The Nieuwy's Family Adventures: 2/1/11

We drove around Salisbury and could see the tall needle of the cathedral spire above the brick houses. We drove towards Stonehenge and passed lots of yurts for pigs in muddy paddocks. We were coming off the top of a hill and straight in front of a us was the Stonehenge stones just standing in the paddock. There were road works to the site so we had to go around the long way but it meant there were less people that day. It was really cold so we put our jackets on. We had our Historic Scotland Pass so we were half price in England. The ticket man was either very kind or bad at maths because it only cost eight pounds.

We got audio guides which said a lot about the area but still couldn’t say why the stones are put there. We walked around the stones which were chipped because people used to take pieces for souvenirs. The stones were called ‘Bluestones’ and were rafted and slid on ice from Wales 5000 years ago. They were supposed to feel warmer than other stones but it was so cold we couldn’t tell the difference. There were lots of planes and jets flying over because there was a nearby air force base. There was a protester who was saying he was a descendant of a ‘Druid’. He wanted all the ‘Druid’s’ Bodies and their descendant’s bodies to be buried at Stonehenge where he thought they belonged. In the other paddocks there were mounds of mass graves. A lot of the tourists coming off the buses were more interested in us eating spaghetti for lunch in the camper than they were interested in the Stonehenge. It was a unique place to visit and full of mystery.

We had dinner and showers at a ’Welcome Break’ motorway stop on the way to London. We drove to the Penton Hook marina next to Thorpe park where we had stayed before in July. There were some other campers there as well and lot’s of noisy planes flying over to Heathrow Airport. We drove to Feltham to the ASDA shopping centre where we had also parked in July to take the train into London. We took the train to Waterloo and got on a bus that took us on a huge loop past St. Paul’s Cathedral to London Bridge. We walked back along the river to the Tate Modern. There in so much to do in free Museums and places like the Tate Modern that it takes half an hour to work out where to go and what you want to see. We walked though most of the galleries quite quickly. There were lots of art students. Some of the works were overrated but there was a lot of interesting stuff. The building used to be a brick power station that’s why it looks like a factory. The bottom floor is the exhibition hall and there was an exhibit called ‘Ai Wei Wei Sunflower seeds‘. Covering the huge area of the floor about 5cm thick were sunflowers seeds. It was amazing but what was even more mind boggling was that every seed was porcelain and hand painted in a porcelain making village in China. There were 100 million seeds! We made a video in a booth asking the artist questions about the work but we couldn’t find it on the internet later on.

We went to Madame Tussauds next. We didn’t have to wait in lines with our Merlin passes. It hadn’t changed much since we were there in July but we still took photos with all the wax people. Lady Gaga and Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter) were new.

We walked down Oxford street past all the fancy shops and department stores. We spent the rest of the day in the Hamley’s toy store. The coolest store in the world and it’s 300 years old. There were lot’s of Harry Potter wands and model trains and planes. The girls went to all the beauty and art demonstrations. There were magic tricks and lot’s of other things we never saw last time we were there. We took the tube when it was really busy and went to some of the newer tube stations. We wanted to do the London Eye at night time but it was closed for maintenance.

We stayed in the ASDA and watched Bridget Jones Diary on our portable DVD player.

Next day, we went back into London but took the wrong train and did a loop. We got off at Wimbledon and took the tube because we thought it would be faster to the Natural History Museum and it was. We chose the wrong day to go to a Museum because it was Saturday and really busy with lots of families having a day out. We split up because it was easier. Anneke and Thomas went to the Dinosaur hall, full of dinosaur skeletons and things. There were lots of people in there but in the middle of the day there was a 45 minute wait just to go inside. Mum, Dad, Madeleine and Johanna went to the Mammal Hall and there were huge life-size whales, elephants and other mammals hanging from the ceiling. The building itself is really amazing and like a palace. There were lots of other exhibits on Erosion, Natural Disasters and Climate Change. We had a picnic in the basement picnic hall. We could have spent a week in the Museum but we left and walked to Harrods.

Even from the outside it is ‘over the top’ and also like a palace. We went inside and felt out of place in our ‘well worn travellers‘ clothes. We were very careful to not knock anything over. Mum picked up a handbag for 6000 pounds. There were almost more assistants than buyers and there were a lot of people inside. Everything was ridiculously priced and extremely expensive. We never went to the Egyptian hall but we went to the top story. It was crazy and we were only in there for ten minutes. We took the tube to London Bridge and did the London Dungeons on our merlin pass. It was so much worse than last time. It was hot because we were still wearing our jackets and it felt like we were waiting in lines all the time. The actors weren’t very good either.

We did the London Eye at night time. Since July a skyscraper had been almost built! The parliament buildings and Big Ben were gold at night and the glass roof of Waterloo station was massive. The city lights went for as far as the eye could see.

The train ride back to Feltham felt very long and we stayed in the ASDA car park again.

We started organising how we’d pack our stuff and clean the camper. We didn’t have to clean it that well because it was going to be valeted before it sells. We went to a Tesco and bought the set of Harry Potter DVD’S and some shirts for Anneke‘s late birthday present. We starting throwing out books and clothes in a charity bin next to the dumpsters but most of the stuff wasn’t even worthy for charity, it was that worn out. We had our last night in the camper back in Ampthill.

We drove to Gary at the Heart of England motor home dealers where we bought the camper and are selling it. We were under time pressure which made us throw out even more things that we wanted to take home. Mum was inside most of the morning sorting out the paperwork with Gary. All our gear was packed into seven and a half packs, six carry on bags and as a joke we decided to take our eight red pillows. Which later on while walking around the tube stations in London, the pillows are what made us really feel really out of place. Gary dropped us off at a train station and we watched our camper drive away. Carrying our all gear was the hardest thing that day. Stepping onto the train was hard and putting on our packs. We took a high speed train to Euston Station and it only took an hour. There were two men on the train and we think we watched them do a drug deal. One of the guys had just got out of prison for shooting someone in the foot and mum lent him a pen which he used to write something while the other guy gave him some cash which he put in his shoe. Mum was sitting on our huge pile of luggage when the conductor came to check our tickets. Mum thought he was joking when he said that extra luggage was fifteen pounds a bag when the tickets for the trip were only fifteen pounds for all of us but he let us off. We took the tube to Heathrow but had to make two changes on the line which was difficult with our gear. We got to Heathrow and checked in. It was nice to know that our online tickets from ‘Hoodaki’ were real. We waited until 10pm eating all the rest of our food including a jar of Nutella and trying to find showers but we were in the wrong terminal. We boarded the plane at ten and got good seats. We should have slept for the whole flight but Mum let us watch movies to Singapore then sleep to Auckland. We arrived in Singapore at 6pm (local time) so it was still light. The airport was really nice and had free massaging chairs, internet, movies and there was supposed to be a free roof-top pool and butterfly garden but we didn’t have enough time for that. There were stalls celebrating the year of the Rabbit and we got fortune cookies and Chinese calligraphy signs. We were having so much fun that we almost missed the gate. Mum and Dad slept on the second flight but Thomas stayed awake the whole time. We were very excited seeing the little skyline of Auckland and a bird’s eye view of the suburbs. We were feeling very tired and our bodies were telling us we should be sleeping. It seemed surreal to be back in NZ. We noticed lots of special things about our country that we hadn’t noticed before. Our grandparents and some of our bestest friends were waiting for us when we walked though the arrival doors.

We were back home after an indescribable adventure away, a journey to nowhere and a wonderful life experience for us all.