La Rochelle/Arcachon

La Rochelle

First campsite!

La Rochelle Beach

Our much better second campsite

Arcachon

Arcachon

It was much bigger and steeper than it looks

Disneyland/Versailles

The Castle

Disneyland Paris

Walt Disney Studios

The line for Versailles

The Palace

From the back 

The gardens and Grand Canal

La Rochelle/Arcachon/San Sebastian

La Rochelle was gorgeous. A costal town, full of historic buildings and one way cobblestone streets. It was just outside this lovely town that we had our first night camping!

Despite some issues between Sam and the tent, which ended with a number of bent pegs and a missing loop for the pegs, we managed to come up with a pretty good set up. We were able to cook dinner, and then head for a drive to the beach.
It was just like the movies when we got to the beach, we walked over a mound and there was the long stretch of beach, no sand, but a white stone shore. 

This was the first time we had to fill up the car! We drove all the way from Paris on one tank, around 1000km’s. 

Baguettes for breakfast and lunch has become the normal, we rotate jam and Nutella between each meal. My god the bread here is great!
So a quick baguette and we were on the road again. 

A frustrating drive down the highway and we had arrived at a small coastal town, Arcachon. We decided to stay a couple of nights here, and despite some wrong directions from Nancy, we found a nice little caravan park to set up camp.
We picked up a few extra comforts to help our camp, a table and chairs, blankets and pillows, and more food! And we have decided our set up is pretty good now.

The caravan park is at the foot of a giant sand dune, the biggest one either of us had ever seen. It was easily about 100m straight up. So of course we had to climb it. Trust me that is a lot harder than it seems, I took the easy option of stairs for about 75m but Sam struggled with the incredibly soft sand the whole way up. It was a terrible realization when we discovered just how unfit we both are.
But the intense struggle was well worth it made it to the top. The ocean view was beautiful. The bright blue ocean with bright white yachts scattered everywhere. 

The rest of the day was spent wandering through the town, which reminded the both of us of Apollo Bay. We  wandered along the beach and down the pier. I even forced Sam to share a macaroon with me because I refused to leave France without having one, even though we will be back! It was amazing!

Today we drove the 250km into Spain and to the city of San Sebastian.
It was a horrible drive, full of roundabouts with traffic lights in them and huge trucks. But we made it to the city, and despite a slight detour that Nancy took us on (OFF THE ROAD INTO A PUBLIC PARK) we made it to the small caravan park.
Another struggle with the tent and we were headed back in the city for a beautiful walk along the beach.
Yet another perfect place to tick off the list. This place is more amazing than you could ever describe. the beach is gorgeous and filled with blue and white umbrellas, while the bay is protected by two small islands, keeping swell and wind to a minimum.
I cannot wait to lay on the beach tomorrow, drinking sangria working on the tan we all know I desperately need.

Paris/Disneyland/Versailles

Finally we have the freedom of a car again! We have a beautiful BRAND NEW shiny red Renault Clio.
Unfortunately we had to pick the car up in the city of Paris, not quite the ideal place to practice driving a manual on the wrong side of the road. However after some interesting round-abouts we made it out of the city and onto the highway. Although I’m not sure this was much better, drivers here don’t seem to follow any real rules, everyone speeds and indicators are hardly used. Which basically means, people turn in front of you at any moment unexpectedly at around 110kmph. 

We made is safely to our destination of Bussy St George’s thanks to Sam’s driving skills and the directions of our wonderful GPS who we have affectionately named Nancy. Personally I sat back and relaxed, commenting on how unfortunate so many european cars are. 

Not a lot was happening in the town of Bussy St George’s, but it was a great place for us, as it was a short drive to the happiest place in the world!

DISNEYLAND PARIS!

Unfortunately we didn’t pick the best day to visit Disneyland, it was cold and rainy and extremely busy!

But how can you not love Disneyland. We went on a few rides, but it was a struggle to last the minimum 45min wait time for most rides.
The place really is spectacular, everything is done so well. It feels as if you are stepping into a whole different world, it is everything you could hope it would be. It was a really good day, it brought back so many fond memories of our childhoods. For me it was also a reminder of Disneyland California and California Adventure.
There was a second park, much smaller, the Walt Disney Studios. We had a quick visit here before the rain became to heavy and we were too exhausted to wait in anymore lines. 

We drove too and stayed a short drive from Versailles. A town called Magny - Les - Hameaux.

Versailles is absolutely amazing.
We bought tickets and then had to wait in line for over an hour and a half, but it was well worth it. The palace is absolutely spectacular. So extravagant, it’s no wonder the French wanted to and did overthrow King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette! They lived in such an extravagant chateau while the rest of France lived in poverty.
Not only is the palace spectacular, but the gardens are stunning! There is a Grand Canal in the backyard!! We walked through the gardens to Marie Antoinette’s private retreat, Petit Trianon. This was my favorite part, both because I love Marie Antoinette and have become quite fascinated by her, but also because it was the most simple and least extravagant part of the whole place. 

It took us 4 hours to walk through Versailles, and we still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. 

We weren’t too fond of Orleans, but it was a place to stay and finally got us quite a way out of Paris. We rose early, keen to get out of the industrial town and drove towards the coast.

London/Paris

Westminister Abbey

View from the London Eye

London Eye

Big Ben from the London Eye

Paris

Paris

'Love Lock Bridge'

View from the Window

Our Room

Tour Eiffel

London/Paris

Our last day in London was quite a relaxing one. We had done most of what we wanted to do, all we had left to do was the London Eye! 

It was actually a warm summers day for London, with a top of 25 degrees. One lady was telling me how horrible it was, that it was just sweltering! It was warm, but mainly just because it had been so cold the days before. 

The London Eye really is an amazing thing. It's a brilliant way to see London, and you really can see everything from that position. It was the perfect end to our stay in the UK. 

We had one final thing to experience before we left London, we went to see Matt Corby at a venue called KOKO. It was absolutely awesome, he has such an amazing voice, we both left thinking that was probably the best show we had ever been too. Though I wasn't a huge fan beforehand, I most definitively am now. 

He was so shy and blunt too. At one point he just goes "you don't have to scream so much, your not achieving anything", and he just shook his head when people would scream out during the intimate moments of his acoustic songs. It was great to be able to see a concert while we were in London and we were both glad it was Matt Corby we saw.  

Another very early rise, and we are off on the bullet train to Paris! 

What an amazing city Paris is! We had a very short time there (hopefully we will have more time later on) but we both fell in love with the city. Neither can understand an of the negative things we had heard. It's beautiful, and so different to anywhere else we have ever been. The buildings a absolutely gorgeous! 

It was a huge journey to get to our little room, a long walk with heavy packs and some rides on very full subways! But we got the in the end, and after we dropped our bags, we were able to spend some time exploring the city. 

We went to the 'Tour Eiffel' which really is quite a site, it's hard to believe its really there after seeing it so often in movies or photos. 

Then we wandered along the river Seine taking in the spectacular views. Huge, extravagant buildings are everywhere and there a lovely big green trees and parks all over. 

We almost fell victim to a scam, but a very nice taxi driver helped us out! 

Baguettes and Nutella for breakfast, then off to pick up the car!

London

Trinity College 

Dorms at Trinity College

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben!

Platform 9 3/4 

Buckingham Palace

St. Pauls Cathedral 

Tower Bridge

London

Day two in London we want to see Queen Liz at Buckingham Palace. Though we were a little disappointed about not being able to hassle any of the guards, the palace was well worth the visit. It's huge! I think I could see myself in a place like that.. I'll have to try and find Prince Harry.. 

I dragged Sam through the wonderful place that is Harrods! If only I had of had money, I would have blown it all. Though we didn't leave with any Harrods bags in our hands, we did visit the Godiva Chocolate Cafe on the top floor. A brownie, chocolate ganache and ice cream drink and $26 later, we left Harrods feeling a little guilty but content. 

We also stopped by Kings Cross Station, for a Harry Potter fix at Platform 9 3/4! I got a photo with the trolley on the wall and tried and failed to convince Sam that I really really needed a Slytherin Quidditch jumper (£70).  

Our hostel in Bayswater was pretty good, and we had nice roommates. One guy, from Nigeria, was here on a conference trip and his accommodation had been booked for him thinking it was a hotel! The poor guy! 

Despite it being a pretty good one, hostels aren't the most comfortable places, so it was nice to head to a hotel after two nights there. Even if it was an easyHotel. 

We thought we would never return to an easyHotel, but the call of a private room with no weird strangers sleeping in the bunks around us was too much. Plus we were able to get a more superior room which had an actual window! 

Day three we decided to do something different and we bought tickets for a hop on-hop off double decker bus tour. It was awesome! We were able to see everything, unlike on the tube where we had just been popping up at different attractions and missing other parts of the city. We were able to learn a bit more about the history of things as well. 

We drove over Tower Bridge and jumped off the bus at the Tower of London. The bridge was an awesome thing to see. 

The Tower of London was also a really cool place. Many Kings had lived there and we discovered some interesting things. Some of the animals that were kept in the tower were crazy, as was the way they were looked after. There were lions, tigers, monkeys, bears, ostriches and snakes just to name a few. 

One bear died from his diet of cake and bread, snakes were wrapped in blankets and put in the oven to keep warm and two tigers killed a lion when the gate separating was left open! 

Also at the Tower of London are the Crown Jewels. This was my favorite part! 

The coronation crowns for each monarch really are spectacular. Some have over 2,000 diamonds! The vaults here hold two of the biggest diamonds in the world, one in the Queen Mothers crown and one in Queen Liz's. 

There is also the coronation spoon... It's a pretty spectacular, old gold spoon that had been around for ages, but I'm just not sure about the significance of the spoon.

It was quite a journey to get back to the easyHotel but we got there in the end and we met a very nice bus driver along the way. 

Dublin/Galway/London

We spent another day exploring Dublin. 

Trinity College is a huge beautiful university in the heart of the city. It absolutely amazing and has been around for hundreds of years. There are huge grounds that spam over a number of blocks and amazing old buildings that cover every department as well as student housing. It was my kind of university, similar to Melbourne Uni, but older and prettier. 

We were unable to go into Dublin Castle, as it was closed to the public because or EU elections or something. So instead we just wandered through the city. 

It really is such a spectacular city, filled with buildings that date back to the 1700a d 1800's. 

The main shopping area is a long strip mall that is foot traffic only, and there are street performers doing all kinds of things everywhere. 

We had a nice dinner at the historic 'Bleeding Horse' pub, though it may have been slowly out of our price range!

An early morning bus took us across country to the west coast and the city of Galway. Yet another lovely city. 

It was nice to have a relaxing overnight stay in the small city, and stay in a B&B instead of a hostel. 

Unfortunately we didn't do too much sight seeing in Galway but we did spend some time looking through the more historic area, through second hand bookstores and small cafe's. 

Although it was only a very quick trip to Galway, it was relaxing and nice to have a bit of a rest day before we headed out to London. 

A night back in Dublin and then a 6:40am flight to London Heathrow!

Due to our early flight, we were able to spend that first day seeing the city! 

We figured out the tube, which made life a lot easier, and headed straight to Westminster Abbey. 

 What an amazing place! It really is spectacular, the detail and the history of the building is hard to comprehend. Every monarchs coronation has been help there since the 1200's and of course so many of  the royal weddings!

Next was the parliament buildings and Big Ben. Again, such spectacular buildings. There is so much history in all of these places, it's difficult to imagine especially when you compare it with Australia. 

We wandered over the bridge and were looking down the River Thames, which is actually kind of gross and brown.

Loving the Irish summer! 

The concentration...

They might look good, but it really does taste terrible!

Travelling light on the train! 

Dublin

Time to say goodbye to Dad!
It was hard to say goodbye, Dad was our final safety net and had made our time in Scotland so great, but now it is just the two of us and all we can do is hope for the best!
We said goodbye at the ferry terminal, this is where the adventure really starts! 

Ireland here we come!

Northern Ireland is an interesting place. Belfast was a beautiful city, but I don’t know if we will be hurrying back! Though it was pretty and filled with old buildings, it felt as though we were missing something, like something was a little off about this city.
There were such a range of people and for our first night of truly solo travel, we felt a little uncomfortable.

We had our first hostel experience at Lagan Backpackers. It was strange sharing a room with two strangers, but this is something I’m sure we will get used to soon. A few more of these and we should have it all figured out.
Not too keen to spend a whole lot of time in Belfast, we headed out pretty early to jump on the train to Dublin!

Two hours later, we were slightly disappointed we didn’t get a stamp upon arriving in the Republic of Ireland, but we were definitely not disappointed by the beautiful city of Dublin!

We spent two days exploring the wonderful city. Everything is old and gorgeous, and there is some comfort in some small similarities to home.
The Guinness Storehouse was a really cool place. We now know all the vital ingredients to Guinness, as well as how to pour a perfect pint! The building was awesome, shaped as a gigantic pint glass that rose 7 stories. I felt obliged to give Guinness a try, we are in Ireland after all, and I had just poured my own pint. So while Sam enjoyed his glass, I struggled through my own. In the end I conned Sam into asking for some lemonade to add, which made it only slightly more drinkable. However I am proud to say, I made it through a whole pint of Guinness!

After saying goodbye to Neil and the family, we headed off towards Ullapool.
It wasn’t quite as big a day as we didn’t have too far to travel. Our only news was that we visited Eilean Donan Castle. We loved this place! What’s amazing is that this castle originally belonged to and housed the Mackenzie’s! Long before any of us were around, our ancestors lived in and fought for that castle! Although it was lost to the clan Macrea, I think I’ll still claim it as ours! It does have the Mackenzie clan motto of ‘Luceo Non Uro’ in a stain glass window! 

This castle has been restored and is presented with all the fittings that would have been there in the 18-1900’s. It was a cool place, overlooking a loch that connects to the ocean.
A relaxing night in the busy little town of Fort William.

Our last full day in Scotland was great! We had a reasonably relaxed drive through the beautiful countryside. Everything we saw out the window looked like a scene from Harry Potter, especially as we passed through Glen Coe Forest where parts of the films were actually shot!
Glen Coe was beautiful, and although they were not the biggest mountains they were still quite spectacular and managed to capture our attention.
Our final stop was the tiny village of Glenbranter! This is where Mum and Dad actually lived back in 1988!
We visited the local pub for lunch, and were disappointed when we found Dad’s favourite watering hole was closed.
What was really special was actually driving through the village, with Dad pointing out different things... Where Neill had lived, where Mum and Dad’s reception had been (now completely run down), and the Forest Commission where he worked.
We drove up to the cottage that had been Dad’s home for 12 months and we were gladly welcomed in by the man who now owns the place. It was cool to see another place I had heard so much about growing up, and to hear Dad explain how the place had changed. It was great, and I am extremely glad we were able to go there.
We jumped on the car ferry.. which I didn’t like so much, and then made the short drive down to the small harbour town of Troon.

Eilean Donan Castle

Luceo Non Uro

Eilean Donan

Glen Coe

Glen Coe

Glen Coe

Glenbranter - Two Glenbranter Foot