London, Part 2

We've spent some more time seeing the sights of London (the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly, Covent Garden and the Spittalfield Markets), and have also made some trips further afield:

On Wednesday we visited Oxford for the day. We caught up with Hayley (a NZ friend) and started with a climb to the top of the St Mary the Virgin church tower for a great aerial view of the city. Oxford has the same kind of 'student city' feel to it as Dunedin has, and one can imagine that being a student at Oxford could be a lot of fun. Unfortunately for us tourists, if you want to go into any of the various colleges (that make up the University) it costs $, so you end up wandering the streets admiring the buildings from the outside but feeling a little excluded from what is going on inside. The weather also turned to pelting rain in the afternoon, which meant we couldn't do quite as much as we had planned, but we still enjoyed wandering the streets and got an idea of the place! We also visited the Natural History Museum which has cool things like dinosaur bones and a stuffed dodo (and a stuffed South Island kiwi!!!) among other unusual things :)

On Thursday we caught the train to Bath. We explored the fascinating Roman baths for a couple of hours, and walked up to the Royal Crescent and Circus, and past the Argyle Bridge and Weir - Bath has a lovely atmosphere which we really enjoyed. We stayed two nights with Uncle Tony and Rowena in nearby Stoke St Michael (in Somerset) and were very well looked after. During the day on Friday we visited Glastonbury and Wells. In Glastonbury is the Glastonbury Tor (a naturally formed hill with the remains of a tower at the top from an old church) and the ruins of a once enormous abbey. You will see in the photos that the ruins are quite impressive, although we felt it was symbolic that the ruins were in the centre of a town clearly turned to mysticism (the whole township felt rather oppressive spiritually, and every second shop had some new age/'alternative' service on offer). In comparison, the stunning Wells Cathedral had an atmosphere of peace and joy, and a sense of the majesty of God which was quite humbling.


Oxford - the Radcliffe Camera, inside the Natural History Museum, and at the top of the tower


Bath - Reuben with the Royal Crescent in the background, Katie in the Roman Baths complex.


Glastonbury - the Tor and abbey ruins.


Wells Cathedral.

London, Part 1

We've been having a great time in London - initially a bit of a shock to the system (especially being jet-lagged etc) but are now becoming pros at navigating the transport system! We've managed to fit quite a lot in (it's amazing how much you can fit in a day when you don't have to work!!): the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the V&A, the Science Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Modern (Kandinsky exhibition), Southbank, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Borough Market, Greenwich (including the Royal Observatory and the Greenwich market), Soho, and the Millenium Bridge, as well as lots of chilling out time in various gardens and parks (Kensington, Dulwich, Clapham Common, Hyde Park, St James etc).

It's SO exciting to see some of the artwork I (Katie) have studied as part of my degree - including works by Monet, van Gogh, van Eyck, Botticelli, Picasso, da Vinci, Renoir, Gauguin, Seurat, Duccio, Renoir, Rothko, and so on and so on!!! The works have a quality to them in real life that cannot be transmitted onto paper/screen, and some of them are quite breathtaking. There's also some great collections in the museums that would not be available in NZ (including a surprisingly fascinating collection of iron work including ancient keys and locks at the V&A) and we have enjoyed wandering through them at leisure.

Borough Markets


Reuben on the Millenium Bridge, with Tate Modern in the background


Katie at the Tower Bridge


A 'Beefeater' at the Tower of London


Outside Buckingham Palace

Johor Bahru

While in Singapore we took a tour to Johor Bahru (in Malaysia). While the tour was a little 'touristy', it was a fantastic insight into an area we would not have otherwise seen. We watched a rendition of a Malay wedding dance (with a Diesel top visible through the traditional wedding attire of the girl!), the making of a pewter vessel (only takes 10 seconds to harden from molten state - pretty cool to watch!), the design of batik paintings, and a group of young people playing the 'Angklong' - a bamboo musical instrument. The view from the bus was quite interesting also as it meant getting a feel for the real life (not just the things set up for tourists) in Malaysia.

Botanic Gardens

View from our hotel room

On the plane

Singapore

And so our journey has begun! We had a great time in Singapore. On preparing to land they informed us that the outside temperature was 29 degrees (at 7 at night). We weren't quite sure how this would feel after a Christchurch winter, but with everything set up so well for the heat (air conditioning and fans etc) it was actually quite nice.

Our hotel room was upgraded to a newly refurbished room on the 13th floor, which meant we had great views of the river and the city. Most people are very eager to please and friendly in Singapore, and everything is very clean (particularly in comparison to the brief glimpse we had of Malaysia).

We really enjoyed the Botanic Gardens, including the orchid collection, and enjoyed seeing the Singaporians out and about together on a warm Sunday afternoon. We managed to bargain with the shop owners in Orchard Road and China Town...