Egypt - Day 6

God of Croc.... Komobo

Edfu Temple

Us with Granite Horus

Sunlight streaming into the Colonnade at Edfu

Lisa at Karnak Temple

Ramses II at Karnak

The sacred lake, rather man made though

Mark cracking up at me...walking like an Egyptian

Row of Rams...get it Ramses...no seriously.

Sunset arriving at Luxor Temple...2km from Karnak

Ramses II Statues at Luxor Temple

Colonnade at night...Luxor

Row of Sphinxes between Karnak & Luxor

Egypt - Day 5

Our felucca in the morning

The sails

Egyptian Flag behing the felcucca

Birds, watching while we enjoyed lunch

Enjoying the ride

Swim time in the Nile!

This was about 500m inland...great photo material

Us wandering on the banks of the Nile before dinner

Fire side music before....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Photo of the Day No.20 - To the Right..

Is the sign for the exhibition at the British Museum for Moctezuma, which Mark and I visited tonight after work. This was to explore the history and highlights of the great Mexican ruler, his life and times in the 15th century and how it all came to crumble with the Spanish arriving in search of the New World.

Wanted gorgeous gals to drool over SEXY Male Swans

That was me, Jade and Shauna, and drool we did, the principal dancer was a hottie, especially in shiny black leather when he is the stranger in Act 3. There are no words to describe, just subtle groans and lip licking all round...mmm mmm.

We sat 3 rows from the front and were delighted in the fact that we could hear every step, see every wobble, every muscle ripple, every rivulet of sweat, oh and the smell. Yes, but it wasn't bad, it was all baby powder to make them white for swans.

Photo from the Internet....Swans...

Aside from the hot muscly guys in the Swan scenes, the show it self was extremely modern and actually terrifically funny in some places, particularly the dancer who was the girlfriend. We got the giggles, she was so funny. I won't give anymore away, you'll just have to go and see for yourself.

The Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake at Sadler's Wells of course!
Jade and I with birthday cocktails for Jade
Me, with Jade and Shauna
My Russian doll, Olga...I named her just then... who contains 5 other ladies, Aleksandra, Helga, Irina, Mischa and Nadja from Jade's Russian Xmas and New Year

Photo of the Day No.14 - From Russia with Love

A gift from my friend Jade who went to Russia for Christmas and New Years. We had them out before we went to Sadler's Wells to watch the Matthew Bourne "Swan Lake" as a treat evening for her birthday, and watching the hot dancers was so "present" enough!!

Photo of the Day No.9 - Tourist Day

Mark and I went to Covent Garden to the Transport for London Museum and ALL I got was this lousy photo of an old bus blind.... Nope there is more.

But, check that box, it was on our to do list and I was fascinated and managed to spend 3 hours there, how I don't know quite how, maybe its because I read EVERYTHING, am becoming a nerd, I will be trainspotting next.

A bit of Puccini

I love anything that is exotic and beautiful, Opera for me is no exception, though to be honest I did find Wagners "The Ring Cycle" a little tough to watch.

However, this time the opera was Puccini's, "La Boheme" and it was nothing but something of immaculate beauty, something for all the senses.

The singing was champagne for the ears, the story so romantic and hopeful. The set was divine visual splendour, perfectly prepared you could easily mistake that you were sitting in the spectacular Royal Opera House and felt you had been transported to a very wintery, but ever so glamorous 18th century bohemian Paris. The taste was of champagne in the interval and the smell, was that of snow outside when the show ended.

Simply stunning, and yes I did cry at the end.

The Perrier Jouet Bar, nice! And we reserved our interval champers

The view from our seats

See, me with my Champagne

And Miss Amy with her Champagne

Photo of the Day No.5 - La Boheme

A big tick on my "To Do" list, a list that grows quicker than it shrinks. Tonight my lovely friend Amy came along with me, she was tickled pink too, to see the beautiful Puccini opera La Boheme at London's famous Covent Garden Royal Opera House.
I had wanted to see it for quite some time, waited 3 hours on the internet for my turn to buy tickets and was almost afraid that I would be disappointed. Far from it, we had amazing seats across front of the top balcony, so we didn't feel hemmed in and we could see all of the stage and orchestra pits perfectly.

A lovely glass of champagne in the interval, a magical evening, simply stunning.

Photo of the Day No.2 - Shiny Disco Balls...ur Not

After being a bit housebound yesterday Mark and I journeyed out to Trafalgar square today, then on to Burlington Arcade, along the way however we found this amazingly shiny ball structure outside the Royal Academy of Arts (note to self add this to list of places must see before leave London...check). Oooo shiny, had to take some photos...oooo pretty.

Escapades through Northern France and Belgium

I had always wanted to go to France and just drive around, its a massive country, in European standards and takes a bit of time to do it justice and then some more. We had 11 days, which was just to enough to get down as far as Burgundy and a hint of Brittany if you cut it across the middle. Mark did most of the planning as I was away with Dad and as he had been avidly reading the France guidebook for months he was probably best placed to do it in the first instance.

Mark eating Tartifletter for lunch, a good start

So one fine Saturday morning we stocked up our Volkswagen Passat (never get one stupid handbrake button thingy is rubbish) and headed out of London bright and early, with a 7am sparrow fart start. We took the Euro tunnel across the English Channel, which is rather cool as you pull up at Dover Channel tunnel at your allotted time and line up to drive on the train, yep you pull up and there is a ramp off the side to drive in. There are people ensuring you are in the right spot with minimal gaps between cards, and not across carriages. Then 25 minutes later the train pulls up in Calais, you drive off and done - you are in France. We were pretty excited by that bit. Since Calais was along way from our allotted destination for the evening - 3 hours away - we had to get going. We headed down the coast on the autoroute through the region of Picardie towards Normandy.

We stopped for a late lunch in a tiny little village and just missed its markets for the day, but we did get to have a yummy lunch with wine and Mark got the tarteflette, which is a potato and bacon baked dish. Back on the road again our first stop along the way was across the Pont Normandie, one of the longest bridges in the world, before arriving for a later afternoon drink (and a bit of people watching) in the beautiful coastal town called Honfleur. Honfleur is famous for being picturesque particularly its little harbour with lots of old 7 storey wooden houses. A flower it indeed is.

HonFleur Harbour Buildings, some seven stories

From there we headed a bit further down, about an hour away to Bayeux via Caen, the town where the old Bayeux tapestries about the Norman invasion are kept. It’s quite a nice little town with a massive medieval church, wooden buildings and windy streets. We had a really nice French dinner and our hotel was just gorgeous, think French Château opulence but smaller and in the town itself. The tapestries were good to see and in very good condition considering their age and that they have been pulled from pillar to post through the years, and it’s thought they were actually completed by the English.

Bayeux Hotel...Chateau more like

It was Normandy so they day was a little gloomy, but perfect for visiting the Normandy beaches including the cliffs along Longues sur Mer where we got to see big German guns and lookout points. We drove along the coast and went to Omaha (US) beach, which was closest an easy to get to compared with Gold (UK) and Utah (US) even though one of them had the temporary docks, but we could see them from the Longues sur Mer look outs anyway. We also went to Arromanches where there were lots of bomb craters, I climbed in one and its about 2 stories higher than me. Our drive later that afternoon left us moving into Brittany and with that the clouds began to dissipate. Driving along the coastline was very pretty and we were heading to the coastal oyster town of Cancala.

Cancala Beach, or Oyster beds

Beach at St Malo, high tide though

Mont St Michel

The quaint tiny streets of Mont St Michel

We stayed in Cancala, which was amazing to arrive into as the tide was out and all you could see for miles was oyster beds embedded in the wide beaches. We had oysters and cider by the jetty, with the oyster really cheap at £3 a dozen. We had another really good meal with Mark eating moules and me lovely red bream. The next day we went visiting to St Malo on the coast of Brittany before driving back to St Michel's Mont (the abbey on the island and the big sister to St Michael's mount in England).

Apple Orchards on the Route de Cidre, near Buevron en Auge

Monets House in Giverny

We picked up the cider trail from Bueven en Auge (historic town with only one restaurant - the other one burned down the night before we arrived!!) after visiting the Bayeaux tapestries and purchased much French cider, from sweet little old ladies who only spoke French, then travelled onwards to the Loire valley staying in Vendome before visiting both Amboise and Chenonceaux chataux's. We went inside Chenonceaux and it was just stunning inside and out (apart from the scaffolding!!).

Chenonceau Portrait...

Chenonceau Forest Flowers

Avalon Sunset

Beaune Hospice

Avalon was our next stop before Beaune in Burgundy where we had lunch (beef bourguignon) in the quaint little town after visiting the Hospices de Beaune a 13th century hospital (but pleasant not gruesome - though am sure some of the medical procedures then would have been eek) and purchasing some...well Burgundy wine. So alas we left the Autoroute of the sun (towards the southern coast) and headed back up again towards Champagne, via Troyes.

Town hall at Troyes

In Champagne we stayed in Ay and Epernay (about 5 miles apart) so not much driving and plenty of time for tastings. After a swim in the pool (finally a hotel with a pool) we had an early night but not before a little dinner and you guessed it more Champagne. We had a full day of tastings ahead of us, but best of all we toured (thanks to a lovely couple from Melbourne) the next morning Billiecart Salmon champagne house. It was brilliant and the champagne fantastic, we got four full glasses and some vintage, also it was free.

Here lies Louis Roederer....


I had no idea there were 15,000 champagne houses and appallingly we only managed to get to 4 (William Santot, Henri Goutorbe, G Tribaut (amazing views) and Billiecart) to actually taste, it’s a bit more un-inviting to taste, but that is probably more the French attitude (upturned nose) than anything, though no one was unfriendly at all.


Epernay Champagne Shop...the choices

Vines at Tribaut Winery

We went past a few others including Louis Roederer, Laurent-Perrier, Moët & Chandon and Nicolas Feuillatte to name a few. So on from there a quick stop in Reims our final Champagne stop before the more sombre end of our tour.

Champagne view to Reims

We headed to the Somme for the Australian war memorials (including a small museum) and one of them was brilliant with a large tower to climb to view the whole of the Somme Valley, very beautiful and hard to picture what it was like back in the early 1900's during the war. The area is covered in various memorials, so many graves, and it’s the same in Belgium.

We were to stay in Gent (it’s like Bruges, my assuming you’ve been there – haven’t we all; but prettier again) and our hotel was amazing an old Flemish townhouse that was more like a French Châteaux, gorgeous.

Ieper...or Ypres...Last Post

Australian Memorial - Cobbers at Fromelles

Vimy Ridge Trenches

We looked around there in the morning including visiting the 11th century castle before heading back to France to go to Vimy Ridge (Canadian war memorial and WW1 trenches) then on the Ypres for the last post ceremony (its done every evening at 8pm and has done since the end of WW1).

Gent Buildings

Moules in Gent...yum yum

Our final day was spent wandering around the now cooler Gent (just a reminder that summer really had ended) before heading back across to Calais for our tunnel ride back to London.