The Trip of a Lifetime !!

Well here it is, the time has come for me to leave my family behind and head home to the mother land for the trip of a life time all thanks to my Uncle Jim. Thank you so much for helping me make this happen. There will be nothing that I can do or say to thank you enough for giving me this opportunity. We all love you very, very much.

The plan is for the two of us to head to London England to go back to where my family came from. To see where my mum and grandparents grew up and the meet family that I have only ever heard about. We are also throwing in some touring of London and a quick trip to Paris France !!!

Be warned that over the next few posts there will be a mountain of photos and an overload of information !!! So away we go !!!!

Sandy and I left the kids on Saturday night and stayed at the Rydges Hotel at Sydney Airport and this was the view that we had !!! Weren't we lucky Jared ??? !!!

Next morning at 3am Jim arrived for our nice early morning departure of 6am !!! Sandy came across to say goodbye then headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest before heading home.

Emirates flights now have cameras mounted to the tail and underneath so that you can see the outside while landing and taking off. So here we are waiting to leave.

All aboard and ready for our 14 hour flight to Dubai in an Airbus A380 !!! The first leg was fantastic there was plenty of room, hardly anyone on board and great staff.

Our first look at Dubai. It was all the same buildings and all the same colour around the airport. Very bland and dreary. I am sure that the further you got into the heart of the city the brighter it got.

Our next leg was an 8 hour flight into London again on an A380 only this time the flight was packed to the rafters and the most clumsy crew we have ever come across. We think that they may have been a newly trained crew. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Most things were dropped and half the crew didn't speak good English and couldn't understand what most passengers were saying.

During the flight there was a lot of turbulence and with just under 2 hours left we were served afternoon tea. The staff were just getting ready to clean all the trays up when they received a call from the captain to unpack all the carts and prepare for really bad turbulence. The poor staff didn't know what to do as they were worried about all our trays still out. But they did as they were told and pulled apart all the carts sat down and buckled up in their seats. Just as they had finished it all the captain called back and told them to repack everything and that it wasn't as bad as he thought !! the poor girls were very stressed and one male staff came from another part of the cabin and flipped his lid about what had just happened. Loud enough for a fair few of us passengers to hear him swear a few times !!! We couldn't land quick enough and get out of that plane !!!!

Hooray it's London finally !!!

When we eventually got out of the airport our next adventure took us on the underground tube system. Exhaustion had definitely set in by now as none of us have had any sleep !!!

Double Tree Hilton in Bloomsbury Room 1

The next morning was a catch up on sleep day and work out exactly where we were in London so that when we returned from Paris would could hit the ground running. The funny thing was that we were up and ready to go first thing, no signs of jet lag. So off we went for what was to be a very long day with lots and lots of walking.

As soon as I hit the streets of London I knew I was truly home. The feeling was one of complete peace, no stress, no fuss. We ended up outside Hyde Park and next to Marble Arch after a walk down Oxford Street and all the fantastic shopping areas. Can't wait to get back here to do some shopping !!

 

Last night I was greeted by loads of these busses whizzing around the streets and they had the lights on inside. All I could think about was the Harry Potter movies with the busses on the English Streets !! It was a great introduction to London !!

 

Across the road was Hyde Park and the Speakers corner where people are allowed to stand on a soap box and preach about what ever they like and inside the park there were people sitting on deck chairs so Jim and I though great spot for a little rest out of the hot sun. Yes HOT sun !!

 

Relaxing in Hyde Park

So Jim and I took some photos and were just having a nice sit down when a guy came over and told us that it would be 1 Pound 50 to sit on the chairs in the park !!!! Needless to say we up and left !!! I'm not paying to sit in a chair in a park !!! So down Park Lane we walked !! It is quite funny to be in the places that are listed on the Monopoly Board !!!

 

My first taste of London was perfect, not quite what I imagined. It is very busy just like Sydney but with a very different vibe about it. As we are staying in the same hotel 3 times during this trip we were allowed to leave some of our things behind that we didn't really need to take to Paris. Thank goodness as my suitcase is super heavy !! So next stop Paris !!! See you there ......