The Queens Diamond Jubilee

2012 was definitely a great year to move to London. We landed right in the midst of two major celebrations: The Queens Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games. Whist we planned to escape the city during the games, we were on hand to witness The Queen's celebrations. A number of events had been organised to ensure that all those in London could be involved. One of the biggest was the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant where the Queen herself was to lead around 1000 boats down the Thames.

It was to be the largest such pageant for over 300 years, so of course we wanted to be part of the action. The weather leading up to the day was glorious. We experienced almost a week of temperatures within the mid 20's and we were looking forward to arriving at the banks of Thames to claim our spot early. That was until the day of the pageant, when the weather turned nasty! Constant rain and cold was predicted all day, but this did not deter us from seeing the Queen and at 7:30am we were on the Tube heading to Westminster to scope a spot.

To our knowledge, there was nothing to say that you could not bring alcohol, so we prepared ourselves for the long day ahead with some liquid courage that would hopefully help to keep us warm. As soon as we arrived, we realised we had a slight issue. They were not going to let glass bottles into the area, so whilst Shelley and I claimed a spot, the boys headed off to Tesco to find some plastic bottles to pour our beer and cider. After some drama trying to get even the plastic bottles in, we managed to start consuming the alcohol rather early. However, it was so cold that all we were craving was hot chocolate and coffee! We spent around 8 hours all huddled together trying to stay warm. As the day wore on, the usual rude pushy people tried to push there way through us, and there were a few words exchanged, but we managed to hold our ground for the most of it!

Just as the parade was to start, the rain cleared and although it was still freakishly cold, the mood of the crowd lifted. One thing I learnt that day was that the English LOVE their Queen. As soon as she came onto the big screen, everybody started to cheer... and push to the front! We watched from the big screen as the Queen and her family boarded their vessel and waited for them to pass us! Bless her, she must have been so cold! But she stood on top of the boat and waved the whole way down the river. It was hard not to get excited when she waved in our general direction. Even though they were far away, I can now say that I saw the Royal Family. It was really nice to see them enjoying themselves despite the cold. However, poor Prince Phillip ended up in hospital after!

At the end of the day, we were ready to get out of dodge! If you thought the crowds were hard to get through at the end of the Adelaide Skyshow, try getting onto the Tube after an event in London! And of course it started raining as soon as the parade finished... The only thing that made it bearable was knowing that in two days, we were heading to sunny and HOT Barcelona!!

 Our supplies!

The Queen!!! 

Edinburgh New Years

Edinburgh was to be our last port of call for our trip and we were to spend New Years Eve at the Hogmanay Festival. We traveled to the Capital of Scotland by train, leaving from Kings Cross Station. No visit to this station is complete without visiting Platform 9 3/4. If you are thinking "how can there be a platform 9 3/4?", then you obviously know nothing about Harry Potter! Don't worry, you are not alone. Shock horror - at this stage I had never read the books or seen the movies, so I had this explained to me a long time ago. If you have been living under a rock like myself, you can find out about the platform here. If  you do visit the platform, make sure you arrive well before your train as you may have to wait a while.

I must just add here that the one thing I was looking forward to about this leg of our holiday, was the fact that I was about to see one of my best friends from Australia who had been travelling throughout Europe the previous few weeks. It had been 8 months and 20 or so days since I last saw Zoe! We met Zoe, her family and her friend Tannika at Kings Cross and boarded the train for our journey to Edinburgh. Needless to say, I don't think Zoe and I came up for air the entire four hours.

The train ride itself took us through some amazing towns, with a number of them being added onto our list of places we need to visit before we leave the UK. The only down side to the ride was the fact that they obviously sold way too many tickets for the journey. Thank goodness we had reserved seats. Those that hadn't were packed in like sardines in the aisles and near the toilets. I can't imagine it made for a comfortable journey.

Our first impression of Edinburgh was breathtaking. We walked out of the train station to see Edinburgh Castle high up on the hill overlooking the city. As we left Zoe and her family to find our accommodation, we even thought it was starting to snow. We couldn't believe our luck. This amazement only lasted a few seconds as we soon realised it wasn't snow, but in fact hail stones that were coming at a rapid pace. Thankfully our accommodation wasn't too far away and it wasn't long before we were sitting in our warm and cosy room at Edinburgh Central Guest House. If you are ever in Edinburgh and would like a lovely little guest house, I happily recommend the Edinburgh Central Guest House. Our hosts were very accommodating and they provided one of the better breakfasts we have had throughout our travels.

Before we had a chance to check out Edinburgh above ground, we headed underground for a Ghost Tour by Mercat Tours. Now I am pretty sceptical about ghosts. I am open minded about them, but I have never experienced one. Our tour guide was very animated and helped us to get into the spirit of things. She tried to involve everyone and took a particular liking to Zoe's brother Sam! We all took photos in the dark rooms, and we all swore black and blue that you could see an 'orb' in each photo. But something crazy did happen to me in one of the last rooms. Apparently, the ghost of a little boy was in this room. Our guide was telling us that people have experienced one of their hands going ice cold and it is said that this is the little boy trying to hold your hand. Just as she was saying this, my right leg went completely ice cold. It was the strangest feeling because my left leg was still at a normal temperature. At the same time, Tannika who was standing on my right, felt her left leg go ice cold. Wooooooo!!! Creepy!!! I am still sceptical... But it was really weird!
Girls, a word of advice if you are going to participate in a tour like this: wear sensible shoes. Flat and warm are preferable. I have no idea how the girl with 6 inch heels managed... I struggled in my flats!

Edinburgh Castle was where we headed the next day - New Years Eve! I swear it was one of the windiest days on record. Most of our photos included each of the girls trying to keep their hair out of their faces, or just giving up and having our hair flying everywhere! The castle is just as beautiful up close as it is from a distance, and the views were breathtaking. Trying to get a photo of the group of us proved eventful. I think we had four different people try their luck at it and the results would have been hilarious if it wasn't so frustrating. We eventually stalked a gentleman with a giant camera around his neck, who managed to take a photo that included all of us and the castle. My favourite was the girl who volunteered to take the photo and literally picked the camera up and took the photo without looking or seeing if we were ready.

After the castle, we celebrated New Years Eve Australian time - Adelaide to be exact - with a drink. We then prepared for our own celebration. After a few drinks, we headed to the Concert in the Park as part of the Hogmanay Festivities. We made our way through the sea of people that were already cramming the streets and settled back on the muddy hill to watch bands that I had not heard of ha! Actually that is a lie. I had heard of Simple Minds, but only one song... and this wasn't actually played till just after midnight. There were two highlights for me that night: Firstly, the fireworks off the Castle were incredible. I mean the fireworks in Sydney look great each year (as far as I can tell off the TV), but when do you get to see fireworks being set off from a castle? Secondly, and don't judge me, watching drunk people fall down the muddy hill - and get up and keep laughing! This made me giggle inside!

New Years day provided us with sunshine and blue skies, perfect for exploring on our last day in this beautiful city. We headed up to Calton Hill which provided another magnificent view of the city below. We had the obligatory photo outside the National Monument of Scotland and Nelson's Monument before wandering through the Royal Mile towards the city center. The day ended with Zoe, Tannika and myself engaging in a spot of ice skating, which I seem to remember being a lot easier than we found it.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and we headed back to London. Mark and I both agreed that Edinburgh is definitely a city that we will be visiting again and we look forward to spending more time exploring the rest of Scotland. Our three week Christmas holiday was an exhausting yet thoroughly entertaining experience spent with the most amazing company. The count down is now on to our next getaway....