Well our time in London is over and so it is off into the country side we drive. After a slight hassle getting our hire car we leave the busy city, drive past lords cricket ground and out along the motorway to the north. First stop is Cambridge, for a look at the many colleges. The sun is out as we make our way from the car park to the small town market, I get a chance to buy and try my first local cox apple. It has been the best apple season here for many years and although a little flowery the apple does taste delicious. We have a…

Sunshine greats us after a good night, another great escape from jet lag. Breakfast is taken in the refurbished dinning area, and the hash browns, eggs and beans are a welcome start. Today is a day to explore the centre of London so it is a nice stroll through Hyde park and down monument avenue to Buckingham palace, we arrive just in time for the changing of the guards, So along with thousands of other tourists we take in the pomp and ceremony of the occasion. After the guards have changed we take a stroll down the Mall to Trafalgar Square. The square is busy with tourists taking in the…

Well kick off day one and it is an early start at 5:10 am touch down in Heathrow, day finds us touching down in the dark on a drizzly and cold morning, only 7 deg for a starter. After picking up our bags and breezing through customs, easy when you are the first international flight to land, it is of for a tube ride to Marble arch. 3 station changes later we arrive and it is a short walk to the hotel. After dropping off the bags it is off for a quick explore to get some grocery supplies and a few sandwiches for lunch. With the day improving and…

Well only one more night to go till grand tour two kicks off. I will be bloging to my home site, http://Ely.mine.nu and the intension is to only use my iPad or phone. Will be interesting to see if my daily journal is as easy to do as last years trip.

It is another cool start in Paris, I am catching a 9am taxi to start my trip home, I have allowed 1 hour travel time to the train station but I have a surprise this morning as the 1st of November is All Saints Day which is the start of a weeks holiday in France. As such my trip to Garde de Nord takes 11 minutes and so starts my trip home that will see me travelling for 2 days. After reaching the train station I have a 2 hour wait for the Eurorail train to London, this is first updated to leave early to avoid track maintenance and then…

Cool and Crisp, seems a fitting day to bring to an end my time in Paris, today I have two main things to do before I can leave, the first is to get the lift to the top of the Eiffel tower, the second is to sit on the steeps of the Sacre Cour Basilica and watch the sunset over Paris. It was suggested that the best stop on the metro for the Eiffel tower was the Trocedero, this sits on the other side of the Seine and gives a great view, it is a very popular spot with people to sit and look out over the tower. A short…

Rain is what greets me today, but thankfully it is not long before the sun comes out, I have decided today is the day to go back and have another look at the Louvre and then climb the Arch de Triomphe to take in the view. It is another quick trip on the Metro to get to the Louvre, and when I get to the priority entrance not a person to be seen, so straight in I go. A leisurely 3 hours is spent roaming the halls of the Louvre, there seems to be less people around today than when I came on Monday which is a little strange as…

As I stick my head out of my window this morning I am meet with a brilliant red sunrise, the morning is cold and clear and hopefully the train strikes should be over. Today I am going to try to get to Longueval, this is a tiny little French village in the north of France located in the Somme. My Great Uncle is buried in the Deville Wood cemetery and I feel it would not be right coming all this way to France and not paying my respects. The first part of my journey should be simple enough I just need to catch a train to Amiens, they are suppose…

Well it is Thursday and another day of strike action is planed, thankfully the museums haven’t been majorly effected so today I am off to see Monet’s Lillies, these are housed at the Museum de Orangerie. To get there I catch the Metro to the gardened in front of the Louvre and it is a short stroll through the gardens to the museum. Monet’s paintings are housed in 2 oval rooms, each painting is about the size of a bus and are very interesting to look at. It is amazing how when you look at these paintings close up the heavy brush strokes and liberal use of colours almost look…

It’s another crisp clear morning in Paris, today I am off to see dinosaurs at the National Gallery of Evolution. to do this I need to catch a couple of metro trains, unfortunately this gallery is not on the Museum Pass so I need to line up and then buy a ticket, the line is not to long and it doesn’t take long to get inside.  The exhibition is quite good but I was hoping for more dinosaurs, from here I go in to take a look at the evolution part of the gallery, they have animals from all parts of the world, many of which are now extinct. One…