Chester

We had a nice loooong weekend away in Cheshire.  The biggest town in Cheshire is Chester so we spent most of the time hanging out there if we weren't stuck on the M6.  The trip from London is supposed to take 3 hours but we got held up for 90min at an accident!  It doesn't take much for congestion to build on the M6, 4 lanes of traffic going nowhere.

Eventually we arrived at our hotel and were very looked after with a chilled bottle of wine waiting for us.  We relaxed in the hotel and explored the grounds before our lovely dinner.  After I enjoyed watching Barcelona thrash Man U in the Champions League final.  Brilliant.  I also enjoyed the bucket of beers we had with dinner and the footy.  Funny as everyone in the restaurant were drinking wine and we had a bucket of beers on our table.

On Sunday we didn't get up to early and had a big breakfast to energise us for the zoo.  I couldn't remember the zoo song and Nath wasn't keen to join in.  We only spent a few hours at the zoo even though it is the biggest in the UK.  We felt that both Auckland and Hamilton zoos are bigger and better.  Chester zoo had a monorail and a boat trip around the zoo - shows how lazy the Poms are!  We walked around the zoo fairly quickly and got out of there - too many bloody kids with soccer hooligan hair cuts.

We went into Chester town centre where we took a walk around the old city walls.  The walls form a 2 mile loop around the city and take in sights such as the cathedral, roman amphitheatre, university, castle and the highlight was the bear and billet pub.  Housed in an old tudor building built in 1664 it is the oldest wooden building in Chester.  It was home of an Earl before turning into a pub in the 1700s.  We did a quick spot of shopping where I managed to score a pair of Bench jeans for £15 down from £60 and they don't need to be taken up at the bottom.

Part of the old walls

The bear and billet pub

Italian was on the menu for dinner and when we found the Prezzo restaurant it was next to a Vue movie theatre.  We decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D.  It was very cool but especially as we saw some of the set when they were filming in London.  We could clearly see the set they used in the movie and some of the buildings where the movie was filmed we have been in. 

Luckily there were no traffic hold ups on the way home.   I am looking forward to the rest of the week off work due to the mid term break.  Tomorrow is lady's morning at the squash club, so if I tidy myself up  and act like a lady I might go along (Nath and I joined the local squash club if you didn't already know).  Anna and Borrie arrived in London today after flying out from NZ on Friday and having a 2 day stop over in LA.  Good ol Borrie starts work tomorrow so Anna and I can be ladies of leisure while our men (read boys) work for us.
The lovely weather we were having has been replaced by rain for the past few days.  Hopefully this is the last of it, although it is helping our herb garden along nicely. 
We had a new teacher start work at the begining of this term and as I was still newish we made friends.  Turned out it was a good move on my behalf because she just got promoted to assistant principal so now I have friends in high places and Im just waiting for my promotion! 

Camden

Today we had a lovely day in the sun.  We explored the Camden Markets and took a canal boat to Little Venice.  We had a great time exploring the food markets and got a cheap meal which we ate along the canal. 

 

For those that are curious here are some pics of our new flat.  Everything is going really well, our flatmates are really nice.  We are both lucky enough that we don't use the tube to get work.  I bus in 15min and Nath drives, so since we have been in our new flat we have only used the tube twice!  Life feels a little more normal.

 

Paris

We had an awesome long weekend in Paris.  There is so much to do there we will have to go back.  Our holiday started with the most obvious stop off - The Eiffel Tower.  We were trying to get to the Palace of Versaille but the direct train we were trying to catch wasn't leaving from the station we had gone to, so we had a quick change of plans.  The tower was packed with tourists and we couldn't go to the very top look out as it was closed with congestion.  I was quite happy at level 2 as it was high enough and offered great views over the city.

That night I couldn't sleep with excitment - we were going to Disneyland the following day.  Now not many people visit Disneyland as part of their trip to Paris but I have never been to a Disneyland and Nath was only too happy to oblige.  The park is divided into two areas - the studio's and theme park.  We only visited the theme park as we were only there for a day.  However, this means we can go back to Disneyland on future trips to Paris to check out the studio's part.  I was disappointed that we didn't see any characters walking around to have our photo with - I guess they may be at the studio's park.  We had loads of fun on the rides and we didn't have to wait too long in queue's.  On two of the roller coaster rides Nath assured me they didn't go upside down - but they did.  By the time you're in the roller coaster its a bit late to be getting out!  The second time he suffered some abuse and lost my trust so we headed over to the Mad Hatter tea cup ride for a more sedate experience. 

We had set Sunday aside for exploring the inner city but we forgot to account for the May day holiday!  We turned up to The Louvre at 9am but read that it was closed so we walked up to Notre Dame.  We walked through the cathedral but really wanted to go up the towers and see the bourdon bell.  However, tower tours were not running that day.  We then decided to head to the Palace of Versaille for our second attempt at looking at the riches of King Louis.  This time we got to the Palace but it was closed.  The Palace is on the outskirts of the city so its not just a quick trip on the metro!  We were able to wander through the gardens before we headed back to Paris. 

We headed to the district of Montmartre for lunch and a visit to the Sacre Coeur Basilica.  As the Basilica sits a top a hill it has amazing views looking out over the city.  We climbed 300 narrow steps to get to the top of the dome so you better appreciate the photos!  After we visited a famous night spot - The Moulin Rouge!  Our busy day doesn't stop there - we then headed back to central Paris for a visit to the Arc de Triomphe.  But today was not our day and it was closed so we couldn't get the famous photo of the Champs Elysees.  Our day finished with a cruise down the Seine.  It was cool to see famous landmarks from a different vantage point.  By this time we were knackered and headed home for dinner and much needed sleep.

As we had to check out the following morning we had our suitcases with us for our last morning in Paris.  We took it easy and walked down the Champs Elysees stoppping at a cafe to people watch before heading to the train station.

We found paris to be incredibly expensive!  A beer would cost between €4-6 for a half pint.  In London our local pub charges £2.60 a pint so its much cheaper.  The food in Paris was a reasonable price - we had a lovely lunch in Montmartre where I had a Lasagne for €12, but by the time you add in drinks and Nath's meal the total came to €37 which seems ok, but then if you convert to NZD thats $80 on lunch!  Something we would never spend on lunch usually. 

Back at work and looking forward to our 1st weekend at home together in 4 weeks.  We moved flats on Monday so there is still a lot of unpacking and tidying up to do.  Hoping the weather is nice and sunny so we can have a BBQ on Saturday and invite some friends around.  No plans to do anythong for a while so it may go quiet on the blog front.  Will put pics up of our new flat once we have things nice and tidy.
Michelle and Nath.

Turkey

Nath and I had whirl wind trip to Turkey to commerate ANZAC day at Gallipoli.  We flew into Istanbul and with a population of 20mil it is the biggest city we have been to thus far.  We did the usual touristy ventures - the grand bizaar, blue mosque, hagia sophia, underground cistern built in Roman times, and took a cruise down the bosphorus river.  After a full day in Instanbul we loaded up our over night gear and spent the day travelling to Gallipoli. 
By the time we arrived in Gallipoli all the good camping spots were taken so we had to squeeze in by some randoms.  A rough night was had as sleeping bags on tarpaulin means sliding down the hill in your sleep with your feet in someone's face, and someone's feet in your face!  Nice.  We were already awake when dawn broke and we took part in the dawn ceremony.  Nath found a kebab for breakfast then we headed up to the Australian memorial at Lone Pine.  After a quick look we continued up the hill to the NZ memorial site at Chunuk Bair.  As we did the 6km walk up the hill the layers we had put on during the night kept coming off and we had gorgeous views looking out to the Dardanelles.  On the way up we stoped to look at old cannons and walk through old trenches. 
The NZ service was a little disappointing as there were not enough seats for everyone inside the ceremony so there was a big screen set up on the lawn.  The screen was partially covered by a bush and the sound system was drowned out by the wind.  Eventually we moved to sit right infront of the speakers so we could hear the service.  On returning to Istanbul we had a big group dinner with our tour group then headed to bed for our flights home the next day. 
An amazing experience.  Being at the site you can appreciate how hard the ANZACs job was and why so many of them lost their lives - they were very exposed on the beach and had no escape from the Turkish fighters.  Im glad I have made this pilgrimage but I think once is enough.  Nath is keen to spend 2012 ANZAC at the Western Front.