The tube

The tube looks very quiet but I can tell you it's not normally this empty! We usually have to push ourselves in to get in at all, and then we are squeezed up against the doors. No need to hold on and you couldn't fall over if you tried, you have people so close to you all around.

Apart from the chaos, the tube has proven to be a brilliant way to get around. Takes us about 20minutes in the morning to get to Liverpool Street Station (where we both go to work)... The tube isn't dayled toooo often but when it is, it's usually because someone has jumped in front. Not very nice, but unfortunately it happens quite alot :(

Waitangi Day

New Zealanders in the UK seem to celebrate Waitangi more than I remember at home. There were more than a few thousand kiwis getting together at Big Ben on Waitangi to watch all of the brave boys take their shirts off and do the haka. Even bumped into a few kiwis that I didn't even know were over here! Of course the day involved the pub crawl around the circle line.

Inside the flat...

London

After flying with United Airlines from JFK to Heathrow we finally arrived in London. You don't even get a beer when you fly internationally with United! On top of that it was the worst service ever!!! I don't recommend that any of you fly with them.

Anyway, enough of me moaning, we did an all nighter and arrived in London at 7am. I didn't realise we were about to land as I couldn't see the ground, but as Simon explained that was because it was so smoggy! Arrived at a warm -2 degress... ahhh so refreshing.

I was lucky enough to go into the British Passport line at customs, but Simon had to wait for a wee while with all of the other foreigners. Aside from that, it was the easiest customs ever. I think I have realised that no where is as strict as NZ. I didn't even get my passport stamped here.

Once out of customs, went straight on to the tubes and headed for our flat in Clapham North. Was rush hour by this stage, so everyone was looking at our luggage as if they had bombs in them. This is our house in the picture above. We have the three windows on right of each floor. Our room is at the top with the light on:)

Managed to stay awake all day and then we headed for the pub! Our first experience of an english pub. All good! After a few too many beers we went straight to sleep and slept for nearly 12 hours i think. We have actually been really lucky since then, as we seem to have just fitted in with the UK time :)

Central Park

This was my favorite part to New York. So lovely to just stroll around and watch the New Yorkers jog through on their Saturday morning. People playing baseball, parents walking their kiddies, lovers in the park and much more. Wasn't that warm to be sitting around in Winter, but I imagine it's just spectacular in Summer. This is a picture of me looking back towards downtown Manhatten.

Squirrels were everywhere in the parks in Washington and at Central Park. Was exciting to watch, but we definitely looked like tourists as everyone else was fully over it. hee hee... And Miss Maxwell I tell you it was damn cold! I should have been wearing a hat, but was just silly. I had loads of layers underneath that coat. Snow was never in the city of New York, when it did snow it melted as soon as it hit the ground.

Living the high life

After a night out in Little Italy, Simon had had enough wine to be cheeky and walk up to the limo driver and ask for a ride home. After bargaining him down to US $25 we jumped in and felt like royalty. When we got to 38th street, turns out he didn't have any change, so we only paid $20. All good!

Chinatown

Ohhhh I love this place! New York definitely had the best Chinatown in America. I love the whole bargaining thing, where you shouldn't pay any more than half the first asked price. It's all tack - just the way I love it! I brought a pair of ear muffs and tried to bargain them down on a handbag, but they wouldn't go as low as I wanted. Ahhh I'm such a cheap ass! Brought lots of cheap fruit, food etc... wanted to buy the cheap perfume, which is aparently "real" but I wasn't convinced. My Baby Doll smelt exactly the same, but was in a different colored bottle. Ummmm dodgey.

New York, New York

This was our view from the Staten Island ferry looking back at Manhatten. It actually looks better from afar, as when you are right in the middle of it all, you can't tell how many large buildings are around you. Amazing!

Wall Street

Look at this picture closely! This was on Wall Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange. They are not water pistols!

Ground Zero

This area was totally devasting. After nearly four and a half years there is still no sign of rebuilding and many mourners praying, not to mention the cheeky sales people trying to make money off this horrible event. Lots of notes posted everywhere, memorials for all the people who lost their lives and a timeline in minutes of exactly what happened on September 11. Absolutely speechless!

The cross in this picture is a steel beam from one of the towers that was found exactly like it stands.

Seinfeld

This is Simon in front of the famous "puffy white shirt" at the Smithsonian Muesum in Washington D.C. Unfortunately this was as close to Seinfeld as we got in America as Jerry wasn't performing in Las Vegas when we were there, and we were unsuccessful in finding Tom's Diner in New York.

For Mrs Elston...

Yip this is Simon in front of the Abraham Lincoln memorial in Washington D.C.

Run Jenny, Run!!!

Anyone recognise this? Yip it's the "reflection pool" in front of the Abriham Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. But not only is it this, it's the pool of water that Jenny ran through to see Forrest Gump. Ahhhh not as many people in it this time round though.

The White House

We were walking past this house and it looked so lovely that we had to take a picture. The gardens were so lovely, and obviously some one was worried as there was soooo much security all around it. Police man standing there with guns, yip they were ready to shoot anyone. Anyone seen this house on the Garden Show?

Fine Dining

This was one of our nights out in America fine dining. Went to a beautiful restaurant called The Custom House in downtown Chicago. Was the best steak I think I have ever had!!!! So good that we even went back the following night. The second night, the manager comes to our table as though we are regulars and talks to us about New Zealand. Turns out they were playing an NZ DVD on the flat screens around the restaurant. I felt like complete royalty because we were from New Zealand. "Oh that beautiful clean country"....

Ice Skating in Chicago

Really wanted to go ice skating but we only got this far. It was just toooooo cold and we didn't have the right gear. Anyway, was lovely to watch the locals falling over multiple times. hee hee... This park was in the middle of Chicago in amongst all of the buildings. Loads of people there on a Saturday afternoon just loving it.

Sears Tower

This was our spectacular view from Sears Tower overlooking downtown Chicago. What more can I say? Sears Tower is now the second tallest building in the world after the Petronus Towers (not sure about the spelling here) in Malaysia. Went up 110 floors in a single elevator with many other tourists and felt my ears pop many times. Wierd feeling!

Aspen

Our tour guide ( Marty: guy we met at the backpackers) took us on a tour of Aspen and surrounding areas in his new car. He was a local so was great as he new all the interesting places to go. This photo is of the sled dogs which are available for public rides at the very cheap price of $US250....needless to say we passed. There are over 200 of them and when they start howling it sounds very spooky.

Amtrak

This was the little beauty that took us on our 30 hour journey all the way from San Fransisco to Glenwood Springs (poor mans Aspen). Beautiful journey through the backdoors of America and into the mountains of Colorado.

After arriving in Glenwood Springs, we went straight to our previously booked accomodation only to find that it was closed during the day! Ahhhh we arrived at 2pm (thankfully cause our train was running a few hours late) and had to wait until after 4pm in the snow until we could check in. Not that fun! Soooo cold out there and the sun went down soon after three. The above is a picture of me sitting in my sleeping on the porch of our accomodation trying to get warm...

Doing it tandem

Me overlooking San Fran from the other side of the bridge.