Bristol and Oxford

Sunday 28th February 2016:

After collecting the car from Park and Ride we headed east back towards London, crossing the Second Severn Crossing for the second time that day (didn’t have to pay this time though) bound for Bristol.

Although we were booked into a Mercure outside of town, with the daylight gradually fading we decided to precede our check in by going for a drive through the city while we could still see. On our way into the city centre we passed a big warehouse building coated in the blue colour synonymous with IKEA. We’d heard a lot about IKEA but had never been in one, so on the way back out of town, we detoured in for our maiden IKEA experience. Our holidays are truly that lavish.

Navigating the showroom is interesting, once you’re in there isn't an easy way out. In all honesty, IKEA is probably a little overhyped. Sure, there is an abundance of furniture and homewares that are attractive, functional and affordable but there was also a significant amount of stuff that we thought seemed to be ugly or just plain pointless. The showroom also featured a number of IKEA designed apartments, compact homes that felt bigger than they were and yet still had everything you’d need. IKEA’s next foray genuinely could (and should) be in home design and construction.

We managed to navigate our way through the store far enough to make the restaurant, and with the clock suggesting that it was about dinner time, had some IKEA Swedish meatballs. Similar to the concept of their flat pack furniture, you place your order and are given the all the separate ingredients, before you move along the line to combine them and cook it up.

Not really. You just order normally and they plate it up from the bain-marie.

We left the store making only a single purchase, a potted blue hydrangea requiring no assembly. Jumping back into the Fiat, we headed 20 minutes into the country to our accommodation at Mercure Bristol North The Grange Hotel. Quintessentially British, The Grange is a picturesque 19th century stone manor house set on 18 acres of Bristol countryside. Fortunately, we’d scored a great deal on the accommodation and so it was nice to be able to stay in a comfortable, reputable and private hotel for similar money as we often pay to stay in a hostel with shared facilities

On Sunday morning, we checked out and drove back into the city centre to wander around the CBD shopping. Next, we headed across to the harbour for a glimpse at the ship, Brunel’s ss Great Britain. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the 19th century’s most iconic engineers, and the ship is significant for having used what was, at the time, the latest in maritime technology and the most powerful steam engine that had ever been used at sea to date. At the time of the her launch in 1843, she was the largest ship in the world. She went on to transport emigrants from Britain to Australia.

Back in the car and higher up the hills we went on to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, a magnificent suspension bridge on the cliffs of the Avon Gorge. We parked the car and braved the cold to walk across the bridge and take in the views from one of the highest points in Bristol. Slightly higher up the hill we could see the Clifton Observatory, while below us we saw rock climbers scaling the face of the gorge. 

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is another of Brunel’s great engineering feats, having been the winner of a design competition in 1829. Work began in 1831 but the project was abandoned for a number of years, plagued by financial and political problems. Although Brunel died in 1859 and never saw his dream realised, the bridge was finally completed in 1864.

We returned to the car and set off back towards London, but after consulting the map we realised that taking a detour to Oxford would only add 30 minutes to the journey AND allow us to tick one more place off our list. We though Oxford was in some ways similar to Cambridge, both towns filled with very attractive historic sandstone buildings but also both largely comprised of their respective Universities.

We enjoyed a delectable Sunday roast for lunch, went for a brief stroll around the town and headed back home to conclude our weekend road trip.

Highlights:
- IKEA
- Stayed at Mercure Bristol North The Grange Hotel - a real hotel!
- Brunel’s ss Great Britain
- Walked across the Clifton Suspension Bridge
- Saw Clifton Observatory
- Rock climbers
- Detour home via Oxford
- Sunday roast lunch
- Magnificent sandstone buildings

Cardiff, Wales

Saturday 27th February 2016:

Because the Peugeot had been pranged, we took a punt on a Punto to get our wheels on to Wales, thereby taking a car to another country. It was now nine months on from the last time we’d driven a car (Week 8), but this time instead of collecting it from the outskirts of London at the airport, all we had to do was walk around the corner and collect the easyCar Club Fiat Punto. This was convenient, but also a bit daunting. Brendan nervously took control, having never really been in control of a moving vehicle within central London before.

We managed to make it out of the city and onto the motorway without incident. Cruising along we detoured in to grab some breakfast and eventually crossed the Second Severn Crossing, a bridge of over five kilometres long between England and Wales, above the River Severn. There are tolls on the motorway to cover the cost of crossing the bridge, but oddly you are only charged to drive from England into Wales while there are no tolls to on the return journey from Wales to England. 

Around two and half hours since leaving home, we arrived at the Cardiff East Park and Ride where we left the car for the day, and boarded a bus into the city. Something that is perhaps not widely known is that even though everyone in Wales speaks English, Welsh is a language in its own right and most of the street signs are written in both Welsh and English.

As we strolled around we saw Cardiff Castle, one of Cardiff’s main tourist attractions. We didn't pay to go in (the ticket price seemed quite steep), so settled with viewing what we could see of the complex from the main entrance.

From there we wandered through the street markets, picking up a Welsh souvenir and gardening book (so Brendan can recreate a British garden once we are back in Australia), heading towards Cardiff Bay.

Ronald Dahl Plass is a large public plaza at the centre of Cardiff Bay, named after the Cardiff-born author. The plaza is bordered on one side by shops and restaurants, and on the other by the contemporary Wales Millennium Centre and historic Pierhead Building. Architecturally, the imposing Millennium Centre has been constructed of timber, slate, steel and glass, with a huge Welsh/English bilingual inscription on the front façade - the Welsh “Creu Gwir Fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen” which translates to “Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration” and the English, “In These Stones Horizons Sing”.

The Pierhead Building faces onto the bay and when completed in 1897, originally housed offices for the dock company. Its clock above is unofficially referred to as the Welsh Big Ben.

We ducked into a café adjoining the Millennium Centre for an afternoon snack, complete with bilingual menus, before heading back into the city centre to catch the return Park & Ride bus out to the car.

Highlights:

- Picked up our easyCar Fiat Punto

- First time driving a car in nine months

- Second Severn Crossing bridge

- Cardiff Castle

- Street markets

- Cardiff Bay

- Ronald Dahl Plass

- Wales Millennium Centre

- Pierhead Building

Week 47 in London

Week 47: 22 - 28 February 2016

This week was a fairly straight forward working week, with the most important news coming late in the week; that Roslyn’s contract position had been extended beyond 30 June. Therefore, we won’t be completely broke and have to be deported home – yay!

While out for work and walking around the streets of Chelsea, Brendan celeb-spotted fashion designer and star of Made in Chelsea, Oliver Proudlock, straight from the final day of London Fashion Week.

We also had confirmation earlier this week that Mark and Lauren have booked a trip to come and visit in June.

For breakfast on Friday, Roslyn had an event on the Cutty Sark, a ship built in 1869 designed to carry tea from China to England as fast as possible. During the late 1800s, she was responsible for transporting wool from Australia. Fast forward to modern times and the restoration of the ship was unveiled in 2012, now raised three metres above the ground and a tourist attraction as part of the Royal Museums of Greenwich. Vegemite even made an appearance on the menu at this breakfast.

As the concept of “sharing” becomes increasingly popular, we had also booked a car through easyCar Club (part of the easyGroup) to head off to Wales for the weekend. The easyCar Club is essentially like Airbnb for cars, an owner puts their car online and nominates the days that they don’t need it and the price, and you book from there. As a booking driver, you have to be run through checks and screening by easyCar, and the booking of a vehicle through easyCar Club also provides full insurance over the driver. All in all, it works out significantly cheaper than a conventional hire car.

The week prior we had booked a Peugeot for the weekend of 27-28 February, sorted our accommodation and had everything lined up. Our plans almost came unstuck after the Peugeot was pranged, rendering it unable to be hired and leaving the driver in hospital. Fortunately we found a Fiat owned by a guy only five minutes from our house, and so locked it in. Disaster avoided!

Highlights for the week:

- Roslyn’s work contract extended

- Sighting of Made in Chelsea’s Oliver Proudlock

- Confirmation of Mark and Lauren coming to visit

- Roslyn’s breakfast onboard the Cutty Sark, featuring Vegemite

- Hired our first easyCar

Week 46 in London

Week 46: 15 - 21 February 2016

There seemed to be a glimpse of hope that the temperatures would get warmer, with increased sunshine throughout the week. On one of the sunnier days, Brendan was lured outside for lunch but despite the sun it was too cold to stay outside for long.

On Thursday Brendan saw a most unusual sight on the streets of South Kensington, an Australian Ford Territory sporting AU55 numberplates (surely representative of Auss and not just a coincidence!)

Roslyn visited The View from The Shard on Friday for work research. Spread across floors 68, 69 and 72, The View is London’s highest viewing point and presents a large, triple height internal viewing gallery area plus an open-air viewing platform on floor 72, providing over 500 sq m in total of high altitude event space. The price to hire this exceptional space starts from £7,200 (or roughly $14,400 AUD) for an hour and a half morning breakfast, and stretch well beyond that for evening events.

For only the second time since we arrived in London, we went to the movies on Saturday having realised that London & Partners employees are eligible for significantly reduced (almost half price!) tickets. The cinema at nearby Wandsworth was a significant step up from the run down venue we visited in Week 27. How To Be Single is a bit of a chick flick, admittedly most of the people in there were female and quite a few of them single – maybe they were hoping to learn something. But Australian actress Rebel Wilson is so versatile and funny that the experience wasn’t too much of a stereotypical cringe worthy chick flick. Saturday was a drizzly and dreary day, and so not worth doing much else.

The rain subsided slightly for Sunday and off the back of a something seen on Facebook by Brendan’s cousin, Ali, we went over to the cosmopolitan Soho where Cadbury had opened a pop-up Creme Egg Café. Running for only seven weeks, the pop up was only open from 5pm on Fridays, and after 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. We arrived at around 1:30pm, and already people were lined up around the block waiting to get in for takeaway Cadbury Creme Egg toasties from the ground floor.

The dining room on the first floor provided a more eggs-aggerated menu, with Creme Egg and Soldiers, Creme Egg Tray Bake, or Strawberries and Creme Egg. The tickets to the dining room sold out nearly as soon as the concept was announced, well before we’d heard about it.  The second floor housed an adult ball pit. The proceeds of the café are to be donated to charity.

After an eggs-cruciating wait outside, we got in and grabbed our toasties for £2 each and then moved over to the line-up for the ball pit. While you wait, you can press a button on the wall and a free Creme Egg will come rolling down a mysterious plastic tube from out of sight upstairs. The button definitely gets a decent work out.

Eventually we were allowed upstairs into the ball pit (it is quite small and only eight people at a time are allowed) to wade around in the ocean of plastic balls. 

Considering the awkward afternoon time, we were eggs-ited to find some late lunch/early dinner, and so ended our weekend at the nearby upmarket Indian restaurant, Dishoom.

Highlights for the week:

- Ford Territory spotted in South Kensington

- Roslyn went up to The View from The Shard

- Went to the cinema and saw How To Be Single

- Cadbury Creme Egg Café

- Adult ball pit

- Dishoom for late lunch/early dinner

Week 45 in London

Week 45: 8 – 14 February 2016

Approaching the tail end of winter, the days have been getting gradually but noticeably longer. By now it is starting to get dark around from around 5pm, where before light was rapidly fading after about 3:30 each afternoon. Despite this, the temperatures this week seemed even colder than earlier in the season.

On Wednesday evening Roslyn flew out to Frankfurt in Germany. Sadly this was not a visit for leisure (and so therefore doesn’t get its own blog entry), but for work where she and her colleague spent Thursday inspecting and assessing potential event venues. By Thursday night, they were back in London again.

We were flying out to Stockholm in Sweden for the weekend on Friday evening. Due to our flights departing from Stansted Airport (around an hour and a half out of London), we both worked half days in order to get there on time. Lucky we did, because heavy weekend traffic and accidents on the motor way caused the bus journey to take almost three hours.

We weren’t expecting much of the airport itself, mostly due to its remote location but also the fact that it’s a base mainly for budget airlines. We were pleasantly surprised at how large, modern and well equipped the airport was – there were plenty of dinner options and even a train shuttle to transport us from the terminal to the departure gate. The plastic bags for liquids were also free, but at our last UK budget airport (Luton) they charged £2 each for these!

The weather on our return to Stansted Airport on Sunday evening delivered sleet. Fortunately the traffic flow back into London was much smoother than on Friday night.

Highlights for the week:
- Slightly longer days!
- Roslyn in Frankfurt, Germany on Thursday
- First time at Stansted Airport
- Weekend away in Stockholm
- Sleeting weather on our Sunday return

Stockholm, Sweden

Friday 12th February 2016:

A bit of mid-air drama on board our Ryanair flight made it a little different to our usual journeys. One passenger sat a few rows behind us made several loud and bizarre outbursts, but the most unsettling was when the pilot announced that we would be landing shortly and his response to was to shout out “everyone prepare to die”. A woman sat near him then yelled “shut up, you’re a fucking idiot” to which he replied “yes, I know”. Stranger still, the flight crew continued about their business throughout his shrieks without intervention.

We arrived in the land made famous by ABBA, IKEA and Volvo, at Stockholm Skavsta Airport where it was gently sleeting. Snowflakes fell upon our faces as we made our way across to the shuttle bus, for the hour and a half journey into the city. We were amongst the last people to board the bus and so couldn't get a seat together. It was already fairly late, Brendan fell asleep for a little while. We arrived in the city near midnight, where there was plenty of snow cover on the streets and paths. This snow was pleasantly different to Reykjavik in Iceland, instead of being solid frozen ice it was still light and fluffy. Our accommodation was at City Backpackers Hostel Stockholm.

The city is quite unique, with the Stockholm archipelago being sprawled across 14 separate islands. Fortunately our accommodation was central and close to the charming island of Gamla Stan, which makes up the Old Town. On Saturday morning, we headed out and simply wandered (with no real purpose). Our first stop which came recommended to us by the hostel reception staff, was Muffin Bakery for breakfast. Plenty of different and delicious muffin flavours, of decent sizes and reasonably priced.

We continued down Drottninggatan, a busy pedestrian street stretching for about two kilometres. Crossing over a snow dusted bridge and passing through the arches of the Parliament House, we made our way into the old town, dominated by The Royal Palace.

Blanketed by snow, the steep ramps up to the front of the Palace had been transformed into a popular cross country ski trail. Not something you’d expect to see! Coming down seemed simple enough, but when we wandered around the perimeter of the Palace we found that there was no magic carpet or t-bar at the other end - the skiers also to rely on their own locomotion to make their way to the top.

We continued our way through the snow around the huge palace, to the southern side where the Changing the Guard was about to commence at 12:15pm.

After stopping for lunch (and trying out the Swedish meatballs), we passed the grand palace of Riddarhuset – the House of Nobility, and headed around towards City Hall.

At 4pm, we joined at walking tour at Stockholm’s central square, Sergels torg. Our first stop was outside the Opera House, a mere 120 years old, making it one of Stockholm’s newer buildings.

We promenaded along the waterfront back to Parliament House, which is spread across two adjoining buildings that date back to 1905 and 1906. Originally the semi-circular West Wing was the head office of the National Bank, however Parliament expanded to occupy both buildings in the 1970s.

At The Royal Palace, our guide told us how the palace is one of the largest in the world with over 600 rooms. The Danish royals including Prince Frederik (and his Australian wife Princess Mary) are also linked to the Swedish royals, and the veil Mary wore at the wedding is the same veil as worn by Frederik’s great grandmother, Swedish Princess Margaret.

Although we didn’t enter the neighbouring Stockholm Cathedral, our guide explained how this church is an interesting mix of architectural styles. Inside is an original Gothic interior, however the outside was face lifted around the time that The Royal Palace was completed in an ‘updated’ 18th century Baroque style.

Continuing through the narrow streets, the iron adornments to the front of many buildings were identified us as floor anchors, the shape and design unique to the time when the building was constructed. Some of these buildings, we were told, date back to medieval times.

Passing by the street where two of ABBA’s band members lived in the 1970s we made our way to Stortorget (The Big Square), which was the scene of the Stockholm Bloodbath in 1520. After the successful invasion of Sweden by Denmark, over 80 Swedish noblemen were beheaded in the square under the orders of Danish King Christian II. Today the Nobel Museum dominates the square, dedicated to education about science and the Nobel Prize.

With the light fading and the city developing its evening sparkle, we neared the end of our tour trekking through Järntorget (The Iron Square) and on towards the harbour.

On Sunday we went for a final stroll around the city, before boarding the bus once more to return to the airport. The variation in the amount of snow and how it affected the scenery was amazing. Even within the city while driving across a bridge, on one side of the street the river was flowing yet on the other it was completely frozen over. Perhaps even more amazing than that, before we departed the bus terminal, the driver was spotted sporting a functional Nokia 3310 – only 16 years on since it was first released.

Sadly we found out upon our return home to London, that on Saturday night while we were in town a British band Viola Beach and their manager were killed when their car plummeted off a bridge into the canal below, just outside Stockholm.

Highlights:

- Mid-air drama with crazy passengers

- Snow at Skavsta Airport

- Muffin Bakery

- Drottninggatan pedestrian shopping strip

- Soft fluffy snow throughout town

- Gamla Stan Old Town

- Parliament House

- Ski trail on the ramps of The Royal Palace

- Changing the Guard

- Riddarhuset – the House of Nobility

- Walking tour

- Opera House

- Stockholm Cathedral

- St George and the Dragon replica statue – representative of the battle between Swedish and Danish

- Stortorget (The Big Square), scene of Stockholm Bloodbath

- Ice skaters in the park

Week 44 in London

Week 44: 1 – 7 February 2016

Roslyn had an event on Tuesday with London’s lovable mayor Boris Johnson (surely one of few politicians around the world that people are actually fans of). The Mayor’s International Business Programme was launched today by Boris to help fast growing London companies expand abroad into international markets, and become globally successful.

At the launch event of The Mayor’s International Business Programme, Boris related export programs to James Bond by noting how many UK brands were featured in the recent Spectre movie, and joking with the crowd along the way. Boris doesn’t really look like a typical politician, instead he looks like a cross between a fully grown man and a shaggy haired child – perhaps that is part of the reason why the public love him. Afterwards, the team debriefed at the pub and celebrated a successful day.

On Friday afternoon Roslyn caught up for drinks with her former Royal College of Psychiatrists colleagues, George and Lucie (who is also Australian). Brendan joined them a bit later on for dinner and drinks as well.

The monthly Aussies in London drinks were on Saturday at The Pear Tree, a quirky little suburban pub near Hammersmith. With its small internal proportions, open fire, extensive dark timber, and dim lighting, you wouldn’t expect to find this old English pub so close to the city. As the afternoon rolled into the evening and we grew hungry, we moved across to another (cheaper) pub at Hammersmith station, The Swan.

Highlights for the week:
- Launch of Mayor's International Business Programme
- Roslyn mingling with Mayor Boris Johnson
- Dinner and drinks with Roslyn’s former RC Psych colleagues
- Aussies in London drinks at The Pear Tree
- Dinner and continuing drinks at The Swan