London

Memorial weekend was approaching soon and we felt that it was time for a little vacation again. We felt like we needed more than just your average weekend getaway, so Vanessa was quick to look for airline tickets to Europe. After the Internet did not turn up any tickets, we contacted a travel agent who got the job done. (Just goes to show that travel agents still knows where to look when the internet says there's none available). Anyway, our route to London would eventually take us via Toronto on Air Canada. When we arrived in Toronto, we had to go through customs, which surprised us, since we're only catching a connecting flight. The customs official looked in our passports and found our previous expired Canadian visas and asked whether we had any other visas. We then showed her our new multiple-entry visas which we had obtained recently for future travels to Canada. After she stamped our passports, we ask why we needed a visa, since we're only in transit. She explained that since the airport did not have a transit lounge, we were basically entering Canada and then leaving on our connecting flight. This almost caused disaster, since we were just lucky to have Canadian visas at the time, and without it, our travel would've come to a humiliating end in Toronto (not the place you wanted to spend Memorial weekend).

Anyway, so we're off to London, and quite frankly, we're happy that we are! We touched down on London's Heathrow Airport at 07:00 (after gaining 6 hours with our flight eastbound), cleared customs (without problems, thank God! No need for South Africans to have visas), caught a train to Victoria Station and checked into Catref House, our Bed & Breakfast hotel. Since our room was only available after 13:00, we had to start our sightseeing without a shower!

We hopped on one of the numerous tour busses, which takes you to several places of interest. The tickets are valid for 24 hours and one can get on and off as you like. We found this to be a great means of transport, but because the busses stick to a specific route, it sometimes takes a while to get to your destination. To the left, Vanessa is pictured on the back of the tour bus, planning our next stop. After our room was available, we went back to our hotel, had a shower and continued our sightseeing efforts.

In the late afternoon, we contacted our friend, Jacques, who currently works in London, right across Piccadilly Circus. seen each other in almost 2 years and for the record, Jacques hasn't change and to be honest, we doubt if he ever will (not that we want him to). Since he knew the area well, he was able to show us places we would never have been able to find and without any surprises, it included a couple of bars. And since we were looking forward to a night on the town, Jacques was the perfect person to show us around. We went to Leicester Square and Covert Garden and a couple of places in between. We also ended up on a ship which serves as a bar on the Teems river and that's where the picture on the right was taken of Jacques and I.

After the bus tours on Thursday, we knew where all the tourist spots were, now it was just a matter of visiting them. On the left, me on Trafalgar Square. One can buy pigeon food from a vendor, but Jacques warned us that they can really make a mess on you, so we gave that a miss!

We also took some time to visit the Tower of London. The picture below (left) was taken from outside the castle and below (right), Vanessa can be seen on the inside.

Left and right are pictures of Vanessa. Left, in front of Westminster Abbey and right at the gates in front of Buckingham Palace.

After our sightseeing on Friday, we picked up our rental car from the airport at about 17:00 and left for Bournemouth, which is on the south coast of England. We received a Fiat Bravo, which is fairly small compared to the cars in the U.S.A. It was surprisingly easy to drive on the left-hand side of the road again and without any trouble we were on the M3 southbound to Bournemouth.

We arrived in Bournemouth with plenty of light to spare and were greeted by Llem and Hanlie. They moved to England from South Africa only 3 months ago. That night we sat and talked just to catch up with what we're all been up to since the last time we've seen each other and before we knew it, it was 02:30 in the morning.

On Saturday morning we all got in the car and left for Salisbury to see the cathedral and can be seen in the picture on the right. The cathedral is the biggest in England. Afterwards we strolled through the streets of Salisbury. Pictured left, are myself and Llem.

From here we carried on towards Stonehenge (pictured above left). At Stonehenge one can use complimentary audio commentary devices as demonstrated by Vanessa and Hanlie (above right). The funny thing was that there were no devices left that supply the commentary in English and we had to listen to Dutch commentary. Since the language is very close to Afrikaans, we could make out a couple of words, but it sounded really funny.

On our way back we encountered a terrible thunderstorm with heavy rain. At some times we could hardly see the road because of the downpour and it's not as if the roads in the English countryside are very wide either. We eventually found our way back to Bournemouth (where the weather was surprisingly sunny and warm) where we stopped at the beach. Bournemouth has a really beautiful beach (pictured above) and although we did walk along the beach (above right), the water was very cold. After that, we went to a restaurant on the beach for a couple of sundowners. To the right, Llem and I enjoying a beer.

After returning to Llem & Hanlie's place we talked until about 02:00 in the morning before going to bed.

On Sunday, our travels and late nights finally caught up with us, and so did the weather. The whole day it was overcast and rainy. Luckily there was a World Cup Cricket match (West India vs. Australia) showing on Sky Sports, so we used the day to rest. Meanwhile, we went down to the shops to buy some biltong and droëwors. It seemed like this vacation was just getting better. To the left, Llem cutting a piece of biltong.

Late that afternoon, when the weather improved somewhat, Llem and Hanlie took us to Corfe Castle, which is about a 30-minute drive from Bournemouth through Poole, which included a ride on a ferry (right). Corfe Castle is a really old town. It consists of ruins of a castle situated on the top of a hill, with the town at the bottom of the hill. On the bottom left, the ruins of the castle can be seen. Bottom right, the four of us in the town. Corfe Castle was really beautiful and the misty weather even made the town look more mysterious and old. There is a pub in the town, which dates back to 1568!

On Monday morning there wasn't much time for anything else but breakfast and good-byes. We greeted Llem and Hanlie and promised to return, since we enjoyed our stay with them very much. Seeing the countryside was just as much fun as being in London. So we headed back to London on the M3, returned the rental car (pictured right) and caught our flight back home. We enjoyed seeing this part of Europe and intend to visit more of Europe soon, maybe even later this summer of fall.