Blogs from Europe - page 3

After we left Lisbon we had a 2 day voyage to London. On the Friday most of the day was taken up by rehearsals and the final choir concert. We had had an extra practice after we had left Lisbon on the Thursday, so Friday morning at 11am we did the final rehearsal. We were not sounding too bad!! We did a sound check in the Palladium, then had lunch and at 2-30 were back for the show. As before, the Ukulele band went first. I liked their name, A Band on Ship!! Then we joined them to sing We'll meet again. Then it was our turn. I sat in the second row as the weather was not good and the ship was rolling. Overall we did well. The song we were most worried about, The ... read more

This morning, we headed towards Dublin’s Georgian District in the south-eastern quadrant of the city. As we meandered in that direction, we passed St Werburgh’s Church and Dublin Castle. We will visit the castle another day but took the opportunity to venture into the courtyard this morning to take some photos before lots of tourists were about. As Dame Street merged into College Green we admired the Bank of Ireland building. It was challenging trying to take photos with end-to-end double decker busses motoring along the street! Perseverance paid off and photos of Ireland’s original Parliament Building were eventually taken. The bank has occupied the building since 1803 with Ireland’s Parliament being incorporated into the British Parliament in 1801. From the building that was once Parliament House we ventured around to Kildare Street where Leinster House ... read more

Is one day in London enough? No but you can get a good taste if you pack a lot in and start early in the morning. London is also really expensive. I stayed at the Club Quarters Trafalgar Square. The only reason I was able to stay in such a great location is because I had CC points to cover the entire cost. Otherwise I would have been looking further out which would add travel time to get to the heart of all the main tourist stops. On that note, I didn't have any trouble navigating the tube the two times I used it. There are signs showing where the line goes and each direction is well labeled. You can use a contactless payment method to tap in and out and there is a daily limit ... read more

Here is a link to some of the photos. Still haven’t figured out how to update captions, which are part of the story so it’s annoying trying to find a user friendly platform many people can use. They’re also a bit scrambled but I don’t know how to move them yet either. https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunnyskate/ Amsterdam- • Anne Frank House not supposed to take photos, but I did take a photo of the scale model to the annex. The stairs are as steep as a ladder. • Boat tour - included the view of the seven bridges in a row, a house that was built around because the owner refused to sell, a façade of a building to make it ‘fit in’ better, the book at the top of the houses originallly used to hoist spices and goods, ... read more

After our late dinner, which was almost a midnight snack, we both managed to sleep (doze) for quite a bit of the Melbourne to Dubai leg of our journey. This was despite having our overhead vents open to gale force to try to create a germ-free zone around us?? I HATE sitting in a draft but prepared to suffer it if I can arrive in Europe without picking up a bug. Only time will tell if it was worth it. To combat the cold draft we both wore beanies for much of the flight so looked like real weirdos. Fellow traveller, Steve, spotted our head wear and said that we looked like a couple of criminals hunched in our seats. We actually found that the Beanies doubled up well as eye masks if we pulled the ... read more