So begins the first of (hopefully) many emails of my holiday in Europe. I'm writing my first post from the beautiful city of Barcelona. From the hostel common room I can look out onto Passig de Gracia' and see the cars and people milling below me. But first we should start at the beginning which was unbelievably only 6 days ago...
Em and I arrived in Heathrow airport after our 24 hour flight via Kuala Lumper. It seems that we had both completely forgotten how hard it is to be in the air for so long! But we managed to survive and found our way to Sabrina's place in Highbury North London. To get there we had a lovely 10 mins walk from the tube station though a lovely English park - Sabrina gets to walk this way everyday!
We met Sabrina and Marcus and dropped bags before meeting Kevin and Sue at Piccadilly Circus. From there we jumped on a hop-on-hop off tour which was very useful in helping us to orientate ourselves around our new city. Unfortunately we had to say good-bye to K&S so we could head back to meet Sabrina after she finished work. We had dinner that night at the local pub, traditional English fare of ham, egg and chips - yum! By 9pm the jet lag (and half pint of beer) had caught up with us and we were ready for bed. In London it stays light until about 10pm at night which is very confusing. You think it's about 4pm when it's actually 9!
On our second day in London Em and I went to Westminster Abbey which was built in the 9th century - so much history on this site as well as being the resting place of many famous people, Kings and Queens as well as Poets, Musicians and Architects. It is also where the recent Royal Wedding was held and has been the Church for royal weddings of future king and queens for centuries. In the afternoon, we visited the Tower of London. Originally built by William the Conquerer and added to over time it is a fascinating complex. Em and I were particularly interested in the stories of Anne Boylen King Henry VIII's second wife, the Princes in the Tower, Lady Jane Grey and many more who were beheded on the orders of King and Queens of England. We also discovers that the guards (or beef-eaters as they are known live with there families on the tower site. There is also a local Doctor and Priest, creating quite a family atmosphere within the tower alls. Later that evening we went to watch Love Never Dies at the West End. It's the sequal to The Phantom of the Opera and was amazing - loved it! I would love to see it agin when it comes to Australia very soon.
The next day we saw the Globe theatre and even saw some of the actors rehearsing their latest production. then visited the Tate Modern and Borough Markets. In the afternoon we saw Kensington Palace, which had an exhibition of the lives of the many princesses that have lived there, including Diana, Princess of Wales, who lived there until her death. In the evening we met Sabs and Anna (who I haven't seen for two years!) near Regent street for dinner which was lovely.
The next day Sabs, Anna and I went to the Royal Ascot Races - it was such a fun girls day out! We waved to the Queen and Prince Phillip as they drove past in their Royal carriage, drank Pimms in the sunshine, ducted out of the rain and put a few cheeky bets on. We went to celebrate Sabs' birthday and that meant that she had all the luck winning every bet that she put money on!
Yesterday we travelled out of London on a coach tour and saw some lovely elements of the English country-side... Windsor Castle - the Queen's home out on London, Beautiful Bath with it's gorgeous Georgian architecture and roman ruins and the mysterious Stonehenge. It's 4500 years old and it lines up exactly so that on the sunrise of the longest day of the year and sunset on the shortest day of the year the sun is in alignment with the stones - spooky! We were blessed with lovely sunny weather and really enjoyed our view of the English country-side in the summer sun.
We said our good-byes to Sabs and Marcus and London this morning to head on to our next adventure - a three week trip around Spain, Morocco and Portugal. As I finish writing this the sun is just disappearing in the sky, but our time in Spain is just beginning so stay tuned for more updates as we explore this exciting new country.
Sarah. Xx
