Back in London

We're back now!

We had a good time back in NZ with the two weddings and catching up with everyone - it was good to see you all! And the weather was great, well we thought it was after cold London, I didn't wear any longs the entire time I was there.

After stopping for a further three nice warm days in Singapore on the way back, we arrived at Heathrow to cold rainy London weather. The temperature wasn't too bad, it's just a bit miserable.

Getting home was a bit of a mission with two tubes, train and bus and all the stuff we had with us.

Our landlord had the house all heated for us, which was a nice welcome, after struggling through the rain.

Off to NZ

We fly back to NZ tomorrow, will be good to get some warm weather - hopefully!

We have two weddings to go to, and plenty of other things to keep us busy. Not looking forward to the long flights!

New Year's Eve party

Happy New Year!!

We went to a new year's party last night a our landlord's place (the flat below us). We met some of the neighbours and his family.

It was a good night, especially when the karaoke started!!

Canterbury

We caught the train to Canterbury today to catch up with Anna and meet Niall. Anna's an old English friend who spent a year studying in NZ and we met during her time in Engineering school. It was great seeing her again after so long - 4 years!

We couldn't go to Canterbury and not check out the cathedral, so that's what we did.
It's a large Cathedral with large grounds, it made for an interesting visit, though it was much better after I found a small guide book which told me about what I was looking at!





























After the cathedral we had lunch at a cute little pub called the Cherry Tree and caught up with each others news.

We then headed back to Anna's parents place in Nonington for a cuppa and chat while it poured with rain outside - what miserable weather!

Brussels

We hopped on Eurostar at Waterloo (only about 20 minutes away by bus). While waiting at the station we discovered by reading the Metro newspaper that the weather forecast for Brussels was 0 degrees with fog. Colder than we were expecting and much colder than London!

We arrived at Gare du Midi station and met up with Yvonne (one of Grace's old school friends).

We caught the metro back to her place and met Andrew (Yvonne's boyfriend) and dropped our bags off before heading back out. We realised at this point that the weather forecast was right and it was indeed very cold!

We walked to the St Michel Cathedral and walked through it. Beautiful stained glass windows.










We then headed towards Grand Place and walked through Galleries St Hubert which had lots of chocolatiers. It started snowing very lightly at this point. Pretty cold.









We checked out Grand Place before finding a place down a side street for lunch. They have lots of restaurants selling a €15 3 course lunch.

After lunch, headed to the Christmas markets. The atmosphere was still very festive and it was nice to experience a little bit of cold European Christmas.

Yvonne showed us a landmark - the Mannekin Pis. There is a myth behind the pissing boy that is something to do with putting out a fire and saving the city. We're not convinced, but this little guy was attracting a lot of attention!









Went to supermarket to pick up some stuff for dinner. Yvonne and Andrew were making a traditional Belgium dish for us which consisted of endives wrapped in ham and baked in a cheesy sauce. It didn't turn out as well as she'd hoped but we thought it tasted good!

The next day we slept in and eventually got up and headed to the Musical Instrument Museum in a beautiful Art Noveau building. It was a large museum with lots of different types of instruments. Visitors are given wirelesss headphones where they can listen to snippets of music played on the various instruments at various listening points.

After the museum we headed to the Palais de Justice. We walked past the arts museum on the way as well as one of the royal palaces (though the royal family don't actually live here, they stay at another palace on the outskirts of the city).


Headed back to Grand Place to get to the supermarket to buy some stuff for dinner that night.
As it was really cold, we didn't stay out for long.

On our last day, the weather got better, there was sun and it was warmer. We checked out the comic museum - for those who didn't know Belgium is the home of Tin Tin. The museum was interesting though it contained way too much information.

After the musuem we headed to the Christmas markets and grabbed some bratwurst for lunch. We also bought some chocolate from Neuhaus chocolatier. Then we headed to Parc du Cinquantaire for a look around before it was time to head back to pack up.

We met Yvonne for dinner before leaving on the Eurostar.

Our first cold Christmas

Today was our first Christmas in London which we spent with some other family-less kiwis.

We went around to Trudy's where Trudy, Rob (and flatmate Debbie) were putting on a feast of a lunch for us. Initially we thought we would have to walk to get there but we managed to get a lift in the back of Kirsty's van which we were thankful for.

Here's a photo of our feast:












Unfortunately (or fortunately) it wasn't cold enough, so we didn't have a white Christmas.

Les Miserable

We saw Les Mis at the Queen's theatre last night - one of Andrew's favourite musicals. It was really good. We were surprised to see that the theatre was quite small compared to the Aotea centre in Auckland but it was a good size .

Santander - Spain!

We got into Santander in the early evening, checked into hotel, and got ready for dinner at 9pm. We thought this was late, and were getting really hungry, but it's early for the Spanish! We got there a bit late and still had to wait at the bar for a while (what a shame) before we could go into the restaurant because they weren't ready.

Dinner was at a restaurant by the ocean beach, waves rolling and crashing in just below us out the window. We started by handing around secret santa presents. One stashed away his hangover recovery kit for use in the morning, another set up his 'Pin the Melons on the Babe', was blindfolded and started playing! We had tapas (as the Spanish do) to begin with and for mains we had a long board covered with loads of meat. Desert was a delicious selection of cakes and sorbet - yum!

After dinner we headed off to the casino. This is the entrance, with some bikes on display:
We had to show our passports and sign a bit of paper with our details on it. I'm not sure exactly what it was for, but it took a while to get through everyone. Finally we were allowed in.

There were a few successful people, but one topped it all off. He was sitting at the pokie machine of all things, and after a few bets he almost won €40 and got rather excited. Two bets later he won €500.

After the casino, some feeling broke, we headed back to the restaurant which had a bar below it. It pretty much sucked, other than the free round of shots that we got given because we dined upstairs!

After a long sleep-in on Sat, we dragged ourselves into town by train. It was raining, and we'd missed breakfast so we headed straight for tapas at Mercado del Este, a indoor "market" with shops and a nice cafe. Since Spain pretty much shuts down between 2-6pm, all there is to do is eat and drink.

We took a long walk to the peninsula where we went for a "train" ride around the area and saw the Palace de Magdelena. It poured with rain while we were on the ride, which was lucky for us since it was covered.

Looking out to the peninsular (through the trees) and island off the peninsular:













The city waterfront:













Boys diving:

















We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant with some of the others.

On Sunday we got up in time for breakfast. We caught the train into city again and had another walk around. We checked out the cathedral but there was a service on. A security guard told us (in Spanish) that we couldn't go in but to come back at a certain time (well, that's what we THINK she said). Sure enough, we came back and she waved us towards the door. It was fascinating, with two levels to it.

We had Tapas for lunch again at the same place as yesterday. It was raining again so we spent a lot of time inside. When we finally went to the sweet shop, it was closed (we were after 2pm) so we made our way back to the shopping centre which was open. After a cuppa it was time to get to airport. We saw a taxi about to drive away so banged on the window and said Aeropuerto. She nodded so we piled in. We think she was due to be on another job, but thought she could squeeze a short one in beforehand, because she drove like a maniac! It was really wet too, so we were all hanging on really tight. Luckily it was a very short ride and we made it alive.

We had no problems at Stansted airport since we only had our carry-on luggage, then got the express train. Getting home fromt the train station took forever though because we had to wait ages for our bus. We will be trying an alternative route next time!

Catchup with Kumuka people in London

Today we met up with some people from our Kumuka tour. We caught the bus to Trafalgar Square and had a look around there (Nelson's Column, National Gallery). We were supposed to meet them in Charing Cross tube station just underneath the square. Unfortunately there are two parts to the station so we were all in different places! It's also very hard to find out where other people are when you are underground and mobile phones don't work!.
But we found them eventually.












We headed to Leicester Square to grab some lunch at an Italian place and caught up with everyone's news.

After that one of the girls wanted to check out the New Zealand store in Covent Garden (its actually a combined NZ, Aus. South African and Canadian store). There we found all the things we can't get in a normal supermarket, like L&P, Tim Tams, Marmite etc etc. We'll definitely be going back there when we are craving for some NZ things.



From there we headed back to Embankment Pier. We split up at this point as a couple wanted to do the Tower of London and the rest of us decided on a circular cruise on the Thames. It was a beautiful day for a cruise though very cold as we sat on the open top deck to see all the sights.
The cruise went down the river past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, past the Tower of London, under Tower Bridge and many many more (too many to remember).











After the cruise we walked from Westminster pier to Whitehall and walked past the Banqueting House which one of the girls wanted to go into, so we checked it out. It was built by Inigo Jones in the early 17th-century, after a commission from James I. It has an amazing ceiling, painted by Peter Paul Rubens.
(not allowed to take photos, or steal them, so here's a link)

We wanted to watch the new James Bond movie but couldn't seem to find a theatre which was showing it! So in the end, we got some dinner at an Indonesian place and headed home.

We have internet at home!!!

WE GOT INTERNET INSTALLED TODAY. YAY!!!

It's been so long and is really frustrating not being able to look things up, send emails and update the blog!!

Allyson & Paul's whirlwind visit

Allyson and Paul were at our place when we got back from Berlin. Since we had work we hardly saw them and they only stayed two nights before they had to go again. Won't be long before we are back in NZ and will see everyone again.

Back to Berlin

The alarm went at 1:45am, after not much sleep. We were out the door by 2:25 for a 2:41 train to Victoria. From there we walked to the coach station and had a 1hr15 coach trip to Stansted airport. The joys of cheap airfares at silly times of the day! The airport was busy and security checks very tight. Our backpack was searched and tested for explosives (there were a few gadgets in there :-). We just made it to the plane on time, although got delayed by other passengers.

Once in Berlin (Shonefeld) we caught the S-bahn (suburban rail) but had to change to catch a bus for one stop because a section of track was down for planned maintenance. In total it took 9 hours in total to get to hostel in Berlin!

Dan and Beck's gave up waiting for us at the hostel (understandably!) so we wandered down the road looking for lunch. We found a shopping centre with a cafeteria but they didn't speak english so there was a lot of pointing and nodding!

Back at the hostel we met Dan & Becks & Dan's school friend Sascha. Sascha was new to Berlin (from Barvaria) so we were all keen to have a look around. It was good having German translator too!

We went to the flash new Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and tried to get cheap train tickets to Wolfsburg to visit Autostadt (VW museum and factory). We were too late for cheap tickets so decided not to go.




From there we walked to the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, a long walk down to the Siegesaule and back, then back to the Reichstag where we caught the elevator and spiral walkway up to the very top. It was dark (and cold) by this stage but had a great view over Berlin beautifully lit.
















We went back to Sascha's flat for dinner which was a couple of HUGE (50cm) pizzas, gluhwein, chocolate, Lebkucken (like gingerbread) and other junk food! We played cards and learnt our German numbers as we tried scoring ourselves (good excuse when we got the numbers wrong).

We caught bus and U-bahn (underground train) back to hostel. The buses are very punctual and have a display so that you know what the next stop is, so you know when to get off!

We had a late start on Sunday, after quite a late night. We met Dan, Becks & Sascha at Holocaust memorial to go through museum underneath the ground. It was a good museum though fairly intense with lots of information (as is common to museums like these). It was still raining once we got out, and decided that it was time to have some lunch. So we had some German food in a nearby cafe - Andrew tried Weisswurst, a white veal and pork sausage that is boiled which you have to peel the skin (made of pork guts) off to eat. (which Grace thought was a bit strange).

Following lunch we headed to Warschauer Str to see the East Side Gallery and walked the entire length to Ostbahnhof which isn't too long but when you're in the rain, it can feel like forever! So needless to say we were rather wet at the end of it.





So it was the perfect time to then get along to Fassbender & Rausch (the chocolate shop with large chocolate sculptures of famous Berlin landmarks) for some hot chocolate! And cake. They had some interesting flavoured hot chocolates, Grace tried a hot chocolate with chilli in it, she didn't like it very much.









After purchasing some chocolates for later consumption we headed back to Sascha's for dinner again, and cards. Then it was time to say goodbye to Dan & Becks as they were going to Autostadt the next day.

On Monday, we checked out Potsdamer Platz, and did some shopping! Soon it was time to head back to London, and the 9 hours it took us to get home. We caught the Stansted Express back to Liverpool St and then bus home.

Visitors arrived (some human, some not!)

This morning as we got ready to go to the airport, Grace saw a mouse running around the house.

She was worried that I didn't believe her, but I did. We also found some droppings, so there was definitely no doubt!

We had to rush off to the train, to get to the tube, to get to Heathrow. A bit of a mission, especially when the tube has to wait for 10 mins in a tunnel for a space on the platform. The same distance could have been walked overground in about 5 mins.

Getting from Heathrow tube station to the Terminal was another mission. Several long tunnels with travelators. It felt like we were never going to get there. But we made it, and found Allyson and Paul (and Paul's brother David and soon-to-be-wife Emma - they are over for the wedding).

We got our suitcase that Allyson and Paul had kindly dragged all the way from Auckland (via Thailand, Melbourne and Singapore) using their "Gold" frequent flyer benefits of excess luggage allowance :-)

On our way home we bought some mouse traps to attempt to catch the little vermin. It was like Christmas all over again when we unpacked all our (mainly winter clothing) things, having forgotten what we had packed in there.

More shopping

London has 24 hour supermarkets. Unfortunately, this means 24 hours Monday morning until Saturday night. Sunday is left out and all you get is 11am-5pm. Most shops are open late during the week, but Sunday, no. 11-5 is all you get. We bought an airing rack so we could finally wash some clothes, a broom, a trolley bag (now we look like senior citizens when we wheel our groceries home) and more stuff from Debenhams!! It was pissing with rain, but we just have to get used to it. There is some pretty awful weather coming our way soon.

I think we got close to spending in the three figure mark this weekend, but we have all the essentials, and more.

Our first home cooked dinner tonight!

We have a home!

Grace woke up not feeling too good this morning. Lack of sleep and stress is getting to us both.

Andrew caught the tube to Victoria station and walked down the road to Hertz to pick up the rental car. We booked a Ford Mondeo sized car but the first offering I got was a Saab convertible. When I reached the car and saw exactly what it was, I though "cool" (it would have been a pretty cool car) then turned around and went back inside and told them that I really wanted a four door car with some boot space. They then offered me a Ford Focus wagon or a Volvo wagon. I had to take the Volvo, so we ended up with a Volvo V70 turbo-diesel station wagon. It was a pretty quick car, and had plenty of space. Luxury!!

Picked up Grace, went to the letting agents office, signed the contract, drove to the house, met the landlord again and went though the house with the inventory clerk. I was expecting: 1 sofa, check. 1 table, check... But in reality it was: that window pane is cracked, there are finger marks around that light switch. She noticed every minor flaw in the place. Stuff I never would have seen. It's good though, we can't be blamed for the minor damage around the place. Not sure if this is normal, since it's our first time renting. First time away from our 'home'!!

Once that was all complete, we were officially in our new place. Ahhhh.. what a relief. Well, almost. We drove back to the hostel and loaded up the wagon and brought all our stuff. We didn't have that much, although had begun to collect some 'house stuff'. Traffic was getting quite busy so travelling around took some time. Next stop was Croydon for Ikea (only 15 miles away, but took over half an hour). We got our plates, cups, glasses, duvet, cover, pillows etc. No sheets, because it wasn't possible to get 2 sheets and some pillow cases in any one colour!! When we got back (another slow drive - they have way too many pedestrian crossings here) we went to Debenhams (department store) and bought sheets. Only £9.75 for King size sheets, so it didn't matter that they wouldn't fit our double bed, the main thing is they were cheap. We said that we were only buying sheets, well as usual we came out with way more than we intended. A wok, bowls, water filter jug... Still not done, we went to Asda (superstore/supermarket) and bought more kitchen stuff and of course, some food! No time for cooking so Subway for dinner.

Relief, it's all sorted

After a stressful night, calling our banks and Baycorp in New Zealand, we had a plan to solve our rental problem. Thanks to those in NZ who offered some invaluable advice.

We agreed with the letting agency that we would try and get credit references from NZ and put down 2 more weeks deposit on the rental. Our banks were very obliging and after we faxed them, they faxed back within the day (Friday NZ time). Baycorp were a little slower with our credit checks, but we had sufficient information.

We spent all morning talking (and arguing) with the letting agent about all the problems we have had, and we finally went to the house and met the landlord. It was good to check that everything was in order at the flat, and to meet the landlord.

Fingers crossed for no more last minute issues!

No place to live

Grace had a phone call from work today from the manager of the letting agency. The lady said that the landlord didn't accept our credit check so we couldn't move in. This was not an unreasonable response from the landlord, considering that we don't have any credit history in the UK, but not TWO DAYS before we are due to move in!!! The credit check came back good, which actually meant that there was nothing 'bad' on our record (it's hard to have anything bad when you don't have anything at all). There was bad communication between the agency and the landlord, so we all thought he was happy, but then when he finally saw the report, he was not.

Hostel & Chicago

We have moved into a hostel for the next couple of weeks before moving into our flat. Hostel is ok, but can get noisy when other people walk around since there are wooden floors and reverberating corridors. We get free breakfast which consists of cereal and toast - all in all not too bad.

We went and saw our first West End musical tonight - Chicago with Ashlee Simpson. Our friend Trudy (whom we met at Rob's flat) and who used to go to the same intermediate as Grace (small world) came with us. Before the show we had dinner with Trudy as well as Rob & Debbie and caught up with their news.

Andrew starts work!

Andrew started work today - quite hard after 9 weeks off!
And Grace had a site visit to Horsham (near Redhill and Gatwick) for work. A nice day out of the city!

A little London outing

We visited our friend Kirsty in the Isle of Dogs today. We took the tube to Monument and checked out the Monument to the Great Fire of London. We were supposed to meet Kirsty here but as the weather wasn't so flash, we decided to meet at her flat instead. From there we were planning on catching the DLR from Bank to her place, however due to engineering works, that part of the line was not operating. We had to take another tube to Canary Wharf, which meant that we got to see the posh buildings in that area. We finally made it to Island Gardens where Kirsty picked us up from the station back to her place.

After having a chat we decided to go over to Greenwich, the walk started off in fine-ish weather and slowly deteriorated, but we managed to get to the Greenwich foot tunnel before it got really awful.
At the other end, we saw the Cutty Sark, and found a market (in a warehouse type building) which we browsed as it poured with rain outside. We then headed to Cafe Rouge for some hot chocolate to warm up - not before entering a Mexican cafe and deciding that this wasn't really the place for a hot chocolate. Due to finding hair in our bread and dips and paper in Andrew's hot chocolate, we managed to fill ourselves on a rather cheap lunch!