Paris, baby!

The end of March marked a brilliantly exciting time for Team Reid.  Kyle aged.  Luckily for us, he chose to do so in what is often billed as the most romantic city on Earth.  Paris.  These were our first steps on Continental European soil and we weren't disappointed.

Weeeee!  We're in PARIS!!!

We booked our Eurostar tickets quite in advance and then sat back and waited.  To help get in the mood, we watched Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.  I'm not usually a fan of his, but this movie is a lot of fun.  The first 6 minutes show idyllic Parisian scene after idyllic Parisian scene.  The excitement started to build...  

To cope, we put it to the backs of our minds.  Which meant we arrived at Gare du Nord on the evening of Thursday, 29 March, with absolutely no idea about how to get from there to our hotel...  A very nice Frenchman in the ticket office solved all our problems and only giggled a little bit as we bravely savaged his native tongue.

 

Our bike tour group

Friday was pretty much all about the Eiffel Tower.  Five minutes down the road from our hotel, we got our first glimpse.  Brilliant.  The world's most famous radio transmitter is pretty darn impressive.  On a solid recommendation from a friend, we wandered underneath Le Tour Eiffel to find Fat Tire Bike Tours (yes, I know that's spelled wrong, but what can you do) for a four hour bike trip around the city.  I started to panic on the way as I realised I hadn't ridden a bike that would actually move for about 10 years, but it turns out it's true what they say about riding bikes.  Bike tours are the way to sight see, we've found.  We got a great potted history of all the main sites in the central city and got to blitz through the streets with the wind in our hair.  It was a really beautiful day too, which didn't hurt (a quick shout-out to the European ozone layer - you rock).  We had lunch in the Tuileries Garden, where we learned about French gardening...  and were all done by 3pm.  A quick coffee and patisserie and back to the hotel for a quick rest, we were back into the city to forage for some dinner.

 

Picnic spot of awesomeness

Buying picnic ingredients was a real highlight.  We'd been told to expect French people to be rude...  but we didn't get any of that.  Apparently, so long as you give the language a try, they're lovely.  We wandered down the Rue Cler, a street filled with boulangeries, charcuteries and every other 'erie you could want picking out various things.  We got very good at saying "Bonjour! Je voudrais quatre (hold up four fingers) sa (point vigorously at the thing you want).  Merci!"  Worked a treat.  We bought a swag of stuff and a bottle of wine and made our way back to le Tour.  Kyle's birthday dinner was the best picnic ever underneath the Eiffel Tower.  We found a patch of grass, spread our stuff out and nibbled happily as the sun went down and the lights on the Tower came up.  God help me it was just like in the movies.  Guys wander around trying to sell you bottles of champagne or a tiny (tacky and probably purple) miniature tower, couples stroll and canoodle, people walk their dogs, play football and so on.  We made our way back to our hotel very full and very happy.

Just don't think about the power bill...

Le Tour Eiffel - super photogenic

Saturday's weather was sadly less fabulous.  Some might even have called it grim.  But, not to be deterred, we wandered up the Champs-Elysees to have a look at L'Arc de Triomphe.  Then we wandered back down to Place de la Concorde to get a closer look at the Obelisk "on loan" from Luxor.  During the French revolution, that spot was were Madame Guillotine was set up... For lack of anything better to do, we popped into the Musee d'Orsay to get some kulcha.  Kyle decided that this was the museum for everything not considered good enough to get into the Louvre...  Ouch.  But perhaps fair.

Beautiful day at L'Arc de Triomphe

Kyle with the Louvre's cast-offs

That night we went to a restaurant for a dinner.  While we waited for the place to pick up a bit, we popped into the Saint Sulpice church.  Those playing at home will remember this as the church Silas gets sent to in the Da Vinci Code where he bops that poor nun on her noggin trying to find the holy grail.  It was pretty atmospheric and beautiful in there and, thankfully, no nuns were harmed in our presence.  

Everyone loves old Mona

Sunday was Full.  On.  All museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, so we went to two.  First up?  The Louvre.  Our bike tour guide had told us about a secret entrance mainly for locals, so we went there and shot straight in, rather than waiting to go through the main, pyramid entrance.  HA!  Straight to the Mona Lisa.  There she was.  Tiny.  But still impressive and definitely the most popular piece in the whole place.  We spent a good couple of hours in there and only managed to cover one of four or more wings.  After a quick and sadly disappointing lunch, we were off into the Orangerie.  This place used to be where the French Royals grew their oranges, but the building has now been purposely revamped to house eight of Monet's giant waterlily paintings.  They were beautiful.  And large.  

500ml - French for "medium"

One last walk through the city (under the Eiffel Tower again, of course) and it was back on the Eurostar to return to London.  We can't wait to go back.  We didn't get to Notre Dame, the Sacre Coeur, Napoleon's Tomb, Monet's Gardens or the Catacombs.  Next time, Paris, next time.

Au revoir 

M&K xxx

A Brief History of Nearly Everything

I know, I know...  I've been really slack with the updates.  I've been reminded no less than three times.  Which is cool!  Because it means people are actually reading this!  And only one was one of our Mums.

So!  Jan and Feb have both bitten the dust for 2012.  What have we been up to?  Heaps!  Let's see if I can remember it all....

We have a little flat now, just down the road from Dean and Lou, which is great because we can catch up with them weekly, and we're nice and close to the train station, which is good for commuting and me for work (I'm helping revamp our poor, sad, little station that hadn't been done up pretty much since trains were invented).  It's a little one bedroom place with all new fittings and central heating.  Yuss!  For the first time ever, we live somewhere that's warm all the time.  Even when it's snowing outside.  Which has happened.  Twice.  BRRRR!  

At the end of Jan, we celebrated our first anniversary and popped off to Bath for the weekend.  To get there, we caught a train from Paddington Station, so got to say hi to this little fella...

Bath was beautiful.  The weather was pretty good, so we were able to wander around the streets a bit and have a good look.  We visited the Roman Baths, as you do, and had afternoon tea in the Pump Room.  There was a string quartet playing and it was hard not to think about how Jane Austen had sat in there once upon a time too...  

 

If I can get my inner-nana out for a second and talk directly to my Mum - Mum!  They had the most AMAZING quilt in there of all the royal houses going back to whenever, check it out!

Of course, all the talk about Jane Austen made me decide that we should go to the Jane Austen Centre.  Whoops.  Let me save you 7 pounds - basically, Austen lived in Bath twice.  The first trip she liked, the second she didn't.  We also went for a walk up to the Circus, where the streets are curved, rather than straight.  Then, when we got back to London, we went to see Wicked, which was SO much better than the book (really clever too).

We spent a day freezing our tender bits off in Cambridge with our friend Mina, who knows the place quite well.  No, we didn't go punting - are you crazy???  It was snowing!  But we did go into the "chapel" at King's College...  it was a bit fancy.

I also got to pretend a little that I'm not just some muggle... and that I'm still school-aged...  Fail on both counts, but that's okay.

We've also been for high tea at The Ritz - our wedding present from Dean and Lou.  Talk about luxurious!!!  and filling!!!  We dined on little sandwiches, fresh scones, petit fours, creme caramel, lemon drizzle cake, raspberry and almond tart and washed it all down with pot after pot of tea.  The waiters wore tails.  Yes, Mum, I used my napkin.

 

 

Last weekend, I test drove the Olympic Aquatic Centre and went to see the Men's 10m platform diving champs semi-final as part of the lead up to the Olympics.  Great fun - there was one belly flop which, contrary to popular opinion, was not funny.  This poor Mexican guy slipped or something in his run up and smashed into the water at a great rate of knots.  Like in the movies, the whole stadium gasped in unison.  I apologise for not having better shots of these guys' fit bods, but the iPhone couldn't handle the distance.  Anyway, you can't be an awesome diver and super good-looking, apparently.  The Brazilian guy placed last :(  

We also hit the Imperial War Museum, which was interesting.  Most interesting for me was how the curators managed the undoubtedly difficult balancing-act between an accurate and honest portrayal of the Holocaust without being too graphic and without encouraging further hate.  A tough ask, but well done.  The trench exhibit was pretty cool too - quite atmospheric.

In other news, Kyle is also back in the land of the gainfully employed!  He's been working for Eisai for a week now and quite happy about it.  We went out for a lovely tea to celebrate too.  So life is settling back into a more normal rhythm.  Work, sleep, eat - rinse and repeat.

Right!  That's pretty much everything!

Until next time,

M&K xxx

A Week in Marrakech

Marrakech.  What to say.  This was a real eye-opening experience in so many ways.  

Cobras loose in the square?  Didn't bother me at all....

Of the few places we've been already, this was the first place we'd been where English was the third or fourth most common language used - School C French was a looong time ago, as I found out.

This was also the first place where the locals weren't always friendly.  Some of them knew some very colourful English phrases indeed...  and they weren't afraid to use them if you didn't buy from their stall or changed your mind about buying something. 

In the square/night market

But, Kyle and I are now much better at haggling in the Souks, or markets.  We've decided it's a real compliment to be accused of being a Berber (means you're not being taken for so much of a ride, price-wise).  Especially if, once you've agreed a price, the seller says "oh but Americans would pay THIS price".  Someone may have said that meant they had more money than sense, but it definitely wasn't me.  We got all our souvenirs from the Souks (two tagines - one for cooking, one decorative, a camel hide foot stool pouf thing, a leather bag, the obligatory fridge magnet, and some other stuff).


We had two Hammams while we were there.  A spa experience where you get mostly naked, get washed by a woman, scrubbed practically raw, then maybe have a back massage, before getting washed again, shampooed and rinsed off.  It was actually pretty good! 

In the desert.  Honest.

Especially after spending two whole days in a bus that would never pass a WOF going to and from the desert (it was as much a desert as Petone is a beach) where we rode a camel to get to our Berber tent that smelt of camel and man-musk.  Mmmmm.


The food was a mixed bag too.  The tagines were generally pretty good and you could get roti as well (filled with soft cheese... nom).  Everything came with flat, hard bread rolls, which I personally got sick of incredibly quickly.  Kyle happily disposed of any leftovers though.

Living like a Berber

Am I glad we went?  Absolutely.  Would I say you should visit?  Um, maybe. Ask me again in a couple of months.

Christmas in London!

Firstly, Merry Christmas everyone!  Hope you've had a wonderful time with your families and friends. We had a wonderful Christmas lunch in Basingstoke with Dean's aunt, uncle and cousins - first ever roast turkey!  Delish.  and filling.  Still. 

Gosh - we have done a LOT in the past four weeks (hence the lack of blog updates).  We were obviously knackered when we arrived, but started sight seeing immediately.  Our first day involved a walk past a lot of the main London landmarks (Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, London Eye, the hippies sleeping on the steps of St Paul's etc) and gave us our first experience of catching the tube.  We were asleep by about 9pm that night, whether we wanted to be or not.  Dean and Lou found us nodding off all the time quite humorous.  Took us a week to be able to last past 9.30...  pathetic :)

We made it - see!  Proof!

  Since then, we have visited/watched/ whatever (and in no particular order):

• the Natural History Museum - mild snore
• the Museum of London - much more interesting
• the production of Driving Miss Daisy with Vanessa Redgrave, Jame Earl Jones and some other guy - Darth Vader was.  right.  there.
  
• Westminster Abbey - major highlight for me!  We were shown round by Jeremy Irons (well, his voice) and I trod on CS Lewis by accident.  The place has... a feeling... about it.  Utterly breathtaking.  Loved it.
• the Changing of the Guard - chilly and also slightly boring.  Mostly they stand around a lot.
  
• the Wimbledon Christmas Pantomime of Dick Whittington starring Dame Edna Everage - soo much fun!  No plot, awful singing, but hugely entertaining.  Oh no it wasn't!  Oh yes it was!!!!
• shared a huge ice cream sundae at Harrods and walked down Oxford St looking at all the Christmas lights

Nom nom nom



Harrods!  Has a purse I want with no price tag...  uh oh!

 

Christmas lights on Oxford St

• Windsor Castle - also incredible.  We arrived late, unfortunately, so had a thorough and absorbing guided tour round the grounds, which meant we had to blitz through the castle itself and the chapel before it shut.  So, we'll be going back for round two.  This was also Kyle's first castle.  He's hooked.

The keep at Windsor Castle

• been to the World Darts Championships - yep...  Darts...  who knew that'd be fun??  Not me (back then)
• befriended squirrels - they like peanuts more than walnuts more than berries

Harold.  Likes his nuts.

I've also managed to go and get myself a job.  I can hear Big Ben chime as I walk to work.  Which is cool, but means I'm late...  Gainfully employed once more, Kyle and I are now flat hunting so Dean and Lou can have their spare room back and we can carve out a wee part of Londontown and mark it as our own.

Tomorrow we go to Morocco for six nights, including one in the desert under the stars like the Bedouin.  Awesome.  Goal of the trip is to not get fleeced by savvy market sellers and to come back with a tagine.  Which I WILL use.  I will.  You watch.

Catch you all in the new year!

M&K xxx

Goodbye Welly!

It's time to say goodbye...  After months of planning and waiting, our adventure begins tomorrow!  To mark our last full day in Wellington, we went to Hippopotamus for lunch (thanks Compass!).  The food was amazing - salmon sashimi, smoked eel ceasar salad, steak, duck and... dessert...  so aesthetically pleasing, they warranted a photo!

  

Then, we popped the cork on a nice bottle of champers with dinner.  Not a bad way to end the day!  

So, a little nervous and very excited, we say toodle-loo to the best little capital in the world.  The next post will be made from London!

Ciao everyone!  Miss you already xxx