Rendezvous in Paris? Well, how about Northern England instead...

Wow, what an absoloute gut wrenching couple of weeks. I think I am about to explode. Emma and I have managed to spend two weeks travelling around Europe (England, Wales and Italy), basically eating and drinking our way around between family, friends, and random romans. It's been a fantastic Christmas and New Year holiday!

I will let the photos do the talking.. because I am still jet lagged.

After we arrived in London, we went straight to Wigan (via Oxford) and caught up with Granny. She's doing bloody well for her age, kicking on and still ready to have a go at anyone at the ripe old age of 94. Go Grans.



After a chrissy with the fam, we had to go see the sights of Wigan. An hour and one photo later, we were done:

P.S. The story goes Wigan Pier is where coal moved between Manchester and Liverpool, made famous by some dude called Orwell who wrote a book about the Road to Wigan Pier. Oh yeah, and Uncle Joe makes mint balls there and they sell them in airports. Famous.

En route to everywhere we went, Embo and I spent most of our time staying in pubs, eating breakfast in pubs, drinking pints with our lunch at pubs, and eating dinner at pubs. By the end, Emma was sick of the pubs and I was socially enebriated for a long enough time that I was willing to move on too.. here is one of the many pubs we ate and drank at (awesome food here):

Here's the smallest house in Britain. It's so small, it shouldn't even be on the map.


In Northern Wales, we went to an absoloutely gorgeous little town called Conwy (pr. Conway). It is a walled city (as in, there is a castle and walls around the city). Good ol' King Edward I built the castle after he smashed the Welsh in 1280ish, and it was for British settlers. To this day, any Welshman caught in the gates after 7pm can legally be shot. At the George and Dragon pub we stayed at, John said it should also include Australian convicts.


Wales is also in the World Rally Championship circuis, which I have on my PsP. I thought these roads looked cool, so I tried a bit of rallying too.. until Emma told off and I almost made her carsick.. almost.

Anglesea in northern Wales is also famous for its beaches.. I don't know why: their cold, they're made from rock and not sand, and the sunset occurs at about lunchtime.
Driving along, we gate crahsed into this castle which looked pretty cool.. but it was closed (thus the gate crashing bit)


After the smallest house in Britain, we went to Wells the smallest city in Britain. 10,000 people + 1 cathedral. This is just outside of Westbury sub Mendip where Bill lives in the Somerset shire. It was a really cool area of England in the South, where they make cider.. so we drank that at the pub while being served by a beautiful polish bartender. Oh, and this was the market emma and I went to:



Emma and I then proceeded to London for New Years party at Zhera's place. was really awesome. Someone had the great idea of passing the time before midnight by playing games (I voted for more beer). Game 1: Let's see if we can pick up a cereal box from the floor without touching the ground with our knees or hands, and when everyone does that, you rip some of the box off...,
After about this level, it got quite inappropriate to take more photos in low cut tops and dresses. Hmm.. Bob was actually the champion, able to pick up a quarter with his teeth. Almost.. game 2: Of course, it's 7 Famous People. I refuse to explain the rules in case others out there may start playing too.. this Emma getting right into it!
And here's bob getting in to it... he also cleaned.


And from the window, we watched the fireworks over london. Woo.
Then after a day of rest in London with Joel - trying to get over a hangover.. Emma and I went over to Rome. ahh beautiful. We found more food during the day (by golly dam those Italians can cook.. oh la la, gelato!)


And I thought I would kill a few romans .. I never liked aquaducts anyway..

And by night, we travelled around the steets looking at Tevoli fountaions and the such..
And of course, we popped in for some Eggs Bennedict XVI at the Vatican (he was actually there giving communion the day we were there, so it was friggin packed full of nuns and stuff.. took us like 3 hours to get to the Cupola, which I later found out was a dome in the big cross shaped building). Here's emma in front of a Mozaic.



The end.

For all those who I haven't contacted yet - everyone that is as I haven't done season greetings this year - Happy Hanukkah, Eid Mubarak, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Silly Season Greetings, and Ahoy Aethiests. As a good Indian friend said to me the other day, may your tears of 2007 be joyous and you learn from your failures.

Oh, now it's The end.