http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Chelle and Izzy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Chelle and Izzy en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:37:06 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:37:06 BST Today is the first day of our Chinese tour. After breakfast we met with our Chinese guide and the rest of the tour group. It was a surprise to find out that the tour group comprised of one couple from Canada us from Australia and the rest from USA. On our European tour there was one Canadian couple one American Couple and 80 of the rest Australians.The tour guide Barbara is a Chinese lady http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-207795.html It probably isnrsquot a good idea to be behind in our blogs but at the moment I am trying to recall what we did 3 days ago a hard task when you are feeling fluey yes Iz and I have both come down with the dreaded wog in the last few days and arenrsquot feeling the besthellipbut here goes nothingThe 27th of September saw us partaking in a tea ceremony in a small village outside of the t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hangzhou-/blog-207477.html Well we finally arrived home safe and sound though still a bit sick on the 1st of October. It was a strange feeling to board those first two planes it hadn't sunk in that we were actually heading back to Oz...it didn't feel real. That changed once we landed in Brisy and we felt like we had never been away.Thankfully the customs process went quickly and we were able to make the domestic fli http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Gladstone/blog-207420.html After making the effort to get up for breakfast Iz and I soon realised we werenrsquot well enough to go traipsing around Shanghai. We decided on staying put for the day as it was only a half day of touring and boy did we make the right decision.The whole day we lay in bed with the shakes and shivers suffering from the flu. I donrsquot remember Iz being so sick in a long time I had expe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-207416.html The day kicked off before the cock crowed with a wakeup call at five in the morning. We had a plane to catch at 830 and had already had our bags collected last night at 1030. Naturally Chelle and I set our own alarms twenty minutes later and rushed breaky just in time to catch the bus.The plane flight was about two hours and passed over central China. It was a bit of an eye opener to fly up o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hangzhou-/blog-207413.html XIANI guess one of the things that really drew us to China was the thought of seeing the terracotta warriors and today that dream would be realised. We were up by 700am and on the bus by 8am with our group. They have been a fabulous bunch of people all American bar one couple from Canada.It kinda feels like we are ending where we started outhellipin the States where we had such a great tim http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-207411.html As usual we didnrsquot really know what we were up to today until someone else let us in on the itinerary I always forget to check mine but manage to figure things out as we go along. Today we were taking a Hutong Ride through Beijingrsquos streets visiting a traditional Chinese family in their home AND a cute kindergarten.The Hutong ride was mayhem all our tour group about 33 of us http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-205181.html Well it ainrsquot called the Great Wall for nothing Our tour bus left the big city behind to head out to one of Chinarsquos most recognisable icons even from space The Great Wall is only 1 hourrsquos drive from Beijing and is visited by millions of people every year. We didnrsquot get there too early as that was when a lot of the Chinese crowds would be therehellipbut it was still http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-205175.html 20th 21st SeptemberJust a quick blog to report that we arrived in China safe and sound and with ALL our luggage hooray The flights were great we actually caught an earlier flight to Frankfurt because we had stupidly not checked our tickets and just assumed we were flying from Heathrow WRONG. We were meant to fly out from London City Airport but the people at Lufthansa were wonderful http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-205164.html Our last full day in London allowed for a nice sleep in so nice that we slept past breakfast Luckily the owners still provided us with some cereal and toast to fuel our bodies for the day. The first attraction to see was the Horse Guards and after a very slow train and several lots of directions we finally found the forecourt in which the guards change shift.The horse guards are stationed a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-205162.html Today was a sightseeing bonanza. The day started with a trip to the Globe Theatre where Shakespearersquos plays were first shown. The Theatre is a reconstruction of the original building which was used in the 1500rsquos. The current building was built using the same materials and methods as the original which has resulted in creating an atmosphere that brings you back in time. It was cool http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-205161.html The day started as all days should with a little sleep in and a full English breakfast served of course After grabbing a feed we headed into town to find the lsquoHop on Hop Offrsquo bus stop to give us an overview of London so we could plan the next four days although Chelle already had a pretty detailed itineraryWe found the Tour stop and noticed it was next to Madam Tussauds http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-204800.html Just to let all our travelbloggers know we are off to China today...even though the blogs aren't up to date still. We aren't sure if that will be possible on our last leg as the tour is pretty full on and goes for 9 days but we will continue to write our blogs and post them when we get home if we have to.Thanks for all your comments so far we love hearing from everyone It's sad to think http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-203877.html The 17th of September is a special day for Iz and I as it is the anniversary of our weddinghelliptwo years married and still madly in love awww. We didnrsquot have anything terribly romantic planned being half way around the world in London was pretty good anyway and considering our time restraints we didnrsquot want to sacrifice a day of sightseeing for a day of lazing in bed or wi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-203724.html On the Crapometre scale today was off the charts. I canrsquot believe how many things went wrong for us today hopefully thatrsquos it until the end of our trip which isnrsquot much longer. Maybe we should be thankful that nothing that bad has happened to us yet I mean whatrsquos one rude French guyThe first part of our crappy day started at 530am when we had to get up to catch ou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-202771.html The plan didnrsquot differ much today have something to eat then catch a bus to another beach this time a black beach. We managed to get on the right bus out to Perissa but didnrsquot end up staying out there for long. The water was once again pretty cold which is strange considering the temperature of the sandrock. I think the problem is that our beaches back home are shallow so th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-202770.html We woke fairly early today and with breakie looking like it would be a bit of a wait we decided to take a quick walk around the other side of our hotel. The island is fairly big with over 12 000 residents in the summer months and a third less during the colder season. We walked past old churches other hotels and of course the amazing view.A few donkey trains were headed the other way so afte http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-202768.html I had unsuccessfully tried to get through to Olympic Airlines from our hotel to see if we could switch to an earlier flight outhellipso it was an early rise to check out the flight situation. We were unable to change the flights over the phone though and the lady suggested going out to the airport as soon as we could to see what they could dohellipshe was fairly certain our flights could be c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-202767.html By morning Athens looked a little less modern. The Acropolis still stood in the distance from our room and we were keen to get there after a quick breakie. The hotel manager suggested we WALK to the Acropolis only 20 minutes away but I think he must have been joking The hill is HUGE and it would have taken longer than 20 minutes just to reach the basehellipI didnrsquot even have to talk http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-202765.html With a bit of a cold still hanging on Iz and I werenrsquot up for a huge day so we stayed in bed till nearly 1030am ate a leisurely breakfast and then packed up our gear for our 12pm checkout. We had decided it would be best to take our time and hence not rush back to early for our 400pm shuttle to the airport which would hopefully be less scary than the first death defying experience http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-202763.html