Spain

Saturday was an early morning with us catching a bus from Birmingham to Luton (Britain´s most beautiful city) so we could catch our flight to Barcelona the next day. We spent the afternoon in Luton trying to find a bar that was playing the All Blacks game. It took us about ten no´s before we finally got a yes - a bar that was willing to put the game. So we watched the victory which lifted our spirits and made Luton seem a bit more bearable. On the way back to our hostel we passed a memorial for a policeman who had been shot dead in the streets of Luton a week earlier - that made us walk a bit faster.

On Sunday morning we flew to Barcelona, into much nicer weather - 32 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We spent the afternoon and evening exploring Barcelona on foot. We spotted an interesting building in the distance so walked towards it - a huge multi-coloured dome shaped building. We found out later it is one of Barcelona´s newest and most popular architectural attractions (on lots of postcards etc). We then walked past the bull-ring where a night of bull-fighting was about to begin - complete with protesters outside.

We found La Sagrada Familia, and went inside to have a closer look. It really is an amazing building, which began construction in 1882 and is still a fair way from completion. However it already has 8 spires that reach 100 metres into the air and on completion will have 16 spires with one dwarfing all the other 15. We can´t wait to see it when it´s all done!

The next day began with the joy of dealing with the Spanish rail service - or lack of service. We waited in a queue for an hour, with some people at the counter for over 15 minutes, just so we could pick up our tickets to Valencia, which took us 2 minutes. We were glad to be out of there. We then hopped on the bus tour, which took us around all the main sights, including the Emperor´s Gardens, an old monastery, many of Gaudi´s works (the guy that designed La Sagrada Familia), the Olympic Stadium on the hills that surround Barcelona with amazing views of the city and Mediteranian Sea, a 100 foot monument with a statue of Columbus on top, the foreshore, the Olympic village, the Gothic quarters of the city and much, much more.

In the evening we walked down the famous street, La Rambla, and along the waterfront. We walked back to La Rambla, by this time it was in full swing, with crowds of people watching any number of different performers from Michael Jackson impersonaters to breakdancers to magicians and street hawkers and everything in between. We had dinner at one of the restaurants that set up tables on the wide cobblestone walkway that runs down the middle of La Rambla. We enjoyed a meal of tapas and huge glasses of Sangria.

On Tuesday morning we caught the train to Valencia and headed straight to the port to watch the race. We watched it in the "wool-shed", the kiwi hang-out, a huge shed with a massive screen and hundreds of supporters. It was delayed until 5pm but was worth the wait once it began - labelled as one of the best America´s Cup races of all time. It had everything, from huge leads to lead changes, to costly crew errors, and poor decision making, to a nail-biting finish, and a New Zealand win! The wool-shed erupted with cheers at that point.

We then met up with Steph who had been watching the race from inside the Team NZ base, and we headed down to wave the boats in, and wave our NZ flags. That night we enjoyed a home-cooked meal and some amazing hospitality from Steph, which made us feel right at home.

On Wednesday we walked throught the Turia, the huge park that runs through Valencia. We stopped to look at the awesome playground, which is a replica of Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians (this part is played by the kids who climb all over it). His arms and legs are huge crazy slides or climbing walls. It is nothing like a NZ playground - complete with a lack of safety standards and gravel for kids to land on, but the kids don´t seem to mind.

We continued through the park and saw the massive Opera house in the shape of an eye, and the huge Arts and Science Museum with an impressive glass building. In front of this was a field of wrought iron sculptures, showing an impressive display of what can be done with recycled iron.

We met up with Steph, picked up some 1 euro rolls for lunch, and headed down to the port to watch the days racing from the wool-shed. There was a lot of expectation, but unfortunately the race did not live up to the excitement of the day before, and it was a much more subdued crowd that watched the NZ loss, in which Alinghi led round every mark. Afterwards we headed up to the China Bar, a bar on top of the Team China base. We mingled with the rich, famous and drunk, including a brief meeting with Steve Tindall. After a few drinks we headed to dinner at Don Salvatore, the best Italian restaurant in Valencia. We enjoyed some amazing stuffed gnocchi with authentic Italian sauces.

Today there is no racing, so we are planning on exploring the old city of Valencia, with our awesome local tour guide (Steph).

Birmingham in brief : Saturday to Thursday

It has been a busy few days, with limited internet access and trying to organise trips to Spain and Ireland, including accomodation, has taken up much of our time. In between planning our future travels, we have managed to see some more sights.

Saturday in Birmingham included seeing the Museum and Art Gallery, the canals, the Bull Ring and the BBC Centre. Sunday started with a nice walk around the area where we are staying, and in the afternoon we had Sunday "dinner" (lunch) which finished about 5pm, after 3 courses and coffee...whew. We then went for a short walk, until we got lost and ended up walking for 2 hours...got home eventually, to some worried relatives.

On Monday we braved the elements and caught the train to Warwick, to see Warwick Castle, apparently the best medieval attraction England has to offer. This is an amazing castle. It has heaps of room that have been restored to their original glory, furnishings and mannequins included. It has a Great Hall filled with weapons, armour and 2 fully dressed knights with war-horses in tow. It has a Ghost Tower, which was surprisingly scary! They re-enact a murder that happened in the castle and jump out at you from behind curtains etc. We climbed to the top of the tallest tower, which had panoramic views of the castle and surrounding grounds and village. We saw a tamed bald eagle that swooped low over our heads, as well as the largest catapult in the world (weighs 23 tonnes) fire a flaming ball far into the distance.

On Tuesday mornig we went to the Sea Life Centre in Birmingham, and saw the wonderful sea life Birmingham has to offer....including otters, stingrays, giant crabs, giant turtles, sharks and Nemo and Dory. In the afternoon we went out for lunch with Shaun's relatives to a pub established in 1783, on the canal-side.

Wednesday was not a big day, except for nearly losing the camera - we got it back though!! And today (Thursday) we have just returned from Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeares birth and death place, and a lovely English village.

Birmingham: Wednesday to Saturday morning

Travelling to Birmingham was a bit of a nightmare, starting in New York with a taxi-driver running over a cyclist while stopping to pick us up! Luckily the cyclist wasn't too badly hurt, just very angry. On arrival at the airport we waited in a very long line, only to arrive at the counter to find the travel agent had booked our flights on the wrong day! We were booked to fly out the next day. After going back and forth to different counters 3 times, and a stressful wait, they managed to squeeze us onto the very full flight. Then the flight was delayed by 2 hours, so we missed our connecting flight from Frankfurt to Birmingham.....to top it off, a kid vomited on our shoes on the bus taking us from the plane to the terminal. We then had to wait 4 hours at Frankfurt airport so we sat in McDonalds. Finally we made it onto the plane, but on the bus from the airport into Birmingham we managed to get off at the wrong spot and we waited for Shaun's relatives to pick us up...and waited...and then realised we were at the wrong place.

Eventually we managed to meet up with them. Welcome to England! We are staying with Shaun's great-aunt and uncle (Sally and Ray) in Shirley, Solihul. This is a nice area about 20 minutes from the centre of Birmingham, with lots of lovely old brick buildings. Shaun's relatives have been very kind and helpful, giving us lots of information about the area and spoiling us with wonderful home-cooked English food!

On our first day here we made a trip to the supermarket with Sally and Ray so they could buy us food that we would like (very thoughtful). In the afternoon they took us for a drive around the area, to look at one of the canals and show us a Heritage Trust House that is over 400 years old and has an impressive topiary display in the surrounding gardens.

The weather has been typically English - wet, grey and cold. But on Thursday night they had more than a month's worth of rain in 6 hours, which caused chaos in the Midlands - flooded railway tracks (which ended up looking like canals), flooded houses, people stranded in cars and we had a pond in our backyard where the lawn used to be. There was even a mini tornado about 10 miles away. Luckily Solihul is quite high above sea level so we avoided the worst of it.

On Friday we went into Solihul and explored the shopping centre, and spent the bulk of our time there looking at different cell phone contracts - there is a lot more competition over here! Which is good, but also confusing. Hopefully we will have cell phones soon. We went to a nice English pub for lunch - pubs are a lot more popular for socialising during the day. There is also a lot of them! We went shopping, and noticed some of the big brands are a lot cheaper than they are in New Zealand.

Today we have headed into Birmingham to explore the city centre, we are at the Bull Ring at the moment, which is a huge indoor and outdoor shopping centre, including a market with people yelling out their best deals - very entertaining, and some amazing prices. Now we are off to see the canals and what else Birmingham has to offer.

For anyone wanting to get in touch with Shaun, this is his new e-mail address: shaun_davis13@hotmail.co.uk. Otherwise, we really the comments people leave, keep them coming! It stops us from getting too home-sick.

Last day in New York - Tuesday

On our final day in New York, we fulfilled one of Shaun's dreams - to eat at a buffet restaurant in every country in the world. So we went to an all-you-can-eat breakfast, which was better than it sounds. There was lots of fresh fruit, bacon, pancakes, french toast, bagels, scrambled egg etc.

After this feast, we went to the Toys'r'us store in Times Square, which has a 60 foot ferris wheel that you can ride on, as well as a giant moving T Rex; lego statues of King Kong, a Yankees cap and the Empire State Building; a giant 2 story Barbie house full of Barbie merchandise, and about a million other toys. Amazingly we left without making a purchase.

We then headed to the UN Headquarters, where all the member's flags were flying outside, we managed to spot the NZ flag which was very exciting. There is a park next door that has statues in it, including a giant statue of St John (?) slaying the dragon. Across the road there was a peaceful protest taking place, but we couldn't work out what they were protesting about because all the signs were in Chinese.

We went to see St Patricks Cathedral, at which point the heavens opened and we got drenched - saved by the man who started selling umbrellas on the side of the road.

After this we headed to the airport to catch our flight.

The Bronx Zoo on Monday

Today we headed off to the Bronx Zoo, which is up to the north of Manhattan, about 30 minutes on the subway. It is a massive zoo, with over 4000 animals. It has some interesting features, like a monorail that travels through the enclosures of about 10 different animals, including elephants, rhinos, tigers and wild horses. The enclosures are very natural and open. They are also large, so the monorail saves a lot of walking!

There was also a gondola that travelled over the top of the zoo, which gave us a great view of the top of the trees..... The Congo Gorilla Forest was quite amazing, with some huge gorillas and baboons. There was a huge African Plains area, with giraffes, zebra, and lions. We saw grizzly bears, a polar bear, bison, camels, snow leopards, eagles etc, etc.... One of the most exciting animals was the sloth, viewed in semi-darkness as it sat very still.

After the zoo we headed back into Manhattan and went up the Empire State Building, and experienced the amazing views from the top, which stretch for miles in all directions. It was great to see all the places we had visited from so high above!

And so we complete our final full day in New York.

Puerto Rican Day Parade and lots of art on Sunday

This morning we experienced a true New York phenomenon - a street parade. This was the Puerto Rican Day parade, apparently with about 1 million people there. This wasn't hard to believe after experiencing the crowds! All with their flags and themed clothing and lots and lots of cheering. The parade itself went for over 6 hours....including Ricky Martin!!!! That was a high-light. We only watched for about an hour, which included lots of police, army staff and politicians, surprisingly even they got a big cheer. But even a cow waving a Puerto Rican flag would have got a big cheer - they were a pretty excited crowd.

We then left the madness and headed into the quiet of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was amazingly huge and well-stocked with art (what a surprise) and artefacts from around the world. We had to fit a lot in, including the Greek and Roman Gallery, Modern Art, Asian Gallery, Egyptian Gallery, Medival Armour and Weapons etc.... way more than you can cover in a day. The highlight was the Egyptian Temple relocated from the Nile River. This was set in a huge hall surrounded by water and Egyptian statues.

We are off to see Time Square tonight, to witness the marvel of the lights at night-time

Shopping and Museum of Natural History on Saturday

We know we have been getting a bit behind on the posts but New York is a very busy place! On Saturday morning we split up, Shaun returned to Canal Street and I went shopping in Bloomingdales, Gap, Banana Republic etc.... Shaun bought himself an authentic Rolex from a shifty looking man on Canal Street (the street of fakes - or as one of our bus drivers said, "designer inspired") and I bought some clothes. It was very upsetting to see lots of nice clothes that I couldn't buy due to annoying airplane weight limits. Will have to come back to New York sometime just to shop!

We then met up at the Museum of Natural History and explored this. It's quite an interesting museum, a mixture of very old-fashioned display windows with stuffed animals posed in their "natural habitat", and a very modern dinosaur section, which is probably the best part - lots of massive skeletons. We only saw the giant blue whale from behind a barrier, the sea-life section was closed for a function.

That night we headed out to dinner with Steve and Anna to a restaurant which had a Southern-inspired menu, including fried chicken, souccatash, cornbread, crab-cakes etc...great food, huge meals, very filling! After dinner Shaun and I headed out to explore the East Village night-life in the blocks surrounding Steve's apartment. About twenty bars within a few blocks! Most of them are very tiny but with lots of atmosphere. On Steve and Anna's advice, we headed to the bar owned by the drummer from Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz. So we felt very cool having a drink there. Then we headed to another bar which was about a foot wide but was packed with people. We were very interested to find ourself standing next to a lady holding her dog inside! Only in New York.... after a martini there we called it a night.

Chinatown, Little Italy and the Bronx on Friday

We started off today on the subway up to time square and took in the madness which is time square at 10am, there is action everywhere you look, from a two story m&m merchandise store, a 60foot ferris wheel inside toys'r us to a two story basketball. We got on the bus to finish off the tour, which took us past Madison Square gardens,the Empire State Building, the Trump Towers and Macy's department store.

We got off near the Finacial district and by this time it was scorching, over 90f which is about 30c. We then headed to the staten island ferry which took us past goveners island , the statue of liberty and ellis island. On the trip back we listened in on a lady taking a tour group which was so riviting people on the tour were actually asleep!but truth be told it wasn't a bad talk, just not the best delivery.

After the ferry docked we walked through battery park which is the very tip of Manhatten and then caught the subway up to chinatown. Chinatown was like stepping into a different world, the smells, sounds and atmosphere were amazing. From the hawkers whom lined the streets, the shop keepers trying to force you inside to the guys who would whisper "Louis Vuitton handbags" and "rolex" to you as you walked by. It was an incredible experience and doubled with the heat felt more like Thailand than NYC. During this time we managed to chance upon little italy, which lived up to its name. Historically it equaled chinatown in size however now even on its sole street chinese stores have crept in. We stopped here for lunch which was very authentic food and also very good (bar the salad which was no more than lettuce with a dressing!I exagerate not). Then upon Julia's request we checked out the shopping in Greenwich village which, despite our best efforts we couldn't locate so instead settled for 24oz magaritas. Sitting outside Julia managed to spot Heidi Klum with kids in tow which topped off the afternoon(or not).

The evening commenced with a trip on the subway to the Bronx and Yankee Stadium, a sold out game which Julia's brother Steve got us tickets for. It is a fantastic stadium, topped off with absolutely fanatical fans, 54,242 of them to be precise. The atmosphere was incredible, the craziest and loudest fans I have seen live. On top of this we were treated to a great game 4-4 after the eighth innings so the Yankees brought on their specalist pitcher 'the sandman' to the loudest ovation I've heard and remember this is only season proper. The Yankees went on to win 5-4 in the 10th with 'the King of New York', Robert Jeter hitting the winning run. the atmosphere was electric and to top it off 4 black dudes took their shirts off and had a break dancing comp outside. That was it for us for the day to bed and ready ourselves for the next day.

Shaun

More adventures in New York

Today we went on the the downtown loop of the bus tour, which went through Soho, Greenwich Village and Tribeca, and past Chinatown and Little Italy. Then it went throught the Financial District, where we got off to get on the Brooklyn Loop. This was a bus ride through the neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, it was interesting the see the variety of housing and building types and to get out of Manhattan.

The bus returned to Manhattan, where we got off and then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge. The views of Manhattan from the bridge are amazing, and the bridge itself is an awesome piece of architecture, with huge steel cables criss-crossing the sides (over 17,000 miles of wire). After walking the bridge we went to see the World Trade Centre site, which was a pretty sombre experience, and such a huge site. After that we explored the Financial District, including the NY Stock Exchange, Federal Hall (got the photo, Dave) and the giant bull.

We were impressed by the facade of the American Museum of the Native Indian (and by the lack of admission fee) so we decided to explore....but then found out there was hardly anything to see inside. So we made a hasty exit.

We hopped on the bus again to see the East Village, the UN, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the Rockefeller Centre before finishing up in Times Square and marveled at the huge neon signs. Then we headed back to the East Village, where we had dinner at a cool South American restaurant in the East Village, with live music, very authentic staff and even more authentic mojito's! Now off to bed to prepare for the Yankees and another big day.....

Delay in up-dating blog

Just to reply to our comments...we have had a bit of trouble getting internet access as it wasn't working in Steve's apartment, so I tried to update the blog last night but couldn't. Will try to be as prolific as possible from now on....

First day in New York

We have just finished a very busy first day of sight-seeing in New York, and have the blisters to show for it! We arrived in New York after a fairly smooth run through Los Angeles airport and then JFK airport in New York. This included leaving Auckland at 7.30pm Tues night for an 11 hour flight to LA, then a 4 hour wait before a 5 hour flight to New York which arrived at 12.30am Wednesday morning! US customs asked us a few tricky questions but we must have answered them satisfactorily because they let us through. The hardest part of the trip here was probably having to finish it by carrying all four of our heavy items of luggage up five flights of stairs to my brother’s apartment! But the air-bed at the end of it made it all worth-while, somehow trying to sleep on the plane doesn’t quite compare.

So this morning we headed off to get on a bus tour around up-town New York, having to navigate the subway system first to catch a subway to Times Square. This wasn’t too much of a problem, our biggest hurdle is people not understanding our accent – most people ask us to repeat what we say! So we hopped on the double-decker tour bus near Times Square, and then drove up the west side of Central Park, seeing lots of interesting buildings on the way. The bus drove through Harlem, and we got off there to walk around, and look through a market with mainly African gift-ware.

Then we got back on the bus and headed down 5th Avenue towards Central Park, where we got off to explore, and manage to get lost! Central Park is rather confusing we found, with many branching and curving walkways. But we managed to get out, and get back on the bus to head to FAO Schwarz, where we marveled at giant toys, the piano you play with your feet, and an extensive Lego collection. We looked at some of the other shops around the area, including Bloomingdales, then headed back to Steve’s apartment to rest our feet. New York has amazed us with it’s amazing architecture, contrast between quiet leafy avenues and bustling neon-lit streets and efficient transport system! And we have only seen the tip of the iceberg…..