Magical Mystery Tour Part three

So the tour ended a day early as we were all knackered, and Mrs Plug was not feeling up to much.  We will be partaking of the final day, a trip to Thorpe Park, at a later date to be decided.  The final day was therefore, spent in London,  We started the day in Bedfordshire, getting eldest's GCSE results, which were excellent, and got us all bursting with pride.  We then hopped on the train up to Westminster, and popped over the river to jump on the London Eye.  Youngest had not been on it before, and she loved it, despite reservations about the height of it.  It was my fourth time on it, and I still find it a wonderful treat.  For some reason the vertigo appears not to be too much of a problem on it.  We then hopped back over the Thames, caught the tube to Victoria, and nipped in for a bite to eat in Nandos.  We were spoken to like Children, and this made me crave the service we received in Paris even more.  I don't want my arse kissed, but a few manners never go amiss.  Happily numbed from this awful service by a couple of their excellent South African Ciders, we went to the Apollo theatre and took our seats for Wicked.  The girls have been nagging us endlessly about going to see it, and pretty much knew every word to every song before we had arrived.  I knew little of it other than a couple of songs.  I knew it contained Witches, and was the prequel to the Wizard of Oz, but apart from that went into it with an open mind.  It was truly stunning.  I didn't expect to be caught up in a story about witches and wizards on an emotional level, but it is so much more than that.  There are allusions to politics, studies of friendships and relationships, class and so much more indeed.  Couple with a splendid set, stunning costumes, and a chorus that was small, but incredibly energetic and vocal, you couldn't ask for a better night out.  Rachel Tucker as Elpheba, was excellent, and I hadn't realised that it was "Her off the telly" from "I'd Do Anything" until afterwards.  She was outstanding, and I'm glad I didn't realise who she was until afterwards.  Louise Dearman as Glinda, was funny, and beautiful and fabulous from the start, and even Lee Mead impressed me, which is something I didn't think I would be saying.  We queued at the Stage Door at the end and met Rachel and Louise (Who were both charming and modest) for autographs and pictures....so a great night was had by all.

A lovely end to a busy few days, and home to complete exhaustion!

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Magical Mystery Tour part Two

Up at nine after our made first two days...we had promised the girls a more relaxing day.  We had decided that we need a bit of seaside in our tour, so we popped to Brighton for the day.  A long train journey passing so many of my old haunts brought back many memories, not many of them good.  It does give you perspective though.  We arrived at lunchtime, and found an "All you can eat" buffet place.  I dislike places like this, but i was quick, cheap and convenient, so we were grateful...it wasn't too bad.  Then the girls wanted to hit the shops.  Eldest went with Mrs Plug, and youngest and I did a little shopping but headed for the beach.  It was a very windy day, but the sun came out a fair bit, and we had a bracing time watching the surfers and skimming stones.  We found a second hand book shop and made a couple of purchases, met up with the others, who seem to have been successful in their shopping, and then found a bistro type place for dinner, which was pleasant, but still left me craving Paris :-)  A long journey home, but a pleasant way to spend our second leg.  Tomorrow we start the day with Eldest's GCSE results, and then another fun packed day.....

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Magical Mystery Tour - The First Leg - Paris

We set off on Saturday morning at 4.30 in a cab...the girls had no idea where we were going, but were quite chuffed when we arrived at Luton Airport.  The cab driver was in cahoots, and very sweetly played along with the joke for us.  We were soon on our way to Paris, much to the shock and delight of the girls, neither of whom had flown before.  I detest flying, and was relieved to find that I could disguise this by showing kindness and consideration to youngest on the flight...she of course realised that I was nervous, ad spent the rest of the flight patronising me.  It was my first time with Easyjet and they seemed pretty good.  We arrived at Charles de Gaulle at 8.00 am, and found ourselves on the RER to Gare du Nord, and with a bit of leaping around, ending up at Place de Clichy.  We wandered down the road a bit to show the girls the Moulin Rouge as it was a film they loved.  We took breakfast in a nearby cafe, and managed to successfully negotiate the language with a waitress who's English was about as good as my French.  We then walked to the Hotel in Rue Legendre Monmartre area.  It had been given some crappy reviews on the Internet, but we found it to be fine.  It was old fashioned, but the staff were friendly and helpful, and the rooms and facilities were clean.  We then took a trip back on he metro down to the Place de Concorde and wandered over to the Musee D'orsey.  What a stunning place.  It was full of some of the most famous paintings, and some classics by Degas and Monet to name but a few....We spotted Oscar Wilde in a Lautrec painting, and were stunned by the scale of his work...perhaps rather ignorantly, I was expecting his paintings to reflect his stature.  I think the trip just added to our love of Degas.  We returned, rather exhausted to the Hotel, and wandered down to the Place de Clichy again to a restaurant that I had read about and was recommended to me called Le Wepler.   It was excellent, and reasonable, and we tottered back to our hotel to sleep heavily after that second bottle of Sancere.  The hotel was off the beaten track, and afforded us some views of the less salubrious side of the City, and if I'm being honest, it made the weekend even better.  The slightly seedier side of the city just added to the experience.  We found the service in Le Wepler to be really good, and I was particularly impressed with the immaculate dress and manners of the staff.  The couple on the next room to ours at the hotel were Italian, and were arguing for several hours about the correct location for the young gentleman's trainers.  They eventually feel into silence for an hour, and then spent time making up for their argument in an equally noisy and passionate manner...good for them I say...it is after all Paris that we are talking about.   I was also treated to the sight of the young lady opposite sitting on the balcony of her flat, talking nosily on her mobile for a while....this was enhanced with her lack of many clothes, but perhaps it is my age when I say I would have preferred a bit more sleep.  Never mind...we were up for breakfast at around eight, although due to some confusion over clock timings, Mrs Plug seemed to think that I had buggered up and we had missed breakfast, I enjoyed both my croissants and the humble pie that was served up in the breakfast room.  We started out for the Arc de Triomphe, which was much bigger than I had imagined, and was stunning.  We chose not to go up it, but stopped for a biye and a drink on the Champs Elysee .  We then headed to the Eiffel Tower as I had pre booked tickets to go up.  Neither myself or youngest are particularly good with heights, but I have to say that even I was impressed with the views that it afforded.  It is a dreadful tourist trap though, and we spent most of the hours we were there, politely saying "non merci" to beggars and salesmen alike.  I felt that the tower was more impressive to look at than be on.  We could have been anywhere high up really, but to walk over the Seine and look back on it from the Trocadero was beautiful.  We headed to the Louvre next to see old Lisa.  The Building was beautiful, and even the strange glass pyramid worked in it's own funny way.  The architecture and surroundings were beautiful, but the art itse;f left me a little cold.  Perhaps I just preferred the warmth of the impressionists at D'Orsay, but the huge glut of religious iconography left me feeling a little like we were looking at the same thing over and over....I'm not saying it's bad art, it just doesn't speak to me.  We found the Mona Lisa upstairs, and it does send a bit of a shock through the system to see it.  She is in a large gallery, so you see her from a distance behind what I would imagine is a permanent crowd.  The first reaction is to say, "I don't get what the fuss is about", and from someone who has never particularly cared for the painting I was expecting to be left cold, but it has a certain charge to it...maybe it was the anticipation?  Who knows, but I'm glad I saw her.  We then dashed off to see the Venus de Milo, which was really beautiful, and I really could understand the fuss made about her.  We sat outside the Louvre and people watched for a while whilst youngest dipped her toes in the fountain, and then all too soon it was time to set off back to the Airport.  It was a mad 42 hours, and one which I will never forget.  I adored Paris, it really is as beautiful as people say, and I know I will return there again as a happy and converted tourist.....

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Ready for the off.....

Well....apart from packing a small bag, I am ready for day one of the 5 day "magical mystery tour" as we have so un-amusingly, and un-originally called it.  We will be leaving at 4.30am for the first leg, and should be arriving at our destination for breakfast.  Without giving too much away (If little eyes are watching) we are expecting nice weather.  It has been interesting for Plug Junior's 1 & 2...they have been told to pack a bag, but they have no idea of the destination.  I will attempt to update the blog at some point over the first two days, but will mainly be doing this via the medium of Twitter I think...we shall see how it all pans out :-)

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