Tour is with a company called evan evan’s tours. So far it’s been ok, but my main attraction on this tour is Stonehenge anyway and haven’t seen it yet.

Windsor castle was cool, went into all the state rooms – photos not allowed once again. Also saw princess Mary’s dolls house which is quite large, 3 floors and with intricate detail. Even all the plumbing works and it has electricity!

After that went to bath which has the remains of a roman thermal bath. Cool to see, but got bored after a while. It’s pouring down today!

The tour guide is ok, he could do with not having such a monotonous tone, and could do with adding a bit of humour. Instead I have had headphones with music on low for much of the time. Instead I have been keeping myself amused by listening to a couple of ignorant Americans sitting right behind me So far they have had digs at mexicans, the French, Asians, people who play/support rugby and soccer and now they are complaining at how ‘british cars’ look! Wonder why these people even travel!

Wow Stonehenge was awesome to see up close and get a little bit of history on how it came about.

Gotta get some sleep.. Off to hong kong tomorrow… London has been awesome!!

During this time the rain started getting real bad so I found refuge in a natural history museum…about dinosaurs and all…cool but seen it all before. Still raining so went to a science one which was quite cool.

Walked around town and then went on another walking tour organized by the group that I spoke about yesterday- new Europe! Whilst yesterdays ones were more about london, and the monarch aspect, todays one was cool, talking about midevil aspects including the plague, great fire, world war 2 etc. You learn so much in these tours and the guides are awesome..regret not going to the other ones in other cities now.

On another note, how many Aussies and kiwis are there in London!! They are everywhere!! Met a diehard warriors supporter and watched the end of the broncos knights Nrl game today…thank you broncos, now we need to beat scummatta eels

2 more nights in London before I go to hong kong …2.5 days there and then I have to come back to Brisbane ……

It’s been rainy, sunny, warm and freezing today

I’m exhausted, extended my stay here at the hostel as don’t seem to have time to go to Scotland. Still have the London eye, Stonehenge, bath and probably visit a couple of museums to do before I cross out out the touristy things on the map.

3 more nights and then off to hong kong, that should be cool. Looks like I won’t be able to watch a premier league game so may do a stadium tour of man utd instead…next premier league games are on 13th!

Paris to London train was efficient like last time. Eurostar are real good but thalys train which took me to Amsterdam was first class. Overall the train system is awesome in France and Germany.

Got to London and made my way to my hostel which is right next to Hyde park. Very nice actually, all new and so cheap, yet again noone in my room.

After that went for a walk along Hyde park. That park is more like a suburb! It has the Kensington gardens with a few diana tribute things like a pathway flowing fountain, a playground named after her, and ofcourse the gates of Kensington gardens which act as her memorial. It’s been 11 years since she died but it’s littered with tributes, poems, flowers and pics of her!

Anyway after that went to Madame taussads wax museum which was cool. Only person I knew in the ‘british greats’ room was kylie minogue ha ha. They had some interesting wax creations that I didn’t expect like Jonah lomu with his fend out, bollywood stars and musicians like beyonce…overall it was quite good.

Next stop harrods…ok it’s a nice department store but why is this thing on the tourist map? The staff are very very helpful, and inside the building it looks fantastic, but what’s the big deal?oh there is a diana and dodi memorial inside there too!! A large part of the store was closed due to renovations or something so maybe I missed something that makes this place great?

Did a bit more exploring and now back at hostel to chill before going out later.

Coming to Paris second time around, I have been far more comfortable, and know my way around, and even walked to a place I remembered has an unsecured internet connection

Whilst people throughtout my travels have said that the French are arrogant and all, I haven’t found it too much of an issue. I feel as if they perceive things differently. Take this for example. Went to a shop, guy started talking to me in French, I politely told him that I couldn’t speak French. He then starts talking to me in English, cool. He goes away and then comes back and indicates why should he have to speak English to me, presuming that I know French but want to speak English instead. I explained that I’m from Australia, and French isn’t a major language here, and I really didn’t know any French besides hello, excuse me, please, thankyou and goodbye ha ha oh and all I learnt in French at school when I was 13 ‘jemma ple’… Flunk that class anyway ha ha…he was ok after that.

Walked around a bit and came back to the main train station…oh my!! Heaps of guys carrying rifles, security guards cordoning off an area…all around 2 bags!!! Ha ha… They prob thought it was a bomb or something I guess…then after about 40 mins a guy enters the area and says it’s his bag ha ha…he mustve got a fine or something as unattended bags in the train stations is prohibited and signs everywhere mentioning it.

It’s raining right now and I’m stuck in my hotel room, which has an ‘old’ smell to it. Nothing works here, wifi is not working, power point doesn’t work, and showers are 2 levels down!

Woohoo went and spoke to the guy and got upgraded to a far bigger room with no smells, ensuite, power point and able to connect to a neighbours wifi from the balconey

Pic of a weird bit of art from gare du nord train st, this thing comes alive everyhour, moves, smokes everywhere, and things inside the room ‘move’..aah I give up… Too hard to explain! anyway it’s a parisan artists viewpoint of life, that’swhat the guy on the info desk told me!

Anyway got to cerbere and a guy who could speak Spanish told me that I seemed to only have a reservation to use with my eurail pass, but the problem was that my pass had expired by a day!!! What to do.. I frantically asked people for a black pen so I could perhaps change the 1 to 4 in the last travel date … Couldn’t find a pen.. I could always play dumb right?

Anyway got to my carriage… I was gonna be the only one in my room! Woohoo. Traffic controller came and whilst he was checking my ticket I started to take his attention away from the date bit by asking him stupid questions like how to dim the lights ha ha it worked!! He said I looked tired and that I could lock the room as Boone else would be coming and that I wouldn’t be asked for tickets and passport anymore!!! Woohoo!

Anyway had a great nights rest, damn the train got cold though! Arrived in Paris and it’s fairly chilly!

Interesting trivia – when world war 2 started, Spain and Portugal changed/created their rail tracks to be narrower than the rest of Europe to minimise the prospect of the Nazis coming there! One of the main reasons I had to catch the train from the border!

Anyway made my way to nou camp which is Barcelona football(call it soccer at your peril in europe!) clubs home ground! This is a 104,000 seated stadium and apparently one of europes best, and it is home to some of the worlds best soccer players. Players like ronaldinho(though he left last season), thierry henry, messi etc!! Finding the stadium was harder than I thought… But when I got in… Wow! So professional in this tour! I wish someone in australia did this. Shown a virtual 3d presentation about the club, and then went through the visitors changing room, media conference room, player seats, trophy room, and ofcourse being on the ground! I wish I knew more about soccer, but being in Europe I’m slowly getting into it. I watched the man utd super cup game versus the Russians with a few European guys at the hostel and it was awesome, I really really need to get tix for an English premier league game!!

Anyway met a Finnish guy at the stadium, and had quite a long chat with him about a lot of things. Probably one of the most intellectually stimulating conversations I have ever had.

Checked out las ramblas for some more cool street theatre and came back to the hotel and was talking to some hotel staff. They hold people from australia in such high regard, I corrected them and told them that the only Australian thing about me is the passport ha ha but seriously they commented that they loved at how Australians carried themselves with so much respect and all which was cool to hear. Spoke to a Russian guest, but didn’t mention anything about telling them to stop screwing with georgia!

The Finnish culture seems so idealistic, they are trying to break down classes. For example fines are proportional to how much you earn! Such an interesting concept!

Tomorrow is gonna be quite busy for me, gotta get to the Spanish French border, and then catch an overnight train to Paris. That should be fun…I’m still so unsure about the ticket given to me at the train station yesterday and the hotel guys can’t tell whether it’s correct or not…fills me with so much confidence, and knowing it’s Spain, and the destination is France I’m sure to have fantastic conversations with the train staff regarding it…not!

Can’t wait till I get to London…

Oh and today I didn’t take a midday nap, and was walking around and the shops were all closed around 3pm!!!! Then realized that I had previously been taking my siestas the same time as the Spanish did!!! The heat is bad and taking a nap is a necessity when the heat is strongest.

Gotta do a few things before checking out tomorrow and will post this then, but time for my long overdue siesta right now…

Oh and forgot to mention earlier but it was great to see the wanna err wallabies get thrashed by 50 odd by south Africa and also to see the mighty warriors win big and in with a shot to win next week and make the top 8!!!

Someone let me know if there are any tix left for the aus vrs nz bledisloe cup game I think on the 13th!! NZ winning 2 cups on the same night!! who needs world cups when you prove you are the #1 rugby nation on earth by a mile

As I’ve said before Barcelona is fantastic!! There are people everywhere, which does mean you have to be more careful. Yesterday at the hostels, these two Americans were busy trying to cancel all their cards and get money wired to them here as their wallets got stolen! Hearing stories like these is pretty much the norm here.

I have tried to avoid the underground metro as much as possible due to all this, but today needed to goto main train station to reserve my *night train – oh no!!!* to Paris! I had to goto 4 counters and spend 2 hours in lines before I got something!! Noone speaks much English here but from what I gathered all the trains to Paris are sold out. So on the first, I have to catch a train to the border and connect to an overnight train to Paris. Kinda worried about all this mainly due to lack of English in Spain and in France, and the last thing I want is to be stuck in a hillybilly town.

Anyway so that means I’ll spend 4 nights in Barcelona and due to all the train issues will now not be going to Madrid nor Portugal! Oh well…

I have been exploring this place quite a bit, and been getting lost a lot as a result too ha ha… But it’s cool, you see such a different part of the place. I spent a lot of time in alley shops, markets and old historical buildings today. Tomorrow going to a tour of the stadium where Barcelona football club plays!! Tour buses are packed and long queues so won’t bother with those.

Staying in the hotel is cool in the sense that I can get a shower anytime, air con full blast, and I wake up early for a walk then come back to nap before going out again ha ha

I am hating taking pics with phone…

Barcelona is full of energy, so much happening. The place is full of people. Not that much to see when itcomes to landmarks but the Spanish culture is funky!! Quite expensive here though. Went to aplace and tried out paella!! Huge plate crammed with seafood!!! Heaven was sooo good!!

The cruise is quiet niceand its a fairly large ship. Got 3 restaurants, a pool on deck and heaps of other things. Mostly families on here though. Food is real expensive and we were bored, went to buy a pack of cards and they were 6.50 euro which is like 12$!!!!

Damn the Italians eat so much. Here is a typical lunch/dinner meal:
- bread rolls
- dish of pasta or lasagne
- plate of chips or steamed veges
- meat or fish dish
- fruits
- piece of cake or sweets

It is absolutely amazing how much they eat!! These aren’t small portions either! The Italian menu consists of bread rolls, first dish, side dish, second dish and desserts. All the tables were full of food, sometimes with only a couple of people on it!

The ship is quite nice but it got extremely cold last night. Probably the coldest night I have experienced in the past 10 or so years.

I’ll post this when I get to Barcelona and get net connection. Also need to find a place to stay.