There was a bit of a hold up putting the next stage of this trip report. Of course there was getting some of the painting done (only eight more rooms says MrsK), and putting up the new range hood which has been sitting in its box in the family room for well over a year. But then, while getting things ready for the range hood, while looking up into the ceiling I saw some daylight - not something you want to see when looking into a roof cavity. The culprit was the hail storm in Canberra - where a hailstone had punched a hole right through a tile. I spent the best part of a day on the roof checking for other damage, and replacing that tile. Thankfully, that was the only one.
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The ferry across to the UK was quite full, and a bit of a rough journey across the Bay of Biscay. Fortunately I don't get seasick, so I wandered around while the rest of the family rested. We then arrived back in the UK at Southampton, and did the final driving leg to London. We dropped off the van and headed over to a holiday apartment in Kentish Town, which was our base for the following week. We explored all of the usual tourist places - as in the pictures below. The best thing, having been in the UK regularly over the past five years, is there were hardly any crowds.
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We got around by train and buses, including taking a day trip out to Windsor on the Green Bus. Checking out the usual sights was interesting, but probably the most surprising was seeing the Eton school boys wandering around in their uniforms, which for us were something out of a story.
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As we were in London, and relatively close to Paris, Mum & Dad booked a cheap package deal for travel and a few nights in Paris with one of the local travel agents. That involved train to Dover, then the hovercraft across to Boulogne, and train to Paris. And then, reversed that journey on the way back. We packed small bags and headed off. Arriving at Dover, we waited for the
Seaspeed hovercraft, and watched as it came up off the water - it looked like a giant sea monster, and it was loud and it was a rough ride. After a quick journey we boarded the train to Paris and arrived in the city. We took a taxi to our hotel, which was small and quaint, and we found out why it was cheap; it was in
Pigalle. It was certainly very colourful.
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We wandered all over the centre of Paris, seeing all of the main sights, marvelling at the metro carriages with rubber wheels that ran on concrete rails. We spent a lot of time at The Louvre, including taking in the Mona Lisa - it was so small. At that time, the restaurants had to provide a Fixed Price tourist option on their menus, which meant we had a lot of good meals. Then it was back to London by train.
Our trip back to Australia was booked through Thomas Cook, and was going to be flying to Singapore, have a few days there and then sail to Perth. When Dad went to check on the details while we were in London, he found out that the ship had been put into dry dock. Some quick reorganising was done, with us flying from Singapore to Perth - which due to a devaluation of the Australian dollar worked out cheaper for us. There were other bits of last minute shopping and getting ready for the final stage of the trip. As we were all keen aircraft modellers, Airfix model kits were less than half the price we paid in Australia. Dad, me and my brothers spent half a day in a local model shop and bought up big. For all of the shopping, plus as we were going into a summer, Mum & Dad bought a large trunk which we loaded up and had sent back by ship.
But the final day in the UK arrived, and we took off with our luggage on the tube, and then the train to Gatwick, where we would board our flight with British Caledonian Airways to Singapore, via Bahrain.