Day 21

We started off the day by heading into reception again in a vain attempt to see if the man with the internets had appeared but unfortunately no such luck. The dour reception from yesterday was there again and about as cheery as she had been yesterday... We decided to give up for a while and head into London central to do some sightseeing.

Our apartment was conveniently just around the corner from the subway so we wandered over, swiped our Oyster cards and were off! Or so we thought.... We wanted to catch the Circle line to Tower Hill and as we walked into the station, the right platform said "Tower Hill" so we walked down and settled in for the train. We watched the electronic board and our train wasn't coming yet so we sat and watched a few trains go by. After about 10 minutes we thought it was a bit strange that the train hadn't arrived yet so I went up to ask one of the subway people.

As I started walking up I noticed that a Circle line train had pulled in so I rushed back down to where Steve and the folks were calmly sitting. I asked them why they hadn't gotten on to the train (other than me not being there) and it turned out that the train hadn't been displayed on the electronic board. Sick of waiting, we got on the next Circle line train that arrived... Turns out that although it says it's the Circle line, it really isn't. The line took us up to Edgware Road - the last stop on the Circle line before you have to transfer onto another train. Great. Thanks London subway... We found out later that the Circle line had been having timing troubles (hence the no display) and that we had waited on the wrong platform - yes, it said Tower Hill but it was Tower Hill via Edgware. We used the left platform for later trips.

We finally arrived at Tower Hill after taking the scenic route (as scenic as the London underground can be) and wandered over to the Tower of London. We had thought about going in but the admission prices were a bit steep, especially coming from Edinburgh, so we gave it a miss. We walked along the waterfront towards London Bridge and went up. There was an exhibition on bridges and the history of London bridge in the walkways between the towers so we had a sticky beak at that as we went through.

It was about here when Stevo called me and got me into trouble with one of the London Bridge staff. Turns out that you're not allowed to use mobile phones in the bridge. I hadn't seen the sign on the way up but Steve conveniently told me where it was afterwards. After the towers of London Bridge, we went to the engine room to see how the bridge used to be opened. That was pretty cool.

We walked along the south bank towards the city. There were a couple of cool courtyards along the way with no shortage of pigeons. For a bit of culture, we came across Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. However, there was a show on so we couldn't go inside and had to make do with what we could see from outside. I gave Row a call and organised for us to meet her and Stevo at their new apartment. Steve's dad also made the shortest phone call in the world to Holland - apparently it's very expensive to call the Netherlands from Shakespeare's Globe.

We continued walking along the south bank until we got to the Millennium Bridge (they must have rebuilt it after it was destroyed in Harry Potter....) and then crossed over towards London CBD. We made our way up to the subway station near St Paul's Cathedral, stopping by to admire the church from the outside as once again the entrance fees were a bit steep. Worshippers were free but we didn't think it would be appropriate... 

We caught the tube to Piccadilly Circus which put us right in... Piccadilly! Unfortunately we couldn't purchase it from the bank for $280 but on the upside we didn't have to pay $22 rent either. Although I think there were hotels on the street (eep!). From there we picked up a Chance card and advanced to Trafalgar Square. We got slightly lost on our way there (wrong direction initially) so we missed Go and didn't pick up our $200.

Cool robots

Trafalgar Square was cool. When we arrived they were setting up robot arms in the middle of the square - random but cool. We had no idea what was going on and there was nobody there to ask so we figured we'd find out later. We all went into the National Gallery where Steve and I ditched the folks and then did a good job of getting lost before gradually making our way out. We then headed down to the tube again for a ride down to Clapham North to visit Stevo and Row.

Hanging out with Stevo and Row

Stevo was still at work but Row had given us awesome directions to their new place. We didn't even get lost once! Although once we arrived my phone had a bit of a moment and we thought we wouldn't be able to call her but it all worked out ok. Their apartment was pretty cool. Slightly bare but that was understandable given that they had only moved in at 6 pm in the previous night, most of their furniture was still in boxes from IKEA and Stevo had bought a wardrobe instead of a bed.

We hung out and ate delicious cheese and drank wine with Row until Stevo came home around 6 where he joined us. They showed us their photos of Iceland which were very cool. Around an hour later we decided to go out and get some grub so we walked down to Clapham on a quest for Indian so that Steve could satisfy his vindaloo craving.

After walking the entire strip and not finding a beef vindaloo, we finally went back to the one Indian restaurant that we found that did chicken vindaloo. My dinner was delicious but unfortunately Steve's vindaloo turned out to be a bit disappointing which resulted in him eating half of mine...hrm... We finished up and Stevo and Row walked us to the closest station before heading off to the pub to meet one of Row's friends who was currently in the country.

It took us about 45 minutes to get back to the apartment so we were pretty sleepy by the time we crawled into bed. I miss Hobart's 15 minute drives, even the 30 minute one from Taroona.

Day 20

Today we left Edinburgh to go to London. As always, we got up early to go checkout, get our deposit back, and find our way to the airport. We decided not to take the steps of doom this time, having discovered a much more luggage friendly way of getting to the bus terminal. Unfortunately the wifi on the bus didn’t work so well this time so boo.

We arrived at the airport and checked into our flight and then settled in for the flight. We were slightly delayed departing and slightly delayed landing but the flight was only about twenty minutes late overall. Upon arriving in London, we had to get in contact with the private transport company to take us to the hotel. We gave them a call, and they said that they would get the driver to call us back. However, being the nice people we are, we thought that we would go to where all the other taxis are. 

This was a stupid idea in the end for two reasons. Firstly, to get to the taxis, you have to go under what I assume is the car park. Either way, it’s big, concrete, and prevents any phone signals from getting in. When we finally realised this and got to a place where we could get reception, we found out that he was meeting us back at the arrivals area...

MacGyver Sandra

The car took us to our apartment. Sandra and I went up to reception (about 200 m up the road from the apartment) to check in. There was a bit of a queue and only one receptionist so it took a little bit. The receptionist seemed to be having a bad day, and although she was civil, was not particularly nice.... The apartment here was not as nice as the one in Edinburgh, and was also more expensive. 

There was wifi, and a network cable (although we had to fix the network port - thank you mini tool kit/torch combo), but you needed a username and password to access the net. Ok, off to the not-so-nice receptionist again to ask about the internet and for an extra key. There was a queue again and still only one receptionist so we decided to come back later.

Dental win!

We settled into the apartment and then headed off to explore the area and find a supermarket to get some stuff for dinner and lunches for the next few days. Sandra found an Asian supermarket and got super excited about it. 

During our travels, mum had been complaining about a filling that had dropped out leaving behind a fairly chipped tooth that was causing her some pain. Luckily for us, there was a dentist right near our apartment and he had an availability in 45 minutes time. Score, how lucky is that! So mum went in and got that patched up while the rest of us went to the supermarket.

We figured it was also time to get our Oyster cards (public transport cards) sorted so that we could use the tube. Sandra went into the train station to buy them but that particular station didn't sell them and directed Sandra to a shop across the road. Sandra figured we’d put 10 pounds each on them, but the guy recommended 5 pounds would be enough for the time that we were there so we thought we would trust the local. 

We went back to the apartment and put the shopping away. We walked back up to reception again and there was still a queue so we decided we would come up again after dinner. Mum came back to the apartment but it was still too early for dinner so we headed out again. Our apartment was really close to Hyde Park so we thought we would go for an evening stroll in the park as it was still light outside. As soon as we walked through the gate it started drizzling. As much as we enjoy walking in the rain, we decided to investigate the other half of the main street and leave the walk in the park for better weather. 

We found a cinema, and were hoping to go see “The last airbender’ but it appears that it’s no longer showing... Fail. I know it got bad reviews, but the cartoon of it was so awesome I have to see it! We also found quite a few more dentists up the street. So turns out it was more good odds than luck that we found a dentist for mum. Maybe this is just a part of London that has poor dental hygiene?

Our adventures had separated us from the folks so we headed back to the apartment. We thought we would stop by reception (for the third time) and there were finally two receptionists and only one other person in reception so hurrah! Turned out that the parents had been in there just before us (the girl that served us was quite young and described mum as my aunt or grandma - hilarious!) and had already picked up the second key. 

Hard at work...

We weren't so lucky with the internet unfortunately as it turned out that the company that sets up the internet wasn’t around, and we had to wait for them to come back the next day. We did make the effort to go to an Internet Cafe so that we could let our mates in London (Stevo and Row) know that we were there. 50p for 30 min. Not bad. 

Day 19

Being the true royalists we are, we started the morning off with a trip to see the Royal Yacht Britannia. For those who don’t know, this is a ship built for the English Royal family, and was decommissioned a few years ago so that people like us could desecrate it.

It was alright. It’s a boat. The funniest thing was getting told off for dancing like a spaz so that my shoes squeaked more.

Next, we made our way to the Nelson monument. At 1pm, they drop a giant ball on top of the monument to signal the ships that it’s 1pm. They did this before the cannon, and introduced the cannon because of those days when the weather prevented the ships from seeing the monument. So at 1, we saw the ball drop, and the cannon go off. I think it would be cooler if they used the cannon to knock the ball off.

Near this monument is a replica of the Parthenon in Greece. Well, actually, it’s unfinished. They ran out of money, and therefore dubbed it “Edinburgh’s Shame”. That was pretty cool.

The weather started to turn bad , which I hear is rare in Edinburgh. So we decided to do an indoor attraction. We went to the Camera Obscura. This is an optical illusion house, with the world’s first camera obscura on top. A camera obscura is basically a mirror reflecting the image of outside into a lens which displays in onto a white canvas inside a dark room. Mostly, this is kind of lame. But the cool part is that this was done in 1850. It was a tourist attraction then, so it is likely to be the longest running tourist attraction in Edinburgh.

Camera Obscura was pretty fun though. There was some really cool stuff like a heat camera and a mirror maze and there was this awesome tunnel thing:

The bridge is stationary and the whole tunnel rotates around so that as you walk across the bridge you feel off balance and actually have to cling to the rails for support. Weird but awesome!

We went out for dinner to celebrate our last night. We went to a traditional Scottish Thai restaurant. We think they forgot to charge our drinks to the table.

Day 18

We started off the morning slowly and then headed down to the tourist information centres. Edinburgh has a pretty good tour bus system, with double-decker busses (with open tops) so we took one of those. This gave us all kinds of info about the town, Sean Connery, and writers of famous literature.

We got off at the “Our Dynamic Earth”. It’s an interactive science place, so it sounded cool. Most of the exhibits are kind of cool, but it’s really aimed at kids. At least this place is new, so the exhibits haven’t had a chance to get dated. However, there was a totally awesome presentation about space at the end in a massive theatre (like a planetarium).  It was narrated by David Tennant, but in his natural accent (Scottish), so it was hard to pick it. There were cool comfy chairs that reclined so you could look up at the projection. The chairs were so comfy in fact that Sandra and mum fell asleep for a bit...

We then made our way to the Royal Palace. We got there in time to see a whole bunch of horses leave. Turns out there used to be a tradition (about 100 odd years ago) where they used to ride to all the borders of the city to ensure it was secure. As of last year, they’ve started up the tradition again.

The palace was alright. Apparently it’s still being used for palace duties. But the Queen wasn’t there, so that’s why they let stupid Aussies tour through although the Queen and other members of the Royal family are going to be there later this week because the Pope’s going to be in town!

We caught the bus back into the bus terminal and then found another supermarket to buy dinner before walking up some more steps to the apartment. After dinner, we did a ‘Ghosts and Gore’ tour. This was pretty cool. It was a guy in an old suit and a top hat taking us through the city. His partner would dress up and surprise everyone. Being Scottish, they were really funny. Totally worth it. Even more worth it when they surprised mum 3 times, and put Sandra in a thumb trap for being a witch.

Day 17

As expected, the sleep was average again. Didn’t need to worry about my sleeping towel this time, as we woke up TOO DAMN EARLY. My reli’s were up and about already. Must have something to do with having kids.

We left for the airport at around 7:15 and were met there by almost all of dad’s side of the family. It was a very touching moment for all, but sadly nearly made us late for our flight. But we got to the plane, and made it successfully to Edinburgh. Our pilot sounded like Lee (if that doesn’t make sense to you, then come to Wednesday night sports)! Hour and a half flight. Yes!

As expected, the EU passport holding members of our party (everyone but Sandra) went into the EU line, and Sandra had to go into the other line with her arrival card. Despite her line being 10 times smaller than ours, they only had one dude manning their desk, so we actually got through before her.

The bus into Edinburgh city was awesome for no other reason than it had free wifi! When we got into the city centre, we saw just how old and grand this city is. It looked spectacular.

After getting a nice healthy lunch (KFC) at the nearby food court, we went up to the apartment we were staying in. Although, to get there we had to go up the stairs of doom (with suitcases...)

Once we got up the top though it was ok – hooray for wheeled luggage! Unfortunately we had to go up a long spiral staircase to get to the apartment (again, with suit cases). Edinburgh loves their stairs.

The apartment was great though. Nice, modern, wifi, no church and a proper bed - what more do you need! So far, liking Edinburgh.

The apartment guy suggested doing Edinburgh castle while the weather was good, so that was our next destination. For those who don’t know Edinburgh, the stretch between the Edinburgh castle and the royal palace is called the Royal Mile. Our apartment is on the Royal Mile, near the castle side, so it was awesomely close (to lots of other things to!).

The castle was awesome. It was really old, and full of history. It looked cool too. They fire a cannon there at 1pm every day (except Sundays), as a way for boats to tell the time (this is for tradition, rather than being practical anymore).

The rest of the day was spent doing some food shopping, eating in, chilling out and going to bed. The Edinburgh comedy festival gala was rerunning on TV which was awesome. Nice way to wrap up the night, ready for another big day.

Day 16

Despite the sleeping conditions, we got to have a little bit of a sleep in. Since we were right under the uncovered window, I had to cover my face with a towel to continue my sleep in. This gave Sandra much mirth. When we went down to join the others, breakfast was ready for us. Breakfast was awesome – bread with cheese and rusks coated with chocolate sprinkles.

The day took us to Edam (continuing with our cheese theme). On the way, we had to cross the narrowest bridge ever. The side mirrors of the car had to be collapsed in order to fit.

In Edam, we met up with my cousin Erika. This is the only cousin I haven’t actually met. I now have a full set. We walked around Edam for a bit, tried out some more cheese, walked around some more, watched some people hanging outside a church at a wedding, you know, usual stuff.

After the cheese tasting delights of Edam, we went to Volendam. This was a harbour-style town that’s kind of cool to walk through. A number of shops offer the opportunity to get dressed up in old Dutch gear and take some photos but we decided against it.

My Aunt had packed some sandwiches so we hid out under a covered area to have some lunch. While we were hanging out we got to feed some ducks. Then it started raining - exciting. And we had left my rain coat in the car....  It was just lightly drizzling so we walked to the end of the strip where Dad shouted the crew to some raw herring with onion. Sandra had one again. Out of all the Dutch food she enjoys, it’s this.

We headed towards a shopping area because my cousin’s son wanted to go to a shop that was in the area. One the way we saw a toy shop so we went in to continue the hunt for Megatron, but as expected, no luck. We did however pick up my favourite Dutch licorice – yum! And Sandra got some stuff too.

The rain started to get heavier and we kept walking towards the shop. We got to dry out for a bit while they shopped before heading back to the car. We were pretty wet by the time we arrived in the car park. There were a number of clothes changes once we got home.

We repacked the bags that night, as we had to cater for the 1.5kg of Dutch liquorice (yeah baby!) and then spent the rest of the night hanging with the family. One of dad’s old mates came round and they pretty much talked the night away. We headed off to bed early-ish in preparation for the early morning tomorrow.

Day 15

Today, our plan was to go to Amsterdam, and then spend the night with dad's last sister. As a result, the morning was all about packing up, saying our teary goodbyes, and making our way to the train station to head our to Amsterdam.

We had to deal with the brilliant ticketing system again before lugging four suitcases onto the train and trying to find 4 seats facing together so we could put all our stuff together. It took a little while but we finally got there.

We got off the train at Amsterdam and had to find some luggage lockers for our stuff so that we could go and have a look around the city. Unfortunately, all the large lockers that would fit the parent's suitcases were taken. Damn tourists. Although while contemplating our next move, enough people came back to claim their luggage and leave empty lockers. I felt like a vulture circling, waiting for its prey to die.

Speaking of food, our next priority was to grab some grub. The pub that we picked had free WiFi so yay! Once our hunger was satisfied with greasy Dutch food goodness, it was time to have a look around the city.

For those who know, Amsterdam has an awesome canal system. So we went on a boat that went around them. They also had some awesome looking paddle boats that you could cruise around on but we didn't really have enough time for that.

The first canal stop was at the house of Anne Frank. It was pretty cool, thought provoking and all that. But it would have been cooler if I had actually read the book. After the house, we had a squiz at the Jordaan region. While waiting for the boat we some a bunch of drunk students dancing on some small boats. I eagerly watched, waiting for one to fall in. But alas it did not happen.

We stayed on the boat for the rest of the tour this time, learning some interesting facts about Amsterdam. My fav was that the canals were 3m deep. 1m water, 1m mud, and 1m bicycles....

We had dinner, and were served by the most unhelpful staff ever. I think they were too busy being 'busy', or were just too cool.

We went back to the station and collected our luggage and then set off north to Hoorn. It's near here that dad's sister lives. Upon arriving in Hoorn, we had a bit of a communication fail. The mobile wasn't connecting, so we couldn't tell dad's sister that we'd arrived. That's ok, we'll try a public phone booth. None of these seemed to work. You put your money in,  you dial the number, it takes your money for the thrill of pushing the numbers. We ended up asking a kind florist if we could use her phone, and she was nice enough to let us. So if you're ever in Hoorn train station, buy flowers there.

My cousin and her husband came to pick us up, and we finally got to our destination. We spent the rest of the night catching up with everyone. My cousin could speak English ok, so Sandra wasn't as bombarded by Dutch as she was at other family events.

Sleeping at my aunt's house was interesting. I really appreciate her putting us up, but sleep wasn't easy to come by when all 4 of us are in the same room, we had an air bed, there is a church that rings every hour 2 blocks down the road, and a grandfather clock downstairs also chimes. Relaxing.