Saturday, September 30, 2006
Boy's Tour '06 - YORK
Greg and I had made a plan for a bit of a boy's tour while Amelia was visiting Cornwall with her mum...and by plan we mean heading to the train station after a couple of pints and seeing where people recommend going for the long weekend.
We started at the pub next to my work Friday evening and had a couple of drinks with my work colleagues, they gave us some possibilities at places to visit. By this time we had ruled out Ireland and Scotland due to distance away and the price of getting there.
After arriving at the train station we had a look at train fares and soon realised that we would be paying around three times what they would normally cost if we booked them in advance, though that was a price we were willing to pay for a weekend of spontaneity. After a brief discussion with some dutch bloke waiting in line, we decided on his recommendation that York was the place to go.
We paid the money (and by "we" I mean Greg), jumped on a train and three hours, and a couple of ciders and a few beers later, we arrived in the city of York.
Slight disorientated due to the..jet lag..with the aid of a couple of police officers we eventually found our hostel, and the hostel bar, and it was from here the strange series of events unfolded with ultimately led to us actually watching the All Blacks thrash the Springboks live on telly the next day despite there being an important poofball (soccer) match on at the same time.
It was in this hostel bar we met young Kelly from Israel, who drank guinness as a first choice beer! You can imagine how impressed Greg and I was by this, so we naturally took this as being a sign from God that we were actually on the right track with our spontaneous weekend. I got to talking to Kelly and told her about the great game that was Rugby and the legendry team that was the All Blacks and how they were to be going into battle with the much feared Springboks of South Africa and how as New Zealanders it was our duty to cheer our boy's on live, even if it was just on television. As some of you may not realise, rugby isn't the greatest sport in every country in the world and poor Kelly had never actually watched a game before, this had to change!, we exchanged numbers and I said she should join us tomorrow finding a pub to watch the rugby at.
Greg and I soon left the hostel bar and decided we might have a quick look at the York night life, about 80 metres down the road from our hostel we found an 80's bar with a revolving dance floor...this is when it got a little hazy, no doubt due to the jetlag from our long train ride.. I do remember us leaving the pub a few hours later and having some English bloke take exception to Greg for some reason (we're reasonably sure we hadn't been referring to English football as poofball) and figured he'd just headbut Greg. Greg being more of a rugby player than a soccer player didn't even fall over onto the ground roll around or even start crying, but instead thanks perhaps to the jetlag didn't even flinch and in fact didn't seem opposed to trying to make this English bloke apologise. Luckily for us, as jet lagged as I was I was aware of Gregs gammy leg, my own lithe form, this English blokes friend nearby and the fact this guy looked a little like and was much the same size as Springbok prop Os Du Randt, decided we should cool it and not try to esculate the situation anymore.
After about 2 hours of roaming the streets looking for our hostel we found it..and would you believe it it was only 80 metres up the street from the pub we were just at. After a refreshing 3 hour sleep we were up and ready to start our sightseeing of York at 7.30am.
And then decided we should head into the town and try a few more bars to see if anyone was playing the rugby.
It was about this time that I got a text from Kelly, we told her the time the rugby was starting and that we were just looking for a pub that was going to play it and once we'd found the pub we would pick her up from the hostel.
So we went from pub to pub trying to find one that would play the rugby, but alas none were they all were playing some crappy soccer match, the bar staff were however mostly very helpful pointing us toward other bars that might be playing it, so we did feel obliged to have at least one drink and have a chat to the bar staff..and any customers that happened to be at the bar. At this stage Greg was unfortunately onto the "half-pints"
We even found a Canterbury of New Zealand store and asked the lovely shop assistant there if she knew of anywhere that was playing the rugby, but naturally as this was just a clothing outlet that just happened to have been originally started in New Zealand she really didn't have a clue where we could go or even that there was even a game on.
Time was really pressing on it was about 2.15pm and we were still no closer at finding a place to watch the game, plus I was apparently taking "forever" to finish my pint of Guinness. After much goading by Greg I finished my drink, we texted Kelly that we were on our way and even though we hadn't found a place to watch the game we figured we still might just find a pub in time.
It was a bit of a blur finding our way back to the hostel..at one stage we were running so as to pick up Kelly in time to find a pub, we ran across a busy bridge, when we saw a fire engine with kids on board, the kids were yelling out to us and I think trying to give us toy firemen helmets, we chased the fire engine with Greg yelling out "We just want to watch the rugby!!!" (It didn't really make much sense at the time either) when an absolute miracle occured!
Along that same bridge obviously intrigued by the fire engine being chased by two Kiwis yelling about rugby, were two more New Zealanders, a couple, from Christchurch (I'm sorry I have since forgotten your names if you are reading this) the bloke called out to Greg, we had a quick chat and it turns out they had found a place that was willing to show the rugby, they gave us directions to the pub and as time was of the essence we took off to pick up Kelly.
Guided by the rugby gods, and man instinct we found the hostel easily picked up Kelly and then with Man-dar (Instinctual radar that only men have) on full we also found the correct pub, we sat down with the Kiwi couple and us blokes all joined in with the New Zealand national anthem..much to the amusement of the other customers..and possibly much to the embarrassment of Kelly and the Kiwi girl.
We had a few beers and a late lunch with the game, the game was fantastic we smashed them good and proper, though I think Kelly may have been a little bored by the end of it, after which we continued our sightseeing with Kelly in tow, first stop Yorkminster Abbey (well first stop after buying some minature cards at a board game shop)
The Abbey was pretty spectacular from the outside..we didn't actually go in though..
We decided to again follow some city walls..well that was until Greg found a nice comfy city garden to have a nap in...
...while unbenownst to Greg; Kelly,me..and then some other tourists watched on and took photos
After the sleep we headed back to the hostel, we decided to book in for another night, had a delightful dinner at pizza hut followed by a few drinks with some Aussies at the hostel bar before Greg, Kelly, myself and our new Australian friends all headed off for another night at the 80's bar with the revolving dancefloor.
We started at the pub next to my work Friday evening and had a couple of drinks with my work colleagues, they gave us some possibilities at places to visit. By this time we had ruled out Ireland and Scotland due to distance away and the price of getting there.
After arriving at the train station we had a look at train fares and soon realised that we would be paying around three times what they would normally cost if we booked them in advance, though that was a price we were willing to pay for a weekend of spontaneity. After a brief discussion with some dutch bloke waiting in line, we decided on his recommendation that York was the place to go.
We paid the money (and by "we" I mean Greg), jumped on a train and three hours, and a couple of ciders and a few beers later, we arrived in the city of York.
Slight disorientated due to the..jet lag..with the aid of a couple of police officers we eventually found our hostel, and the hostel bar, and it was from here the strange series of events unfolded with ultimately led to us actually watching the All Blacks thrash the Springboks live on telly the next day despite there being an important poofball (soccer) match on at the same time.
It was in this hostel bar we met young Kelly from Israel, who drank guinness as a first choice beer! You can imagine how impressed Greg and I was by this, so we naturally took this as being a sign from God that we were actually on the right track with our spontaneous weekend. I got to talking to Kelly and told her about the great game that was Rugby and the legendry team that was the All Blacks and how they were to be going into battle with the much feared Springboks of South Africa and how as New Zealanders it was our duty to cheer our boy's on live, even if it was just on television. As some of you may not realise, rugby isn't the greatest sport in every country in the world and poor Kelly had never actually watched a game before, this had to change!, we exchanged numbers and I said she should join us tomorrow finding a pub to watch the rugby at.
Greg and I soon left the hostel bar and decided we might have a quick look at the York night life, about 80 metres down the road from our hostel we found an 80's bar with a revolving dance floor...this is when it got a little hazy, no doubt due to the jetlag from our long train ride.. I do remember us leaving the pub a few hours later and having some English bloke take exception to Greg for some reason (we're reasonably sure we hadn't been referring to English football as poofball) and figured he'd just headbut Greg. Greg being more of a rugby player than a soccer player didn't even fall over onto the ground roll around or even start crying, but instead thanks perhaps to the jetlag didn't even flinch and in fact didn't seem opposed to trying to make this English bloke apologise. Luckily for us, as jet lagged as I was I was aware of Gregs gammy leg, my own lithe form, this English blokes friend nearby and the fact this guy looked a little like and was much the same size as Springbok prop Os Du Randt, decided we should cool it and not try to esculate the situation anymore.
After about 2 hours of roaming the streets looking for our hostel we found it..and would you believe it it was only 80 metres up the street from the pub we were just at. After a refreshing 3 hour sleep we were up and ready to start our sightseeing of York at 7.30am.
We started by having a chat with the australian Hostel person who was also behind the bar the previous night, she suggested having a walk around the walls of York, so that is where we began our sightseeing.
Much of York is surrounded by defensive walls dating back as far as Roman times, but have been built onto in the 12th and 14th Century as well as during Victorian times, the picture on the right is of one of the gateway towers and in the background of both of these you can see Yorkminster abbey.
After trekking along the first segment of the wall, with only a quick detour up a hill to try and catch a squirrel, we could see a Wetherspoon pub (Guinness £1.79 on Mondays) not far off, so we figured we'd call in briefly just to see if they were playing the rugby which was due to kick off at 3.00pm. Unfortunately they weren't going to be playing it but the very helpful barman showed us on a map a pub that probably would be playing it, we grabbed a couple of beers only because the barman was so helpful and then headed of to continue our sightseeing along the walls.
Not far from there we spotted a tower on a hill and went over to have a look. You can click on the plaque picture to see a larger easier to read version.
And next to the hill was a carousal..and a duck which at the time seemed a very apt photo of life in England....
We crossed a bridge at some stage...which reminded us a bit of the canals in Amsterdam
After a brief tussle with some angry pigeons,
we headed off to the next segment of the city walls ..where we saw the remains of one of the Roman towers, again you can click on the photo's to get larger versions.
After this segment we had a couple of vodka and oranges while chatting to some homeless folk (well they looked homeless) outside a supermarket. We had a quick look at an old church,
Much of York is surrounded by defensive walls dating back as far as Roman times, but have been built onto in the 12th and 14th Century as well as during Victorian times, the picture on the right is of one of the gateway towers and in the background of both of these you can see Yorkminster abbey.
After trekking along the first segment of the wall, with only a quick detour up a hill to try and catch a squirrel, we could see a Wetherspoon pub (Guinness £1.79 on Mondays) not far off, so we figured we'd call in briefly just to see if they were playing the rugby which was due to kick off at 3.00pm. Unfortunately they weren't going to be playing it but the very helpful barman showed us on a map a pub that probably would be playing it, we grabbed a couple of beers only because the barman was so helpful and then headed of to continue our sightseeing along the walls.
Not far from there we spotted a tower on a hill and went over to have a look. You can click on the plaque picture to see a larger easier to read version.
And next to the hill was a carousal..and a duck which at the time seemed a very apt photo of life in England....
We crossed a bridge at some stage...which reminded us a bit of the canals in Amsterdam
After a brief tussle with some angry pigeons,
we headed off to the next segment of the city walls ..where we saw the remains of one of the Roman towers, again you can click on the photo's to get larger versions.
After this segment we had a couple of vodka and oranges while chatting to some homeless folk (well they looked homeless) outside a supermarket. We had a quick look at an old church,
And then decided we should head into the town and try a few more bars to see if anyone was playing the rugby.
It was about this time that I got a text from Kelly, we told her the time the rugby was starting and that we were just looking for a pub that was going to play it and once we'd found the pub we would pick her up from the hostel.
So we went from pub to pub trying to find one that would play the rugby, but alas none were they all were playing some crappy soccer match, the bar staff were however mostly very helpful pointing us toward other bars that might be playing it, so we did feel obliged to have at least one drink and have a chat to the bar staff..and any customers that happened to be at the bar. At this stage Greg was unfortunately onto the "half-pints"
We even found a Canterbury of New Zealand store and asked the lovely shop assistant there if she knew of anywhere that was playing the rugby, but naturally as this was just a clothing outlet that just happened to have been originally started in New Zealand she really didn't have a clue where we could go or even that there was even a game on.
Time was really pressing on it was about 2.15pm and we were still no closer at finding a place to watch the game, plus I was apparently taking "forever" to finish my pint of Guinness. After much goading by Greg I finished my drink, we texted Kelly that we were on our way and even though we hadn't found a place to watch the game we figured we still might just find a pub in time.
It was a bit of a blur finding our way back to the hostel..at one stage we were running so as to pick up Kelly in time to find a pub, we ran across a busy bridge, when we saw a fire engine with kids on board, the kids were yelling out to us and I think trying to give us toy firemen helmets, we chased the fire engine with Greg yelling out "We just want to watch the rugby!!!" (It didn't really make much sense at the time either) when an absolute miracle occured!
Along that same bridge obviously intrigued by the fire engine being chased by two Kiwis yelling about rugby, were two more New Zealanders, a couple, from Christchurch (I'm sorry I have since forgotten your names if you are reading this) the bloke called out to Greg, we had a quick chat and it turns out they had found a place that was willing to show the rugby, they gave us directions to the pub and as time was of the essence we took off to pick up Kelly.
Guided by the rugby gods, and man instinct we found the hostel easily picked up Kelly and then with Man-dar (Instinctual radar that only men have) on full we also found the correct pub, we sat down with the Kiwi couple and us blokes all joined in with the New Zealand national anthem..much to the amusement of the other customers..and possibly much to the embarrassment of Kelly and the Kiwi girl.
We had a few beers and a late lunch with the game, the game was fantastic we smashed them good and proper, though I think Kelly may have been a little bored by the end of it, after which we continued our sightseeing with Kelly in tow, first stop Yorkminster Abbey (well first stop after buying some minature cards at a board game shop)
The Abbey was pretty spectacular from the outside..we didn't actually go in though..
After the Abbey, we had an ice cream by one of the university buildings and Kelly and I tried to take some close up squirrel photo's but the little buggers were just too damn fast for us, and I wasn't in the mood for tree climbing... click on the photo's to get close-ups
Then after a brief look at some ruins that were over a fence I was too tired to climb..
We decided to again follow some city walls..well that was until Greg found a nice comfy city garden to have a nap in...
...while unbenownst to Greg; Kelly,me..and then some other tourists watched on and took photos
After the sleep we headed back to the hostel, we decided to book in for another night, had a delightful dinner at pizza hut followed by a few drinks with some Aussies at the hostel bar before Greg, Kelly, myself and our new Australian friends all headed off for another night at the 80's bar with the revolving dancefloor.
The next day we escorted Kelly back to the train station and after a bit of a chat with the ticket lady managed to get a recommendation that we should go and visit Cambridge, so we grabbed the first train heading in that direction....
Random Pictures prior to the"Boys Tour '06"
Another bloody palace, out near where we watched cricket
Here we have Kieran James being taped up after suffering a horrendous cricketing injury, luckily first aider Greg was on the job..and only half way through the bottle of port.
Kierans cheerleading squad, Becky, Sarah, Amelia and Greg
Here we have Sapph and her notebook, who have somehow avoided appearing on this blog thus far
And here is a bloke Fly Fishing in Wimbledon
..yeah I know, no decent updates, hopefully have the first half of last months boy's tour by the end of the week, though am off to Ranconteurs concert thursday night followed by flying to Norway for the weekend Saturday..so might be a little busy buying warm clothes, might sneak in some time on the net before work
Natural History Museum
Now Luke and I visited here when we first arrived, mainly because it was free and we wanted to see dinosaurs, however we were still fairly jet-lagged and there were far too many school children on holiday visiting to really enjoy the place, so upon Mike's arrival we decided to give the museum another go.
Mike and the Natural History Museum
In the main Foyer
Mike in front of a Triceratops
And here we have a sneaky pic of some Velociraptors hatching...pretty good timing alright...
Got a good video of the Tyrannosaurus too which I'll put up on here as soon as I work out how.
The mammal room was pretty impressive
As was the two horned rhino
And this gives you an idea of how huge the building is from the inside.
The last area we visited was all about rocks and gems
Then it was off home via red bus
Greenwich
Firstly my apologies for the large break between updates, at the moment I am doing 50+ hour working weeks and have been making the most of my weekends leaving precious little time to catch up. Its 10.30 Saturday morning now and I have just over 1.5 hours before I'm heading off..yet again...to Brighton. I am determined to go on the roller coaster this time.
Anyway I have being doing quite abit of stuff in and around London in the last few weeks, firstly there was our trip to Greenwich (pronounced "Gren-Ich") which is most famous for the Prime Meridian of Longitude which gives the world its time zones in Greenwich Mean time.
To get there we decided to avoid the smelly tube and instead take a guided ferry tour down the Thames.
Now this was some time ago so I can't really remember what buildings were what but, I know this here is the Meridian time line for which all time is calculated from, and where you can actually stand and have a photo taken with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one in the western, a very popular photo opportunity with the more nerdy of tourists.
I'm pretty sure this is the Royal Observatory ->
And the view from the Observatory ->
And this is Greg and Amelia outside the National Maritime Museum
...or the Queens House,
not sure which is which, the Queens house was begun in 1616 for Anne of Denmark wife of James I though not completed until 1645 and was then home to Charles I and his Queen Henrietta Maria, its now a bit of an art gallery with plenty of old paintings of Admiral Nelsons victory over Napoleon.
Anyway I have being doing quite abit of stuff in and around London in the last few weeks, firstly there was our trip to Greenwich (pronounced "Gren-Ich") which is most famous for the Prime Meridian of Longitude which gives the world its time zones in Greenwich Mean time.
To get there we decided to avoid the smelly tube and instead take a guided ferry tour down the Thames.
Now this was some time ago so I can't really remember what buildings were what but, I know this here is the Meridian time line for which all time is calculated from, and where you can actually stand and have a photo taken with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one in the western, a very popular photo opportunity with the more nerdy of tourists.
I'm pretty sure this is the Royal Observatory ->
And the view from the Observatory ->
And this is Greg and Amelia outside the National Maritime Museum
...or the Queens House,
not sure which is which, the Queens house was begun in 1616 for Anne of Denmark wife of James I though not completed until 1645 and was then home to Charles I and his Queen Henrietta Maria, its now a bit of an art gallery with plenty of old paintings of Admiral Nelsons victory over Napoleon.
My favourite part of Greenwich was the Old Royal Naval College which has a banquet room known as the "Painted Hall", which is a large dining room completely covered in incredible murals by artist James Thornhill, who also painted the murals in St Pauls Cathedral (which we were't allowed to take photo's of), here however photos were allowed
and they even had black mirrors at ground level so you didn't even have to look up to view the ceilings, or have to get someone to take a photo of you infront of the murals
