A Right Royal day

Our destination this morning was Windsor, about a hour's drive from London. The approach to the Castle is lovely, with a long sweeping drive up a hill lined with trees. We of course could not go up that drive but continued on to a coach parking area at the train station. There is a small village around at the back wall of the castle, touristy but cute. Security to get into the castle grounds was airport style, with an x-ray scanner. The flag on the centre tower showed that the Queen was at Windsor today. We queued to see Queen Mary's dollhouse and then went through the rooms opened to the public. It's hard to believe these rooms are actually used - it feels very much like a museum. At one part there is a closed door leading to the private quarters of the Queen and Prince Phillip and you couldn't help but imagine having to put up with the general public trooping through your home every day. The church is lovely and we saw the tombs of the Queen Mother and Henry VIII, who is buried with Jane Seymore. We had been given 100 pounds to buy lunch so we went to Wagamama's for 70 pounds and made a profit on the deal. The afternoon activity was cycling through Kensington Park. I left Jason to do that and sneaked off the Harrods for a shopping hit. The food hall was gorgeous. I dearly wanted to buy the Easter chocolate bento boxes for the boys, but the price was offputting. We had dinner in a cute Pub in Covent Garden, the Lamb and Flag, before heading over to see 42nd Street. It's not my first choice for a show to see in the West End, but the set and the costumes were excellent and there were a few good songs. Jason called it quits at half time but the boys were happy to stay and the second half was better than the first. Completely trashed, we all fell asleep as soon as the lights were out.

Palace Victory

To begin with, our travel of choice was train. With the sub-par navigation skills of someone that wishes to be unnamed (it rhymes with Shamble), we were left to wander about the train platforms, not really knowing where to go. After we finally found the right train with a bit of assistance, the anticipation was humming. I expected Arsenal to take home the win, while the other two thought Crystal Palace would. We got to Selhurst Park, the home of Crystal Palace with about 2 hours until kick off. Unfortunately, there weren't too many option as to what we could have for dinner, so we had to settle for the small burger shop next to the stadium. Once we had geared up for the game with a program and a £5 scarf, we entered the small park and located our seats. Crystal Palace came in with high hopes, a few games had passed since they had beaten league leaders, Chelsea, and now facing Arsenal, who are performing below their high standards, dropping from 3rd to 5th and continually dropping points to lower teams. The first half was dominated by the home team, scoring in the 17th minute with a lovely team goal, scrambled across the goal line by Andros Townsend. The morale of the Arsenal team was continually lowered, by both their performance and the chants by the home fans, noteably the "elites" (elites in soccer are the super fans, who are enclosed in their own area and have security constantly on watch) with Arsenal having multiple corners directly in front of their seating bay. At half time, with a stunning performance by Mamadou Sakho, Wilfreid Zaha and Yohan Cabaye, the score stood at 1-0. In the second half, the counter-attacking skill of Crystal Palace's midfield and the pace of Zaha was too much for Arsenal, conceding in the 63rd, conceding a fantastic volley from the edge of the box by Yohan Cabeye, leaving the Arsenal fans stunned and silent, shocked that a team just avoiding relegation was proving to be such a problem for their defence, prompting the home fans to start singing "We're staying up!". Only a few minutes later, Arsenal had conceded a penalty, from which they conceded yet another goal, to the excitement of the fans. The domination by the home side continued late into the game, with chances appearing frequently, while ArsenL continued to underperform. As the game drew to a close, it became clear that Crystal Palace were the victors in a fairly one sided match. The crowd cheered and the players came over and thanked the fans before heading back down the tunnel. Our trip home was a lot smoother than our way there, catching some almost empty trains back where we came to finish off a long night.

I Spy with my London Eye

Our first destination today was the Tower of London. Despite the name, it is a collection of a lot of towers and buildings as a fortress around the central tower. It ticked all the "Castle" boxes for us, with a moat (dry now), portcullis to get in and arrow slits in the walls instead of windows. The crown jewells are housed here but after waiting in an endless line with an annoying loud French guy behind us, we were not ready to be impressed. I did like Queen Victoria's tiny diamond crown though. We wandered through the white tower, which had a comprehensive display of armour and weaponry. The highlight was probably the two versions of armour for Henry VIII, clearly showing the huge weight gain in the interim. We chatted with a Beefeater - the uniform is so costume-like it was difficult to remember he was a real soldier rather than a dressed up theme park helper. The sense of history made this a fascinating visit. We then took a jet boat ride on the Thames, fast terrifying and cold for me, just cold for the boys. The accompanying music (a mix of James Bond tunes and songs that fit the theme such a "Rocketman") made me giggle, but mostly I just hung on to the rail for grippy death, closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. The torture ended at the London eye where we had a private capsule and skipped the line for our half Hour ride in the pod. We walked back to the hotel and the boys prepared to venture out to the Crystal Palace v Arsenal game. I will leave that story for a guest blogger. Attached are a few photos - our hotel seen from the London Eye, the Jetboat and Team Starrett at the tower.

What comes next - hey bus a move...

Today we transferred by taxi to our tour hotel, the Royal Horseguards. The taxi ride was probably the scariest driving I have experienced since getting in a cab with a drug high driver in LA twenty years ago. I think this guy was just a bad driver. It would be fair to say that the bedroom from our first hotel would fit into the bathroom of the second. We have two large, gorgeous, interconnected rooms with free minibar, heated floors in the bathrooms, and TVs in the showers. The hotel was the original headquarters or MI 5 and MI 6, and is on the north side of the Thames near Westminster Abbey.We are on an organised tour for the next seven days through a US based company called Tauck. Our group has 25 people, 12 of them teenagers, all from the US except team Starrett. The adults are predominately grandparents taking their grandchild away for a Bar/ Bat Mitzvah gift. Gina, our guide was originally from the US but has lived in Paris for eighteen years. Our first activity was a bus tour around central London, with great commentary by Mary, our second guide. After a few days under our own stream, it was such a treat to get 'the story' about what we were seeing. Mary mixed historic facts, current events and a bit of political and social commentary into her delivery. The traffic was dreadful, which gave her loads of time to talk about everything we were passing.

We had a quick photo stop at Buckingham Palace. After a quick refresh back at the hotel, we had a meet and greet cocktail party followed by a group dinner (kids in one room, adults in another). Our table was friendly and fun. we had a slight hiccup when we went back to the room after dinner, as the lights in the boys' room were not working at all. They suggested we change rooms, but it was 10pm by this time so we left it for tomorrow. A few photos - Team Starrett at the Hard Rock, at Buckingham palace and Westminster from the bus.

Travelling around the monopoly board

Today had to be replanned, after the discovery that our Premier league Soccer game had been rescheduled from this afternoon to Monday night. Undaunted, we googled frantically and came up with a revised itinerary that had us mastering the public transport system with multiple trips on buses, trains and the underground. Our Oystercards max out at £6.60 per day and anything after that is free. Camden Markets was our first destination, with an impromptu stop at Morrison's supermarket to kill time. The supermarket was the hit of the day and we left loaded up with all manner of foreign food items to try. Camden markets was full of the usual market junk although the the food offerings were impressive. Unfortunately no one was hungry since the boys had demolished the buffet breakfast at the hotel an hour earlier. We then headed in to Soho and spent the rest of the morning at Ripley's Believe it or Not. We have been to these in New York and on the Gold Coast, but it is always a hit with the boys. Lacking a planned lunch destination we did some aimless wandering and settled on a dodgy pasta place that was cheap but pretty average. All a bit tired, we headed back to the hotel for a spot of down time. Our evening destination was Whitechapel for a night time Jack the Ripper tour. We discovered a GREAT chicken restaurant, Absurd Bird, for dinner. Jalapeño cheese cornbread, BBQ pulled chicken sliders, chicken strips with dips, blackbean katsu chicken sliders, a milkshake and $5 cocktails kept everyone happy. The Whitechapel we were hoping to see has been largely demolished and rebuilt in the 60's and although there are a few remnants of narrow cobblestone streets, the atmosphere we were hoping to see is gone.We saw two potential fights, one with a shirtless guy on ice, attempting to attack a motorcyclist with a piece of air conditioner, and the second where an Aussie guy and our tour guide had words and the Aussie guy was ready to square up. The tour did not live up to the standard of the dinner, but it was interesting enough and a weary but content team starret called it a night at 9pm and headed back to the hotel to sleep. We did not take many photos, but I have attached the view of the square from out hotel window, and the doughnuts at Camden Markets.

Status: Relax

As we gathered up our gear to leave the qantas lounge, Josh discovered that he did not have his passport. Fifteen frantic minutes backtracking through the airport passed before we discovered it in the front pocket of Jason's backpack. I was in meltdown mode, but Campbell directed me to look at the flight board showing flight status (go to gate, boarding etc). It said "Status : Relax", which is now going to be the motto for our trip. Our seat selection was a winner, with two spare seats between Jason and Campbell. This allowed Campbell and I to both get a few hours of 'three seat lie down' sleep. I slept through the fight across the aisle from Campbell that involved a man hitting the guy in front of him for putting his seat back. We arrived in Dubai a bit after midnight to be greeted by a concierge with a "Mr and Mrs Starrett" sign to escort us to the transit hotel. We didn't sleep much but a shower, a lie down and a pummelling in the massage chair (hilarious) revived us a bit. Unfortunately I could only take one guest into the Emerates lounge, so the boys paper/scissors/rocked for the gig and Cambo won. He has rewarded the treat with coffee and breakfast service. The eight hour leg felt short after the earlier fourteen hour one, and five weary travellers navigated the airport to a clean, quick express train to Paddington and walked around the corner to our hotel, the Mercure Hyde Park. The rooms are the size of a small box with only an exra foot around the sides of the bed and a tiny bathroom, but the hotel is brand new and in in a great location. We were starving at this stage so we headed off through Hyde Park to get dinner at the Hard Rock London - Flynn's 14th location to tick off on his world quest. It was glorious sunny afternoon and people were sprawled all over the grass sunbaking. The boys were instantly attracted to the big blue plastic paddle boats for hire on the Serpentine, but I'm hoping to avoid that treat.We polished off dinner and wandered back to our hotel to crash out at 7.30pm.

2017 Adventure

This year we have all five of Team Starrett on our 2017 family trip. We head off to London, via Dubai today. As usual,we have packing dramas. Despite my best efforts, Campbell's pyjama pants only reach his calves, Flynn only has one pair of pants, that he refuses to wear since he dislikes them, and Josh owns no long sleeved shirts. The boys have chosen to go to school till we leave at 10 - probably to avoid my frenzy of cleaning and organising pre departure. It's been a huge week leading up to the trip with month end work for me, half yearly HSC exams for Josh and the long list of pre travel organisation tasks. The work girls organised a Bon voyage morning tea treat which was a nice surprise. The trip down was pretty slow but we are settled in qantas club now having a late lunch. We board in about an hour for the long 14hour leg to Dubai.