Europe 2008 Part 1

 

Two days after Carys's 1st birthday at the beginning of October in 2008 we left for our long-awaited trip to Europe.

 

We flew on Emirates, having had good reports and finding very reasonable fares, stopping at Sydney, Bangkok and Dubai. In this shot we are taking off from Dubai on the seven-hour flight to Heathrow.

 

Heathrow in the middle of the afternoon was unexpectedly almost deserted and we sailed through and hopped on a train for the centre of London, and then changed for St Paul's, where we were booked in at the Youth Hostel.

 

Next morning we caught a Tourist bus and saw the sights from the top, getting off at Westminster Bridge, as this photo shows, to explore the approach to the London Eye, on which we had booked a flight later in the day.

 

While in that part of London we met old friends from New Plymouth, Ian and Jocelyn Gabites. They were on a tour on behalf of the National Male Choir. Ian is a member of the choir and was checking venues for a Choir tour of Europe they were planning for a couple of years later.

 

So we took a trip on a river cruise down the Thames to the Tower Bridge and back with them.

 

If you were at my 80th birthday celebrations a year ago you will remember the beautiful carrot cake that Jocelyn baked for that occasion!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Youth Hostel at St Paul's was very handy, being a couple of minutes' walk from the Cathedral, and a similar distance from the Millennium Bridge over the river.

 

The kitchen there served wonderful meals, very cheap. The manager on duty when we arrived was a New Zealand girl, and the company was interesting. At breakfast that first morning we had folks from Europe and South America to share stories with.

 

Our bedroom was small and very old; the hostel had originally housed the Cathedral choirboys in the middle of the 19th Century. In the late evening, just as we were going to sleep, we were disturbed by a tiny mouse in our wastebasket. We had to call the management to help track it down; quite hilarious if you can imagine three people all trying to catch a tiny mouse, in the wee small hours of the morning - they very reasonably gave us a discount to compensate. We would go there again!