River Thames boat party

We got invited to a boat party with our friends Catherine and Roger to celebrate a girl's birthday (so basically we were gate crashing, but she knew about it!) We departed from the pier at Putney and made our way towards the city. Unfortunately it was raining but we were on water and under shelter so didnt matter too much!

We had a really great night, the top deck was a dance floor so we spent the last bit of our evening dancing away (on a boat!) The cruise took us past Big Ben, Westminster and the London Eye, it was cool to see them from a different angle.

Paul and I on the lower deck having a drink

Cath and I on the cruise

Roger and Paul all suited and booted for the evening



Amsterdam!

Hellloooo Amsterdam! Cath, Roger, Paul and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend (as you do!) We headed off early Saturday morning for the 45 minute flight from London. As we didn't have long here we made the most of our time. First, as we were starving, we headed for breakfast and what better way to start the day than with pancakes! Amsterdam is an awesome city with a lot to see and do. We walked around the city taking in the sights and watching everyone scooting past on their bikes. After having a look around the shops we headed to the Heineken factory to learn all about the beer making process. At the end they give you are free drink and you get to hang out in the little underground pub which is really cool, we were feeling a bit tipsy and tired after the drink so off to dinner we went!

Roger and Cath at the pancake house

Me next to all the bikes and with a lovely canal in the background

Bit of a wobbly house!

Some of the marijuana merchandise

 

Town square

Wee fellow looking to take someone for a ride

Ummm rabbit soft toy but I am not sure anyone would want one!

One of the famous coffee houses

Paul outside a coffee house - appropriately named 'Funny People'

Cath and I in front of a lovely fountain

Some of the heineken advertising from over the years

The advertising history of the beer coaster

Cheers to a good day in Amsterdam!
 

One of the many bridges in Amsterdam

In order to top off the fabulous day, we hopped on a boat cruise to see Amsterdam from its famous canals. I was quite tired by this point so there were a few moments where I fell asleep with the motion of the boat, but luckily Paul stayed awake to capture some nice pictures. From what I did see, it was a lovely cruise with great commentary and a nice way to see Amsterdam.

Ahhh pretty - nice view of the bridge from the cruise

Looking down towards the numerous bridges

View from the water

Day two, and unfortunately our last day in Amsterdam, we made our way to B & B where we had another really nice breakfast to set us up for more sightseeing and adventure. As we all know Amsterdam is the town to own a bike in, therefore we became a local for the day and hired bikes to cruise around on and take us further than we would go walking. It was really sweet to bike around the town and we went out of the city to have a nosey. We really enjoyed Amsterdam and as it was a short trip, this city will definitely be on the list next year for the van tour!

Restaurant where we had a lovely breakfast

Looking across to our hotel

 

The tram service - exciting stuff!

On our bikes!

Cath and Roger in the lead

One handed!

Stopped for a nice black and white photo :)

 

Looking at all the house boats

View of around the city

 

 

 



St Patricks day 2012

 

Happy St Patricks Day!! Tonight we headed to our local Shepherds Bush pub, O'Neils to celebrate St Patricks day. It was a fun night that including drinking (of course) and listening to the Irish music played at the pub. A great night! 

 

 

Paul with his Guinness - oh and his hat!

Me with me wee hat



Rochester

It wasn't the greatest day in Sunny Britain, but we made our way to Rochester to have a nosey around. Rochester is about an hour out of London so it was a nice short drive and a chance to get out of the city. We visited the Rochester Castle, which was built in around the 1120's where it guarded an important crossing of the River Medway. After meandering around the castle we wandered around the little town and had a spot of lunch and a general nosey.

View from the Rochester Castle

Rochester Cathedral

The Castle itself!



Los Angeles 2012

We stopped over in Los Angeles on our way back to London and we only had a short four days in L.A so we decided we needed to see as much as we could without jamming too much in. We hired a car while we were there as we had been told that L.A is very spread out and we were glad did.

We arrived in the afternoon and decided to go for a spin in the car. We made our way through the Hollywood Hills where a number of the stars live. (As we had been travelling for a while I may have fallen asleep a couple of times, but from what I saw the view was fantastic!) One moment did wake me, when Paul decided to pull over and take a couple of snaps of the view, only for a snap to be taken of him. He headed into a park area that was monitored with no visitors allowed after a certain time, well unfortunately Paul didnt see that sign and his suprised picture is now with the park rangers! :)



Rodeo Drive - This is around the side. Unfortunately no shopping for us!

The next day we decided to do a bit of star searching. So our first stop was the Hollywood walk of fame! I didnt realise how many stars there were, we tried to see them all but they just kept going! We then made our way to Grauman's chinese theatre where it has been the home of Hollywood premieres since 1927 and outside the theatre are handprints and footprints of celebrities.. exciting (if thats what you are into) We also went inside the theatre to see costumes of some celebrities like Michael Jackson and to see the theatre itself. After fulfilling our celebrity fix we hopped back in the car and made our way up to the Hollywood sign and to fulfill one more celebrity fix by driving by some of their houses!

Hollywood walk of fame (going on forever!)

The Sign...

View from a shopping centre by Grauman's Chinese Theatre

The shopping centre/area

Me with one of the statues having a sip of water (thirsty work all this sightseeing)

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

The theatre all to ourselves!

Watching the moon rise...

The lovely architecture inside

His hands and feet look little! - Johnny Depp

Paul's favourite actor - Nicolas Cage

The cast from Harry Potter

Roy Rogers - as you can see he also placed his gun and a pair of horseshoes in with his prints

Today was our last full day in Los Angeles and it was such a nice day we decided to head outdoors! We wanted to see Venice Beach and Santa Monica so we hired some harleys (or you could call them bikes)  and biked along the beach. We had such a wicked day especially as the sun was shining and we topped it off with an ice cream at the end... what more could you want?!



View of Santa Monica

Paul pretending to be a gymnast - he was pretty good...

Mm milkshake :)

Bit out of order... our view of the Hollywood sign

Santa Monica Pier

It was a little bit chilly at night but such a beautiful night

Pretty - a ride at the pier

Well... what could make the day EVEN better? Disneyland of course! We were driving back to our hotel and heard on the radio that Disneyland was open 24 hours as it was a leap year. We weren't going to go to Disneyland as we didnt think we had enough time, but who needs sleep when you can go to Disneyland for the night?! So off we went to enjoy the wonders that Disneyland has to offer. We tried to do as many rides as we could, but believe it or not it was soooo busy there, we had to wait for an hour and a half for the Indiana Jones ride, ridiculous. But we had such a great time and managed to last until about 4am pretty good I think.

The pretty gardens :)

Tea cups!

Disneyland castle





Brooommmm Paul driving away