Day 13

Day 13 We awoke needing a quick shower and back to the airport. We stopped for breakfast a lovely American breakfast which ended up costing more than R300 the most expensive breakfast I have ever had. We boarded our next KLM flight without a hitch. 12 hours and we would be home. We found our seats to have the best seats in the plane. Lyndsay did a great job pre booking and getting us seats right in the front row which meant we had no one in front of us and about a meter leg room. Lyndsay was very disappointed that she didn’t get a Christmas roast which is what she expected. However she did get Pizza so that wasn’t too bad. Toward the end of the flight we found out that the Soweto Gospel quire was on board and they sang Christmas carols for all the passengers which made the flight quite special. As we landed we looked through the cabin to business class and we saw a familiar face. Bakkies Botha. This made Lyndsay’s holiday it was the cherry on an excessively lavish cake. She got to meet Bakkies Botha! Seriously she got to meet him in person. He is enormous and he looked like he had just come out of a war but none the less a great experience. We had reached SA soil and it was great to be home. Hearing a Zulu accent I wish I could say to was good to hear but it was still fantastic to be home. Graham and Gail were waiting for us when exited the terminal and off went for our 45 minute trip home.

Day 12

Day 12 Our last day in England and we were ready to come home. England and France had been welcoming hosts but it was all drawing to an end. However as it was Christmas eve and were set to arrive on Christmas day we thought it would be a good idea to go to a normal centre and do some shopping. Ryan came to fetch us in his mini cooper bright and early in the morning as he too needed to do some last minute shopping. He brought Olivia and Cameron along but Cameron opted to stay with Joe which was going to guarantee him not getting a present from the shop. This did however mean that Ryan was going to have an opportunity to get his present. So off we went. Fortunately Sandra joined us in the morning because the Mini would have been a bit of a squeeze. We decided to go to the Harlequin which was an affordable centre quite close to Watford. The Harlequin was a typical centre pretty similar to kind we are accustomed to in South Africa. Similar to Canal Walk but not as big. So first mission Ryan had to find something for Natalie. So he bought him self a new pair of adidas trainers. In the mean while we had a mosey through Marx and Spencer where Lyndsay got a new bad to fit absolutely everything in (as it was huge) and she bought me my Christmas present a dress shirt and a tie. There was quite a weird market there they sold raw fish, cell phone covers etc. I could imagine this must have been what the Goodwood market must have once looked like. Olivia was sitting on my shoulders as she was quite tired of walking. In the market she decided she was really hungry and she wanted to eat there and then. We had planned to go to burger king, mostly because they are coming to South Africa and I really wanted to beat the hype. But Olivia insisted she was hungry now. So I took her to the fish store and asked her what she wanted. She promptly said fish is disgusting. So I said well if you are hungry now we can have fish. Or if you can wait we will go to burger king. She opted for burger king. When we arrived at burger king, Lyndsay informed me she really liked the charm bracelet that Ryan got Natalie, so I found a jewellery store and when and found Lyndsay a bracelet only to find out now that I could not have found a more expensive charm bracelet. Pandora Charms. So I bought her a bracelet and one charm of a little puppy as it is meant for special occasions. So burger king was pretty mediocre, we then had to make a move and get back home. So the four of us crammed into Ryan’s mini and back to the house. Joe was kind enough to get us back to the airport so we said our good buys at the airport and off we went to check in. We were really early at Heathrow so we checked in and decided to join Jono at Heathrow 3 terminal, we were 4. We had quite a leisurely lunch at an Italian themed restaurant at the airport. Alas were a bit too leisurely we said goodbye to Jono and rushed off, as Lyndsay and I found ourselves stressing out about missing our plane because we got stuck in to longest check in line possible. Where this child was kicking and screaming endlessly to the point that I began to think are these people kid napping them. Then of course I set off all the sensors. I had to take off my shoes my belt. Eventually though I made it through. Lyndsay and I made it to our line and we were able to breathe. We boarded our KLM flight back to Amsterdam and one and a half hours later we arrived. KLM slights have best waffles they give everyone. They were possibly the best waffles I have ever had. We had a 10 hour stopover in Amsterdam. This time we had booked a hotel the Ibis Hotel which was very nice. In my opinion the best hotel we had stayed at. Other then the Le Pierre which had the view of the mountain. A clean room nice shower and soft bed was all we needed as were just there to get some sleep. While we were waiting for the shuttle service to come fetch us and take us to the hotel we met a women from London. We asked her where she from and she informed us she was from Enfield in London. We were like oh we were there just the other night we walked through when we left the stoke game. She looked agasp! You weren’t walking around at night were you? She said astonished. We said yes we were trying to find a station, she responded you can’t to do that it’s not safe. We had a bit of a chuckle to ourselves and thought you live you learn. We arrived at the hotel and settled in for the night. Amsterdam is great it really is very beautiful and clean. It’s nice to be able to understand the mother tongue thanks to Afrikaans. Really a good experience however short.

Day 11

Day 11 Talk about a mystical experience and the hype of Harrods exploded as we stood like crazy fans waiting to get in to do our last minute Christmas shop. That is if we can afford something in that castle. Harrods only opened at 11:30 so as soon as the doors opened we rushed up the elevator to the Disney section as Olivia (Ryan and Natalie’s daughter) wanted to try on Cinderella’s glass slipper. Once there a prince fitted the slipper on Olivia’s foot but they never had her size. It sounds like she was one of the unfortunate ones not to marry her prince Charming. Instead she went to the mirrored Ballroom where she could try on any Disney character’s dress and spin around while you were waited on hands and foot by people dressed up in the tuxedo’s to assist you. Olivia walked away with a Repunzell dress with a hair piece extension just like her Disney hero. They certainly didn’t have this type of experience in my day. We passed Toy Story and Cars characters which just added to the adventure of Disneyland. I headed straight for Harrods pet store. This is for the Rich and Famous, where they take the dogs to the parlour to be groomed so they could be fit for the Queen. I must admit I thought that their dogs weren’t worth the price that they paid. One thing was for sure I was going to buy my little babies Christmas prezzies here, at Harrods! Duke and Bear got spoilt but the weirdest thing occurred while I wanted to pay. They told me that they could only accept my money at 12:00 and not a minute before. They had this strange law about only working for 6 hours on a Sunday. So there Brian and I stood like monkeys wanting to pay but couldn’t for 10 minutes. Finally the clock struck 12:00 and we could pay. The Harrods experience was amazing to say the least. We went down an escalator to the food court for lunch and Brian turned to me to say that the Singing over the speakers were Spectacular. Only then did he realise that it was a live Opera singer singing from her balcony to all the visitors of Harrods. What can we say, a different class altogether! Once at the Disney food court the children each received Mickey or Minney Mouse’s ears to get into the spirit of the day. The menu was spectacular with Disney castles and Tinkerbell printed on everything. Brian ordered a Chicken Mayonnaise sandwich with a Cranberry Lemonade while I ordered a Cheese pancake and a Cranberry Lemonade. My Pancake arrived with a Mickey Mouse’s head sprinkled on it with Paprika. Wow it looked special and it added to the entire mystical experience. This was until the bill came. Would you believe my Pancake came to 11, 50 Pounds alone forget the rest of the order. Never in my life have I had an R 190 pancake and juice. That just made me laugh, when Brian and I paid R 450 for our sandwiches. Thankfully we didn’t have to pay Ryan and Natalie’s bill as that was a joke. Well at least this doesn’t happen every day, a once in a lifetime experience for sure! No Harrods experience would be complete without tea and scones. After walking around in the castle as it is huge, the size I cannot explain. Visiting the harry potter Toy store, Jonathan and Brian boxing against one another while the crowd gathered to support them and cheer for them. Brian felt like a true victor after beating Jono. Once again the scones were very well priced at 6 Pounds for one scone and jam. So needless to say the little jam jars were going into my handbag as souvenirs. Brian got very excited when he saw a tv that he would love to buy until he saw the price- 81 000 pounds. Who in their right mind would pay over 1 million Rand for a tv. Finally it was time to leave after walking around Harrods for 5 hours as this was talking its toll on everyone. Ryan and Natalie got a shock of their lives when they had to pay 45 Pounds just for parking, thankfully we came by underground. As we left Harrods our next adventure was the London Eye. Marching around London what seemed to be late at night but it was only 5 o’clock in the evening. Once we arrived at the Eye we were great full to receive a discount of one person if we filled in a form. So that is exactly what we did so we borrowed a foreigner’s pen that could barely speak a word of English. The Eye was spectacular but first we went into another 4D cinema of how the London Eye was built and the history of London which included all the London sights seem from the Eye. The 4D cinemas are definitely something special. Just like the Eye itself. It was light up as the sun had already set. The blue light of the London Eye was resonating over the Thames River with Westminster Abbey glowing in the background in all its glory. It took approximately 30 minutes for one revolution of the Eye which was the perfect length as it gave you enough time to see Buckingham palace, Saint Pauls Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, London Tower and plenty other attractions that you could see from 900 m up in the air. Jonathan suffered a little bit as he is petrified of heights and he found himself sitting in the middle of the carriage staring at the floor so I am not sure how much he saw of London city centre light up at night. After buying some more London souvenirs we boarded the slow train back to Carpenders Park, Watford. Another day down and one more day to go.

Day 10

Day 10 The long and action packed days were taking its toll on us and Sandra and Joe’s accommodation was making it easy for us to lie in bed and read. This was very different from France where we were up and adam by 6:30. Today is the day where the excitement has been built up since we bought our Spurs vs Stoke tickets on line. For those of you who don’t know who it is. I is a football match at White Hart Lane. Jonathan is an avid Stoke fan so this was a major highlight for him but he had to keep is excitement under wraps as we were sitting in the Spurs fans side and they take their football very seriously. If you are caught supporting opposition who knows what amount of damage you could suffer, whether it be emotional or physical. We set off on our journey after wonderful conversation with James and Hayley while we were waiting for Joe to take us in his Jaguar to the train station. This seems to be an everyday occurrence, not that I mind. Following the crowd made it easier to find the station, thankfully it held 35 000 people and we were all heading in the same direction. WHITE HART LANE home to the Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club. Once we were standing outside the stadium on this overcast miserable day, everyone dressed in their winter woollies, beanies, scarves, Spurs jerseys over their thick coats, food was on the agenda. Talk about being well organised! We stood in the queue for not even 5 mins for our hamburger and chips. These they don’t sell inside the stadium which I thought was strange as we stand for hours to get our hotdogs when we went to Soccer city in Johannesburg to watch Linkin Park. These hamburgers were the biggest that I have ever seen or tried to eat, my mouth couldn’t even get a quarter of the way when I tried to bite it. Once that hit the spot Jonathan asked for some cold drink, so he took out his wallet for some pounds and Brian pipes up “ Gee Jono you have a lot of money, you must be rich” at the top of his voice. Talk about a silly thing to say and that is asking for riff raff to come and mug you. This definitely proved that Brian was a tourist novice. Now I definitely felt like a sheep following the heard into the stadium, going into slaughter, especially when you had to enter into the stadium. The vertical gate is only 50cm wide so it was a struggle for me to get in even when I was turned sideways. I don’t know how Jono and Brian felt squeezing in to the stadium. One thing I did notice is that they don’t sell any alcohol 15 minutes before the game has started. This is to stop all the hooligans during the game and causing trouble with the opposition. Our seats were stunning but the field was a lot smaller than on TV. The chorus of “COME ON YOU SPURS” resonated around the entire football pitch. Brian and I were wearing our newly acquired Spurs caps to try and blend in and screaming at the top of our lungs, while Jonathan just sat there soaking up the atmosphere wearing his Stoke city jersey underneath his closed jacket. There were some great shots and pretty talented individuals but unfortunately the result was 0 – 0. So I was a little disappointed that we never saw a goal. The experience was well worth it though. Only next time I would love to see my team Man United play at the Theatre of Dreams. When it came time to depart, the sun had set so the journey back to the train station looked very different. Needless to say we just followed the crowd again but to our dismay the crowd was not going to the train station where we arrived from. Eventually after walking in a rather dodgy area we realised that they we taking us in the wrong direction through Enfield. This area is not safe at night and it has a lot of let’s say interesting people walking around. This is where common sense had to play a major part in our survival. Thankfully we found a train station and caught the very next train out of there without any scary stories to tell and managed to make our way back to Sandra and Joe’s. Next thing on the agenda for the evening was for us to pay Sandra and Joe back for all their kindness shown to us throughout the past few days. They wanted us to go to a Fish and Chip shop for an “English” as Brian was going on about an “English” since the moment the plane touched down. It was a stunning fish Restaurant visited by plenty of famous people over the years. I know exactly why, their food was stunning and to die for. I even tried some and that says something as it was fish with chips and traditional mushy peas. A typical English meal and it was very well priced considering France and especially Paris. Conversation flowed and reminiscing about old stories from when my parents were first dating was on the topic of conversation. Great laughs and memories certainly filled the spirit for the night. Another action filled day came and went.

Day 9 We woke up again a little late; it would seem England was having that effect on us. Today we had a plan however and that plan was to head to Madame Tussauds, the wax museum. This morning Joe was able to drop us at Bushy station, which allowed us to catch the faster train into London. This was quite a treat as he now drives a new JAG which was an experience in itself. The train arrived and off we went. Arriving at Baker Station, we walked up a seemingly endless flight of stairs to find ourselves emerged right in front of a Sherlock Holmes statue, obviously now a very big part of English History even though it is a fictional character. Now we only had to walk the 200 meters to Madame Tussauds. Madam Tussauds was quite an experience even just walking in the door. There were flashes from cameras going off everywhere, especially from the Chinese people that got photos with themselves and their favourite stars. The detail on the sculptures was immense they say that each sculpture takes three months to produce and we could see why. We had one quite amusing moment as Lyndsay was waiting for a photographer to take a photo; she seemed to be taking ages until Lyndsay noticed that the photographer was in fact a model herself. There were models of all the stars: David Beckham, Brad Pitt ,Jonny Depp, Kate Winslet and Marylyn Monroe to name but a few. Lyndsay even got to have her picture taken with the stars of twilight. Not the Jonas Brothers Gail. We are sure the girls at school are going to be very jealous. We then continued to another room filled with sports stars which was a highlight for Jono as he got to hit Lewis Hamilton in the face. Lyndsay got her photo with Husain Bolt and I was just happy to be there. After that we continued into another part of Madam Tussauds, the place is huge which had all the music stars from different eras ranging from the Beatles , Queen, Robbie Williams, Brittany Spears , Lady Gaga and Miley Cirus which Jono was most happy about. Again just to name a few. They are constantly changing their figurines to keep up with the times. Then onto the films and movie section with huge sculptures of a dinosaur from Jurassic Park, Shrek and ET where Jono got a great photo of himself flying the bicycle with ET in the basket and I got a photo with Steven Spielberg while a dinosaur foot was about to trod on me. After this was the biggest hype in the world the haunted Madam Tussauds tunnel which had a sign next to it saying if you have heart problems don’t dare enter and if you are pregnant don’t enter and so on. I think the anticipation was more frightening then the event itself. After this we went into a room which had a ride in a little London taxis that took you through London’s History. Jono got himself a nice photo of this for his coffee mug, where Lyndsay and I were not sure where the camera was so when the flash went I was picking my nose and Lyndsay sneezed, so needless to say we never bought the photo. Then onto the Marvel room where sculptures of all the Marvel characters were on display, they had the full sized hulk which stood about two stories high. They had Iron man, captain America, Spiderman and wolverine. This was a fun room as we got to interact with all the characters and prepare ourselves for a 4D experience. This involves all of your senses as well watching a 3D movie. Once we had all gathered outside the cinema we put on our silly looking 3D spectacles and got to watch the Marvel 4D movie about how the Marvel characters save the queen from aliens. This was well timed as we saw this movie on the 21st December 2012 where according to certain individuals the world was going to end by aliens invading Earth at 11:11 am. Hard to explain all the smoke, wind and water on your face and scale of the screen, this was one of the most enjoyable experiences we had done so far in London. Then it was all over, 4 hours of money well spent and off to the next adventure. The scale of things in London is just unthinkable compared to what we are accustomed to in South Africa. I began to realise things are just a lot bigger there than in South Africa, there just seemed to be more people and more money going around. We left Madam Tussauds feeling great, now time for a walk down Oxford and Regent Street to get some Christmas shopping done. We caught the tube and made our way to Oxford Street station. As we emerged we found the place a buzz with thousands of people everywhere and they too were all on their way to do their Christmas shopping. I wanted to see Hemleys, which is the biggest toy store in the world. This however was on Regent Street near Piccadilly Circus. We knew we were going in the right direction because of all the Hemleys bags we could see as we passed. But first we stopped on at the Ferrari store for Jono, possibly the biggest highlight for Jono was where he got to see a real life Ferrari F1 race car in full size. Lyndsay and I bought him his Christmas present there so I am sure it made it extra special. Then we arrived at a very packed Hemleys. London is very different in the way they do things. You don’t just walk in the store and try and find something, they physically sell it to you by having employees there constantly displaying the toys as you pass. So all over the place there are helicopters flying around and people throwing boomerangs and balloon Frisbees to name a few toys that whizz passed you. They all try to catch your attention and this was quite the experience. You can’t help but feel like a kid in this store. I even encounted the coolest toy I have ever seen which is a remote controlled car which drives on walls and ceilings. I could not understand how it worked but it was pretty amazing. After walking up 5 flights of stairs we came across the Harry Potter section which caught my eye this held my attention for quite some time as there were wands, brooms, uniforms and quilts, you name it was there. We also managed to purchase a princess book for Olivia to add to her giant princess chocolate coin as it was her birthday later that evening. At this stage we were all exhausted and in need of some food. So we made our way to Piccadilly Circus and found KFC as Jono had noticed in France that they still had the double crunch meal which was his favourite in South Africa but they stopped making it. Alas as was Jono’s luck they did not have that burger. They did however have this awesome baguette sized burger which went down a treat on the train back to Watford. As we arrived back to Watford it was time to leave, as we were going with Sandra and Joe to Olivia’s birthday party. Natalie had prepared an entire Christmas dinner for us which was amazing. Ham and pea soup for a starter, Turkey, Brussels, roasted tatties the whole shebang! The plate could definitely feed the masses. We were very lucky to be spending such a great evening with them. Celebrating Olivia’s 5th birthday and watching her excitement opening up all of her presents. Great time was had by all as we left at about 01:00 after a stunning chat and a few laughs. On the way home we got onto the subject of politics much to Jono’s dismay and it was really interesting to hear Joe’s thoughts on the matter. Then exhaustion crept upon us as we all turned in for the night.

Day 8

Day 8 We woke up the next day after a long lie in which was our first of the holiday. So we got out of bed about 09:00, it would seem Lyndsay, Jono and I were all in need of a little rest. So what was the plan. London of course but with London offering so many sights we needed to decided where to begin. Lyndsay really wanted to see the Tower of London as she was not given the chance to do this the last time she was in town. So off we went on our first real tube on our London adventure. Sandra was very kind and dropped us off at Bushy station which allowed us to catch the Overground to Euston station which allowed us to use the underground to reach our first destination to Tower Hill Station and up the stairs to street, possibly the most disorientating trip I have ever taken. But there we were now to get our tickets and check out the tower. While we were at the tourist ticket shop we were able to purchase our tickets to the Tower and Madam Tusauds. R1950 later for the three of us! As I nearly fell over, the lady at the till told me I should never look at the conversion rate. Jono agreed, easy for him to say he is rich on this holiday apparently. The Tower was something special to behold. We started off in the torture chamber; England in those days must have been a cruel and nasty place, with clergymen being tortured for apparent treason, with only one prisoner ever escaping. We continued toward the armory which was really quite stunning. We saw suits of armor from each English period ranging from the Tudor’s to the Winsor’s. Seeing the weapons that were used and getting to play with them put in that era. The length of the Jousting rods and seeing the size of each kings horse and their medieval swords and guns were something special. There were armor suits for children, Henry VIII who had two suits of armor which was pretty amusing as he got older he seemed to get substantially larger. Then we were on to view the crown jewels, and they were definitely something to view, The Cullinan diamond is enormous, with half of the diamond in a scepter and the other half in a the queens crown. Half the diamond is approximately 6 inches tall by 2 inches wide it really was enormous. A crown and scepter is made for every announced ruler so we were able to view a lot of sparkles and the different crowns through the ages. Later we walked around the Tower which offered a view of the Thames and the Chaud, (new office block made completely of glass and in the shape of a triangle) We then took a walk across Tower Bridge and then attempted to find Big Ben which, Lyndsay informed us was not in fact that big and that she had spent ages trying to find it in the past. So off we continued to walk and walk till eventually we opted to stop for some lunch. We found this really nice little coffee/sandwich shop in the middle of what seemed to be the London business district. Jono had a really nice looking Lasagna, Lyndsay had a cheese and ham Panini, and I had a turkey and beetroot sandwich, I did not realize a it had beetroot and as we all know I can’t stand the stuff. Somehow however, this sandwich was really good and I might actually contemplate making it for myself one day. We then decided just randomly walking around London was not going to get us to Westminster Abby so we found the closes tube station and caught a tube to Westminster station. Up one escalator and a flight of stairs looked up and we were right in front of Big Ben. It was dark by now as it was 16:30 , Thus Big Ben was lit up in a beautiful golden colour with green lighting at the top. It was a bit weird outside the station as there we a bunch of people dressed up in cow boy and clown suits and masks, some of them just had normal clothes on with random masks. I wasn’t quite sure what it was that they were doing but they freaked me out a bit as I could not see their faces. One of them blew a kiss at me as I walked past, this had me on full alert but we walked on and left them behind. We then wanted to take the walk to Buckingham Palace; our guide at this point was getting a bit confused as she was sending us in the wrong direction. I eventually cracked and asked someone for directions only after Lyndsay realized she was going in the wrong direction. We then noticed a garden which was filled with steel statues of famous people this was called Leavers square, we caught a piece of Africa as we noticed one of Nelson Mandela. Also Winston Churchill who looked surprisingly like Jono and there were other famous British Icons dating back a long time. We then continued our approximate 2km walk to Buckingham Palace. Finally after wondering the streets in London and seeing all their detailed buildings and statues scattered around, we found it. We took the walk down the Mall toward the palace and took some photos. The Queen was in as the union Jack was flying at full mast. She put her head out the window and waved to us as we stood there. No she didn’t just joking. Buckingham was possibly the least impressive building we had seen thus far compared to the Palace of Versailles in France but none the less was an enjoyable walk. We then walked admittedly by mistake around the whole palace walls and then to the closest tube station (which wasn’t so close) for the trip back to Watford. We walked under the road in pedestrian subways and dodging people as we found ourselves standing outside a Starbucks. This would be the 5th one we have gone into on our journey in search of an Eggnog Latte. Thankfully they had one. Once trying the Eggnog Latte and Jono and Lyndsay had a Hot chocolate, it was decided that Starbucks is grossly overrated. We caught the slow train back into Watford as this would allow us to arrive at Carpenders Park Station which meant that we only had to walk about 1km to Sandra and Joes. This was definitely the easiest option. So for 45minutes we sat on the train I read the paper and Lyndsay was engrossed by her book on the Ipad, Jono had a couple of ZZZ. We got in at about 20:00 after an abundantly full day. Sandra welcomed us to an exceptional dinner of oven Pizza, a wonderfully welcome meal after a day of walking the town flat. After chatting with Sandra and Joe till about 23:00, they seem to go to bed really late. We finally turned in for the night!

Day 7 travel back to England

Day 7 An early rise in order to ensure we got to our taxi on time. This time 24 euros for the same trip we paid 18 for 2 days before. We figured extra was charged to it being so early. Lyndsay had also read that it was so difficult to get a taxi license in Charmonix that there were very few taxis and they charged whatever they wanted. We settled our bill at the hotel and caught our taxi to the train station where we had to wait for about 20 minutes for our train to arrive. After a 45 minute trip we arrived back in St Gervais for a quick change of trains to Anacy where our ticket said we needed to change trains to continue to Lyon. As we got off the train we saw 5 different trains in the station so we approached an official and asked for assistance. The official informed us that our train was the one we needed to be on so we lugged our luggage back onto the train and caught the same one to Lyon. Once in lyon we the adventure began as we did not have an idea of how we were going to get to the airport as we did not know where it was in relation to the station. Fortunately I spotted a sight with an aeroplane on it and we followed it to find a tram station which said airport. 45 euros and we were on the tram. I was thinking maybe it would have been cheaper to catch a taxi. Thankfully we didn’t as the it seemed as if the airport was in a different city we were on the tram for so long. Lyon did not offer the beauty of the rest of France it seemed to be the more industrial side of the country, a lot of factories and graffiti everywhere. It definitely seemed be more slum like with no painted walls, Obviously we only saw certain parts of the city as we were following the tram line however. We made it to the Airport thank goodness as this was the one worry of Lyndsays. Once there we caight our flight on Easyjet to Standstead where we caught a train involving three stops to Bushy station where Sandra was going to fetch us. 85 pounds later and our most expensive train ride yet. We finally made it back to Sandra and Joes, 15 hours of train, tram, plain, and automobile rides later and we could finally put down our combined weight of 60kg bags and settle in with nice hot drink.