England

Yes, you can buy absolutely anything at Harrods - Jacqui with a bullet proof vest
















Grant, Martin, Nikki, Hannah, Jacqui and Steve

















Jacqui and Steve at Lords
















Hannah and Jacqui at Pax Lodge
















Hannah and Nikki at The Globe Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet
















Hannah, Colin the Yeoman Warder (Beef Eater) and Jacqui





















Jacqui and the first female Yeoman Warder






















Jacqui at the prime meridian in Greenwich (o deg longditude)






















Hannah and Jacqui getting ready to leave Greenbelt, with their new mittens (and Jacqui's new hat)

Welcome to summer in England – Greenbelt was COLD

London

We have had a wonderful week here in London. Hannah and Nikki were sick for part of the time, which has given us all some time to rest and recuperate a little bit (they are feeling better now). We have been staying with good friends of Stephen’s parents – they have very kindly given us the top floor of their house – 2 bedrooms, our own bathroom, our own kitchen and our own living room – it has been great to have so much space.

We visited Harrods and were AMAZED at all the things you could buy – including not only bullet proof vests, but bullet proof jackets and jumpers. We also asked in their bike department if they sold unicycles – the reply was “yes certainly, we don’t have any on the floor, but if you tell us what you want, we can order it in for you”. We really liked the food hall, the toy department and the pet department.

We all enjoyed going to the British Museum and were embarrassed to discover that the Elgins’ Marbles are not in fact large round balls of stone, but rather marble carved pictures taken from Greece by the British Ambassador in the 1800’s.

The Tower of London was a real highlight – the Yeoman Warders (Beef Eaters) were a lot of fun and very helpful about the best way to get around with a wheelchair. We enjoyed seeing the Crown Jewels and comparing them to the Danish Crown Jewels we saw last year.

One day Jacqui and Steve went on the London Eye (a very nice view) and to the Greenwich observatory and took some photo’s on the prime meridian, whilst Hannah and Nikki went to a local council so that Hannah could interview the local Young Carer Youth Worker about how they look after carers (and specifically young carers) in the UK, for her Queen’s Guide report.

One lovely Saturday Steve and Jacqui went to The Oval to watch Australia and England in the final test of the Ashes. They didn’t like the outcome, but loved being there in the crowd with all the atmosphere. There was a lady in the seat in front of them from Bruce (the suburb next to Kaleen in Canberra).

Another day when Hannah and Nikki weren’t 100%, Stephen and Jacqui went on a tour of Lords. It was AWESOME – they saw the Long Room, the dressing rooms, the honour boards (in the away dressing rooms), and the media centre which is like something from an alien spaceship, as well as the actual Ashes themselves in the Lord’s museum.

That night Hannah and Nikki went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre, which they LOVED. The disabled lift to get them to their seats was broken, so they had to go up in the theatre lift and be taken on a behind the scenes route, which was very exciting. The performance was amazing (we both cried at the end) – it was very different from the Bell Shakespeare Theatre version we saw a few years ago. It was the last performance of the season and so on our way out of the theatre we got to share in some of performers sadness (and joy) as we went through the change rooms out to the foyer.

We also visited the British Science museum and saw a cracking exhibition on Wallace and Grommit, as well as seeing an amazing 3-D printer in action.

We visited another World Centre for Guiding, at Pax Lodge. It was very nice, and we enjoyed the tour and meeting some of the workers there, but after Our Chalet it just didn’t feel as special (mainly because we were staying at Our Chalet and just visiting Pax Lodge for the day). We also visited the Guide Shop twice, to buy some UK Guiding resources that we will use when we get back to Australia.

Greenbelt was unlike anything we have every experienced before. There were 25,000 people at the Cheltenham racecourse, most of them camping. We were camping (we paid for a tent and air mattresses to be set up for when we arrived), and were FREEZING. After the first night we actually went and bought two more sleeping bags for Nikki and Steve, as it was just too cold for the two they had already paid for. Apart from the cold, we enjoyed Greenbelt – lots of amazing talks - many about the Israeli occupation of Palestine (it seemed to be their theme this year), as well as talks on climate change and Christianity, Biblical theology, Dr Who and spirituality. We went to music gigs, comedy performances, ate yummy food and bought hand made mittens from Nepal to keep our hands warm. On Sunday they had an amazing worship service, but due to swine flu couldn’t do communion or pass the peace (for communion, everyone anointed each other with oil, and for the passing of the peace we had the “elbow bump” of peace). Nikki also caught up with some of the Ministers she trained with at the theological college in Sydney. All in all, we really enjoyed Greenbelt, but were very glad to get back to a regular warm bed in London.

One last highlight was catching up with our old friend Grant and his partner Martin. We were lucky enough to be able to get together with them twice whilst we were here – Grant really hasn’t changed at all since we saw him last (4 ½ years ago), and we had a great time catching up with them both.

Some statistics for you :

Number of kilometers driven – 4577km

Number of times we filled up with diesel – 8 times (giving us 763km to a tank – in Australia we get 350km to a tank of petrol)

Cheapest country we visited - Italy

Most expensive country we visited – Norway (everything was almost 3 times as expensive as Australia)

Most friendly country we visited - Germany

Number of pills Nikki’s taken on the trip – 2,000

Number of herbal drops Nikki’s taken on the trip – 6,000

Number of photo’s we’ve taken – 3,309

Number of places we’ve stayed – 18 (which is a lot, but considering we are away for 60 days, it’s not too bad)

Place where we met most Aussies – London (there were Aussie accents everywhere)

Place where we felt most different from the local people – Japan

Best disabled access – The Louvre in Paris

Worst disabled access – London Underground and Paris Metro

Best Meal – Versailles

Worst Meal - Paris

Shortest stay in one place – 1 day (Brussels – twice, Versailles, Bottrop)

Longest stay in one place – 11 days

Number of times we’ve missed people from home – too many to count