jumarem

12th July 2012

Hi all

We set of for London on the 2nd July for our last couple of days in the UK before flying on to Hong Kong. Along the way we decided to call in and see Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, which as most of you would know, was home to the legend of Robin Hood and his merry men.
There is little left of the actual forest now but there are various conservation groups committed to preserving and developing the area. It was interesting to read the many theories surrounding the legend of Robin Hood and we enjoyed a short walk through the forest itself. Unfortunately it was, as usual, raining so we couldn't go too far.

We arrived in London late that afternoon, had a good nights sleep and the next day took the tube into Westminster to take a ride on the London Eye. We were hoping to visit Warner Bros Studios to take a tour through the set used in Harry Potter but I didn't book early enough and so all the tours were fully booked.....this obviously didn't make me too popular with Emily.

The London Eye was awesome. Not as scary as I thought (I'm not too good with heights). The view from the top was fantastic.

That evening was spent packing and repacking so we were ready to fly to Hong Kong the next day.
I thought I had done quite well with the packing until we reached the airport and they wanted 90 pounds for excess baggage. There was no way I was going to pay so I spent nearly an hour in the repacking station at Heathrow Airport trying to make it all fit, which I did!!! Its amazing what some people throw out just to avoid paying for excess.

Our flight to Hong Kong was quite good but a bit more turbulence than most of our other flights and the absolute worst landing ever with toilet rolls flying down the aisles. The temperature when we arrived was a very humid 30 degrees.....a bit hard to get used to after the UK.

Our first day in Hong Kong we took Emily out to Lantau Island on the cable car from Tung Chung to see the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. Mark and I have been before but we thought she would especially enjoy the cable car ride, which she did. The Buddha itself is amazing, having taken 12 years to complete and with over 2 hundred steps to climb to the top.

The rest of our time was spent shopping. We stayed on Nathan Road in Kowloon, also known as the Golden Mile, which is famous for being a shopping mecca. The markets are also lots of fun and Emily had a ball.

We left Hong Kong on the 8th July for our flight back to Sydney. Emily had a chance to have a photo with some of the Qantas staff and she enjoyed a little visit to the cockpit of the A 380 we flew home on.

We arrived in Sydney about 8.30 on Monday morning and drove back to my sisters place where we stayed the night before finally heading home to Nabiac on Tuesday. We have really had a wonderful time and seen some amazing things but I must say it is nice to be home. We especially enjoyed the night we spent with my two nieces in Newcastle who missed us very much and were very excited to see us, as we were to see them. Now looking forward to catching up with everyone here at home and getting back into the swing of things after our break.

I have really enjoyed keeping this blog and hope you have all enjoyed reading it.

Well, as usual, I will leave you with a few pics and look forward to seeing everyone soon.