Another weekend in London

Over the weekend we up in London again to see the capital massive up that way. Being only a couple of hours away from the big smoke is pretty sweet, especially when we paid £2 each to get up there on the train on Friday night! (thanks Megatrain)

After arriving at Waterloo we whisked off to The Ship, a fairly typical little London pub just around the corner from Phil's work. After a quiet pint we waited outside for the #15 bus that supposedly comes every ten minutes 24/7. After twenty minutes two came at once - the myth is true! We thought it was amusing but some old cockney chap who got on further down the road had a right old rant at the driver, who didn't seem interested at all.

Saturday was Cup final day. That's the FA Cup for the non-sporty type readers. Before that we met up with Matt and Kim in Trafalgar Square to have a quick pint and some lunch before shooting up Tottenham Court Road to the pub that Ray works, lives and drinks in. So the telly was faded and there was paint on the screen - lucky for us the football wasn't really worth watching. Mike and his girlfriend Rach joined us later, always a treat to catch up with them.

Matt and Kim headed off for a 'flight' on the London Eye. It wasn't until just before they left that Matt let us know on the sly he planned to propose. Of course, she said yes. Congrats again guys! It seemed only yesterday I was with Matty up in Shadows (the Auckland Uni pub) drinking large jugs of Tui as he and Kim's glazed eyes caught each other.

While they went off to celebrate the rest of us went for some grub and later they joined us in a busy corner pub in Covent Gardens. I particularly enjoyed Mike's turn-the-glass-a-full-rotation-without-spilling-it trick. Worked well with the beer, not so with the red wine. How is that stain on your jeans Rach?

Thanks for the good times London crew. Hopefully see you soon when we come up before our flight to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks.

A fortnight to go

Well we've got just two weeks of work left before we set off with those heavy backpacks again. And this time we're travelling in the peak of European summertime. I can just envisage those sweaty backs already! I remember one poor young American lad in Lisbon hauled himself up a steep hill to get to our hostel and was absolutely drenched by the time he got to reception. This boy was really sweaty. He'd have put a certain South African friend of mine to shame.

We had Anna with us again last weekend after she had spent a few nights flying it solo in Barcelona. It was a much more low key weekend which suited us fine as we had plenty of planning to do (like deciding exactly where we want to go!) and the weather has turned a bit 'naff after a great April.

We did however head out to the Coach & Horses pub in Wimborne with John, Angie and my cousin Mark. It's a great little typically English pub. Warm, cosy and dangerously low ceilings for a tall guy like myself. That's not to say I didn't have a headache the next day of course.

Anyway we've decided that this is what our itinerary is going to be in June...

• 5-7 - Amsterdam (Holland)


• 8-10 - Brussels (Belgium)


• 11-12 - Luxembourg


• 13-15 - Freiburg (...in Germany, not Browns Bay!)


• 16-18 - Bern or Interlaken (Switzerland)


• 19-25 - Innsbruck, Salzburg & Vienna (Austria)


• 26-28 - Budapest (Hungary)


• 29-30 - Bratislava (Slovakia)

From there Anna leaves us to fly back home but somewhere in between there (I think Austria-Hungary) Sheryl's friend Karen joins the crew for a few nights! Depending on funds Sheryl and I may then move on to Prague (Czech.Republic) and anywhere else we fancy. Can't wait!

We off up to London tomorrow for two nights, but here are some photos from last weekend...

Dale & Sheryl On Tour...with Anna!

Last weekend we had the pleasure of playing host to Anna, over in the UK from NZ on a mini-OE. Sheryl and I took the Friday off to make it a long weekend and met her at the train station Friday lunchtime. The weekend was a bit of a warm-up to our summer backpacking trip, which is now only four weeks away. That meant we had plenty of drinking, sun, drinking in the sun, checking out the sights and walking crazy distances!

On Friday afternoon we sat out on the waterfront of Poole harbour sipping on a couple of bevvys. We decided to abandon this particular pub though as the food didn't look all that good. Also, pretty randomly, there was a massive get together of Bournemouth punks. Then, some random old man dressed like a pirate rang a big bell, yelled something along the lines of 'All Aboard!' and the punks clambered onto a boat and set sail!

So anyway, the Yates pub we went to on the High Street was heaps nicer and some friendly old Irishman offered to buy the girls a drink and came over to chat with us. I think every pub could do with a friendly old Irishman, perve or not.

The night ended up in Globe bar across the road having a boogie and watching another random man try to balance my beer on his head and see how low down he could dance! We lost track of time and ended up having to run through the town centre to make it in time for the last bus.

(Eating and drinking in Poole)


(They're chips...but not as the English know it!)

(The mad dash for the last bus)

On Saturday we took Anna into Bournmouth town centre and up to the Harbour Lights pub that over looks the beach and pier area. We were lucky enough to score a table outside and killed a couple of hours soaking up the sun over a drink and some lunch.

In the afternoon we went further along the coast to Christchurch (I think I've mentioned before, it's twinned with Christchurch in New Zealand) which is a bit more peaceful and quaintly English. The squirrels here are quite tame, and we managed to get some potentially award winning photos of the little furry creatures.

Our Saturday night warmed up with some 42 Below Manuka Honey & V's before hitting the town! The first place we went to was a bit 'naff, mainly because of the music, but the drinks were cheap. After that we tried to get into the Aussie bar Walkabout by pretending we were from Seeedny, but to no avail. And screw queuing up for 45 minutes. Even the next place we went to were not letting any more people in. But Sheryl managed to sweet talk the bouncer around.

That's probably one of the most annoying things about going to town in Bournemouth is the massive queues outside most of the clubs and bars, and the sheer lack of taxis at the end of the night! The night ended up in DNA (hip hop bar) which suited Sheryl and Anna - they're old skool wiggas.


(Over looking the beach and the pier)


(Christchurch serenity, and nature shots worthy of Natural Geographic publications)

After a nice long Sunday morning lie in and a cooked breakfast outside in the sun we made our way out to Southborne further along the coast from Bournemouth. From here we embarked on a three hour walk (we didn't actually set out on making it such a mission) over to Hengistbury Head, across the ferry to Mudeford and from there back into Christchurch.

By the time we'd caught the bus back to Bournemouth it was past 8 o clock and we were hungry. We went into Walkabout for some grub and discovered the place was packing out! We stuck around until 11 or so, but made the sensible decision to call it a night before thing's got out of hand (they were open until 3am that night).

We were back to work on the Monday while Anna flew off to Barcelona, but she's back this coming weekend, before we head off to London for two nights at the end of May. Watch this space!

(Southborne and Hengistbury Head)

(Mudeford and the Walkabout Bar)