January 13th
We started our second day in Paris by heading over to Pere-Lachaise cemetary. It is renowned for being the burial place of many famous people, to name a few: Honore de Balzac (writer), Georges Bizet (composer), Frederic Chopin (pianist) Jacques-Louis David (painter), Eugene Delacroix (painter), Max Ernst (painter), the general Hugo (father of Victor Hugo), Jean-Francois Lyotard (philosopher), Moliere (playwright and actor), Gerard de Nerval (poet), Marcel Proust (writer), Abbe Sieyes (writer of the French Revolution), Gertrude Stein (woman of letters), and of course, the reason we were there in the first place.... Oscar Wilde.

Here's a photo of the cemetary:

And some of the more famous graves:

(Proust)

(David)

Me hugging Oscar Wilde's grave:

Some of the hundreds of kiss-marks on Oscar Wilde's grave (his was clearly the most popular):

After soaking up the amazing atmosphere of Pere-Lachaise, we got on the Metro train to head to the most famous museum: the Louvre.

The museum was absolutely incredible. We saw many famous and wonderful works including some by Botticelli, Da Vinci and Michelangelo. We saw the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo:

All in all, our stay in Paris was fantastic! As we got ready to get back on the Eurostar, John put on his newly bought beret.

-Liz

January 12th
We rose early to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Our train got into Paris at around one o'clock. After grabbing a quick panini for lunch (much better in France, the land of cheeses), we headed off to do a walking tour of some of the sights. Here's an example of a street in Paris as we walked towards the centre of the city:

We started with the Place de la Concorde, the former site of the guillotine:

As we walked along, we saw the Eiffel tower through the mist:

Just near the Place was the Assemblee Nationale, the famous parliament where the Jacobins and Girondins once duked it out...

We walked along the Champs-Elysees, and crossed the street to get a straight-on view of the Arc de Triomphe:

Our last stop was Notre-Dame. It was beautiful from the outside, but even more beautiful inside:

After so much walking, we needed to sit down. We went to an Indian restaurant for the night, which was fantastic. Later on we headed back to the hotel.


-Liz

January 12th
We rose early to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Our train got into Paris at around one o'clock. After grabbing a quick panini for lunch (much better in France, the land of cheeses), we headed off to do a walking tour of some of the sights. Here's an example of a street in Paris as we walked towards the centre of the city:

We started with the Place de la Concorde, the former site of the guillotine:

As we walked along, we saw the Eiffel tower through the mist:

Just near the Place was the Assemblee Nationale, the famous parliament where the Jacobins and Girondins once duked it out...

We walked along the Champs-Elysees, and crossed the street to get a straight-on view of the Arc de Triomphe:

Our last stop was Notre-Dame. It was beautiful from the outside, but even more beautiful inside:

After so much walking, we needed to sit down. We went to an Indian restaurant for the night, which was fantastic. Later on we headed back to the hotel.


-Liz

January 11th
Today we went to see the Tower of London. We set out to see Temple church, and after walking to it we were disappointed to find that it was closed :(. Anyway, we took some photos of it :

Anyway, we got back on at Embankment, and took the tube to Tower hill. After being slugged for #11 admission (ouch!) we finally saw the tower itself :

We then went and saw the crown jewels, located in this tower :

There was also a little torture dungeon we saw :

Just in case you're wondering, that is a rack. Ouch.

After visiting the tower, we went for a walk in Hyde park. Here's a lovely photo liz took :

Afterwards, we went back to Jane's where we had a lovely meal of pizza ... yum :).

Au revior,

Jean Beaton

January 10th
Today I spent a day with the cousin of one of my friends from school. She took me for a little tour of some of the places in London that I wasn't otherwise planning to see. It was fantastic! Here are a few of the things I saw.

The memorial to Oscar Wilde (disappointingly looking a bit decrepit):

Camden market:

(complete with psychedelic cars:)

The theatre area, where there were also street performers and clowns:

Chinatown, which was decked out with new years' decorations, in preparation for the Chinese new year:

We then met up with John and Anthony, and I took the train with them to Jane's (Anthony's sister) place. Jane was lovely, and we had an enjoyable first night at her place. I even got to see Jeeves and Wooster on tv, and Little Britain. :)


-Liz

January 10th
Today I spent a day with the cousin of one of my friends from school. She took me for a little tour of some of the places in London that I wasn't otherwise planning to see. It was fantastic! Here are a few of the things I saw.

The memorial to Oscar Wilde (disappointingly looking a bit decrepit):

Camden market:

(complete with psychedelic cars:)

The theatre area, where there were also street performers and clowns:

Chinatown, which was decked out with new years' decorations, in preparation for the Chinese new year:

We then met up with John and Anthony, and I took the train with them to Jane's (Anthony's sister) place. Jane was lovely, and we had an enjoyable first night at her place. I even got to see Jeeves and Wooster on tv, and Little Britain. :)


-Liz

9th January
Mood:  caffeinated
Today we went to Hampton Court Palace. This was liz's first trip to the palace, and Anthony and I enjoyed our return.

We went first to the state apartments where Elizabeth took some illegal photos such as :

We then went to the Queen's apartments, where the Queen had her court.

We then went to the Chapel royal. The roof was exquisitely decorated with gold stars on a blue background.

We then went to the King's Apartments. In the outer chamber I saw a painting by Sebastiano Ricci entitled "Christ in the house of Simon." I was amazed at the similarity between this painting and this painting :

(Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO, The Banquet of Cleopatra in NGV Australia)

Anyway ... as i was saying ... We visited the "haunted" corridor (supposedly haunted by the ghost of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife), which, according to Anthony, was considerably shorter than the last time he visited. While Liz and I checked out the Palace, Anthony was given a full history lesson (the french parliamentry system, WWI, WWII, William the Conqueror, Vietnam, Israel and Korea) by Ray.

We also, as American tourists say, "did" the hampton court maze...

Anyway, we had a great time at Hampton Court.

January 8th
Today we drove down to see Anthony's brother Michael, and the family, in Bradford-upon-Avon. After saying hello, John and I left to visit Bath.

One of the first things we saw was the Abbey:

We made our way straight to the main attraction, the ancient Roman baths.

Inside was a museum with fascinating relics from centuries ago, including fragments of pagan temples that had been mostly destroyed by the Christians. Here's a Roman column:

There were also some of the original tiles:

But the most amazing part was the main bath itself. Hot clouds of mist were rising from the relics of the still-intact bath. We walked all around the edge and took plenty of photos, including this one:

After we'd finished our tour of the baths (including the circular bath, east and west baths, and the bathing chamber), we took a look at the circular street called the circus:

It was a fantastic day, as it was the first visit to Bath for both of us.


-Liz

January 5th - Winchester
Mood:  hug me
Today we went to Winchester. After a long car trip (Betty kindly drove us with Ray as Tour Guide), we arrived at Jeffrey's House (Ray's brother). After a tasty and filling lunch courtesy of Ann (Jeffrey's wife), we went for a walk around Winchester. Following is a photo of one of the sports fields for the esteemed Winchester Public School (As Jeffrey informed us, when Eton plays Winchester, it is always Winchester's pitch which is chosen as it is superior.)

We saw the house where Jane Austen lived her last days and died. Liz had a photo in front of it, and we took a couple of other photos, such as :

Beside Austen's house was the headmaster's house of the previously mentioned school :

We then went to Winchester Cathedral. Winchester was the ruling seat of England during William the Conquerer's times (norman) and the Cathedral is accordingly imposing. Here is a photo of Ray & Jeffrey in front of the Cathedral :

Liz was disappointed by the lack of ceremony and importance given to Austen's grave, particularly after visiting Poet's corner in Westminster. Here it is :

We also saw the caskets which contained the bones of the very first kings of England.

Finally, we visited a church that was one of the oldest in Britain, built on the site of the chapel royal of William the Conqueror.

We wanted to see the original round table of King Arthur, but sadly we got there just as it was closing.

January 4th
Today we visited Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of the Bard himself. Ray and Betty took us right into the town. We started by taking a look at the monument, surrounded by statues from several of the plays. My favourite was (unsurprisingly) the Hamlet statue:

It was amazing to visit Shakespeare's birthplace, and to realise that we were seeing the house in which one of the greatest writers of all time was born.

Here's a picture of the birthplace:

We saw Shakespeare's grave:

..and the site on which his house once stood:

The overall ambience of the town was that it still retained much of the history. You couldn't walk along a street without running into buildings like this:

It was wonderful to see so many important sites of literary history, with a genuine reverence rather than the rip-off atmosphere of the Globe in London.

All of us had a fantastic day.

-Liz