70 years plus 1 day

The day after her birthday. Doesn't look too bad

HRH on the boat

Jocelyn on the boat waiting for a lift

Cathedral Familia

The queue to get in to this cathdral had a 5 hour wait

Cruise

Me beside one of the swimming pools

End of the night

Dinner finished and ready for bed. A great night. Finished at 12.30am

King prawns

What a mess. But Joc enjoyed them

Birthday dinner

Booked a table at a lovely restaurant for the b/day celebration. They were very good and gave us a birthday drink and a starter on the house

Joc arrives

Joc getting out of the bus all smiles

Tree lined streets

Barcelona is a beautiful city. There are the old buildings and also a lot of very modern ones. There are trees everywhere lining almost all the streets. Most streets are 3-4 lanes except in the old area where they are very narrow.

Bikes

These bikes are all over Barcelona. Not quite sure how it works but you can pick them up and tide them and deposit them somewhere else. Nit a bad system

Monuments

There are monuments all over the city . Some are bad like this one and others are quite nice. We saw all of these on the bus tour today.

Architecture

Not a good photo but gives some idea of Gaudi's architecture. There are examples of it everywhere in the Gothic area.

Street statues

Every city has them but this vampire was one of the best I've seen

Cold drinks a must

These fruit juices are everywhere and are superb

Barcelona market

This market is full of fruit, veges and meat all beautifully displayed

Barcelona here we come

A6am start today and on to the tube to Heathrow. We planned the train trip so as to use a lift and a simple walk across a platform. Breakfast at the airport then a two hour flight. Got the shuttle bus into town and a short walk to our hotel. The hotel is very nice and at reception they speak good English. It has been hot - about 30 degrees. The place is alive with tourists. Had a snack at tea time - very expensive - $42. Tomorrow will use the hop on hop off bus to see around. Le Rambla which is a pedestrian walk outside our hotel is full of people all the time as you can see from the photo

Heathrow

Finally at Heathrow waiting for flight to Barcelona. As you can see we are always so early - no one else around. Left hotel at 7am and got on Heathrow train without any trouble by using lifts and walking across platforms. Made life easy with suitcases. It is time to leave London as the weather has turned wet. Our next mission is to find our hotel in Barcelona but more important to find Jocelyn tomorrow

Household chores

Today was our last day in London so off to the laundromat to get the clothes clean again. It only wasted an hour while I sat and watched the clothes go round first in the washer then the dryer. The total sum for this was $12. Not cheap but necessary. Went up to central London after the washing and managed to get seats for Billy Elliot. Front row in the dress circle. Normally 80 pound but on day of the show only 27 pound. The show was great. The young lad who played the main character has a great future as a dancer. He was around 12 years old. A nice meal at an Italian restaurant tonight then in to the packing again. We leave early tomorrow morning for our flight to Barcelona.

Room with a view

Today, Wed, we left Chesham and bravely with all our luggage got the trains to London. It took 3 different trains and undergrounds to get to Earls Court where we are now staying for 2 nights. We had sussed out the trains and only used stations that had lifts. People were also very helpful. We are not in a 5 star hotel but it is clean and close to the train to Heathrow which we need on Friday. The view is not great but we are only in the room to sleep. By London standards it is a reasonable price at $209 a night. This pm we went riding buses. Had a day pass so could get on and off as we pleased. Great way to get around without getting sore feet.

Ash bridge windmill

This is a working windmill. You would not expect to find one in Britain. Could think you are in Holland

Ash bridge College

This was a private home many years ago. It is now a College of Management. Students live on the premises and their lectures are held here too.

Ash bridge

This tower at Ashbridge has an internal staircase to the top. 300 steps I am told but didn't check it out.

Dogs

Judith who we are staying with had her dogs with a dog minder for the first week. They have now come home and one of them is a nightmare. It has bitten Malcolm twice. Malc is trying to make friends with it in this photo. They are worse than children and run the house.

Lunch

This is not where we had lunch. We were charged an extra $1.40 per sandwich to eat them in the cafe rather than take them away. They said it was VAT. I said it was robbery!

Engligh Pub

I think they dress the pub up so well outside to attract people inside. I cannot get used to going to a pub for a drink or meal and finding people have their dogs inside under the tables with them!

10 Downing

I can't understand why John Key doesn't have 5 armed police outside his gated home. They seem to do little other than stand there with their sub machine guns. There is no emotion on their faces. Guess that comes when they need to use the guns. One stands outside the gate talking to the tourists. No wonder they were short of police during the riots!

London Eye

We went on this last time. 100s of people queuing all th time to have a ride.

Found the people

At Westminster. Everyone want to look at Big Ben

Double decker bus

Still plenty of these around but traveling in them is not a quick way to get around. It is still my preferred way to travel if you have the time

Trafalgar Square

A few more people around the tourist spots. A lot of people are getting around on bikes.

Busy London!!

We went up to London today. There were crowds in the tourist spots but you can see the number of people on the platform we were waiting on. Unless it is peak time there are not a lot of people traveling and it is quite pleasant. However at peak hour it is unbearable.. Packed like sardines, body odour and noise. I now remember why I came back to live in NZ. There is no sign in London of the riots. The judges are handing out heavy sentences which everyone is pleased about. Everywhere there is work being done to get ready for the Olympics. This is the main focus just now. We are finding things cheap this time round. The exchange rate has made things so much better for us even if the farmers in NZ are not pleased.

Chesham/London

This is the village square in Chesham where we are staying. The flowers are lovely at present and the weather is superb. There are new trains on the underground in preparation for the Olympics and they are state of the art. The whole of London seems to be cleaner than usual but there are masses of tourists around. Malcolm has been at the local dentist today. The tooth he had fixed at home broke again and he looked like a pirate. Looks better now.

Abu Dhabi

3days to go then Off to the UK for a couple of weeks then on to Barcelona where we pick up the above cruise ship for our Mediterranean cruise