On the bus

I have not yet written of the joys of travelling endless hours with a group of strangers, so now that I have at last got a passingly familiar keyboard to work with here goes. We are a party of 47 mainly Yanks, some Canadians, a few Kiwis and a few Aussies. Some of the issues present as early onset dementia (not knowing what day it is ... snoring during the day on the bus. As there is a strict rotation of seats every day, the nearer you get to the snorer or the demented one [evenly spread throughout the bus] you know the quality of your day.... one recent conversation: What day is it? Tuesday You?re kidding? Tuesday? I was supposed to take a pill on Monday!
The light here is amazing... as we left Bordeaux for St Emilion the sky was a soft apricot washed with silver and a pale pale blue. We passed endless kms of vineyards which in this area are very disciplined ... all the bunches of grapes are hanging neatly below. Handpicking is the norm here they tell us though we have seen mechanical pickers at work. The early autumn colours are gorgeous.The wines (some of them) are

How the rich and others live

Today we start the journey in Carcassone and head to Biarritz. As you could see from a map we are covering many kms in a day. The country has been spectacular.the views from the bus of the Provencal, Luberon, Basque and Atlantic coasts are stunning.The lunchstop of the day which started in Carcassonne ended in Biarritz and in between was Lourdes. The journey on the way was through fields of dried sunflowers, ploughed fields which may have had rapeseed or maize and past vineyards which were turning gold or burgundy according to their type.Then to Lourde where the young girl Bernadette,from a poor family, was visited 18 times by the Virgin Mary. Lourdes, as you come into it, gives no hint of what is to come - three basilicas - one underground holding 25000 poeple and looking just like a car park.The streets of identical souvenirs which trap the faithful - the most desirable being containers of all sizes for the healing water. The place is quite disturbingly Disneyesque from the coloured statue of Mary circled by the flozer of the faithful, Diana -style, to the huge gilt crown on top of the middle basilica.However what brings you up cold are the faces of the hopeful and faithful - they are real. Biarritz - another playground of the wealthy and falous is a bit like Blackpool crossed with Monte Carlo and Manley Beach.We had a driunk on the promenade and then trawled the street markets where Dior Lacoste and the like were getting rid of their summer lines:strange contrasts!

Hola, bonjour and how are you all?

This morning we are under the shadow of a cite (fort) which dates from, the time of the Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Franks and which also provided an unsuccessful refuge in its earlier iteration for the Cathars - we are in Carcassone on the edge of the Mediterraenean.This is a real fairytale castle - with turrets, a basilica (cathedral-ish)and lots of tourist shopping which seems to be very popular with some people(!). It has been a bit tricky finding an internet connection which worked in the hotels we stayed in in Lyon and in Nice.The keyboards here have some letters in a different place which results in some interesting words!
Going backwards, we spent two nights in Nice in a traditional provencal style hotel - shutters on the windows and a view towards the sea. The market we found was the sort of dream market every cook wants - fruits and vegetables of all kinds and beautiful flowers! We walked along the Promenade des Anglais which we had seen on the Tour de France. The previous night we spent in Lyon but John was not well so I saw the view out the window that night and a rather pretty sunset! At Monte Carlo we had a quick visit - the place in summer would be horrid - there was hardly any standing room. This place is a boys' dream - luxury cars everywhere - we saw a beautiful tall brunette and her bloke being handed the keys of their black Rolls Royce Corniche softtop by the valet outside the Monte Carlo casino - they drove away all eyes were on them. Then they stopped, pushed a button and the softtop rolled back. As they drove away I swear you could hear a sigh of envy from the crowd!

Barcelona is magic and Bienvenu a Paris

We had the most amazing day,it was truly magic.The focus of the day was the architecture of Antoni Gaudi.It took in the last commissioned work of Gaudi - La Perdrera - an apartment building that the client never lived in: a park the city has because that client did not like the project and a cathedral which is still being finished ! All are amazing beautiful spiritual buildings and are celebrated by Barcelona.Ar night we went to the Leonard Cohen concert held in the Olympic arena where the gymnastics were competed for. It was one of the best concerts - right up there with the Stones.
Today we are in Paris - more magic. Just out the door of our hotel the Tour Eiffel is lit up like a Christmas tree.This is very short because we did not get ho,e from the concert untill 2 and Lambie is tired and this keyboard is a mAC

buenas dias from Barcelona

Hi to you all from the most amazing downpour.It is fairly roaring down the gutters here.This blog will be short and minus pics because the keyboard and setup has to be told to be English ... ingles as they say here..and also because we have had a few glasses of vino. We are in a really great little hotel in las Ramblaa, the cafe district.Think Victoria St with cafes and a pedestrian way down the middle and trees either side...it´s really stylish here - the buildings all reference the Spanish ideals with lots of shutters and balconies opening out from the many inner city apartments.From about 4 o´clock people started appearing on the street in their finery ....families and couples and friends meeting up for a glass of wine or a coffee or a meal.It was very civilised...and all kinds and types of pèople from skaters to cyclists to Buddhist monks and very stylish women with scarcely a hair out of place. We went to two tapas bars and had wine and some food ... very good and quick. The first was literally outside our hotel door and had a menu in Spanish, French and English.We were making our way along to a Gaudi building ...la Perdrera an apartment building by the look of it...we got there just as the rain started.We are going back to check it and other Gaudi buildings out tomorrow before our time here comes to an end.

For Queen and country

Friday was the day we set aside to visit Buckingham Palace - she wasn't home but we went anyway! On the way we also caught a glimpse of the Changing of the Guard - and when I say "glimpse" it was just that....there were thousands of people lining the streets to see those men wearing bearskins! The tour through BP was quite an amazing experience. Some impressions; net curtains on all the outward facing windows; some stunning portraits - the Rubens of Charles I and the one of Queen Mary; the White Stateroom - gorgeous, ditto the Green one; the nifty mirror/sideboard combination which hid a secret door so that QEII can enter the White room from her own rooms directly; the kitsch thrones in the Throne Room of pink velvet and ER on one and P on the other. The tour showed r0oms which were a mixture of the truly hideous or kitsch and the very beautiful. The views out across the lawns and the Nash ceilings were stunning. The Music Room and the plastic covers over the bits that might get rubbed by the commoners were tatty.The shop which you had to exit through was a rip off - £5 (NZ 12.50) for a pen!! Lambie enjoyed sliding down the railing outside - inside was a bit too much for him I think!
After leaving BP we went on a ramble around Belgravia and Knightsbridge finding a pub (The Wilton Arms - one of our placemat ones) which was founded in 1820 - imagine that! Then we pottered through Harrods. For some reason they did not explain, the Security guys who were everywhere kept on insisting that John carry his backpack in his hand - not wear it on his back! Harrods is amazing - especially the Egyptian escalators. I bet they charge to deliver though!!
Back at the flat we packed a small bag each to go out to visit Angus, Alex and Lisa in their Weston, Herts. house an stay the night. Alex will be two years old in two weeks and he is a real cutie. Though he took a while to thaw, within a couple of hours he was talking and singing - the Twinkle Star song.
On Saturday morning we heard him singing again before his delighted shouts when his Daddy came to get him out of his cot. We ate our breakfast watching the successful first half of the successful All Blacks VS Australia game and then Lisa, John and I went for a walk around the village of Weston - 1000 people, a village green with duck pond, two pubs, a village shop/post office, cricket oval; tennis courts; a school which has a good Ofsted report I am told; a church which was founded in 1290 and has Norman, Elizabethan and Victorian additions. It also has a little lake complete with hopeful fishermen and a pretty wood. We learned that it had a local hero Jack O'Legs who robbed the rich to give bread to the poor. He was rounded up and put to death by the villagers but is buried (in a big grave) in the churchyard and they still keep a chest for bread for the poor inside the church door.Back at home Alex was entertained with a round of bubble-blowing before he had his lunch.
We were taken to the neighbouring village of Willian for lunch at a pub called The Fox. The produce was mostly all local and the food was delicious! Back home we showed Lisa photos of the family - and the Daniel video - she was really pleased to see all of you and very impressed by our Daniel.
At the flat we are spending Saturday night washing and packing while the young ones are out partying. We were invited - but tomorrow is Barcelona!

A bit of how the other half lives and learns

Today was a day of glimpses into the schooling of the upper classes. We jumped on a bus over the Battersea Bridge to Kensington High street - or nearly - as there were many road works in the way. There, on a corner in a playground about as big as our lounge, were about 50 very small girls screaming excitedly and playing in the breeze. Dressed in mauve gingham and white blouses, they were students (aged 4 - 11 years) at what I later learned was Glendower Preparatory School for Girls. Just up Queen's Gate was the school I was to visit - 340 girls - no surnames, please, we are too famous - the former school of HRH the Duchess of Cornwall - Camilla to you! After lunch with the staff, I spent a couple of hours with Linda and some of her colleagues and had a fascinating encounter with the English education system as it is for the wealthy. There was a lot of crossover in ideas and systems which was very interesting.
Afterwards I walked down to Hyde Park and met John who was waiting on the steps of the newly-revealed, restored Albert memorial - think white marble, black marble and lots of gold all over Albert - facing the Albert Hall. We walked through Hyde Park down Rotten Row around the Serpentine and down to the NZ Memorial. The power of this deceptively simple piece by sculptor Paul Dibble (his huia feather is outside the Academy at Waikato U) is very moving when you are amongst it. The Australian memorial had the water - an integral part of the design switched off Hmmmm!!
After a brief pause at the flat we set off to a pub called the Orange Project on St John's Hill where we had arranged to meet Jaime and Reena. Jared and Jo joined as after work. An evening of hilarity and story-telling ensued. We drank a toast to absent friends who were present. It was a very Vanessa sort of place - wooden floors, open fireplace, drawings and messages all over the walls. After an hours or so we walked some distance to a Thai place J&R recommended. It was also great and we finally walked home around 10.30pm