. (and anyone who knows me well will know that that is a rare and wonderous thing!)

Day 26

2011-07-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

We slept in after our late night and managed to miss breakfast! Not a huge problem as we stopped in at the local Starbucks on our way to Victoria station to catch our tube to the Globe Theatre.

The Globe Theatre tour was intended to be purely an educational outing – just to ensure that our holiday is not only about shopping (in excess), eating (in excess), drinking (in excess) and laughing at stupid jokes…. we try to pack at least one educational outing into (I’m SO tempted to say “each day” at this point, but that would be an outright lie, even “each week” would be stretching the truth a little (OKAY a lot!), so I’ll have to settle for…) each holiday. Turns out the Globe was a lot more fun than we had imagined, maybe we’re becoming culture vultures after all!!

After the Globe we hopped onto a tube and set off for Abbey Road, we were determined to capture a Beatles moment on camera! This was a whole lot more difficult to do than it looks… there are LOTS of people who want to capture their Beatles moments and there are many poor motorists trying to go about their business, having to dodge the silly tourists…. There is a web cam up in the tree that captures all this silliness on camera!

Having strutted our stuff, we got back on the tube for a final time and went and had lunch and a couple of pear ciders in our “Local”.(…. you'll notice that the minute the Cultural Moment was over we reverted straight back to our wicked ways!) Then it was time to pack and get our transfer to Heathrow. Charlie met us at the airport for a drink, it was so good to see him again! And then it was onto the plane and the Europe part of our holiday was over!! It went SO fast….

Day 25

2011-07-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

Today we had a fairly leisurely start to the day. Lisa, Rox, Paula and I left the house at 9am to hit the shops in Guildford (I know, we just can’t stay out of the shops!) We had a list of particular shops we wanted to get to, so there was no dilly-dallying around and after 3 hours (my soul, was it that long?!) of intense retail therapy, we were home. We quickly packed up our belongings… squeeeeeezed the cases shut and piled into the cars, headed to Richmond.

We took a short drive through the gorgeous park there, to see the deer and then we went to a pub on the river for lunch. After lunch we said good-bye to Lis and Trev (I hate it, ‘cause we never know when we’re going to see each other again… the down-side of a trans-continental friendship!) and set off for our hotel in London.

We got to the hotel, freshened up and then hopped on our faithful No.24 bus to Leicester Square, and then a short walk (with some help from the iphone!) to the Piccadilly Theatre where we picked up our tickets for Ghost. We popped into a nearby pub for Grant, Rox and my latest favourite drink – Rekorderlig Pear Cider…. Ooooh very yummy!!

We then went back to the theatre and saw Ghost the Musical…. It was absolutely amazing, loved it!

After the show we wandered back to our bus stop, stopping briefly to pick up a couple of large slices of pizza. We couldn’t get over the crowds of people wandering around the west end so late on a Monday night.

Day 24

2011-07-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

Today Lisa and Trev took us to the New Forest. I have an on-going love affair with the New Forest! First stop was Lyndhurst, where we wandered down the quaint main street, stopping at a couple of shops (obviously!)

We then drove to Lymington and en-route us girls decided that we should catch the ferry to the Isle of Wight, unfortunately that was not to be as the car ferry had already left and the little boat that the Smith’s had previously caught to the Isle of Wight, now only does short trips that don’t stop at the Isle. Oh dear, that was a bit of a disappointment... We took a half hour cruise out of Lymington harbour instead and at least got to see the Isle and it’s needles close up.

We then took a wander around Lymington, had a pub lunch and some divine ginger ice-cream, before driving on to Burley.

I fell in love with Burley on my first visit there about 11 or 12 years ago. It is my very favourite place in the world. There is just something about this tiny little village that captivates me. I've never gotten over the novelty of the wild horses that roam the streets...

The village has strong links with witches, and some would say that is reason enough for me to feel right at home there ;-)

Whatever the reason, this was my fourth visit to Burley and I still love, love, love the place! We wandered about for a while and then visited the cider brewery:

I really wanted to like the cider, but..... yeuch! Finally, after a cream tea, we headed back to Guildford and a nice, quiet evening at the Smith’s house.

Day 23

2011-07-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

We had a little lie in this morning and then went down for our final “full Irish breakfast” (which generally consists of a buffet with: fruit and yoghurt, various cereals, egg, bacon, sausages, tomato, baked beans, usually white pudding and toast, with tea/coffee/fruit juice)

We then packed up, before leaving for Dublin airport at 09:30. We very nervously checked our luggage in, but this time had no problems with being over the 20kgs… because we had learnt something… we loaded our hand luggage like you would not believe! Dad carried my full week’s worth of dirty laundry in his carry-on bag, thankfully they had no reason to search it, because I think he would have had a hard time explaining the ladies underwear…. LOL!!

So we staggered through the various parts of the airport, each of us carrying about 10kgs in our hand luggage and very thankfully boarded our place at 12:05. Jislaaik, I did NOT enjoy our flight to London. I have realised something important – I do NOT do planes with less than 2 aisles! This one had one aisle with 3 seats on each side… it was like a little toy plane and it bumped about all the way to London. When we finally landed Grant had to peel my fingers off the arm rests… I was in some sort of catatonic state, staring fixedly in front of me. It was really not fun!

Lisa and Trev were there to pick us up and once I got into the car with my BFF and started chatting I felt a lot better. The girls and I persuaded Lisa that we really HAD to go straight to Sainsbury’s and so she obliged and we wandered around the supermarket for about half an hour, ooohing and aaahing over all the stuff that we can’t get at home… and then, the best bit, we went through the self-service till, where we got to scan our own ~~sweets and chocolates~~ groceries! Too much of excitement.! We really are sad monkeys!

This evening we had a good ol’ South African braai and I got to meet Lisa’s great niece, Jess, who is the sweetest little one year old poppet! Good times!

Day 22

2011-07-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

We had a slightly later start today, thankfully! After breakfast we got onto the bus and went back to Bunratty Castle (the venue of last nights ceilidh.)

First we did a tour of the castle, led by the dearest little elderly Irish man who I am convinced was a leprechaun in a past life! Once he had given us a short tour, we were free to browse around the castle, it was absolutely awesome. I loved history at school and wandering around the castle brought the lessons on the middle ages that I so enjoyed as a kid to life.

Once we had finished in the castle we wandered around the folk park at our leisure. The folk park was absolutely amazing! It is an authentic replica of an Irish village from the 1800s, some of the cottages were brought stone-by-stone from other places and reconstructed at the folk park. There were farm cottages of all sorts, one a poor tenant farmer’s cottage with the cattle stall in the house! There was a school house, with an actor playing the part of the school master. There was a doctor’s surgery, a blacksmith’s shop, a pub, village shops etc etc. There were turf fires lit in the grates, animals wandering about, and in some of the exhibits, actors playing the roles of the people who would have lived there. Really, really awesome! I could quite easily have spent a few more hours wandering about.

But after about an hour and a half it was back on the bus, headed for Galway. First stop was the beautiful Galway Cathedral, a really beautiful building, with probably the most impressive stained glass window I’ve ever seen.

We then drove into the centre of town, on arrival we immediately saw a pub called…. “Richardson’s”, making a mental note to go there for a drink later on, we walked down the main street of Galway, which is pedestrianised and found a little restaurant to eat some lunch. We shared a couple of pizzas and then took a slow wander through town, before heading back to “Richardson’s” for a drink. On hearing that we were in fact Richardson’s, the owner? Manager?, well anyway, the guy in charge, insisted that we sign the guest book. The girl’s bought T-shirts and Grant bought a proper “Irish gentleman’s cap”.

It was then time to get back on the bus and head towards Dublin. On the way our tour guide Geraldine chatted to us about various things, but what I found really interesting were the bits and pieces she told us about Irish superstitions etc. I find this kind of stuff deeply fascinating! She showed us the piece of highway that was shifted a couple of metres to the right because otherwise it would have meant taking out a particular hawthorn tree, an act that would have “upset the faeries”. She also showed us a faeries rath – a circle of hawthorn trees on the side of the road that is believed to be a special place for the faeries.

We arrived in Dublin and went straight to the “Nancy Hands Pub” for our farewell supper. It’s a lovely atmospheric pub and we had a really good supper there. Can’t believe our tour is already at an end, it’s gone so fast. When we got back to the hotel we said good-bye to everyone and headed up to our rooms to sort out our suitcases and get organised for the next leg of our holiday. We’re staying at the hotel where we started our tour, which is a very good thing as Paula had forgotted THREE pairs of shoes there when we left on Monday!! Fortunately they had kept them and she was able to retrieve them.

Day 21

2011-07-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

This morning bags had to be out at 07:00 and breakfast was at 07:15. We left at 08:00, driving back the same way we headed out yesterday, through Killarney.

We stopped at a lovely gift shop at 09:00 and were presented with complimentary Irish Coffees at the door! Oh my soul, Irishes at 9am! You've got to love the Irish!! They were very good J As one of our tour-mates said – what a marketing tool! We were all very free with our money once the Irishes hit the spot!

We then headed off again, bound for the ferry which took us (and our bus) over the Shannon River. It was a short 20 minute ride on the ferry.

We then drove on through very pretty countryside, not as rugged as yesterday, but lovely mountains, farms, isolated houses and small villages. We saw a few traditional, old thatched houses, an amazing golf course, an area famed for it’s surfing and all sorts of other lovely bits and pieces along the way.

We got to the Cliffs of Moher in time for a walk around before lunch. The cliffs were absolutely stunning!

The photos don't do the cliffs justice - they are HUGE!

Which was more than could be said for the weather - drizzly, windy and freeeezing cold. But we thoroughly enjoyed our walk around the viewing area, seeing the cliffs as well as views over Galway Bay. We then made our way to the fantastic Visitors Centre that is set up at the Cliffs of Moher, for a bite of lunch. The visitors centre has shops, a restaurant and an amazing interactive exhibition – there’s a movie that gives you (literally) a bird’s eye view of the cliffs (it’s taken from the perspective of one of the birds that lives on the cliffs) and includes a dive into the sea at the foot of the cliffs – hard to explain, but very impressive!

There are other exhibits, all very hands on, about the animals that live in the area (including puffins!) the rocks etc etc. Really lovely to walk around there. We then had a spell of retail therapy…..we’re so baaad when it comes to the shops…

Then it was off to our hotel, the Radisson Blu, just outside Limerick. We freshened up and then piled into the bus for our optional excursion to a traditional Irish ceilidh (pronounced kaylee!) at nearby Bunratty castle.

We had a lovely evening. On arrival we were given the choice of a glass of mead – very delicious honeyed wine (sort of like muscadel) or Bailey’s on ice. And then for some unknown reason they chose to give our table the 3 left-over glasses of Bailey’s on ice (I think we have the look of bulk consumers about us…) a good start to proceedings I would say! The menu was good, 3 courses of traditional Irish food and a great big jug of red wine (surprisingly good) and another of white wine for each table. In-between courses we were entertained by the waiters and waitresses doing Irish dancing, playing the traditional Irish drum (whose name I have forgotten…) and singing. It was really a fun show. We got back on the bus and serenaded our tour guide (bless her!) with various Irish songs… luckily it was a fairly short ride back to the hotel!

At this point we REALLY should have gone to bed, but we headed for the pub in the hotel…. Fortunately, after one Bailey’s and a good chat to some of our tour-mates, good sense kicked in and we headed for bed.

Day 20

2011-07-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

This morning we had breakfast at 07:15 and left at 08:00. Today we drove around the Ring of Kerry and the weather gods have NOT been kind - of all days for it to rain..! Not fair…

First stop was at Muckross house for those doing the optional excursion there – we chose not to and instead, those of us who had opted out, were dropped in the centre of Killarney, which is a very nice place. We headed into a new mall there for a cup of hot chocolate to take the chill off things. Once we picked the others up we continued on our journey.

The views today were unbelievable, but the weather really affected things, there was quite a bit of mist and rain too. The scenery is much more rugged than what we have seen so far, but so, so beautiful. There were small settlements here and there and isolated farms. We drove up mountain passes and down into low-lying valleys, around little bays… it was all just too beautiful for words! If only the sun had shone, it would have been completely awesome. Grant and I have decided that we’d like to spend a full week in (on?) the Ring of Kerry – we just have to come back to see it again oneday!

We stopped at a quaint little pub at about 11am, it was called The Red Fox Inn and they claim to serve Ireland’s finest Irish Coffee, as we walked in they had a table set up to do just that and were doing a brisk trade, so we felt we had to put them to the test, and the Irishes were indeed fine! First time in my life I have had an Irish before lunch!

Then it was off to a restaurant over-looking Dingle Bay for lunch, what a view this place had! But of course, the weather didn’t play ball and within half an hour of our arriving the mist had come in and you couldn’t see more than a metre in front of you! Irritation!

We drove back to our hotel, through more picturesque little villages, it’s all just so pretty! A return visit is now firmly on my bucket list.

We got back to our hotel at about 3:30 and have decided on a quiet, lazy afternoon. I would have liked to walk into the village, but it’s a bit cold and miserable for that unfortunately. I don’t mean to sound moany, groany, we have been SO lucky with the weather so far, but really, the weather today has spoilt things – this was probably the most picturesque day of our tour and the day that depended most on the weather and the weather was plain lousy! Grrrrrr…..

Day 19

2011-07-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

We had to have our bags out at 07:00, and then headed down to the usual Irish breakfast (which generally consisted of fruits, yoghurt, cereals, eggs, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, baked beans and toast with tea or coffee.) Those going on the Waterford walk optional left at 8:00, we had opted not to do this optional. Instead we did a geocache and went for a walk to the nearby park. Once the others got back at about 09:15 we left the hotel, headed for the Blarney castle. It was a very scenic drive, we had a stop to take photos of the stupendous view along the way.

Our route took us via Youghal (pronounced “yawl”) and Cork to Blarney. I found Youghal very pretty and would have loved more time there.

We arrived at Blarney Castle and immediately joined the queue to kiss the Blarney stone. To get to the stone you have to climb up a steep, narrow, winding stair-case.

It sounds a lot worse than it is, I get quite claustrophobic, but I didn’t battle with this at all as after each turn in the staircase you come to a small opening with a pretty view of the gardens, which helps a lot.

Although there were a lot of steps to climb, it was very slow going because of the queue, so it wasn’t tiring at all.

See the metal structure on the turret below? That's where the Blarney stone is

Once you get to the top there is a guy who tells you to lie down on the padded cushion, grab onto the two metal struts to support yourself and lean far back to kiss the stone, while you are doing this a chap is taking a couple of photos of you, which you can then view and buy, along with a certificate stating that you have kissed the stone, at the kiosk downstairs if you are so inclined.

The kissing of the stone is a very rushed affair, you barely have time to pucker up and the guy is hauling you up and ushering the next person into position! Once the kissing was done we made our way done the stairs (one flight to come up, a different flight to go down, thankfully) and out into the very attractive gardens.

Oh dear, another one of those poses!

We did a quick geocache (our first Virtual Cache) along one of the very nicely sign-posted walks. Then it was time for lunch and we found a very nice pub in the village alongside the castle.

The Liverpool fan sat in an appropriate spot ;-)

After lunch we headed into the fantastic Blarney Woollen mill shop. Wow! My advice to anyone visiting Ireland who plans to visit Blarney Castle is to wait and do your shopping at this shop. They had a huge selection of everything from clothing (gorgeous scarves and sweaters included), to household linens, crockery, décor items as well as souvenirs, Ireland branded merchandise… you name it! If we didn’t have the weighty problem I would have gone completely moggy.

Once we left Blarney, it took just short of 2 hours to drive through the hills to Kenmare Bay Hotel, a very pretty drive. This is such a beautiful area. The town of Kenmare is gorgeous. We had an hour and a half to unpack etc and then we left on our optional extra excursion to the bay, where we had a cruise, seeing the sweetest seals, and 2 lovely castles, we then had a lovely dinner at a restaurant on the bay.

Double click on the above photo to see the seals!

Day 18

2011-07-04T04:47:00.000-07:00

This morning we were up bright and early – our bags had to be out at 06:45 and breakfast was at 07:00. We left straight after breakfast. Our first stop of the day was at the Irish National Stud and the Japanese Gardens. The stud was way more interesting than I had expected, quite fascinating in fact.

We were lead around the place by a cute young student who clearly enjoyed what he was doing. He showed us the various paddocks, some with young colts, others with mothers and foals

and finally we got to see the stallions. I found the stallions absolutely fascinating – these horses can cover up to 3 mares a day, totalling about 150 mares a season, the bottom price for one of their moderately “famous” stallions (i.e. he has won a few big races and his off-spring are proving to be quite successful horses) to cover a mare is €10 000! The prime stallion at the stud is charged out at €60 000 a "shot"!

Good grief, who knew?! These horses each have a large paddock to themselves and you should see their stables… great big fancy affairs, with skylights so that they can see the stars!

Then it was off to the Japanese gardens on the property… nice, but at that point I was busy working out how much money we could make from sending Rud out on stud duty, so my mind wasn’t properly on the gardens…

After a quick coffee break (and some shopping… what do the Richardsons do when they have a problem with over-weight luggage? They shop up a storm at every available opportunity… duh!) we were off on the next leg of our journey, to Killarney.

The drive was lovely, Ireland is really, really pretty. Killarney was a very attractive town and the castle was beautiful, with lovely rolling lawns lined with trees spreading out from it… lots of people picnicking there. That’s one thing I’ve noticed in Ireland, they have so many lovely parks and people flock there because they’re all free and in tip-top condition, spotlessly clean and beautifully cared for – you see so many people in the parks; walking their dogs, playing with their kids, sitting on the grass, jogging, cycling… it’s so nice.

We had lunch in a nice restaurant and then walked down the hill, crossed over a pretty bridge and found a geocache near the river.

It was a quick walk back upto the castle (we’re getting nice and fit on this holiday!) and we had time to sit on the grass near the castle before boarding our bus for the final leg of today’s travels.

Our final stop of the day was Waterford. I really liked Waterford. First up was the Waterford Glass Factory. Sadly, much of the original factory has closed down (economic down-turn and all that jazz) but a small part remains open and caters for the specialised market, making trophies and other special pieces. We had a tour of the factory and it was really interesting, watching how crystal vases etc get made. The prices in the shop were jaw-droppingly expensive, they had a great big grizzly bear for €30 000!! So I guess I won’t be getting any Waterford crystal for Christmas then!

Our hotel in Waterford is right on the quays, next to the lagoon, complete with swans. Very pretty!

We had about 45mins to freshen up before boarding the bus again for our optional extra excursion – a drive along the bay to a lovely old pub.

There we were entertained by 3 fairly elderly men who have a little band and play in the pub about 3 x a week or so. What characters! We had a really lovely evening, listening to them play and sing and joining in here and there.

Grant even got to do some Irish dancing!

And Roxy won a minature hurling hurling stick (traditional Irish game that they take very seriously here, it’s like hockey on steroids, they had the champs in Dublin last weekend and we got to watch a bit of it on TV! Looks very fast and very scary!!)

Day 17

2011-07-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

We had a fairly leisurely morning this morning, meeting at breakfast at about 08:30. After breakfast, Dad, Paula, Grant and I decided to do some serious geocaching. We managed to log 5 geocaches, a record for us!

We had a couple of really funny moments… at one point I was walking, entirely alone, down the pavement outside St Stephen’s green muttering “where am I going?” “am I going in the right direction?” passers-by must have thought I was insane!! Unbeknown to them, Grant and Paula were scuffling along behind the bushes on the inside of the railing, directing me to the geocache, …. Crazy! We eventually found the geocache and I managed to retrieve it through the railings!

We also found a geocache in the gardens of Dublin castle, the castle is sooo beautiful.

We saw quite a bit of Dublin while on the geocaching trail. I particularly like the Georgian architecture in Dublin, all the buildings look very similar, but the doors are painted different colours, it really looks nice.

Dad found a pub named after him (he's Neil Thomas Read)

Rox joined us half-way through the morning and we went in search of Molly Malone's statue. I have always had a thing for Molly....

We then did some shopping. Grafton Street on a Sunday is lovely. Dublin wakes up quite late on a Sunday – things only really get going at about noon, but then it’s great fun. There is a lovely vibe, lots of people out and about, buskers on the streets, I really enjoyed it.

We had lunch at a very good pub off Grafton St and then headed back to our hotel.

At 14:45 our tour officially started. We met our fellow tour-mates: we’re a large group of 48, with people from Canada, USA, Australia, 3 others from South Africa and one couple from New Zealand. There are 2 teenagers who look to be about the same age as Paula, a boy of about 12 or 13 and his younger brother and the rest are people our age and older. We didn’t dilly-dally, but set off straight away for an orientation tour of Dublin. We mainly drove around on the bus, seeing all the major sites.

We got off the bus and went into Trinity College, a really beautiful university, where we got to see the Book of Kells which is housed in the library there and was absolutely amazing to see. The library is awe-inspiring. They also had the “real live” skeleton of a giant (the poor man had a tumour on the pituitary gland) at the college, which was completely beside the point, but which I found fascinating!

Grant caught us unawares... I promise we weren't as bored as we look, we were waiting to get back on the bus!

We continued on our tour and also took a drive through Phoenix Park a huge park that borders on the President's home. It is really beautiful and full of families enjoying the sunshine. We were SO lucky, we got to see one of the herds of wild Fallow Deer that roam freely in the park, apparently it's almost unheard of for them to be this low down in the park at this time of year.

After the tour we had a short rest and then met up with our tour-mates for a Welcome Drink, introductions, and a short talk about our tour. A couple of the men on our tour look like they could be great fun. At the introduction we were asked to stand up, say who we were and where we are from and anything else that we felt like saying (it sounds scary, but it was all very relaxed and light-hearted)…. One elderly chap stood up, said “I’ve had a pint of Guinness and now I don’t remember who I am”… and promptly sat down! That broke the ice!!

We decided to have supper locally, and went to a nice Italian restaurant near our hotel. Then it was up to bed, for an early night as we have to have our bags out by 06:45 tomorrow morning!

Day 16

2011-07-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

We staggered down to breakfast after a horrendous night, feeling very grumpy, but having had some food and a chat about the day ahead we all felt remarkably better. Our fantastic tour guide, Kieran, picked us up at 9am and we set off on a tailor-made tour of all the Guinness family places of interest in Dublin. We felt like mini-celebrities for the day, as Kieran pointed out to all and sundry that Grant, Roxy and Paula were “direct descendants of Arthur Guinness himself”! As he said, why not milk it for all it's worth ?!

We started off at the graveyard just outside Dublin where Arthur is buried. What a lovely little spot! The cemetery itself is so pretty and the surrounding countryside is absolutely beautiful, exactly what you would imagine rural Ireland to look like.

The cemetery at Oughter Ard, with the traditional round tower

Arthur's descendants at his grave site

We then came back to Dublin and drove around many places of interest -

Dublin City Hall

including many relating specifically to the Guinness family: St Patrick’s cathedral (major restoration conducted in 1860-65 was funded by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness)

and the Guinness Brewery. The Guinness Brewery was such an awesome place to visit!

Can you see the family resemblance??

At the brewery, you are taken on a journey through the making of Guinness, all the way up a circular building (made to look like a pint of Guinness!), culminating in the Gravity Bar, which is a see-through round bar on the very top of the building with 360deg views of Dublin. After the brewery we stopped for lunch at The Church Restaurant, the (now de-consecrated) church where Arthur Guinness was married - an incredible restaurant that serves a mighty fine chowder.

After lunch we headed out to St Anne’s Park (the huge estate that once belonged to the Guinness family, which is now the most gorgeous public park) via Dublin bay. I have honestly never seen anything like the rose gardens at St Anne’s park in my entire life, and the scent of the roses….unbelievable!

We then drove around Dublin seeing various sights including the former (now derelict) U2 recording studios, a hotel owned by U2, the Molly Malone statue, the new developments in the dock area… so much…. ending at St Stephen’s Green which was bought, landscaped and given to the people of Dublin by Arthur Edward Guinness (Lord Ardilaun)

We then headed back to our hotel, after an awesome, awesome day. I have to say our tour guide Kieran was fantastic. He felt more like a really good friend than a tour guide, brilliant guy and very knowledgeable too!

We found 3 geocaches on our tour, one in the cemetery and 2 in St Anne’s park and we definitely got Kieran hooked on geocaching, he was almost more excited about our finds than we were! I’m thinking Tour Dublin may soon be running Geocaching Tours J

We were pretty tired after our hectic day, so headed next door to The Bleeding Horse (one of the oldest pubs in Dublin) for a quick bite to eat and then headed straight to bed.

Day 15

2011-07-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today we packed up and checked out of our resort in Spain and our driver arrived to fetch us as arranged at 10 am to take us to Malaga airport for our flight to Dublin.

One of the problems with this trip is the fact that on our Malaga/Dublin and Dublin/London flights we are only allowed 20kgs of luggage….big problem! You want to know how hard it is to pack only 20kgs for a full month, with expected weather ranging from 13 degrees to about 50 degrees C and 9 day stretches with no laundry facilities….? Well in my world it’s impossible! As was evidenced when we got to the check-in counter and were told that we were collectively 4 kgs over our allocated baggage allowance… and no, they would not ignore that fact… they charged us a whopping €60 penalty. Ouch! Eina! Pain! To add insult to injury, Grant discovered that he had forgotten his Leatherman in his hand luggage and that was promptly confiscated too! Freakin hell!

Anyway, we went and consoled ourselves at Starbucks and then boarded our flight. Only to discover that we were booked on the airline equivalent of a kindergarten…. Screaming brats wherever you looked and I mean that literally…. they were screaming! The ~~little shit~~ vile child 3 rows ahead of us, who screamed loudly and solidly for more than 25 minutes, can be thankful he was not born into my family, he wouldn’t survive a single day.

I decided to distract myself by watching a movie and chose “Blue Valentine” – I like both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, so reckoned it was a safe bet. Well! A more bizarre movie has never been made and as for the ending???? So yes… this flying experience was not a whole lot of fun!

In any event, we arrived safe and sound at Dublin airport, with all of our (very heavy) baggage. Our hotel in Dublin is one of those large, non-descript places. A bit of a let-down after the gorgeousness that was our Paris hotel, but it’s convenient as it is the hotel we’ll be using on the first night of our tour.

We checked in, unpacked (our very heavy luggage) and relaxed for a bit, before getting ready for a very exciting night out. Unfortunately we left our transport arrangements to Grant and Dad, which is why Rox and I found ourselves teetering along one endless block after another in our “going out shoes” - the guys felt we should walk to the theatre!

We had supper at a Chinese restaurant (more screaming brats, what is it with this place?)

and then headed to the Gaiety theatre, right next door, for Riverdance. It was amazing! We had seen the DVD and the making of it and seen the show live in Durban many moons ago, but to see it in Dublin...we loved every minute of it! What an experience!

Then it was back to the hotel for some sleep, or so we thought… unfortunately our hotel is situated in an area with verrrry many students and verrrrry many pubs… The noise! Unbelieveable!

Day 14

2011-06-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning knowing it was our last full day in Spain…. Nothing like that thought to put you on an instant downer!

We headed out at 08:30am to walk to the Castle of Sohail in Fuengirola. It was a lovely walk in the early morning, quite a climb up to the castle. We did a quick geocache up at the castle, had a look around, admired the view and then walked back to our resort.

Remember in Day 9 I mentioned the retired little boats used as braais? This is them..

Grant, Paulzi and I then walked down to the beach and had our final swim in the Med (sob, sob….)

The rest of the day was spent doing the nasty stuff…. Ironing, packing… you get the picture?! Although we did go out for a lovely meal at one of the restaurants at the resort, to say good-bye to our Spanish sojourn in style i.e with sangria!

We all fell a little in love with Spain - Grant and I reckon we could quite easily retire there one day... I wish! My heart was very sore to leave...

Day 13

2011-06-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to have a quiet day at the resort. We slept in and then headed to “our beach”. Dad had his first swim of the holiday and although he found the water cold and had to be coaxed in, he seemed to enjoy it and even went back for another swim later on… quite a miracle for a man who manages to swim but once a year on the coast!

Once we had had our fill of sea and sun, we went back to our units to take care of some mundane tasks (laundry etc) and then had a lunch of bread, cheese and olives – very good!

At about 5:30pm we caught a taxi to Mijas village. What an amazing place! Too gorgeous for words! It’s a traditional white pueblo (village), with winding streets. So picturesque!

Of course there are touristy shops all over the place, but also hidden gems. I loved this pottery shop we found and parted with quite a few euros there!

We found a tapas bar to have supper at, and it turned out we had hit the jackpot! What a fantastic supper! The woman who served us (couldn’t figure out if she was the waitress or the owner) was so sweet and the food was awesome.

After supper we wandered the streets some more, by this time it was very quiet and there were more locals about. We had a brief "situation" with Paula - she found the horses and donkeys that were working as taxis very heart-breaking and at one point actually burst into tears over a horse that looked a bit hot and tired. I totally get where she is coming from, this type of thing upsets me too, but unfortunately when you travel (and even at home!) you come across this sort of thing and what can you do but try to discourage it as best you can and then move on??

Mijas was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Spain – if you’re ever on the Costa del Sol I would highly recommend making the trip to Mijas. I have been told that it is way better in the late afternoon/early evening as it can get very crowded with tourist buses earlier in the day.

Day 12

2011-06-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

Today we caught the bus, provided by our resort, into Fuengirola. On Tuesdays there is a big street market in Fuengirola and that was where we were headed. There is an open air restaurant right next to the market which suited Dad and Grant perfectly! They sat there and drank beer, while us girls wandered around the market. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and came back with some clothes, other odds and ends and lots and lots of fruit and olives. The fruit here is really good and relatively cheap compared to home. As for the olives, they are the best! Stuffed with all sorts of things and utterly delicious. We joined the men for a jug of sangria and listened to live music being played in the square. Lovely times...

We then took a walk to find a restaurant for lunch and ended up at a place that served really nice food…. and sangria. After lunch we did a quick geocache at a nearby park and then caught our bus back to the resort.

The weather today is absolutely gorgeous, so instead of doing the siesta thing (which we’ve become mighty good at!) we headed to the beach. Having sussed things out over the last couple of days, we decided to head in the opposite direction to last time and bingo! We found a lovely beach within walking distance of our resort.

Brace yourselves... the peace sign photo opp has become quite the tradition in our family!

I can’t begin to describe how amazing it was. I am not a beach person by nature, but I LOVED it. The four of us bobbed around in the ocean for ages and ages. There were no waves at all, just gentle swells… too lovely for words. We then lay on the sand for a while, bobbed a bit more and finally took the walk home. A perfect afternoon indeed.

Tonight we went to a paella and sangria (yes!) evening with Flamenco dancing at one of the restaurants in the resort. The paella was awesome (huuuge helpings!), the sangria was excellent and the show was good too. A really lovely evening was had by all. It ended up being quite a late night!

Day 11

2011-06-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

I had pre-booked an excursion to Granada for today and our driver turned up at 08:00am as planned to collect us. The drive to Granada took two hours, with a 25min stop at a roadside service stop, where we had coffee, shopped and marvelled at the huge hunks of ham, complete with trotter attached, that were hanging up for sale.

It was fascinating, as we got close to Granada, to see the snow on the tops of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, while we were sitting in our sleeveless tops, in 30 deg C heat.

We drove straight to the Alhambra Palace, the main reason for our visit to Granada, and were met by our lovely local tour guide, who had a completely incomprehensible, unpronounceable name! Now this is where things get rather sad…. Grant’s camera lens had by this stage completely given up the ghost and the Alhambra Palace is a photographer’s dream come true! It is absolutely beautiful! Grant was SO frustrated. Fortunately, Rox had her camera handy and took some good photos.

We started our tour in the Generalife gardens, then moved on to the Alcazaba (ruins dating back to the 9^th century) and the palace of Charles V and finally, the best part, the Royal Palace – the Casa Real (parts of which date back to the 15^th century). Unfortunately, the Court of the Lions - one of the most beautiful parts of the Alhambra was undergoing renovations. (We had to laugh.... nearly every place we have been to in Europe this year has had some sort of scaffolding up! It's quite uncanny... and annoying!) Below are some photos, but I have to say, photos just don’t do the place justice!

After our tour finished, our driver picked us up and dropped us off in the centre of Granada, to get some lunch and have a little browse around the shops. Grant managed to replace his lens… a bit late in the day, unfortunately!

We then came back to the resort, enjoying the scenery on the way back – lots and lots of olive groves!

Day 10

2011-06-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

This morning we had another slow start, before heading into Fuengirola by taxi. Fuengirola is the nearest town to our timeshare – very much a touristy town, with MUCH nicer beaches than those in front of our resort.

Excuse photo quality, the camera is playing up!

On arrival in Fuengirola we decided to take the little “train” that runs on a circular route, passing by all the tourist hot-spots, to give us an idea of what there is to see and do in the town.

(We seem to have done the “little train” thing rather a lot this holiday! It works well for us.)

Having done that, we set out in search of a restaurant serving tapas, as we had all agreed that today was the day for tapas! We found just such a place, without too much trouble and settled down at a table on the side-walk. We all agreed that this was the best meal we’ve had on our holiday so far! It was delicious…. we shared plates of olives, bread, chourico sausage, chips, battered prawns, bite sized pieces of chicken and other bits and pieces… with a couple of jugs of sangria to wash it all down. Very yummy indeed!

After lunch we wandered around the beach front area, popping into various shops, buying the odd momento of our holiday, and eating extremely delicious ice-creams. That we had space in our tummies for ice-cream after the lunch we had consumed was actually quite disgusting!

We had seen lots of people with corn-rows in their hair and Paula was very pleased to find the lady doing these hair-styles on the pavement, Paulz immediately handed over her money and had her hair done, while I spent some time falling in love with the hairstylist’s little baby boy, Amma… the cutest little babe on the planet for sure… he let me cuddle him and coo at him to my heart’s content, it was bliss!

Eventually we decided it was siesta time (ah yes, a Spanish habit I can truly learn to love!) and caught a taxi back to our resort. Grant and I landed up in a taxi with a young guy who clearly had a big thing for Elvis… it felt very strange hurtling along a Spanish highway with one Elvis song after another (he didn’t like the slow tunes, skipped those every time) blaring in the background!

The rest of the day was spent tanning on our verandah, moseying around the resort, visiting the super-market etc. Quiet and peaceful.

Day 9

2011-06-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely lie-in this morning, waking up at about 08:00. I can’t believe how tired we are, but I guess it’s to be expected, we have been on the go, non-stop, since we landed in London!

We took things reeeallly slow today. Once we were all up and about we took the little train right the way around the entire complex, to get our bearings. We bought some basic groceries at the little supermarket and threw together a lunch of bread, cheese and cold meat and then succumbed to a siesta!

We finally found the energy to wander down to the beach. What a disappointment! The med looks so gorgeous from our verandah, but the beach is pathetic! It’s hard to explain, but trust me, our South African beaches are gorgeous compared to this one! The beach is really narrow and the sand is a weird dark colour, it’s just not pretty at all. The waves break right onto the shore, not far out like ours do – Paula learnt this the hard way after being dumped really badly, right on the shore – it was hilarious from where Rox and I were sitting…. arms and legs all over the place!! She emerged literally covered in sand.

It seems that the people take their beach visits very seriously! They come armed with gazebos, ghetto blasters, braais… the full monty! In fact they have what look like retired fishing boats filled with sand on the beaches and the people make braais in them…looks like fun. There were a couple of topless aunties on the beach, nothing to look at though… unless you go for unshaved armpits and droopy boobs… So, ja, the beach trip was nothing to write home about. We returned to the resort and parked off on our verandah…a much better view.

This evening we decided it was time to have a home-cooked meal, so we went and made use of Pop’s unit, with the dishwasher and all, to cook up a meal! Having had some good, ordinary, home-cooked pasta, we headed back to our unit and parked off on the verandah, enjoying the looooong day-light hours. As I write this it is 9:30pm and the sun is still shining!

Day 8

2011-06-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

I wouldn’t say I had the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, but I did manage to doze for good chunks of the night. I got up at about 06:30am, to views of Spain. Trying to move about in that small space without disturbing Grant was challenging to say the least… [Picture the scene, stage whisper: oops, sorry babe, just fell over the ladder; oh dear, sat on top of you by mistake, was just opening the bathroom door….Fun!] Grant woke up, not long after I did (wink, wink) and we had a quick shower (independently!) in the funny little shower cubicle and then went to the dining car for a continental breakfast.

We arrived in Madrid just before 10am and were met by our friendly tour guide, Oscar. We had a fantastic whirl-wind tour of the beautiful city of Madrid. It was so much greener than I had imagined – lots of parks, gardens and trees and flowering oleander bushes (my favourite!) everywhere, beautiful! A couple of highlights for me were: the huge bull-fighting ring (I hate, despise and abhor the idea of bull-fighting, but the building was very pretty), the exceptionally beautiful park we stopped at that had a lovely lake in the middle of it, complete with row boats, the 4 sets of city gates, the area with lots of little restaurants in caverns (dating back to the middle ages – including the oldest restaurant in the world!) and the No.1 attraction, the San Miguel market! Oh my soul, I could have spent hours in the market… the foods on offer! Absolutely amazing!

Oscar (a gem of a tour guide!) dropped us off at the Atocha station in time for us to catch our afternoon train to Malaga.

This was a lovely modern train that went at a pants-wettingly high speed, fortunately we were provided with ear-phones, so I got to watch a good movie (Charlie St Cloud) to take my mind off it. The countryside was really beautiful, lots and lots of olive trees with villas and villages here and there, the odd castle too.

We got to Malaga (quite ugly!) and then got a transfer to our timeshare resort in Mijas-Costa. The resort is huge, it is in fact a few resorts all joined together, with a “villagey” feel to it. It feels really safe, we slept with our windows open, no burglar guards! Very liberating! The girls wander here, there and everywhere, all alone…. quite amazing to the South African in me! There are various restaurants, pools, a little supermarket, a gym etc etc. A little “train” runs continuously around the place and you can hop-on and hop-off at various points. Our unit is nothing fancy, but very nice – 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, open-plan lounge dining-room and a lovely big verandah with loungers and a table and chairs, with views over the med. Dad hit the jackpot and got a unit in another part of the complex with air-con and a dish-washer, which ours doesn’t have… swine!

The resort offer a bus into nearby Fuengirola, Marbella and Puerto Banus during the week, as well as entertainment eg. Flamenco dancing one night, some guy singing 80s music another night etc etc It’s obviously very touristy, but hey, we’re tourists, so we plan on doing the tourist thing!

Day 7

2011-06-23T01:28:00.000-07:00

This morning we had a much-needed lie in, rolling out of bed at about 8am. After breakfast we headed off to the Louvre (didn’t go inside this time, much to Grant and the girls’ delight! Been there, done that..) and then walked through the Tuilleries gardens (they’re lovely!), right up the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe.

Along the way we bumped into Gerry, our tour director from the Trafalgar tour we did in 2009! I was looking at this guy thinking “Yoh (as South Africans do) that has got to be Gerry’s twin brother! When he said “Oy (as New Zealanders do) hello the Richardsons” It was SO good to chat to him and catch up – I mean, seriously, what are the chances of bumping into someone you know along a street that sees…I kid you not, our tour guide told us this last night …. 500 000 people every single day!!

We also stopped along the way at a very PINK restaurant for an extremely yummy caramel latte.

We finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe!

View from under the Arc

The rest of the family climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, I opted out of that particular exercise! I am embarrassed to admit that while they were sussing out the scene from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, I was playing Solitaire on my cell phone down below…. I know, I know……I’m an idiot…..

Views from the top of the Arc:

Once they had come down to earth, we did a quick geocache nearby and then made our way towards Galleries La Fayette (there has to be SOME incentive for Roxy to come on these holidays!) First, we persuaded Rox that we should take some sustenance, and stopped at an Italian (Paula was involved) restaurant for lunch. After lunch we headed to Rox’s dream destination (i.e Galleries la Fayette on the very first day of the Summer sales) where Rox and I trailed around the various floors of this extremely large (and unbelievably beautiful) department store for close to two hours. I have one word. Disappointing! Last time the place was WONDERFUL, this time – not so much… We managed to walk out of there without making a single purchase. This has to be a record for Rox!

We then headed back to our hotel, where the wonderful Pierre had made a booking for a cab to pick us up and transport us to the Gare du Austerlitz to catch our train to Madrid.

What follows has to be one of the highlights of our holiday. We boarded the Ellipsos Trenhotel at 19:45. We had splashed out and bought Gran Clas tickets on this overnight train to Madrid, meaning that the girls and Grant and I have double compartments and Dad is in a single. The compartments are by no means luxurious, they literally comprise a small room with two seats (much like airline seats) that fold into a bed at night, with a little bathroom attached with a loo and a shower – rather like a very small, very basic caravan. But really, it’s just such fun!

We opted to have dinner at the first sitting, which was at 8:30 pm, so we had time to book into our compartments and settle down and then it was off to the dining car for dinner. Dinner was a very civilised affair, with linen napkins, silvery cutlery numerous wine glasses (really, I only need one!) the whole toot. We had the choice of about 4 different starters, mains and desserts, with free wines, beers and soft drinks as well as Cava – the Spanish equivalent of champagne (very delish…. almost had me breaking into song!) Once we had deciphered the menu (with some help from Google! Rox has very good ideas on the odd occasion) it was SO lovely to sit over this surprisingly good meal and exceedingly delicious wine and watch the French country-side roll by. I feel very, very spoilt!

By the time we gently swayed back to our compartments, our beds had been dropped down and made up with proper sheets and blankets. I got to sleep in a bunk bed for the first time in about 30 years!

Day 6

2011-06-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

The weather gods were not playing the game today – a grey, rainy morning greeted us when we woke up. We went down to breakfast in the cute little cellar of our hotel – a typical continental breakfast of croissants, pastries and baguette with jams, juice, coffee or hot chocolate and then, having filled the tummies, we headed out to catch a train to Versailles. The trip took about 40 mins, it was quite nice to look out of the window and see the various areas of Paris passing by.

Once we arrived at the Rive Gauche station at Versailles we walked the short distance to the Palace. By this time it was drizzling and quite cold, not ideal weather for the outing at all, anyway there wasn’t much we could do but grin and bear it, so that’s what we did. The palace looks quite impressive even from a distance and in the rain!

Inside it is quite simply OTT! Gold wherever you looked, ornate carvings, patterned wall-paper, statues, paintings…. sensory overload like you will not believe! I’m thinking their interior designer was given free reign and went a bit moggy….

Hall of Mirrors

Marie Antoinette's bedroom

The gardens of the estate on the other hand are gorgeous. We caught the little train that goes around the grounds and it was really lovely. Had the weather been more accommodating we would definitely have spent longer enjoying the gardens of the palace.

I'm not going to cause international discord by mentioning their country, but there were many people at Versailles of a particular nationality and every time they posed for a picture, for some reason they had to make the peace sign.... all of them.... every time..... We found this hilarious, so the girls and I decided to pose for our own peace sign photo:

(It was at this point that Grant's camera broke...I'm serious!..... so from here on out, you will notice that some of the photos lack colour.... It's driving Grant INSANE!

We had a brief stop for a mug of hot chocolate (thick and dark – Rox and I liked it that way, the rest of the family, were horrified) at the Petit Trianon, stopped for photos (the cutest swan and her cygnets) at the Grand Canal and then continued on the circular route back to the palace; took the walk back to the station and Versailles was done and dusted.

After Versailles we headed to Montmartre. I LOVED Montmartre the last time we were in Paris and this visit confirmed that it is indeed one of my favourite places in the whole world. We got off the tube at Blanche station (lovely place for photos in front of the Moulin Rouge, complete with Marilyn Monroe-style fan thingy, just a pity (or perhaps not!) the girls weren’t wearing big white skirts…) and caught the little train up to the Sacre Coeur(the church on the top of the hill) which is a short walk to Place du Tertre, where we had the girls’ portrait done last time. This time we by-passed all the artists and continued along the street, stopping to have lunch at a pub – gorgeous mussels with chips (given a fancy French name, which made them seem much more posh..) Paulz and I went to the loo at the restaurant and Paula had an encounter with a urinal – well it WAS where any right-minded person would expect the hand-basin to be…(you can always rely on me for a toilet story!)

After lunch we took a wander around the lovely little shops and then made our way back to Sacre Coeur, for more photos of Paris from the top of the hill. The views are simply unbelievable.

We took the funicular down to the Abbesses area and wandered over to the “I love you wall” where Rox and Paula declared their undying love for Jono and Calvin. Very cute! We also took the opportunity to find the the geocache that is hidden there.

Back on the metro (the Paris metro is SO user-friendly) to our hotel where we had some much needed rest. I had pre-booked an evening tour, so at 8pm our guide arrived and took us to the cruise boat on the Seine. The cruise was absolutely gorgeous. Our boat left from the Eiffel tower at 9pm, the cruise took an hour and, really, cruising along the Seine as the sun goes down is simply magical.

Our tour guide was there to pick us up when the boat docked and he then took us on a tour of Paris by night in a mini-van. We stopped at the Trocadero to take photos of the Eiffel tower – the view from the Trocadero is literally jaw-dropping!

Our guide was really lovely - informative, without being dry and boring. We got back to our hotel, realised we were starving and headed to….wait for it…… McDonalds…. for a midnight feast. We finally got back to our hotel at about midnight and literally fell into bed!

Day 5

2011-06-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Big day today! We got an early start, the cab picked us up from our hotel at 06:30 and dropped us at St Pancras station, to catch the Eurostar at 08:03. The Eurostar was great fun; comfortable, easy and soooo fast. In fact hectically fast - at one point we were doing 312 km/hour!!

I had pre-arranged a transfer from the station to our hotel and I have to tell you, either Oliver Martinez is moon-lighting as a Paris cabbie or he has a twin brother who is one. Our driver was mighty pretty!

I had spent quite a bit of time on Tripadvisor before booking our hotels and had read so many good things about the Hotel des Grands Hommes and for once the reviews were right on the button. It's a small hotel, where the staff greet you by name (thankfully they all speak English too!) and the decor is traditionally French and absolutely beautiful. The hotel sits right on the edge of Place du Pantheon, in the Latin Quarter, with a stupendous view of the Pantheon itself. Really lovely, I think I'm in love!

Our hotel

View from our window

For lunch we found a little bistro in the area and then the fun began.... hell's bells, it is not easy ordering off a menu that you don't understand, from a waitress who has no idea what you are saying! Paula and I managed to order toasted cheese sandwiches with a minimum amount of fuss (croque monsieur, in case you were wondering - I remembered that from last time we were here - clever hey!) , but somehow when I ordered Dad's toasted cheese with ham, I changed Paula and my order to the ham sandwich too... fun and games! BUT it's all part of the experience, we had a good laugh, the waitress had a good laugh and my soul, but they served a good creme caramel, so it was all good.

After lunch we went on a Classic Walk, of the Latin Quarter. The tour guide was so much fun and the walk was really interesting. I was so glad we did it. A couple of pics from our walk:

The church of Saint Etienne du Mont, just around the corner from our hotel

The spiral stair-case in the church

One of the stained glass windows in the church

Part of an old Roman wall

A bridge across the Seine - couples write their names on the locks and then attach them to the bridge and throw the keys in the river - sooo romantic!

Notre-Dame

The palace in the Luxemborg gardens

After our walk we were pretty exhausted, so we had some down time, until supper time. For supper we took a walk down the road to Rue Moufftard, a lovely street with many restaurants. We found a fantastic little restaurant with an outside seating area and a very friendly proprietor who spoke reasonable English (we weren't going to have a repeat performance of lunch!)

Tonight was the annual Fete de la Musique - I'd read up about it while planning the trip, but I had no idea it would be so much fun! Basically it is a night when anybody who has a band/plays an instrument/ thinks that they can play an instrument/sings etc can set themselves up on the pavement and make music. While we were eating a band began playing nearby - they were really good and played mostly recognisable music (think "I love Rock 'n Roll", REM, that sort of stuff...) After supper Rox and Dad jumped ship, but Paula, Grant and I decided to make the most of the free entertainment on offer. There was a stall selling plastic cups full of a homemade brew of sorts - it called itself Citron Vodka, but quite what was in there I don't know, it was really good though, so I had a cup of that, Grant bought a beer and we began to wander up and down the streets, listening to the good bands and by-passing the others. It was absolutely wonderful! There was all sorts of music on offer, many bands playing main-stream stuff, but others that were quite different. We found a couple of young guys playing traditional French songs that I particularly enjoyed. At one point we sat on the floor outside the Pantheon and Paula and I gave the French our particular version of "Our Last Summer" by ABBA, they seemed verrrrrry impressed by us!

Unfortunately we were pretty tired after a good few late nights and early mornings and we knew we had a hectic day ahead of us on Wednesday, so we had to call it a night quite early. The party seemed to go on till the early hours, but we headed up to bed and crashed.

Day 4

2011-06-20T23:22:00.001-07:00

Considering the forecast, we have been very lucky weather-wise. This morning was cloudy again, but with no rain. The plan today was for Dad, Grant and Paula to go to the London Dungeons and for Rox and me to go shopping for her wedding. We caught the No.24 bus, hopped off at Westminster Cathedral (no Colin this time!) to do a quick geocache on the way and then split up at Leicester Square.

Rox and I headed directly for Oxford St. where we shopped, and shopped, and shopped somemore. She found shoes for the wedding and I almost found a "mother-of-the-bride" dress (I'm 90% convinced, but have decided to think about it for a bit) We finally met up with the others at an Italian restaurant for lunch.... by that stage our feet were telling us it was well past time for a break!

After lunch Dad, having got the gist of what the afternoon was all about, abandoned us and the rest of us went back to shop somemore. The girls went off on their own and Grant and I headed to my Happy Place a.k.a Debenhams. The pounds simply flew out of my pocket!! After a while I decided that to avoid bankruptcy, it would be best if we left, so we found a Starbucks and parked off there until we had to forcibly tell the girls that they were done.

We then caught a cab back to Trafalgar Square (by this stage our feet had gone on strike) and the bus back to our hotel where we had time for a quick "freshen up" before going to meet Lisa and Trev on the river in Putney for supper. Had a lovely supper with the Smiths and then headed back to the hotel for bed! Exhausted!

Day 3

2011-06-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

We once again woke to cloudy weather, but no rain. We had breakfast and then caught a bus (Bus 24 conveniently stops directly outside our hotel, the Luna Simone) to Trafalgar square and took a wander up towards Piccadilly Circus, so that the girls could browse the shops.

One thing we have noticed on this visit to London is the amount of construction work that is going on ahead of the Olympics next year. There is scaffolding up literally all over the place! Not good for photos.....

The it was off to the Westminster tube station to meet up for another London Walk.

We LOVE the London Walks!! This walk was fantastic, it took in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St James' Park, Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards (awesome!) and various other bits and pieces, ending at Trafalgar Square. The guide was lovely, happy to answer questions, and very interesting.

We went to yet another lovely pub for lunch. (We reckon you can't beat the pubs for value for money meals, with the added incentive of a wide variety of beer and yummy, yummy Pimms)

We then had an aborted attempt to go to Greenwich - we had planned to take a boat trip up to Greenwich from Westminster Pier, as we enjoyed it so much last time, but when we got there we realised that the last boat came back way too early for us (they're not on Summer time schedule yet) and as the DLR wasn't working we would have been stranded in Greenwich. Oh dear.

Plan B was to head off to Covent Garden, which we did and we had a lovely wander around there.

By this time we were feeling a tad tired. Two days of pretty much non-stop walking was taking its toll! So we decided to head back to our hotel for a rest (and for me to catch up on my blog)

For supper we went to a really nice Dim Sum restaurant nearby, where Grant nearly burnt his finger off, playing with his cell phone, but that's another story.....

Day 2

2011-06-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

Thankfully we woke to overcast skies, but no rain - the weather-gods were listening to us. We had a very nice English breakfast at our hotel and then set off to do a geocache on the way to Victoria station.

Having accomplished that, we set off again for the tube station and then came the highlight of my day, my holiday, my life! We were ambling along and as we came to Westminster Cathedral we noticed that there was a film crew at work, so we stopped to have a closer look (as tourists do...) and then Paula sort of hesitantly said "I think it may be Colin Firth..." Ohmysoul, I nearly had a heart attack... there was Colin Firth himself, in the flesh, the very man! A security guard, helpfully pointed out that although we were not allowed to take a photo of Colin (omg, omg... Colin Firth....!) he could not stop us taking a photo of the cathedral......sooooo... we took a photo of the cathedral.....ooops..... Colin got in the way......

And yes, yes...... Westminster cathedral was very pretty too:

We then split up (no, I did NOT leave Grant to run away with Colin!!) Grant, Rox and Dad went off on a Hairy Goat walk and Paula and I went on a London Walk to Notting Hill and Portobello Market.

What followed was definitely one of the best mornings Paula and I have ever spent together - I know we'll treasure the memories for the rest of our lives. As my blogging buddy Andrea would say, "it was a diamond of a day". The walk was such fun, Notting Hill is really the loveliest area.

A relic of the past, this old kiln is all that remains of the potteries that once were here

We went to lots of places that featured in the movie "Notting Hill" (one of our favourite movies!)

Above is the travel bookshop on which the bookshop in Notting Hill was based

The location used for the travel bookshop in the movie

we saw Robbie Williams' house

and also caught a glimpse of Annie Lennox (how lucky were we? 2 celeb sightings in one day!) as she said good-bye to someone in the doorway of her home.

Annie Lennox's house

Once the walk was over, Paulzi and I hit Portobello market with a vengeance!

Paula went mad over all the Beatles memorabilia and I went nuts over just about everything else ;-) We ate the most delicious Nutella and banana filled crepe and a whole pound of cherries and chatted and laughed and ooohed and aaaahed for a good couple of hours. At one point the heavens opened and we were sloshing our way up the road, drenched to the skin, but still having the time of our lives.

That Paula and I, who have no sense of direction whatsoever, managed to navigate from Oxford Street to Notting Hill and back again, all by ourselves, is nothing short of a miracle! Especially when you take into account the fact that in order to find our way to the Notting Hill tube station we relied entirely on the one snippet of the directions that we both managed to pick up from our tour guide (we somehow missed the rest of the conversation, oops) - he said "as long as there are people walking towards you, you will not have gone too far". So that is how we navigated our way to the tube station, we just kept on walking while there were people walking towards us..... and bingo! We found the tube station! So proud of us!

Once we had all found our way back to each other, and a pub, we went to Westfield Mall (good grief, it's huuuuge!) to meet the Smiths. We hadn't seen the Smiths since our last trip to the UK in 2009, so I was pretty excited to see my BFF again! We had some coffee, took a meander around a tiny part of the mall, and then had supper together in a nearby pub. We'll be seeing the Smiths again when we get back from Ireland.

After supper it was back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!

Off we go!

2011-06-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

We woke up early on 16 June and by the time we had packed, welcomed Mom and Dad (who are house-sitting a.k.a baby-sitting the Jackie dog for the first week) and said good-bye to all the pets, we didn't have a moment to spare before we left home at 13:30, which was probably a good thing as I never had time to get in a frothy over the flight.

The trip to Durban was pretty quiet as neither Rox nor Paula were with us as they were spending time with Jono and Calvin. Jon and Calvin were both at the airport to say good-bye to the girls, so it was a very sweet, but rather tearful start to our holiday ;-)

We flew Emirates to London, via Dubai. The flights (8:30 hours to Dubai, 2 hours stop-over in Dubai and 6:30 hours to London) felt never-ending. On the whole I enjoyed the Emirates experience - the food was good and the plane from Dubai to London was gorgeous - it was a huge Airbus A380, with all the mod-cons. Watching the landing happen live from about 4 different angles was incredible and distracted me from the sheer terror I normally experience at times like those! BUT in future we'll be flying via Jo'burg, this trip was just too long. (I hear that we will soon be getting direct flights from Durban to London Gatwick, now THAT would be awesome!)

We checked into our hotel in central London and us girls dived into the shower within moments of arriving (can't say I enjoy going 24hours without a shower!) Having freshened up and unpacked we took a walk around the neighbourhood and very quickly found our local pub.

We had a really nice pub supper and then made our way back to our hotel and crashed!

Itinerary

2011-06-10T08:04:00.001-07:00

17 June to 21 - London
21-23June - Paris
24 June - Madrid - Malaga
1 July - Leave Malaga - to Dublin
3 July - Start tour of Ireland
9 July - Fly to London
9-11 July - Guildford
11-12 July - London
12 July - 15 July - Dubai