We were up early today, packed and with the car Sue and Patrick once again kindly lent us, on our way to Coventry. It was only a 2 hour drive, nothing to a couple of Aussies who happen to like a decent road trip, so we were there in plenty of time. We checked into our hotel, which thankfully we were able to score for a 60% discount (you wouldn’t want to pay full price for this place, bit of a dive really) found some pub grub next door before Chris drove me to the concert. I swear to you, in all honesty, I have no fingernails left. I was so nervous about this concert that I couldn’t stop biting them. Gates opened at 4pm; we got there about bang on time. If concert going in Australia has taught me anything, it’s get there early, so I did (if my back up chick and fellow thater lover Ashe had been with me we’d have been there well earlier though planning our back stage admittance…) I first purchased a wee bit of merchandise, then took a quick look at the essentials (where is the water stand, and most important, where are the loos and how many are there?) before dashing out to the arena only to find… THAT THERE WAS STANDING RIGHT AT THE FRONT! Well, I did this mad dash waddle (my equivalent to running) to the front and stood my ground. No one, no matter who they were going to move me from this position, it was amazing! Ashe and I have strategized for years of how we were going to achieve this goal, and here I was living it out, I only wished she were there with me. Oh well, the day will come I’m sure (we’ve planned it long enough) I stood there quite patiently as the crowd grew and the clouds set in, I crossed all my fingers and toes that it wouldn’t rain and then concentrated on watching the support acts, Gary Go (?) and then The Script, both were quite good, but I wasn’t there for them, they were just a hindrance to the main act for me! After the script left the stage I felt a large drop fall on me, I closed my eyes and wished REALLY hard for the rain to go away, but it didn’t. Instead it POURED down, and I mean completely and utterly chucked it. I was totally drenched to the bone within 30 seconds, the rain was so heavy and the drops so fat, no one had any escape. A lady beside me had brought an umbrella, she allowed me, along with her friend to seek shelter under it, but it was no use, then another 2 ladies joined us under it, so it was a little tight and really, honestly, no good despite this ladies sweet and kind intentions. We all huddled under the brollie, rain running off our noses, me wringing my jacket arms out, and asked aloud “do you suppose the lads will go on?” And to be honest, I wouldn’t have blamed them, or been surprised if they hadn’t, but just as we were contemplating this horrid thought, a clown came out, and then another, then some more, all carrying balloons… it was starting!! We screamed, and so it began. The tour is called “The Circus” (after their new album title) hence the opening involving clowns and other circus performers, it was amazing with all the different props, acts and performances.

Take That sprung out from the middle of the arena (there is a long cat walk out there and a stage middle of the ground) the place erupted, it was just amazing and I can’t remember when I last screamed so loud. I sound like a star struck teenager I know, but this has been a life long desire so I was making the very very most of it! The lads (Gary, Mark, Howard and Jason) sang all the old school songs, the new stuff and they were all brilliant. They then rode an elephant, yes; you read right, an elephant to the main stage where I was now only a matter of meters from them…I had to remind myself to breathe now. I’d love to be able to tell you in detail the set they played, the clothes they wore, how they all looked, what was said etc, but I don’t think I could fit so much on the blog and more to the point, I don’t think some of you would be really all that interested, but if you want to know, then let me know and I can fill you in with every last minute detail. Let me just tell you the high lights though:

• Howard’s arms.
• Howard and Jason riding unicycles
• Mark riding a unicycle with the aid of two acrobats as he is too little to hop on one himself
• Gary not even attempting the unicycle and instead riding a trike – hysterical.
• The elephant
• The old school melody
• Never Forget
• Shine
• Mark trying to be a ‘scary’ lion tamer. He is not scary, and though he tries bless him, he is not a lion tamer. He is way too sweet.
• Did I mention Howards arms?

So, as you may have gathered I quite took a liking to Howard, which is strange as I always have been loyal to Gary, but in person all I can say about Howard is … PWHOAR!!!!! Still, my loyalty is too Gary.

The concert finished too soon for my liking but I ran out as soon as I could as I realized that to pick me up poor old Chris would have to go through hell. There were over 40,000 people there so traffic was going to be difficult to say the least. As I walked out I saw the neon lights of the 24 hour Tesco off in the distance, bless them. I arranged with Chris to pick me up from here thinking it would be easier, and to a degree it was, but it still took him an hour to make the 5 mile drive, it was CRAZY! Traffic was stand still so it took awhile, but it was okay, we were expecting it and as I was still on a high poor Chris got the run down of EVERY last detail of the event from a very excited me.

Last but not least I have to say that I just loved the way that, despite the fact it was POURING with rain TT still came on stage, did amazing, full on performances and not once had any cover for themselves either, they got just as drenched as everyone else and they just laughed and encouraged everyone to dance in the rain. They are most certainly not divas, the only thing they did mention was that they wouldn’t be using hair product in the rain again as it stung very badly when it ran into their eyes.

So, I had an amazing, great time and Chris bless him, the wonderful, patient husband he is, waited back at the hotel for me to call and relaxed by reading and watching old western movies (it was the only thing on the telly, we only had one channel!)

written by  Chris and Emily on June 10, 2009 from Coventry, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

We started the day by getting up nice and early, and with Sues assistance of dropping us at the station, made our way to London where we dropped our bags at a luggage desk before finding Regent Street, in order to find the Eurail Office and buy our Eurail pass for the next few weeks. I have to say that these passes are BLOODY expensive, but, are almost essential for Europe travel, it will in the long run, save us quite a bit of cash. We brought these passes in an hour or so and then had 5 hours to kill until our next train, so we walked back to St James Park where we had lunch, lay in the sun, tried to be squirrel whisperers again (weren’t so successful this time, it seems they don’t like bread) went onto Trafalgar square and then back to St Pancreas to pick up our luggage and catch the Eurostar to Paris.

The journey really didn’t take that long; I was prepared for a lot longer so I was rather chuffed when we hopped off after 2 hours or so.

The Paris Metro (train station) is quite easy to negotiate, even if your French is dismal. I actually find it 100 times easier than the London underground to be honest. We had a little trouble finding our hotel though, we followed the map down to the tea, but we couldn’t see it at all, we were on some sort of alley street, so with a lot of aimless wandering we eventually stumbled upon it, no where near the map directions. Our room is gorgeous. A large room by city hotel standards, nice ensuite bathroom with a spa (I was in heaven seeing this) and the most comfortable bed EVER. We dumped our stuff and went for a little wander about, discovered a market that was just closing up, a few restaurants and bits and bobs before making our way back to the hotel for some well deserved rest.

written by  Chris and Emily on June 12, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

The Metro station we planned to get off at was closed so we had to go another stop further but it worked out well as we got to walk through one of the prettiest parts of Paris (I think) there were streets lined with trees that lead both to the Arc de triumph and the Louve. There was an Egyptian Obelisk that must have been plundered by the French at some point at the entrance to the park; I remember seeing one just like it (maybe a little smaller) on the bank of the Thames in London. The park is really nice and quite open, first impression of Paris is that it is a lot more spaced out and open than London the parks have walkways the size of roads going through them instead of the small paths that go through the parks in London. As we entered the park we were confronted by the first of many scam-artist baggers who will ask you "do you speak English" if you say yes they show you a postcard with a sob story about a father in hospital on it and ask for money. Em gave her 70c and she didn't seem pleased with the amount but we walked on making note to pretend not to speak English next time we were asked, we noticed later that these women work in gangs and target all the tourist attractions.

We pulled up a couple of the chairs that are scattered around the parks and chilled out in the shade for a little while and then headed in the direction of the louver. Got sidelined by a street "artist" who draw my character pretty badly and Em bartered him on the price down to 10Eu he claimed that he was drawing the portrait for free but he was pretty forceful that we should buy it when it was finished, oh well it will make an interesting souvenir.

We had a look at the Louver on the outside and checked prices etc, both of us were not up to a day looking at art so we decided to save it for later and go see more of the city. Off to Notre Dam we went, a decent hike but well worth it along the river across the famous --insert bridge name here-- and onto the island. Notre Dam is free and the most frequented attraction in Paris, 10s of millions of people go through it each year! We joined the queue an experience we have avoided mostly on this trip but one that we can avoid anymore. The queue looked huge but it moved really quickly and we were soon inside where we could check out the round stained glass windows that I have seen photos of before and wander around looking at the chandeliers, the organ and the carvings. As churches go it was nice but not the most impressive we have seen, but hey it's Notre Dam you can't not go there!

After this we moved on to the Eiffel Tower. The line up for this attraction was insane! We decided to not line up in the beating heat, but rather find a nice patch of grass under a tree and lie here for awhile. It was so lovely and relaxing! We spent quite a long time doing this, it was so refreshing and it was great to be able to people watch and take in the sounds, smells and workings of Paris. When we eventually thought we'd had enough we made a lazy move back towards the Metro station to catch the train back and chill out in the air conditioning of our hotel room!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 13, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

Yes, we got up bright and early and yes we made it to the Eiffel Tower nice and early… but we still had to line up for TWO hours in the sweltering heat. This weekend has been stiffeling with heat, I’m melting from the moment I open my eyes until I close them and all the hours in between that! We took it in turns standing in line, allowing one another a chance to sit in the shade and try to reenergize (it worked marginally) and after two hours of line ups, heat, annoying other tourists we were finally allowed up and I have to say, it was worth it. The views from up here are amazing, you can see forever! We stayed up there for a long time, walking around, going to the different levels to get other views, taking lots of photos. We waited for so long we were going to make the most of this!

After this (melting the whole time) we had NO energy left for the Louvre, it had been a nice idea, but there was no way that it was going to be achieved, not today anyway. After this we instead made our way to the Arch De Tremont, the busiest round about in the world, and it has to be said, this is a crazy, hellish round about. There is NO way I’d ever contemplate driving anywhere near this round about. There is no procedure or signs or anything, just a free for all. I watched in horror as a motor bike and a car came VERY close to a large collision, but it was narrowly avoided with a lot of loud horns and rude gesturing, no one was very impressed with that! We used the underground pass to the middle where we sat under the arch for a while, breathing in a sigh of satisfaction when our backs were pressed up against the cool marble seats. For some where so busy there was not so much noise here, it was actually quite peaceful.

We were completely buggered now, so hot, so sweaty, just ready to lie down or have a cool shower so we slowly made our way back to the hotel, along the way taking in the sights of the streets and stores around us (i.e.: Chanel, Louis Vutton etc, big name brands) but my fave thing we saw along this road was a busker called “Dancing Papy” This old man wore his hat side ways, had up beat more modern music blaring and was giving it all he had for the dance world. It was so funny and sweet. I gave him some money quickly and moved on, others followed suit and as they did so, they had to dance into the middle with him, it was so nice. At one stage I looked over my shoulder and saw another 4 people just dancing these crazy moves on the pavement with him, clapping and laughing. It was a lot of fun.

We made our way back to the hotel, had a small rest before heading to the market that was on at the end of our street. Here we brought some sheep cheese, bread and hummus and, a new dress for me. I am in love with this dress and it only cost 10 Euro, a real bargain I feel for the middle of Paris! We took our edible goodies to the shade of a lovely big old tree where we sat on the grass and tore off pieces of bread, dipping them in the hummus and ripping off bits of cheese, it was the best French meal we’ve had yet, very relaxed, very nice and a lovely way to finish off our quick Parisian stop over.

written by  Chris and Emily on June 14, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

---

2 comments...

The train ride down to La Rochelle was quiet and uneventful, though we were well impressed with our first class seating (thank you Eurail) we read, wrote and slept away the 3 hours until we arrived in La Rochelle and met up with the guys, it was lovely to see them once more.

Chris and Paul then decided to drive the car load of bags and luggage back to the hotel while Kris, Zoe and I would walk around the port area in search of a nice café/place to have dinner. It was said that we would meet up again in 20 minutes, however an hour and a half later we were still waiting, and we finally did see the boys again it transpired that the hotel reception was not open, but said that it would open in half an hour, so they had waited, and waited, and waited, eventually giving in and coming to see us instead. During all this Kris and I had had a chance to walk about the wharf area and check it out a bit; it is very pretty I must say.

The boys eventually returned to us and we sat down to a 3 course meal that only cost 14 Euro, it has to be said that this is a bloody good deal here in France! It was so nice to be with friends, to chat and laugh and experience real French food (Paul is French so he was able to lead us in the right direction food wise) it was a lovely chilled out night of catch ups and stories before heading back to the hotel for a quick game of “toss the pig” and bed ready for our big day tomorrow.

written by  Chris and Emily on June 15, 2009 from La Rochelle, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

We drove around the island for some time, looking at old salt mills, sea salt farms, forts etc before making our way to the light house which was quite impressive. Here we decided to stop and have our picnic lunch, baguettes, pate, cheese, salami, gherkins, and tomatoes, all very very yummy to say the least! The Salami I could eat forever, it is so good!! We also brought some cider to share and it was quite refreshing on such a HOT day. We moved into the shade as the sun was just toooooo hot for us and after a while, moved on to have a look (a proper one) at the light house.

One ice-cream and many photos later we moved on to a little sea salt stand by the road where you can pick this gourmet, high quality salt up for around $3-$5, however, if you were to buy the same amount in Australia it can cost $50-$100, so we brought a bag or two here! After this, the sun had taken it out of us in a big way. Kris, Chris, Zoe and I all fell asleep in the car as poor old Paul drove us back to La Rochelle, I’m just thankful that he didn’t fall asleep too!

To cool down we decided to go to the Aquarium, which I have to say, was wonderful! All sorts of amazing fish, sharks, jelly fish, sea horses etc, and it was set up in a very friendly, nice way with a great atmosphere. Chris and I really enjoyed ourselves here, plus it had air conditioning so we were very happy!

Dinner was in order after our exit from here so we decided to have crepes, another French cuisine, sort of like very thin pancakes that are filled with yummy bits and bobs. Ham, cheese or egg, or pear, blue cheese, nuts etc or something more interesting like intestines (not for me thank you) It was a light yummy meal that went well with our earlier picnic. A few drinks and a dessert later we were ready to head ‘home’ to relax, shower and sleep. The sun can really take it out of you here!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 16, 2009 from La Rochelle, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

We hopped back on a train and made our way past the amazing sea side cities of Cannes (where all the stars go once a year for the film festival that is held there) and through the beautiful Monte Carlo scenery, it was gorgeous, clear blue sky, crystal blue water that sparkled like diamonds and houses tucked into the cliffs over looking the ocean, just gorgeous. I wanted to hop off there and stay for a week or so, but somehow I get the distinct feeling that we would NOT be able to afford this!

We shared our carriage with two other people who were a lovely elderly Italian couple who did not speak a word of English, and seeing as we don’t speak a word of Italian it made our journey a rather quiet one. Towards the end of the train travel however we all sort of thought “blow it” and tried to “chat” It was a huge game of charades and was rather funny in the end! The lady, who’s name was Maria, became VERY VERY excited as I mentioned my name was Emily. She clutched her chest and sort of made this gasping noise that for a second I mistook for a heart attack but then she started frantically pointing at herself repeating “Maria Emily! Maria Emily!!” She said this so frantically/excitedly that I had to nod and try to calm her by saying “Ci, Emily!” from then on it was like we were long lost twin sisters, she offered me orange and then made an extra effort to ‘talk’ to me, which was sweet but rather tiring, bless her.

When we booked our train tickets the agent gave us a 15 minute time frame to get from one train to the connecting one in Milan, we thought it was cutting it fine, but trusted the agent… silly silly us! We got in at 3.04pm, our connecting one was at 3.05pm… we looked at the board, we got in at gate 12, we had to connect at gate 3… we ran and ran, pushing through the crowd, our thongs flip-flop echoing as we ran along the smooth polished, may I add SLIPPERY floor tiles, our back packs jiggling on our backs… and we made it to gate 3… to see our train pulling away. We screamed, we yelled, we ran beside it banging on the side, we ran up to the door and tried to pull it open but it was locked… we watched in dismay as the train picked up speed and took off faster than we could run… we let out yells of frustration. As we turned around we saw that we were not alone, there were at least 15 people in the same boat as us, all swearing and looking mightily annoyed. We found an innocent train man and we all bombarded him with questions, the poor thing looked so over whelmed and confused, but bless him, answered all our questions. It wasn’t a big deal in the end, we just had to show our pass at the next train going to Venice and hop on, easy we thought, and there was one in just over an hour, so it was okay… Well, the next train came and we went to carriage 3 like we were told, apparently there would be a conductor there to help us with our questions and we could sit, which was such a load of crock! The conductor was not at all interested in helping us and our seats did not exist, instead, we had to sit on the very dirty floor of a carriage for 1.5 hours before the conductor came through looking disgusted and said “seat, there, sit” pointing towards a carriage. Thanks mate. So we moved and had a seat for all of half an hour before arriving into Venice.

First thought of Venice was “industrial” There were many cranes, large industrial buildings about, shipping buildings etc, but when you get into the heart of the city you can’t help but we in awe. It’s very impressive and grand.

We were very hungry by now so we stopped a little pizzeria and had a pizza each (very yummy I must say!) and a slice of Tiramisu to share, it was a nice way to start our Italian visit. After this we made tracks to our accommodation which is actually half an hour out of the city, but the place have a shuttle bus that goes every hour, so that’s great. We arrived to find that our “two person dorm, with tent roof” was in actual fact, a two person tent. I was so tired by now, so hot, so over it all that I sat on my wee little camp bed and cried. At that moment I wanted to go home. 28 hours on a train, missing our connection by seconds, being ogled by an Italian man (he really liked my boobs and made gasping, whistling, impressed noises as he passed me, I was alone as I was checking the departure board and Chris watched the bags, it wasn’t nice and I hurried back to Chris) sitting on the floor of a dirty train, sweaty and hot from the beating sun and now… a tent… was all too much for me, particularly when we had to then try and find the head torch so that we could see, that did it for me. I just wanted home. But then, a shower and my P.Js cheered me up and after half heartedly making my bed and then Chris’ as I’m a good wife, we fell into a deep deep sleep, so it was all forgotten and okay.