Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?

Friday 17th July

We went to Windsor Castle today and it was our favourite part of the English leg of our trip.

Even though we tried really hard to get there earlier, due to circumstances we didn't get there until about midday, but that worked out well because there were less people around then (and it was quite a rainy day as well).

To get there we took the tube to Waterloo and then one of the regional trains on about a 55 minute ride out to the main Windsor Village station. You can also go via Victoria but that involves a changeover and the station they stop at isn't as close to the castle. The village itself is quite quaint - a lot of wealth in that area so a lot of expensive and/or boutique shops but there are also a few antique-y/small village type stores, and you can still find a McDonalds and Starbucks and what not as well.

After a short walk up the hill from the station and through the village you get to the main entrance of the castle, where you buy the tickets to get in, and pick up your free handset for the audio tour.


The walk up to the main entrance of the castle

It just so happened that they were about to start a guided walking tour when we got there so we joined that. The tour guide was one of the guards of the castle (not the ones with the big hats - though they were there too) and she took us around the parts of the castle that were outside - the dry moat, the Queen's jubilee gardens, the various archways and courtyards etc. One of her quotes from the Queen - "Buckingham Palace is my office, but Windsor Castle is my home". The tour guide also pointed out the flag that flies on the top of the main tower, explaining that when the Queen is away it flies the Union Jack, but when the Queen is at home, it flies the Royal Standard (the three lions).


One of the guards that also does the walking tour (though not the one we had)

After the walking tour we went inside, and by gosh and by golly it's all so grand! It started at the miniature house. This house was given as a gift to one of the queens who had a bit of a miniature collection, but the thing about this house is that everything is real - real wine in the tiny bottles, real electrical lights, real plumbing in the mini pipes, real miniature silverware... you get the idea. After that was a small gallery of exquisite doll's clothes (looked like real baby's clothes) then an art gallery of some pieces from the archives of Windsor Castle. Apart from the original Da Vinci sketches and drawings we didn't really recognize much of it but it was still very interesting.

The 'dry' moat (always has been) that is now a garden.

After the gallery was where it got really good. This is where they allow you to walk through the state rooms and it has to be seen to be believed. The main entrance is where they display the typical english castle type thing - suits of armor, swords and axes hung on the wall, statues etc. and then it just gets better. The gallery of weapons (really ornate and decorated guns and swords), the drawing room, offices and dining rooms untouched since Queen Victoria and earlier (one room even has a bed that was made just for Napolean when he came and visited). And of course every room has painted and decorated ceilings, original portraits of the various kings, queens and dignitaries, and is lavishly decorated right down to the furniture. The whole place is just indescribable.

A random shot of the outside of the castle.

After the state rooms we made our way outside and down to the main chapel - St. George's Chapel. There is a great article on Wikipedia about this but again seeing it in person is amazing, and it's kind of surreal to realise that historical figures like Henry the 8th walked on the same ground (and are now buried there as well). The craftsmanship is so detailed and makes you wonder "how did they do that?!" when you remember that it was all done over 500 years ago! We had to get back to London for a fellowship dinner but every evening they also do what they call 'evensong' where you get to hear the choir so that's something to remember.

Unfortunately because we weren't allowed to take photos of the inside it's possible to go on for days trying to describe everything, but it has to be experienced for yourself, and really you won't regret coming here. London itself is great, but really it is just a city and it's hard to see around all the modernisation, but at Windsor there is a tangible history, a feeling of grandeur and tradition that can almost be touched. And being believers in God we could glimpse the British-Israel symbolism and there is a kind of 'closeness' to that part of God's plan. And I haven't even touched on any of the actual events that have gone on here (like the fire of 1997), or the knights system, family emblems and Order of the Garter.


Another random shot of the castle. Yes that does say 1583!

One last side note... as we were leaving the chapel I noticed that the flag on the tower had changed to the Royal Standard, which we remembered signified that the Queen was home. We asked one of the guards if that was the case and he confirmed it - said that she had arrived about 20 minutes earlier! So unfortunately we never got to see the Queen, but we can say that when we visited the Queen, we really did!


Mel with one of the more non ceremonious guards (as opposed to what I thought the ones with the big hats are not called beef-eaters. Beef-eaters are only in the Tower of London).

I'm Henry the 8th I am I am...

Thursday 16th July 2009

Today was a full day but we didn't really do much. As confusing as that sounds, you'll see what I mean in a moment. We tried to get up early again, but had to do some laundry (again) and we called Mel's mum so we didn't get out until later in the day. We really only did two major things - the Tower of London and the Tate Modern art gallery.

The Tower of London is one of London's biggest historical attractions - but it's so touristy (well in summer anyway) it's hard to see the history for all the people going through.

Us outside the tower with a mock siege engine in the background.

Nevertheless there are a heap of interesting things going on, the most interesting of which we found is the Crown Jewels. Unfortunately due to security we couldn't take any photos, but it's definitely worth going to see. Another interesting area near the Crown Jewels is the Martin Tower that holds all the old crowns. These crowns were usually made for a specific occassion and worn only once, but because of the cost the stones used were either hired or taken from an older crown, so these crowns have had most if not all of their stones removed. One of the crowns held over 12,000 carats of diamonds - it is empty now, but DeBeers has loaned 12,000 carats of diamonds to the exhibition and they are sitting in the case in a pile next to the crown! As Mel says... "oooh.... sparkly....".


A restoration of King Edward's private chapel (can't remember which Edward).

Other interesting areas of the Tower of London are the places where they kept the prisoners - usually those who were seen as a security threat but there were also religious prisoners (King Henry VIII banned the Catholic Church and declared himself the religious leader). Some were also held for practicing sorcery and I found myself wondering if they were actually Spirit Filled Christians just trying to preach the gospel! It's interesting to see all the graffiti left by these folk - often times they were allowed to have a chisel or even a mason to do it for them so some of the graffiti can be quite elaborate carvings in their own right.

Some of the graffiti in one of the prison rooms.

After the Tower of London we walked down to down to the Tate Modern art gallery. Along the way though we came across St Paul's Cathedral We didn't really have time to go in but from the outside it is huge - very imposing!

The outside of St Paul's Cathedral

Across the Millenium Bridge (initially when it was built it was swaying in the wind but has since been strengthened) was the Tate Modern, most of which is free to view. This is the first proper art gallery we have been to and we can honestly say we don't get modern art. Again we couldn't take photos but one of the pieces was a thick rope that had been dropped randomly on the ground, and there was also one that was just plain dark blue with a red triangle in it, but our all time 'what the...' was just a mirror - nothing special about the mirror, just a plain old mirror that you can pick up at Bunnings for a few dollars. We will however admit there were a couple of things we liked, like one or two sculptures and there was a giant dining table and chairs the size of a small cottage that was interesting as well.



After the Tate Modern we really didn't want to walk back across the bridge to the tube station so we took a boat ride up the Thames River and back as a shortcut to the station. It was a great little cruise - we went past the HMS Belfast, the Tower Bridge, the old fish market, and of course Big Ben and the London Eye.


The Tower Bridge

The handle on Mel's suitcase had broken when we got to London so we took the tube back up to somewhere near Harrods and bought a new one that we had seen on Tuesday. After that it was back to Matt and Nicki's for dinner.

God Save The Queen

Wednesday 15th June 2009

We thought we had a week to do the tourist thing in London, so we slept in and didn't leave Matt and Nicki's until 11:30am. We didn't work out until later that we really only had three days so had to kind of rush everything in.

Matt and Nicki live near an underground station so we took the tube to Harrods and had a look in there for about half an hour - talk about extravagant luxury! £100,000 speakers in the hi-fi department, £65,000 earrings in the jewellery section... the list goes on. There are some fantastic decorations in the store (like the Egyptian escalator) but after all it is just a store, so we kept going.

We started walking down Picadilly and found a giant archway called the Wellington Arch and the road that passes underneath is called Constitution Hill and it goes through the middle of a park so we followed that down. After getting our bearings on the map we were excited to discover that Buckingham Palace was just at the end of this road so we hurried on down and spent a good few minutes taking photos of the palace, the guards and the Queen Victoria memorial in front.


Us out the front of Buckingham Palace, with the Queen Victoria monument in the foreground.

We were just kind of following our noses at this point and started walking along St James's Park. We had missed the changing of the guard at the palace, and the palace itself wasn't open for visitors until next month so we were a bit disappointed we couldn't get closer to the guards with the big hats. But as we were walking we came across some of the same guards that were more out in the open guarding St James's Palace. We were about to get some close up photos when about 5 more came marching down the driveway from inside the palace and did their own little changing of the guards right there (from what we hear it was the same as at Buckingham Palace just without the band) so that was exciting!


The changing of the guard at St James's Palace. The bobby at the front was there because there was some kind of VIP shindig going on and he was part of the checkpoint at the front.

As we continued walking down alongside St James's Park we came across a few more interesting sights - the Duke of York Column, Regent Street (has a lot of random statues), the International College of Art (had a quick look), Admiralty Arch, a memorial statue of Captain James Cook and right at the opposite end to Buckingham Palace was Trafalgar Square with Nelson's Column.


Admiralty Arch

From there we found some souvenier shops and Mel bought a keyring like she's been doing from everywhere (plus some pressies) and then we kept walking down towards Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.


Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

From there we walked across the bridge to an area called Southbank and took a ride on the London Eye - the big permanent ferris wheel. It takes about half an hour to go around and from the top you can see just about everything - even Buckingham Palace! From there we took the tube out to Oxford Street just to have a look (and to find a GPS for when we go through Europe) but by then we had to get back for the mid-week church meeting.

The London Eye

The mid-week church meeting was a housemeeting and they call it Central London but the only ones in the church who live in Central London are all Aussies, some of whom we were good friends with before we left Australia, so it was great to catch up with everyone!

Old London Town

Tuesday 16th July 2009

So today we flew from New York to London. When we got to JFK we couldn't get emergency row seats and the British Airways check-in agent said they were only available in Premium Economy. So once we were checked in we asked about upgrading to Premium Economy and it turned out to be only 250 pounds each! So we decided to splurge and don't regret it at all - bigger seats, lots more leg room, better entertainment system and your own cabin, so if you're able to do so we would recommend it for a special treat.

Once we got to Heathrow and through customs it was about 8:30am and took the Underground (otherwise known as the 'Tube' - London's version of the subway) to Matt and Nicki Cole's place (via two trains) but forgot it was going to be peak hour and not all the stations have lifts so with our suitcases it was quite difficult but we got there eventually.

After a rest at their flat we had a wander up and down the street where they live - there are quite a few little shops and things to look at, and we bought a "Camping Through Europe" book in case we need a cheaper option after the Italian camp. After we got back I was exhausted and ended up having a sleep for a few hours while Mel played on the computer. Nicki cooked a lasagne for dinner so we just spent the evening chatting with them and getting some pointers on what to do while we are in London.

Sorry, we didn't really take any photos today but there will be heaps over the next couple of days.

Final Thoughts

Monday 13th July 2009

Today was our final day in New York. We just checked out of our hotel, got the shuttle at 3pm, then flew out to London at 7pm. As it was pretty uneventful I thought I'd just give you our final thoughts and impressions on Manhattan specifically, and New York in general.

New York is incredible and like a lot of things the only way to know what it's like and the feeling of the place is to actually go there yourself. It's larger than life, proud and strong, and while anyone could write pages and pages about it, our first impression of Manhattan was that it is very much like a theme park.

From the street performers to the food cart vendors, the flashing neon lights of Times Square to the rows upon rows of upmarket fashion and shopping stores, the tour buses, Broadway shows, restaurants, and even down to the tunnels, back doors and alleyways used to do all the service work... it is very much a place geared to give the best impression to the tourists. Just some examples of this... late every night great piles of trash and rubbish is left on the sidewalk and in the morning, just like magic, it has all disappeared; on just about every corner there is someone trying to sell tour bus tickets; and at our hotel the maintenance and housekeeping staff were not allowed to use the elevator if a guest was already in there.


Of course to say that Manhattan is a theme park is an insult to the 1.3 million people that are trying to live there (+7 million in the rest of New York), trying to carve out a living in any way they can. The view that most tourists get, even before they come, is of the 'Sex and the City' lifestyle - that life in New York is all about shopping, cafes and restaurants and that nobody seems to go to work, however this is far from the truth. New York is actually a very expensive place to live ($4000 per month to rent a basic apartment) and believe it or not the tourists actually see the worst of people - they see the ones who are doing anything they can to make enough money to live - pushing, pushing, pushing for one more ticket to the comedy club or the bus tours, carrying around giant (real) snakes or dressing up in Elmo and Mickey Mouse suits so they can charge $2 a photo, the poster/fake designer handbag/jewellery stalls that spring up every night, or the standard carny tricksters at Coney Island, the list goes on.


The buildings, architecture, parks, squares and city lights all make the city stunning in their own way, but if you step back, step outside the tourist traps, and just watch, even with everything I have mentioned above, you will see it is the people that make New York beautiful. Their generosity and willingness to help people in trouble is quite incredible. We first got a glimpse of this in the WTC memorial at St Paul's Church that described how the volunteers worked non-stop and gave freely of their food, time and services to support the emergency services personnel that were finding survivors, then bodies, then cleaning up. But then as we started catching buses and the subway we saw first hand examples. The numerous occassions where multiple people would without question or comment offer someone change for the bus fare if their card didn't work, or when the disabled lady with the bad leg (who had every right to keep whatever came her way) gave $5 to the homeless man who just got on the bus, or the old lady who could hardly walk give her lunch to the same homeless man, even the bus tour ticket sales guys would help out with directions even though you weren't buying any tickets.


So, we heartily recommend New York as a place to see, and offer these final pointers:
* By all means do the bus tours, but do them first so you can get your bearings and then see what you want do in more detail later
* Don't just do use the bus tours to get around. Get a Metro card and use the very good subway and/or bus system and you will see the real New York and the real New Yorkers. Even if you just go out to Coney Island and back you will see the poorer sections that the tourists don't normally see. And they are very clean and very safe.
* It's very easey to spend a fortune, but if you're careful and with a little bit of work you can also do it on the cheap
* Hotels in general are expensive for what you get, but do your research and you will find one that is good and in your price range (the internet is your friend - I recommend TripAdvisor!)
* Be prepared to walk a lot - even if you do use the public transit
* Do your research first to see what you want to do (again, TripAdvisor is your friend). We just did the main bus tour but didn't look until our last day into all the other great tours you could do and it was too late by then
* There are heaps of great little delis/cafes everywhere so go get a sandwich and sit somewhere and just enjoy the feeling of the city.

I'm lovin' it

Sunday 12th June 2009

A slow day today...

First we went back to the B&H photography store to get a lens cleaner for the camera - doesn't sound like fun but it was because of the way the store is set up.

Then we decided to have another picnic in Central Park, this time up at the top end, so we found another deli and got some sandwiches and drinks and just sat on the grass for a while. We went for a stroll around the upper end of the park and found a pond with turtles, as well as a random salsa band with an impromptu dance party going on.





As it was our last night in New York we went back to the hotel to pack and then out for dinner at Maccas. After Maccas we saw "Up" at this massive cinema complex (25 cinemas, 15 floors) in Times Square and loved it.

The hotel we stayed at was the Hotel St James. It's a very basic, cheap hotel by New York standards, but it was clean and the location was excellent - just off Times Square on 45th Street. The average per night price was about $120USD which is actually quite reasonable for one where you get your own private bathroom. It was a little bit noisy, and there is a lot of light coming in through the windows, and there is no swipe cards - it's all old-school keys which you have to hand in every time you leave - but at the end of the day you're only there to sleep and have a shower and for that it was great.

It's like you're always stuck in second gear

Saturday 11th July 2009

The first thing we did today was a walking photography tour of the Greenwich Village area. We would highly reocmmend this tour - it combines a photography lesson with a history of the area and points out some interesting buildings and photography techniques you can use. Greenwich Village and the West Village are two areas that I wanted to go see because of all the interesting architecture so it was good that we got to see it as part of this tour.

We started out at Father Demo Square with a photography lesson, and then wandered down a couple of side streets where the tour guide pointed out some famous houses like Edgar Allen Poe and the exterior used in the Cosby Show:



A bit further along was a church that had a really nice garden that was really quiet - a real santuary (unusual for New York), and also the oldest off-broadway theatre in New York called Cherry Lane.


This photo shows Cherry Lane - the theatre is on the left where the awning is.

On the same street as the Cherry Lane theatre was the building that was used for the exterior shots in the Friends TV show:



The final stop was a park (more like a paved square) where the gay pride movement started - but we got distracted by a pet shop and a brazilian cafe we found nearby and bought a coffee and really good cupcake instead:



A random flea market/street fair had popped up in Father Demo Square so we spent a good hour or so wandering around here and Mel bought a hat. After a break at the hotel we found a good Italian restaurant on 46th street and then went back to the big M&M's store and took some photos and bought some Strawberry Peanut Butter and some Almond M&M's - very yumma!

Goodbye my Coney Island baaaaby...

Friday 10th July 2009

Well a not so busy day today.

We realised we had to do some laundry, so we found a serviced one and they washed and folded it all for us. We were going to use the coin operated ones but it only cost $14 for them to do it so we thought we'd splurge...

While our laundry was getting done we went on the last of the bus tours, this one of down town. It was basically just through the shopping district (SoHo, Tribeca etc.) and back up again. We got off at the World Trade Center twin towers site and went and looked at a memorial in St Paul's cathedral which became the rescue/emergency services personnel place of rest and rejuvenation. The memorial was quite moving, just reading about the generosity and open hertedness of not only New Yorkers but people from all across the world.




These photos are just a couple of the items in the memorial at St Paul's cathedral.

After the WTC memorial we went back and picked up our laundry and went back to the hotel for a nap, then took the subway out to Coney Island. This place is in danger of disappearing in the next few years and is such an iconic part of New York we just had to see it - and it has the world's oldest roller coaster. We spent an hour just wandering around - had a corndog and went on a couple of the rides and then took the subway back.

After Coney Island we had dinner at a really interesting Japanese restaurant called Inakaya, which is kind of like a teppenyaki grill but more boisterous. We forgot to take some photos, but this image shows it quite well. We sat in the first and second seats on the hand bench.

The Big Apple

Thursday 9th July 2009

A big day in the Big Apple!

As part of our bus tour package we got tickets for a cruise along the Hudson River. The pier where the boat was didn't look too far away on the map so we decided to walk there - it ended up being about a mile and took us about 25 minutes so nearly missed the boat. Luckily we got there just in time...

The cruise started just south of where that plane landed on the river recently, then kept going south down the island past a few interesting buildings and sights (a driving range, celebrity owned apartments, the Food Network headquarters etc.), past wall street and where the twin towers used to be, then kept going down to the Statue of Liberty where it turned around and went back the same way it came.


The Statue of Liberty (taken from the cruise boat)

We met some Aussies on the cruise who told us we could take the bus back to Times Square so that's what we did. Once we got back to Times Square we decided to do another bus tour (also part of our package) - this time of uptown New York. This one took us up to Columbus circle, past the Trump Tower, then up the entire western side of Central Park, out through Harlem and past the Apollo theatre (where the Jackson 5 had got their start) then back down the other side of Central Park.


The Apollo Theatre in Harlem. This was the day after Michael Jackson's memorial and the white fence on the left is actually a board where people were writing messages.

We decided to jump off the tour halfway down 5th avenue and find a deli to get some sandwiches to have a picnic in the park. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake because the first cafe we came to was in a church but was in the process of having a fire drill, and then after walking for ages along 5th Avenue we didn't find any until we got to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but found out you had to buy $20 tickets even to get to the cafe. We weren't really interested in seeing the museum at that stage so Mel had the bright idea of getting on a bus and heading down 5th Avenue until we saw one - lucky we did because there wasn't another one until the bottom end of the park! Anyway we got some really nice sandwiches and a couple of drinks and took another bus back up along side the park and had a lovely little picnic on one of the grassy hills, then wandered around and took a few photos.


The famouse "Literary Walk" in Central Park seen in just about every movie set in New York.

For those that aren't aware, Central Park is actually a huge place - took us 20 minutes to walk from one side to the other, and it would probably take literally all day to walk the entire length. Here's a good image (not ours) that shows how big it is in comparison to all the other buildings...



After our relaxing little picnic we caught the Subway back to the Empire State Building (again as part of the tour) and went to the 86th floor observation deck where you can see just about everything - what a fantastic view!


This is a photo we took from the top of the Empire State Building. You can see Central Park on the top left.

On our way back to the hotel from the Empire State Building we bought some shorts for Paul and also went to the biggest Toys 'R Us store we've ever seen. It was three storeys and even had its own Ferris Wheel and life size T-Rex animatronics thing, and an Empire State Building made out of Lego! After that we went back to the hotel, but decided we were hungry so went to "Restaurant Row" (46th Street) and found a nice Thai place called Bangkok House.


The ferris wheel in the Toys 'R Us store.

And All That Jazz

Wednesday 8th July 2009

We had already purchased tickets to Chicago (the musical) so after sleeping in we got a little bit dressed up and went to see the matinee session at 2:30pm. It was in the Ambassador Theatre which is quite small, so at first we were a bit disappointed that it wasn't a big production but soon got over it and enjoyed the show and the music. Our seats were upstairs, right at the very front, in the middle, so that certainly helped! For those of you that have seen the movie it has all the same songs but is quite stylised as most live shows are, but one thing that was interesting was the band was all on stage on this big almost choir stand type thing but that was integrated as part of the stage e.g. there were stairs in the middle that a lot of the actors used to make their entrance on stage, and they would talk to the conductor as part of the show as well.

After Chicago we did a night (well, twilight) but tour of downtown and Brooklyn. The tour guide was very good - rather than spouting out historical facts and figures like some of the others we had he explained interesting parts of the city, like how the Empire State Building has been re-furbished to use 20% less energy, and the more personal aspect - the attitudes of New Yorkers in general and what they have acheived (like how the nobody thought the Flatiron building would still be standing today) and the changing face of the different districts.



This is a picture of the Flatiron Building (seen in movies such as Spiderman)

After the night tour we had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe in Times Square and the biggest thing that struck us about it all was that it was our first taste of the New York night life. Even though it was about 10:30pm it was still packed and still a 25 minute wait to get in and then when we left at about 11:30pm the streets were still as busy as it was during the day! The shops were still open, there were still street performers and hot dog stands and still just as many cars and people. When you take into account that there are 1.6 million residents on an island that is 13 miles x 2.5 miles (at it's widest) plus around another 2 million workers and tourists at any one time it gives an idea of what it's like. It truly is the city that never sleeps!

The Empire State Building seen from Brooklyn (seen in in movies such as Sleepless in Seattle and Godzilla)

Mel and Paul on the night tour (not seen in any movies... yet)