Lille 19-21 April

We arrived in Lille after a pretty straight-forward trip on the Eurostar from London. The weather was supposed to be similar to London (12 degrees) but we weren't prepared for the wind-chill factor. We couldn't find a city map at the train station to help us get to the hotel. Plan B? Georgina found a city map on a large billboard so - grab the iPhone and take photos of the map. Walk to the hotel totally under control. Too easy.

 

Off to discover Lille

 

A quick trip up to our room, a change in to something slightly warmer (for both of us this time) and off for an afternoon stroll around the most beautiful streets, boulevards and squares of Lille. Even on a dull day Lille was showing her true beauty, especially the Grand Place, Lille's main square.

The Grand Place, Lille

The history of Lille is quite overwhelming. It is a city that has been in constant "transformation" since 1066 (although the name may have been in existence since 640 AD). It seems that since this time the town was the victim of quarrels between the French and the counts of Flanders. Other 'influences' include the Austrians and the Spanish, and finally Lille became "French" in 1663. It's nowhere near as simple as that and from what we can gather involved many great conflicts and lots of re-starts for a city constantly under attack and destruction. In the end all of these cultural influences have created a truly beautiful city which has been declared a European Capital of Culture.

Chamber of Commerce & Post Office

Opera House

 

We spent the afternoon wandering her streets oozing with stunning architecture. Somehow we stumbled across the city Zoo quite late in the afternoon. As entry was free we thought, why not? As you can imagine for a smallish city-run Zoo it wasn't the best. The bird collection was small, but included a pair of Port Lincoln Parrots and a couple of Kookaburras.

Pt Lincoln Parrot

Kookaburra

 

We managed to include some timeout at a cafe in the main square with coffee, tea and people watching before heading back to the hotel. A huge day ended with a simple meal at the hotel and a fairly early night.

Next day started with a great breakfast at the hotel, followed by a 2-hour walking tour of Lille (hence our knowledge of her history!). Another cold day but bathed in sunshine so who could complain? A lot of the city has been restored quite recently (2004) including the old town with cobbled streets and a real blend of architecture which seems to work somehow.

Former Stock Exchange Building

Old town, Lille

 

After a quick lunch near the main square we headed to the Fine Arts Museum. Again, housed in a stunning building and containing a collection of art from 15th - 20th Century. This was not only beautiful, but a great escape from the chilly winds!

Museum of Fine Arts, Lille

Streets of Lille

We're doing our best to stick to our vego philosophy and have had pretty good options up until now.

Today we head off to Antwerp, Belgium by train and will meet up with Caron for the next chapter of our European adventure.

 

National Gallery & the end of London (for this trip...) 19/4/2013

We spent our final full day in London on Thursday with a trip to the National Gallery (thanks for the tip Mike) which ended up being our last London "must do". We're finally getting into a routine today with G at the gym while I sit here sipping tea (sounds just about spot on for us). The National Gallery is situated on Trafalgar Square and today is home to more than 2,000 works. The gallery was founded in 1824 to display a collection of 36 paintings.

Trafalgar Square from the Gallery Steps

The gallery was quite overwhelming with masterpieces from all over Europe plus the obligatory religious art which takes up a lot of space. We arrived when there were only a few people going through but as we walked around we seemed to attract all the schools groups wandering about. It was amusing to watch the secondary school students (mainly UK and French) with their compulsory 20 questions they had to find the answers for - delegating one not so popular member of their class to go around and get the answers whilst the others sat on the couches.

We saw works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Botecelli, Rembrandt, Claude, Turner, Gainsborough, Constable, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Sisley and Picasso - not a bad collection of works for a couple of hours wandering the gallery.

The highlights would definitely be seeing the collection of French impressionists such as Monet's "Water Lillies" and "Bathers at La Grenouillère", Cézanne's "Bathers" and Degas "Ballet Dancers".

As photos were not permitted the following link shows you some of the Highlights of National Gallery London.

After the gallery visit we met up with a school friend of G's (who now lives in London) at the National Portrait Gallery restaurant for afternoon tea. There was a great view of London from the restaurant (pictured below).

View from NPG Restaurant

In the evening we headed out to Carluccio's in Paddington for a great Italian meal - Antonio has a number of small Italian restaurants throughout the UK (reminded us of Melbourne's Italian restaurant scene) - fresh pasta, good wine and of course a tiramisu and limoncello to finish off the meal.

Our hotel at night :)

Today we head across the channel to Lille and start to ramp the trip up a bit. London has been brilliant once again, and I think we can move on feeling pretty happy about what we have done this time around. Maggie's funeral wasn't the huge interruption which we were dreading and everyone seemed to behave with only small protests around the city.

A footnote from Caz: after many days walking past pubs, we finally popped in to one so that Caz could have that English beer she had been craving. So in we go, order a beer - the verdict? Hmmmm - not the best!!

Not to worry - Belgium beckons...

 

Kew Gardens 17/4/2013

Firstly, for those of you who have been trying to comment - G has fixed the layout so you can now comment

Wednesday was the "big day" for Thatcher so we thought it best to head out of London for the day and just get away for the madness. In the end we spent a brilliant day at Kew Gardens, just enjoying a day to ourselves in a beautiful setting. The sun joined us on occasions as well! If you ever have the chance to get to London it's worth a visit.

Kew Gardens is London's Botanical Gardens and covers over 700 acres with a number of plant collections, glasshouses, heritage buildings and tree top walkways. The gardens are home to the world's largest collection of living plants with over 30,000 different kinds of plants.

We began at the Palm House (pictured below) where there is a cycad which is said to be the oldest "pot plant" in the world (it was planted in the pot in 1775). The Palm house has a variety of plants divided into continents of origin including coffee plants, ylang ylang, an ebony tree, hibiscus & numerous other palms, cycads, bromeliads & ferns - none of which we remember the names of (but you get the idea)

Palm House

Oldest Cycad (in a pot)

Palm House

From the Palm House we headed over the the Prince of Wales Conservatory which looks like a building devoted to cactus from the outside (G's not a huge cactus fan) but we were pleasantly surprised. The conservatory houses ten computer-controlled micro-climatic zones, with the majority of the greenhouse filled with Dry Tropics and Wet Tropics plants. There are numerous orchids, water lilies, cacti, lithops, carnivorous plants and bromeliads housed in the various zones.

Prince of Wales Conservatory

Jade Hanging Plant

Water Lily Plant

Another interesting fact about Kew - it is home to one of the largest compost heaps in Europe, made from green waste from the gardens and the waste from the stables of the Household Cavalry. We were wondering why there were signs everywhere inviting us to visit the "Compost Heap"....but looking at the plants we'd be happy to have some of this mulch/compost for our roses!

The rest of the day we wandered throughout the gardens, climbed the 100 or so stairs to the treetop walkway which gives you a great sense of just how big the gardens really are, and came across a peacock strutting his stuff for anyone who was willing to watch.

Treetop Walkway

Peacock

Cherry Blossom Japanese Garden

We arrived back into London late in the afternoon and enjoyed a Lebanese meal near Soho (after lining up for 30mins to get in) but it was worth the wait. Tomorrow's our last day in London and we're planning to visit the National Gallery. Caz has one final thing on her London list.... to get herself to a local pub for a pint of English bitter!