U.K With a Paris Sample

Thursday (23rd) morning after a rather uneventful overnight train ride from Trento to Paris (the only exception when a couple of older Phillipino women tried to do a runner without paying in the dining car!) we arrived in Paris a little later than expected partly due to a rail strike in Paris. With only a short amount of time we decided to visit the Eiffel Tower and then wander along the river to the Louvre. We then headed back for our Eurostar to London, quite excited to be heading to an English speaking country after about a year. For our first few nights we stayed with Ruben, Emma's partner, who lives quite close to St Paul's in the centre of London. As we were both pretty well aquainted with London, we weren't really planning much sight seeing but rather catching up with friends and relaxing. After a pretty long day of travel and wandering in Paris we spent the first night in with some of the English national food which we had missed whilst being away - curry!

This one is pretty obvious

Some Americans said that this was in some Da Vinci movie, so we took a photo out the front

Friday ( 24th) Joss went to meet a work friend from her London days Becky, and Paul went to meet a work mate Sharon who moved from Sydney to London. We reconvened and headed out with Ruben for dinner at St John's bread and wine restaurant, with the theme being nose to tail eating. It was fantastic! .

Saturday ( 25th) Ruben took us for a drive in his Jag out to Oxford where we wandered around the town and felt very academic, although not as much as the Oxford students who were actually graduating that day. That night we went out to a bit of dinner at an old favourite of Joss' in Covent Garden called Thai Pot, which was just as good as Joss' memory of it was.

Having a Guinness in Covent Garden

In St John's

Oxford

Sunday (26th) we met up with a few of Joss' mates from her time in London (and who still live there): Gemma, Peta, and her husband Quin for a late roast, catch up and a few ales. Afterwards we headed out to Mick and Liv's place in Wokingham, West of London, where they moved to about 6 months ago from Springwood.

Monday (27th) Joss headed to Kensington for a bit of a catch-up over lunch with her old workmates from the Mail on Sunday newspaper. Back in Wokingham Paul and Liv went to the local pub to keep the seats warm for when Mick finished work. Tuesday (28th) Mick took the day off work and we all went to another local pub with the dogs and spent the afternoon in the sun.

Wednesday (29th) we said goodbye to London and Europe for our first flight of the trip to New York!

Mick and Liv at the local