Greetings from London

Greetings from London
I have just spent an hour pounding the pavement looking for an internet cafe...but voila, finally found a really cool one on Oxford St with 110 PCs...now that is more like a conference centre than a cafe!!! Well, the last time I emailed we were still in Killarney, a really lovely area of Ireland (it had to be as it is O'Shea country). We loved Ireland as the people are really friendly - very similar to Aussies in attitude and humour - and I must admit I find their accent the easiest to understand (not sure if that feeling is reciprocated though!) The scenery is breathtaking and varies widely from rugged mountains to rolling hills but the thing that never changes is that there are so many shades of green. Apparently Johnny Cash wrote a song called "40 shades of green" and I would totally agree. We had a great last night in Killarney and went to a pub (they're all Irish Pubs there!) for a great meal - we ended up staggering home at about 9.30pm as we were totally stuffed - it is amazing how tiring touring can be, even if you spend a lot of time sitting in a bus. We set off for Waterford the next day, but stopped along the way at Blarney Castle - we had been warned that it is a 200 step climb up a narrow spiral staircase but Gary was determined to kiss the Blarney Stone so off we trooped. Thankfully there was a slow moving line up the stairs so we took it very slowly and then when you get to the top a man hangs onto your thighs while you lie down on the ground and sort of hang (while holding onto a couple of bars), lean back and kiss the Blarney Stone. Because it is so high up, and I guess they are concerned things may fall, you have to take your glasses off. Anyway, to cut a long story short Gary managed to head butt the Blarney Stone (yep, actually had a bloody mark on his head) rather than kiss it. I, on the other hand, planted a perfect smooch right in the middle of the stone. Gaz was not amused, though we were! When you kiss the stone it is supposed to give you the gift of the gab (which I'm not sure I need more of) so I convinced Gary that he will just be a better thinker now as his head made contact. Anyway, all in all a memorable experience! We then travelled on to the Waterford Crystal factory which had some really nice stuff. One of our new friends, Jan, was telling me she like a chandelier but I couldn't quite believe it when she got back on the bus and had actually bought it...to put in her bedroom! I made a much smaller purchase! We spent the night in Waterford and then had a really early start the next morning as we had to catch the early ferry over to Sth Wales. So it was a sad goodbye to Ireland (and I did ask why we needed to go to South Wales when surely New South Wales must be heaps better and we know it pretty well). The ferry crossing was very smooth and once again Gary was fine with no problems at all. It was a long crossing - about 4 hours - so it was late afternoon when we arrived at Cardiff Castle which was an amazing place. It has some really amazing rooms, decorated by the very rich and eccentric owner in the 17 & 1800's. After a quick trip to our hotel for a shower and change it was back to the castle for our Welsh Banquet dinner, our last night. It was a fantastic night with good food, lots of singing, speaking welsh (Deeolk chariad (phonetic spelling) means thank you sweetheart and I used that a few times on the sexy waiters I can tell you), dancing etc. I was picked from the audience to dress in Welsh national costume and do a welsh clog dance - a sight to behold as you can imagine! We had a great night & it was a fitting farewell for the tour group who have all got on extremely well together. Our last day saw us leaving Cardiff and heading to Bath, something I had really been looking forward to - and I was not disappointed! We toured the Roman Bath Museum which was amazing and displayed very well what the site would have looked like 2000 years ago. I was then able to step into Bath Abbey for the 11am service, though I had to sneak out at 11.20 to catch the bus but I'm glad I experienced a little bit of the service. They have an amazing choir - the best church choir I've ever heard - and the Abbey was an amazing sight as well. Unfortunately to rendezvous with the bus I had to skip the sermon...oh well. Bath also had the most amazing Georgian architecture and looked like a city you could explore for some time...but unfortunately we only had 2 hours. Maybe we'll go back someday. We made a stop at Stonehenge on the way to London - another amazing place dating back to 5000 years ago! Then it was back on the bus for the last time and we headed into London, arriving at about 3.30pm. We checked into our hotel, said our goodbyes to all our new friends...and here we are. Gary has been waiting patiently for me while I have babbled on, so I will sign off now and we'll go and look for some dinner. We have 3 nights here in London before we head off to Hong Kong so no doubt we will get a bit more sightseeing in and experience some more adventures. Hope you are all well - thanks to those who emailed. loveP&G