Homeward bound

This is the final blog entry for Europe 2012. It has been a massive effort writing a blog each day, but we know that it is something that will look back on and have many laughs with. It has been awesome watching the stats and seeing people from different countries reading along. We love a stat!

So this morning it was a packing effort and a half trying to work out the new items and the allowances for both the checked and on board luggage. After checking out about 10:30am, we headed into town again as we wanted to go and see the Avenue of the Stars and the Bruce Lee statue. It was so hot down there, even right beside the harbour area.

Off for a nice Japanese lunch before heading to the hotel for a bit of a relax. This gave us an opportunity to get online prior to taking the transfer bus out to the airport. After passing through immigration, we had just enough Hong Kong cash to buy one big iced coffee to share. It was a touch embarrassing, yet funny at the same time. We've been pretty good with spending close to the mark, as foreign exchange places won't take coins. With their fees, it's often better to buy anything rather than losing it in the exchange.

Before heading off from the airport, there were a few online chats with Lauren, Shelley, Beth and an amusing Face Time chat with Myles. It is exciting to be coming home, except for the fear of returning to work. The plane ride itself has actually been pretty easy, although neither of us has slept.

On a final note, thank you to all of you who have taken the time to read, flick through, look at pics and even make comments. It really added to our trip and fueled the fire to stay motivated. We look forward to catching up with you either in Australia, online or face to face on a new overseas adventure! :)

Dude, where's my day?

We actually booked the hotel breakfast today, so that we could have the convenience of repacking at our leisure for the international flight to Hong Kong. There was a lot of strategy that went into the packing, taking into consideration all of the shopping and a bonus of 10 kilos on board with British Airways. We are intending on getting more luggage in Hong Kong for shopping if required. It is easy pre Qantas departure, to pay a cheaper price online for additional luggage. Bring on the shopping!

In addition to our packing, we had a very luxurious 12pm checkout! Woot. As it was absolutely belting down outside, we took the checkout time to the maximum and found the cleaners eagerly awaiting our departure outside of our room when we finally left.

Back in Central London, we put our bags in the King's Cross lockers once again. This time we did not have to pay extra for our mate Boxey! We basically killed him and disbursed his contents more strategically into the other luggage. Bang! Sorry Venice post office, we managed to get away without having to send the contents after all! Woot! 95€ more to spend in Hong Kong. Hahahahaha!

When we came to London at the beginning of the trip we ended up doing and seeing so much. Today after heading in late with all of our luggage, we decided to go to Leicester Square to see a movie. We saw a very funny film called 'What to expecting when you're expecting.' A highly entertaining movie that many of our friends could relate to!

The movie length and the time needed to get out to Heathrow was pretty damn spot on. Once there we enquired about the Hong Kong duty free allowances, but were talked into buying a new French sparkling pink liqueur. It was fantastic. We drank a third before getting on the plane, then managed to sneak the rest during the flight. The guys at duty free even gave us cups. More like a pink champers than a liqueur in alcoholic strength.

Tan: The plane ride was a bit over 11 hours. I had to sit next to the unaccompanied child, who was about 13ish. I'm on holidays!! What the? Apparently their policy is to have them next to a female....apparently Richard is less dodgy than me! Hahahaha. Anyway, all was cool till she kicked me a couple of times. I'm not sure if she was dreaming, but she scared the living crap out of me! PS we almost had our grog confiscated...close one!

We landed safely and with very little worry, we changed up a whack of cash for shopping expeditions and found our transfer to the hotel.

After rest at the hotel and a quick shower and change, it was definitely dinner time. We lost time with the flight, but managed to limit the jet lag by coming to Hong Kong as a shopover!! No that was not a typo. We are staying at an incredibly luxurious hotel right on the harbour. It is a fair distance from the shopping, but the hotel offer a free shuttle bus every 30 minutes right to the heart of the action. So awesome!

Dinner was fabulous, but this was our second location. The first was traditional Chinese and was too Chinese for us to handle. Intestines, stomach, hooves...need we go on? We think not. Apparently lemon chicken isn't traditional, but it is so damn good! We walked over the road and had an absolutely fantastic Vietnamese dinner with spring rolls, two mains and drinks for $20....Asia....SO CHEAP!

A fantastic day in the Bright lights, Big City! Thanks Cee-Lo Green.

Budget blow-out (Hong Kong SHOP-over)!

This blog should be after 'Dude, where's my day?' We can't fix the time stamps till we get home.

KABOOOOOM!!!! Ok so stop one was cheap, only $20 for lunch at a wicked Japanese restaurant. So, so good. Next stop, not so good....a Canon 5D and awesome lense ('The His') and a Canon 7D to use with the old camera's lenses ('The Hers'). Oops, we forgot we were supposed to be buying an engagement ring, a new couch and having a wedding! Oh well, it's only money. We blame interest rate cuts for manipulating us!

Next stop: The Ladies' Market. Don't be fooled, it was for all, just had to suck in those most likely to spend first and foremost! A big spend up...well not too bad, it was only a market. Three genuine imitation bags, six pairs of shoes, a purse, two hats, a dress, three phone covers and nothing for the male of the group!

Rich: It was interesting to watch Tan bargaining at the various stalls along the Ladies' market. I think she got some very good deals and we felt very happy with the purchases. Tan was channeling your Phuket bargaining style Beth! At one stage we asked a random girl shopping whether the shoes Tan were getting were a good bargain and she said to press a little more, so we did. Bonus!

We had a fun and cruisey day making the most of the free shuttle after the massive spend. We took our stuff back to the hotel, so that we could assess the packing situation. We were a little concerned we may have needed to buy another piece of luggage. Initially it was looking like another big check on piece, but we didn't go quite as nuts as first imagined.

We tripped out and about one more time for dinner at a nice little place, which had more of a Chinese feel. It was ok, nothing too special, but still nice. Back at the hotel it was a great opportunity to look at the lights on the harbour and take a few snaps with the cameras. We see snap offs (much like a dance off) in our future. With Stacey and Mick's wedding fast approaching, we hope to be able to capture many fantastic memories for those guys! Yay!

On a warm and balmy Hong Kong evening, a cheeky drink called our names at the outdoor Harbour Bar. Last night celebrations...Yes Please! Plane ride tomorrow arvo...:( On the upside, catch up with everyone :)

HARRY POTTER!

Well given that we didn't have any pressing engagements for the morning, it was a relaxing start to the day. We actually ended up moving rooms as the adventures for check in last night were bizarre.

Firstly, we got in about 11:30pm from the train and had no idea where the hotel was. Eventually we found it, then got our room. Twin bed...hello Ma and Pa Kettle, or even Burt and Ernie for our younger blog readers! We requested a change, so we toddled off to the next room, but it was actually dirty as if someone was still in there. There were room service plates and the joint stank, so it was back down stairs to reception. We laughed and ended up chatting to the guy and got the original room we were given! This morning we were able to change to a fantastic double that amply made up from last night's fun.

We headed off around 11am to the local train station into King's Cross. We are staying out of town because the Sonisphere Festival that we originally booked was cancelled. Unfortunately we weren't able to cancel our Stevenage accommodation, hence training it in!

£10 each for breakfast...no thank you! That was the price at a discount for booking in early. We decided to go in and have a beautiful big lunch and missed breakfast. It was nice cruising in London and enjoying a hearty soup each, as well as sushi and a berry yoghurt. It was fabulous and just less than the price of the offerings of the hotel. In the majority of our hotels / hostels, breakfast was included, so we never even thought about it.

Our main tour for today was going to the Harry Potter studio tour at Warner Brothers. Our ticket included a pick up and drop off bus service from Baker Street station. This was very convenient for us, as it was very close to King's Cross station. The bus took us way out of central London, but well worth the overall effort.

It took 10 years or so to produce all
8 films and luckily for us, they opened up an awesome tour of the props, secrets, set designs and so much more in only March of this year. Given that our concert was cancelled, we needed something else to do and this was right up our Diagon Alley!

We thought about lining up for the green screen feature so we could ride a broomstick in a quidditch match, but it was going to be a 45 minute wait so we decided against it. Apparently there are more adults keen on this than the kids.

All in all, we really had a good time revisiting all aspects of this brilliant series. We would highly recommend to all fans of the books and films to go if you have the chance. This is a classic created during our lives and we expect will be a story that continues to capture the imagination of many people for many generations to come. Bring on the Harry Potter-athon!

After our Harry encounter, we decided to walk from Baker Street back to the King's Cross area for some much needed air. There had definitely been some inclement weather earlier in the day, but on our walk the skies were clear and the weather was quite warm. Winner...we have had many lucky breaks across the past 10 weeks, but we will be pulled back down to earth on our return journey to wintery Melbourne!

For dinner it was convenient to eat in the King's Cross area, as we needed to hop another train back out to Stevenage. We opted for Indian, as we hadn't had any for long time and the English have an excellent reputation for Indian cuisine. It did not disappoint! Yet another taste sensation on our fabulous gastronomic tour of Europe.

We took the train back out and reminisced about the fabulous day that we'd had. London is an awesome bustling city and one that we would not hesitate to visit again.