Good day Bad day

Bad news - Some people know that I've got some fake bits on both of my front teeth thanks to trying to go down a wet and wild tube slide backwards and slipping onto my head about 10 years ago. Whilst biting into a nectarine on friday one of them snapped off again (happens every couple of years) and cost 150 pounds to get replaced the next day!! even worse was the fact that I had to work looking like a chav (english talk for government housing people) on a nice and busy friday night...fantastic.

Good news - I got promoted on the same day without knowing it and now get a bit extra money so I'll make the dentist bill back a lot quicker.

St Pauls Cathedral

If your in London one of the things you go and see is St Pauls Cathedral. The usual rules apply - no photos, no yelling and try not to step on too many of the graves. In the crypt you find the likes of Admiral Nelson, The Duke of Wellington and Sir Christopher Wren all stuck in the ground somewhere with plaques telling short stories of their achievements.
The best part of the cathedral is that you can climb all the way up to the golden gallery which is about 85 m (530 steps) up and grab a 360 degree view of London which in turn allows you to count how many cranes are around at that time...Lots.

On the way back down I took a couple of sneaky pictures so this is what the inside of the cathedral looks like from the whispering gallery (the first stop on the way up)

And another looking up at the roof from the ground floor

As a last note, I actually got into the cathedral for free when it usually costs 9 pounds because I was honest with the cashier and didn't try to sneak in with the big group which had prepaid and was flowing through the gates, so they let me in for free. Quite nice of them I thought.

p.s. I thought that York minster was better

Records

Just so everyone at home doesn't think that it never gets hot over here, yesterday was the hottest day in July for the UK ever! that's 36 and a half degrees. Doesn't sound too bad but try 50+ degrees if you were catching the tube or taking a bus somewhere. A whole bunch of blag!

:)

Day 5

Last day of the trip now...

Everyone was feeling a little slow in the morning due to the previous nights entertainment, so what did we do first thing in the morning?? go for a walk around stratford to have a peep at the birthplace of shakey, walk for a bit more and see the place where he died (he didn't get very far!). Then down the road a bit more we saw his grave which is kept inside a church with a warning to anyone who moves his bones will 'ave a curse placed 'pon ye!

On the way back from the church we did happen to spot a squirrel digging in one of the graveyards...as you do.

Shakeys' Grave

Onwards >>>> now after our walk what we were all looking forward to, sleeping on the bus mmm. Well for some reason I didn't sleep that day at all but everyone else did and I have pictures to prove it, all in all it made the ride a little boring but we soon arrived in Oxford.

Oxford uni isn't like any of ours back at home, there isn't a big uni campus, it's just built throughout the whole town which is great because there are students everywhere (not hard on the eyes!) and everyone rides a bike around. The town was explained to the group by the worlds most crazy tour guide honestly this lady was insane but she knew her stuff. The uni has heaps of old traditions and plenty of history not to mention the town itself. To cut it short we saw a lot of old famous buildings and some of the places where Harry potter was filmed for all those fans out there.

Here's a picture of some of the buildings which make up one of the worlds most famous libraries(8 in total). They're all linked underground by storage and tunnels, only certain people are allowed down there. Due to some guy back in the day making a bargain with the king/queen of the time the Oxford library gets the first copy of EVERY single new book published in the UK so there apparently millions of pointless books under the ground!

Homeward bound! When we saw the smog on the horizon and then hit the M25 we knew we were back in London and reality for some, more holidays for others. It was time to say goodbye...

Thanks to Darren & Dave our guides and everyone on the trip hope to see you soon!

Day 4

It's Day 4 which means we leave Liverpool and prepare for the last night of the tour!!

Nice and early in the morning the tour group headed down to the river mersey to catch the ferry across and placed me in charge of the tickets, lucky i'm just a very responsible guy and we all got over and out the other side in one piece!

Now we headed into wales with the first stop being Conwy which has a very old castle that hasn't been restored like a lot of the others and has kept a lot of its' character. This castle was one of the homes of Longshanks during his rule. (history lesson 1)
Another thing to note is that now in Wales all the signs are written in Welsh and in English underneath. I was told that the Welsh hung onto their culture a lot more because they were the most exploited of the peoples neighbouring the English.

From Conwy we headed into Snowdonia national park to have a look at Mt. Snowdon, the highest peak in england and wales (3560 ft.) but before we got there there was a stop off at the longest placename........place, which goes as follows:

Llanfairpwllgwngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

and this means:

The church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of tysilio by the red cave
.......and that's that!

Here's me acting like some sort of bird with Mt. Snowdon over MY left shoulder in the clouds and look i'm not even fat yet!!

Onwards we headed to a loverly little town and ate lunch by a rocky pool and small waterfall then drove onto Stratford-upon-Avon the hometown of Shakespeare but more importantly somewhere to watch Australia play Croatia in the world cup, grab a bite to eat & a drink or 2..... well it was the last night and all.

Interesting soccor match......lets just say that the umpire got sent back to England from Germany and will never cover another top class match and we still progressed to the next stage to play Italy (will cover later)

Blah blah blah we all partyed the night away and enjoyed ourselves thanks guys!

Here's some of us now! (from 90 degrees left...Kylie,Maya,Tony,Darren,Me,Cameron & Dave)

Day 3

Hi guys, here we are finally with day 3 of the trip, things might start to be explained a little quicker now that i have some catching up to do and less time to do it in!

Ok...day 3 begins by saying goodbye to Edinburgh and Scotland. Just before crossing the border we stopped off at Gretna Green which is a historical romantic getaway were people could elope and get married. Cameron and Tracey were randomly selected from the crowd and quickly married by the hammer and anvil.

Back in England the next leg was driving through the Lake District. Very nice scenery with waterfalls, mountain views, plenty of lakes, interesting wildlife, some crazy roads and a chance to do some climbing.

Here's me and a couple of the girls from Coffs Harbour in front of one of the waterfalls.

(just told a joke, funny of course)

On the way out of the lake district we stopped off at the home of Beatrix Potter and went into the exhibition of Peter rabbit and all her other tales...this picture is for you mother dear!

I don't know which tale this is from but i'm fairly sure you will!

After our stopoff we headed to Liverpool, had a look at the Cavern Club the original playing venue of the beatles which is also the home of the mersey beat. We had a quick squizzy at the Liverpool football stadium, one of the UKs' most famous.

The night in Liverpool was spent wandering around down to the river and all over checking out the sights, not, surprisingly at the pubs and clubs.