Dreamer

Well, have spent a few days in Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. Flew from London with a couple of hours stopover in Singapore and then onto Melbourne. The journey was about 20 hours or so. Left London on a Tuesday night and got to Melbourne on a Thursday early in the morning. Needless to say was very tired. Day 0 Stayed with some relatives who were quite enthusiastic to drive me around different parts of Melbourne. On the day I got there they took me to a reservoir/park area with a view of the city in the background. Pretty cold and windy, especially compared to the northern hemisphere summer I had been experiencing in the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless it was a good way to stay up to help combat jet lag. In fact I ... read more

Well have been to Prague and back over the last week or so. Day 0 Left London on a bus at about 7pm at night. (I know you must be thinking that is crazy to go to Prague by bus from London, but it was part of a package I bought from the bus company, return fare, plus 3 night accommodation in Prague, plus a tour of the city for £150. Plus I am fed up of going to and from airports, going to Victoria Bus station is a lot easier. (Some people think that one of the August 21 alleged attempted bombers got out of the UK via the bus station!)) Anyway the bus company was not the usual big National Express/Eurolines but a much smaller company, (which I think was owned and run by ... read more

If you want to get away from London for a few days then I would say that Canterbury in Kent is the ideal place to go. Sure it's crowded with tourists, but so is London and here things seem less hectic. Canterbury had everything you would expect of England: Roman History Castle Cathedral which forms part of a World Heritage Site, (Canterbury was the cradle of the re-introduction of Christianity to Britain), aside from the Cathedral there are two other parts of the World Heritage Site, St Martin's Church and St Augustine's Abbey. Links to famous literature and authors: Marlowe, Conrad, Dickens, Chaucer, ... Also went to Whitstable, which is a small town on the Kentish Coast. Unfortunately the beach is made of stones not sand, so not really conducive to lying about in the sun, ... read more

Well have made in to London. Got the Gatwick Express from Gatwick to Victoria Station, passed though green countryside with terraced houses. Amazing to see the green after the brown countryside of Spain. As the trian pulled into London, you could look out and see the roofs of houses, and it looked like something out of Corranation Street. (I know Corranation Street is not set in London, but the look was the same.) Tube ride from Victoria to the hostel near St Pauls, horrible as ever, hovever it was rush hour so it is to be expected. People crowding into trains, guards telling people to stand clear of the doors, move down the carriages, move down the platform, ... and people ignoring them ... hard for me to understand because there was another train a few ... read more

Okay, so yesterday I looked up three or four Gaudi Buildings and decided to try and go and see them today... First walked from the hostel near Vallcarca to La Rambla, quite a long way but at the start it was quite a nice morning, sunny but not too hot, however as I walked along it got more and more cloudy. (But hey, I´m holiday, so can´t really complain.) There were three examples of Gaudi work along the way, Casa Vicens, La Pedera, and the Batlló Building. The first one was in a side street away from the main tourist route so there was no one else taking photos, however the other two were closer to the centre so they had more people about. Took a break from the Gaudi stuff to go and look at ... read more