Europe pics - London

Our seven-week European adventure began in London in mid-September 06. The next few entries contain a selection of our 1300+ photos! I hope you enjoy our tour...

Only hours after arriving from Bris Vegas, it was so good to catch up with Davo, Michelle and Jaimee! By this stage my eyes felt like sandpaper.

Celebrating Jaimee's birthday by the Thames, with St Paul's Cathedral in the background

I spotted Superman stripping in the phone booth ;-)

Yep, finally got to ride on one of those big red buses!

Enjoying lunch with Nik in the park


We were priveleged to tour Buckingham Palace during the annual summer open house. This is Lizzie's backyard. Pretty nice digs, huh?!


One of many tasty treats - this time a Harrod's sandwich enjoyed in St James' Park. We enjoyed the lounges for as long as possible - it cost us $10 to sit in them!!


Beautiful St James' Park


Sorry, I couldn't resist! Just had to have my photo taken with this poster in the Underground.

Europe pics - Greenwich and Bath

While in London we did a boat trip down the Thames to Greenwich. This was actually one of the highlights of our trip - it was a lovely day!

Standing either side of the Prime Meridian in Greenwich

Mmmm...meat pic with mushy peas, English style!

We also hired a car from Heathrow for a day and drove out to Bath, via Stonehenge, then back to London through some lovely little English villages (thanks to Jaimee for the great tips and the atlas!!)

Stonehenge - just a flying visit and quick photo stop on our way to Bath

This is not a picture of a Roman Goddess enjoying the mineral spas in Bath. Hard to tell the difference, I know...

Just an arty pic of a street in Bath - it was rare to spot a street without a tourist on it (other than the ones taking the photo!) and the sunlight effect makes it look beautiful.

Europe pics - Scotland

We did a quick trip up to Scotland so I could do some family history research in the Edinburgh archives for my Mum and so I could finally see this beautiful country where my ancestors lived.

Feeling toey in Edinburgh (we climbed the Monument and saw the castle etc. but who wants to see those pics when you can see me sitting on a giant foot?!) :-) Remember, this is the Tony and Jen tour of Europe!

I love cows of all sizes and shapes (as you'll see from the pics in this blog), so I couldn't resist taking a photo of this Highland fellow. Check out the mist in the background - and the green grass!

Just another local...what this photo doesn't show is the busking hat so all the tourists can drop in a couple of quid to have their photo taken with him. Very enterprising.

A self-catered lunch by a lovely little stream (behind a petrol station and 7-11!)

A lad and a lassie checking out Loch Ness. If you squint you can see Nessie in the background...

A really pretty stream in Northern Scotland.

Picking and eating wild blueberries in Scotland. Very tasty...as you can tell by Tony's blue grin.

On a rainy Sunday we drove out to St Andrews to see the region that my Grandfather was born in. It was a cold, wet and windy day - perfect for enjoying a hot tasty treat in the car. The fish and chips were DIVINE! Best ever.

One very wet Jen on the outskirts of the little town my Grandfather was born in. I just wish he was still around so I could tell him all about it.

Tony and I traipsed through the cemetery in St Andrews looking for family headstones. We found a whole stack of recognisable names, but hit the jackpot with these two. The little stone one beside me was very hard to read - it's the headstone for my great-great-great grandfather (is that right, Mum?). Buried in the 1800s. And the reddish-coloured one beside is his son (my great-great-great uncle). This was a surprisingly fun afternoon - the cold, late afternoon rain and grey skies just added to the mood. We warmed up with a hot meal in the local pub.

Europe pics - Ireland

Next stop - Ireland. Ballymena to be more precise, just north of Belfast. Tony's Mum was Irish so we stopped in for a few days to see the family and then took a couple of days to tour the Emerald Isle.

L-R, Tony's brother Howard, Howard's daughters Linda and Ronda, me and him, Howard's wife Caroline. We had a ball with the family - lots of great meals, drinks and laughs. Such a delight to finally meet them.

Wet, windy and wonderful.

The best picture from our trip to the Cliffs of Moher. It was raining so much it was really hard to see the towering cliffs. But we enjoyed the drive.

Another yummy meal on the run (and suited to our budget!). Fresh soda bread and local cheese. Almost as good as an Irish Fry for breakfast - with potato bread! Mmmm...

We stopped in to see these ancient castle ruins and made friends with the local dog. He's not doing what you think he's doing in this pic.

Well he is half-Irish!! Mucking about at Kylemore Abbey.

The beautiful, natural wonder of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

A closer look at these unique formations.

We could see these cliffs a little better - the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede. That's Tony jumping up and down on the bridge.

An Irish cow. Very fat and happy with his lush grass and sea views.

Europe pics - Jersey

We flew from Belfast to Jersey for the weekend (an English "colony" off the coast of France) before catching the ferry to St Malo in France. My family history (this time on my Dad's side) can be traced for more than 800 years on Jersey, so I was interested in seeing the place. Unfortunately, it was very windy! But we did manage to catch a glimpse of the Jersey cows!

An old fortress on the north east coast of the tiny island - photo taken at sunset. This area of the Atlantic Ocean, including the coast of France, has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world. Hence, the boats resting in the sand!

View from the top of the castle. We stayed just out of the picture on the right side.

Europe pics - France

Ahhh...France! Food, glorious food. We arrived in St Malo and caught the high speed train to Paris, where we stayed for the next four days. Had an amazing time - saw the sights, danced the night away in a club on the Champs Elysees and ate way too many baguettes and crepes.

First stop, St Malo. Check out the patisserie in the background!

One of my favourite combinations - banana and sugar. Mmmm...

We explored the old Catacombs under Paris. Miles and miles of tunnels stacked with the bones of Parisians. A bit creepy for me...as you can probably tell by the look on my face!

Tony and the Arc de Triomphe. That's one crazy roundabout!

Another tasty treat - and it was so hard choosing! Check out the selection in the background, and that was only half of it! But when in Paris, how could I not try a croissant?! It was good too!

The weather was a bit hit and miss while we were in Paris, but luckily it cleared just long enough for us to enjoy our walk up the Eiffel Tower, or Tour de Eiffel as the locals call it.

View from halfway up - I was too scared to go all the way to the top. Our hotel was near the central attractions in Montparnasse, just right next to that big black tower over my left shoulder.

We tried to conquer the Lourve with hangovers. Not a good idea. The place is huge and there were not nearly enough seats to rest our weary dancing-too-much-at-the-nightclub legs. Saw a bit of most exhibits and said g'day to the Mona Lisa. That's me on the right of this pic.

Europe pics - Switzerland

Next stop, Switzerland. This was one place where the postcards actually looked worse than the real view. Our photos just don't do it justice. We loved every inch of this magnificent country - and we were lucky enough to see plenty of it. We hired a car for a few days and drove east across the country from Geneva to Interlaken and then south to Zermatt. We then caught the Glacier Express train through the top of the Swiss Alps to St Moritz, stopping overnight before catching another train through the Italian lakes to Venice.

I saw a large warehouse with "Movenpick" on it and thought it might have been a removalist company. We had to laugh when we saw it was a Swiss icecream brand. Very tasty though!

There's me leaning over our balcony (with geraniums) of our wooden chalet with the waterfall in the background. We'd wake up each morning to the sound of cows bells and the sun rising over snow-covered peaks.

Feeding ultra green grass to aforementioned cows with cow bells.

Just some of the many postcards we sent. At last count there were more than 30! Holidays can be exhausting!

Check out this picture - snowy alps in the background, church steeple, waterfall tumbling over cliff, fast-flowing stream, green grass and blue skies. Heaven around every corner.

No caption necessary.

Making friends with a St Bernard in Zermatt. He's even got his little barrel of whiskey!

The dining car of our shiny red train. Red ones go faster.