minicabradio

Los Angeles

2008-07-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

A view of LA from La Cienega Blvd
The capitol records building
the stars on the walk of fame

Mulholland Drive

the Hollywood Sign as seen from Mulholland Drive

A house from The Big Lebowski, honest, dude.
the house from Benson

Beverly Hills
One of the signatures at the chinese theatre
The Chinese Theatre

We didn't plan to go to LA but fortunately our flights gave us a whole day in the city. We had a day room booked on La Cienega Blvd (my second Ryan Adams reference after standing on the corner of 44th and Broadway) We caught a cab into Hollywood to Manns Chinese Theatre to go on a tour we had booked from NZ since we only had 12 hours we thought we'd check out a bit of the city. Headed through Sunset Strip, hollywood blvd, Santa monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, west hollywood etc etc. Drove down the 'Beverly Hillbillys street, saw the osbournes house, bela lugosis old house that has been bought by johnny depp, a house used in the Big Lebowski, the Viper Room, Whiskey a Go Go, and many other hollywood sites, up and along Mulholland with a view of the hollywood sign etc. Back to the Chinese Theatre for some shopping at the guess store and Virgin megastore and wandered down to the corner of Hollywood & Vine and a view of the famous circular Capitol Records building. We then caught a cab with a really nice driver (we'd had a few, the guy in Dublin was nice too) Dimitri from Russia (or as he clarified later some country between poland and Russia), who also mentioned the amount of drunk driving in LA and how a tourist couple had been run down & killed by a drunk the night before pretty much on the block he had picked us up on. We headed back to the hotel and then on to the airport for our 12hour flight back, and our shambollock 2 hour changeover for our flight back home to winter, a weird feeling.

New York City

2008-07-17T01:22:00.000-07:00

A view of the Empire State from the Empire State Building

New York at night

Ground Zero

the Flatiron Building
The Carlton Hotel(& a yellow cab)

Part of Central Park
No Soup For You! forever! (it's closed down)

The Chelsea Hotel

The Hudson River loooking out to New Jersey

Times Square

Um, the picture explains itself

Got into New York and got a charming New York yellow cab driver(thats sarcasm by the way) not a terribly pleasant start to our visit. The cabs are fairly high tec with a TV in the back and the first thing we see on the news is a thing about a near miss with two planes on a runway at JFK airport(the one we just left). So we got to our 'blow out hotel' of the tour which made up for some of the grot we had stayed in, The Carlton on Madison Avenue, Manhatten, very nice, and nice staff. We went out for a walk in humid heat, and around the block was the Empire State building, we cheesed it down to Museum of Modern Art(MoMA) to see a Dali exhibition they had on. The staff there were great and we ended up seeing some amazing art work such as his Persistance of Memory(the melted clocks one) and the Metomorphosis of Narcissus and many other uber famous Dali paintings (though strangely after 3 exhibitions -London, Figures, New York, we still had not seen one of the 'elephant' paintings). Then we wandered up to The ed Sullivan theatre(The David Letterman show) and down Broadway to Times Square, and off to Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building, and back to The Carlton where Steph and her flatmate Jen were also staying with us and we headed out for food, except Steph, whos order never turned up, bummer. Had an unexpected 6.5 hours sleep!
The girls got up and went on their 'sex and the city bus tour' which I obviosly declined. i planned out a route and wandered exuberantly through an amazing New York sunday morning down to the 'flatiron building' (the triangle one you'd know if you saw it, was the worlds tallest building in 1903) and on through Chelsea down to The Chelsea Hotel, visited by the likes of Jack Kerouac, but probably most famous for the fact Sid killed Nancy there, so I popped in to the foyer for a look round. On down to The Hudson River where I wandered along and cut back down and saw the Soup Nazis Kitchen from Seinfeld, and on to Central Park. on my way to Mannys, and Sam Ash guitar stores i came across Radio City Music Hall and NBC theatre. Bought myself an Ebow after a few accent problems (an 'E'bow, 'E'bow, 'E', no not a 'capo', an 'E'bow, 'E', 'E', 'E'bow, maybe I should have said 'A'bow) Mannys is uber impressive, with signed photos all over the walls of anyone you can imagine, anyone, Stones, beatles, Clapton, NY Dolls, The Doors, Dylan, Hendrix, Zeppelin, ACDC, Ozzy, Dean Martin, anyone.
Went back and met the girls and headed down Broadway. We caught a cab out to Pier 17 where we got tickets for the 7pm 'water taxi' and then went down to a Clothes Store and i went and checked out 'Ground Zero' though you can't see much, a lot of construction and cranes etc. went back and jumped on the water taxi (our tour guide was reminded me of dolemite, trying to rap and rhyme all his commentaries, hilarious) so we headed out to the statue of liberty , ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge and got back an hour and a half later, just in time to miss the 'Bodies' exhibition across the street by 5 minutes. So we decided to walk to Little Italy for some food, which took a little longer due to our map being a little innacurate and Chinatown taking up a bit more room than indicated. After dinner caught a cab to The Empire State building (which is open till 2 am) where the girls went up the top for a look. After al the other frak outs in towers and steepleshalf that height I new it would be too much for me, and it was windy emough at ground level, so I sat it out, Deb later confirmed I would have lost my insides if I'd gone. Back to the hotel for a solid 1.45 hours sleep before our cab ride to Newark Airport. New York at 4am Sunday is actually very quiet for the city that never sleeps. we did see the rats coming out of the (steaming during the day) sewer grates to climb up the rubbish bins and inside to get their nightly dinner, rather fascinating actually.

Back to London, again

2008-07-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

The boys

Deb and a squirrel

So Friday was our last day in London on this trip, so of course what else would be top of our list(I mean Debs) but to feed the squirrels in St James Park. They sure like nuts. Then off to Blackfriars Pub, which according to Steph is a few hundred years old (though there was that whole Abbey Road thing, haha) for the worst tasting warm local beer of the entire trip. Then off to dinner with Scott, Justin & Rita, Big Mal, J Baz. then down to a pub for a Becks Vier (which was the product i initially was in the advert for, though it's now a generic Becks ad). Then back to Stephs for an awesome 3 hours sleep for our flight to New York City.

Dublin

2008-07-17T00:38:00.000-07:00

Grogans (what else would you call a bar)

A view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar

Dublin was a brief but pleasant visit. We only spent one night there but I really enjoyed the city. we stayed with a freind of mine I had worked with at sounds in NZ named Cormac and his wife Caroline who treated us royally (or grandly as the Irish would say). after catching up at their house for a while we toddled down to the Guiness factory and ended up on the Gravity Bar for a surprisingly nice pint of Guiness, and after that headed out to a restaurant for a nice dinner and then on to Grogans Bar (I know, hilarious) for another Guiness and on to The Bernard Shaw(which was unfortunately closing) and wandered down past the river for our first(but nt last of the trip) sighting of rats and back to Carmacs around 12.30am for a solid 5 hours sleep till our next flight. Sigts of note we passed, Dublin Castle and church where St Valentine is buried(how romantic).

Barcelona

2008-07-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Dali Museum

A ceiling in the Dali Museum
The famous Mae West room in the Dali museum

Steph and Deb on the roof of La Pedrera(the other weird looking things are chimneys)

view of Sagrada Familia from Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell
Parc Guell

After about 3 hours sleep and a near death early morning cab ride we caught a plane to barcelona.
After checking in and wandering down La Rambla and having lunch we headed out to the first of our Antoni Gaudi based expeditions which took up most of our time in Barcelona. Gaudi is a famous architect who died around 1920 and his most famous work The Sagrada Familia church is still undr construction and is still only about 50% finished.
We headed up to Guell Parc (Park Guell) and got there late afternoon (Barcelona continued our hot summer, around 36 degrees). we spent a good couple hours wandering around the famous gardens, sculptures, and Gaudi house. It was here that we were disturbed of the trend we first encountered in Prague we had noticed of people(females) doing absurd model type posing for there simple holiday photos and obviously taking themselves a little too seriously, it was in the park that we noticed this disturbing trend had seeped down to girls just over the age of ten, so what to do but start doing silly model poses ourselves. We then headed back into La Rambla and sat for a meal for an hour or 2 and then watched a couple of the many buskers. Barcelona interestingly gets busier as the day goes on, and around 10pm is busier than during the day.
The next day we headed straight for the sagrada Familia and spent a couple hours there, I continued my trend of going up high towers and spending then next half hour freaking out till we got back to ground level. very impressive structure. Then off to La Pedrera & Casa Battlo and for more Gaudi architecture. We then jumped on a 2 hour bus tour of the city (where we tried to stay awake) then to Hard rock cafe for an average meal and a wander around the shops, then off down our street(where we of course got offered drugs) back to the hotel.
our 3rd day in Barcelona started with more Gaudi at Palau Guell and off to Cathedral Musique de Catalonya to caheck out the impressive glass domed ceiling. We had impulsively decided to head out to Figures(we had joked about the idea but not too seriously till now) on a 2 hour train ride to Salvador Dalis home town to see the Musee Dali he had set up about 20 years before he died(impressive ego, set up your own museum while you're still alive) We were catching a late night flight so by the time we got there and back we had nearly 2 hours there in the nice little town and it was definitely worth the visit. By the time we flew and metroed and taxid back to Stephs house in Putney it was 2am for a solid 4 hours sleep for our flight to dublin the next morning.

Back To London

2008-07-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

daoR yebbA

(non)Wooly Mammoth (thats probably about 2.5 meters long!)

After paris We did a long drive back to Calais and across the Ferry to the white cliffs of Dover and on to London. We got in around 5.30pm Saturday and caught a minicab to stephs house out in Putney. We then headed back in to some Irish pub (O'reillys I think) just of Picadilly Circus for some drinks with Scott, Justin, j Baz, Ange & Deano for my birthday which was on the sunday. we were pretty knackered and Steph bought me the most salted tequila ever digested and we headed home about 12.30.
We slept in the next day till about 1 (we had had limited sleep for the last 3 or 4 weeks and it was nice to get at least one good sleep, little did we know it would be the only one in the entire 6 weeks) and headed into town where we went to the natural history museum and checked out all the gigantic full Dinosaur skeleton (and a woolly mammoth skull, which made up for Prague, and one moa) displays which were rather impressive.
we then headed to Harrods upon debs demand and walked into the ground floor full of stockings handbags, shoes etc and my heart sank when I realised I was in for the most boring hour or 2 of my life. I took some money and wanered with an air of carelessness for money since it was my birthday and proceeded to wander aimlessly through more handbags, cufflinks, sports coats, polo shirts, jackets worth about $1500NZ, and after a couple floors realised that was that, untill I noticed a sign with music on it, my heart a flutter I quickened my pace and came across guitars and grand pianos (one worth 80,000pounds and probably more) and after spending about 15 minutes there walked through the next door into the cd/dvd sections where I spent the next hour and a good ammount of money (ironically Deb and Steph only bought one pair of stockings and didn't think much of it.
Off to Abbey Road, why not, we were in London after all. After picking one of the 2 Abbey Roads on the map Steph thought it was the right one, and after a long metro/walk we finally came across the famous crossing and studio. Since Steph had been there before and claimed that they had checked on a postcard and everything as to the accuracy of how to take the photo we went along (though I did announce my doubts) as it turned out we did cross the wrong way as we passed a fridge magnet about 5 minutes later, doesn't matter, I find it pretty amusing really.

Paris

2008-07-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Arc de triumphe
The Champs Elysee

the Catacombs

the double stare of death

La Rotonde cafe was a popular hangout for the likes of Miller and Dali

I was looking forward to Paris, and it was the last stop on the Contiki before we headed back to London for a week of more of our own stuff.

The first night was a nightmare. we headed into town to see Montparnasse, the adopted home of Henry Miller, the home of the only skyscraper in Paris(because once they built it they thought it was so ugly for the landscape they passed a law to not build anymore apart fro in the financial district of course, says it all). The bus driver was awesome, the attendant at the subway was appaling, and with a couple of shady characters floating around us we wondered why we'd stuck ourselves in the paris metro without being able to speak french an not really knowing how to get where we were going. We quickly got ourselves sorted and headed into town. The next change over seemed sweet and we were doing nicely untill they booted everyone off because the next 3 stops were under maintenance. we then spent the next 50 minutes going in a loop round the metro stations to get to the next stop which should have taken minutes(here is where I point out we are not morons, but also not the most metro savvy, considering we don't even use the busses in Wellington). Anyway, we finally made it to Tour Montparnasse to go up for a view over Paris at night after our nightmare metro escapade, which took nearly 2 hours from the campsite(probably about a 45minute trip) and walked in to get tickets to be told it had closed 5 minutes ago, I pointed out my brochure which said 11.30pm and was told tickets close half an hour before that. Awesome. So we walked out to Rue de la Montparnasse and strolled down past the cafes which were once haunts of Henry Miller and Dali and Picasso. We then proceeded to have another nightmare trip home, which ended with us leaving a suburbian metro station, asking for directions to the taxis(the buses had closed for the night) and the guy only spoke french and walking aimlessly down a god knows where suburb at 1.30 in the morning wondering how long it would take to get robbed. Luckily we found a stray taxi after a few blocks and got home.

the next morning we headed into town with the group and had an awesome day to make up for last night. We got off the bus and strolled down the Champs Elysees to the Arc De triumphe from where we caught a metro to the Eiffel Tower, and another to Montparnasse and went into the Catacombs, which you end up above ground 4 blocks away from where you went in after walking past the remains of 600,000 people! We then had to skip the panthenon (or does paris have the Pantheon? i'm pretty sure it's not the Parthenon, it's all too confusing, we had seen one of the 3 in Rome anyway) and headed to Notre Dame, and amazingly detailed gothic church which didn't have any hunchbacks.From there we headed down for a quick visit to The Louvre(not the best kind of visit for such a huge museum) and popped into say hi to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Then we headed up to Montmatre and saw the Sacre Coure(spelling?) and went to a nice french restaurant for dinner before heading to La Nouvelle Eve for a cabaret show(not far from Moulin Rouge) involving dancing, breasts, acrobatics,comedy, and more, i was sceptical but it was amazing and we had a ball, I'm off to the next Cirque de Soleil or any similar show that comes to town next time.

Switzerland

2008-07-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

Deb in the Swiss countryside

Deb and I at the 'top of europe'

the swiss sunset

We had quite a drive from Forence up into the Swiss Alps. We stopped in Lucern for a couple hours and checked out the swiss army knives and swatches. We spent up some large $ on a nice pair of Italian leather shoes each(the irony that the shop we bought them from prided itself on the 'made in switzerland' theme and the fact we had just come from 6 days in Italy ourselves was not lost on us). We then headed into th alps and man was it a postcard view the whole way. Even when the thunder and lightning came as we drove high up the alps surrounded by picturesque lakes was a spectacular sight of nature. There was snow on some of the peak so it wasn't the warmest and the red sunset on the mountains was awesome. We spent the next day going up jungfraujoch(spelling?) a mountain peak with the highest lookout in Europe and the highest postoffice in the world. Needless to say we sent a postcard and went out into the snow and checked out the 'ice palace' and went up to the lookout. A 2 hour train ride takes you up the mountain and it was well worth it. The 2 hour train ride down coupled with the dramatic change of altitude put most asleep or at least uber drowsy. back to camp for dinner an some drinks.

Some more photos

2008-07-06T15:55:00.000-07:00

Florence at Night...
Deb and David

Us at the Colliseum

Um, I think thats the colliseum
Venice...
Me and a G'N'R signed Les Paul at the Hard Rock Cafe in Munich
Deb and giant pretzel in Berlin

Rome & Florence

2008-07-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

We headed into Rome about 3 on a saturday and cheesed it to the Vatican as it closes at 4.30 and is not open on sundays. there was no line ( which is unheard of) and we spent 2 hours (not that long considerably) going through the exhibitions(which includes a strange newish part which had a Dali in it) and headed through to the Sistine Chapel and St Peters which are uber impressive structures. Then went on a quick walking tour in the heat and the next morning did a tour through the colliseum and the forum on a day which was apparently 39 degrees (and I believe it as we were nailed by 10am in the heat and were dripping with sweat all day and were not terribly motivated in the immense heat. We went around some more sights (Parthenon, spanish steps, trevi fountain, palazzo navona etc etc) and had some more pizza and pasta and tonnes of water and gilatti.

We headed off to Florence which I liked but we didn't have enough time there and were unfortunatley there on a monday when the museums are closed (so we didn't get to go to the uffizi for the art or the accadamia for the statue of david) but we did wander around and went to santa croce where michealangelo is buried and the Duomo etc and hung out in Florence at night which was really nice(apart from the drug deal going down about 30 meters from the 2 cops in cop car).

Some photos at last

2008-06-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

1. Chuck by the river in Prague with Prague Castle in the background
2. Deb looking uncomfortable in the rain in Holland
3. One of many ceilings in the vatican, unfortunately our camera battery ran out not long after, we did make it to the Sistine Chapel though, and St Peters basilica.

Munich - Austrian tyrol - Venice

2008-06-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

So, this is a bit of a ruched one as well, off to Rome tomorrow.

MUNICH (Munchen if you are local) was pretty cool, i liked germany as a whole. We stopped in town for a few hours and checked out the city centre and went up a another church tower which freaked the shit out of me again (I am scared of heights but I always seem to do these things) Their clock tower on the hour was much more impressive than Pragues i must say. went and checked in and then me and Deb headed back to town. I spent up large on some clotyhes (which were actually even fairly cheap by NZ standards) and the we wnt to the Hofbrauhaus for a German meal and alitre stein of course. Needless to say after that i was pretty care free and we spent up large at the souvenir shop and stumbled out the door to find the Hard Rock Cafe straight across (I am sure they planned it that way) where walking straight in the door was a Guns N Roses signed Les Paul so we (I) went round taking photos of all their cool stuff and then we spent up large there too. Then we wandered the streets a bit more and took in some of Munich at night, good fun and pictuesque like every place we have been.

On to AUSTRIAN TYROL (Tirol if you are local) is a small town in Austria (Tyrol is partly in Austria and partly in Italy, we were in Austria) small skiing village in the winter but we went for a nice bike ride in the Austrian stinking hot summer and went up the gondola where we got a bit too much sun. broke up the trip nicely.

then to VENICE (Venezia if you are local) which is even hotter and where we are staying seems to be the worlds breeding place for mosquitos. We headed in to the city early at 8am on a boat that takes 15 minutes (we are on the mainland, 50 minutes by bus) and man it just blows you away before you even get there (apart from the rubbish boat on the way in) it looks just like the movies and we spent all day till 8.30pm going around the city churches, museums, shops, a gondola ride, eating pizza and pasta etc etc. The artworks in the museums and churches and the churches them selves are unbelievable, 6&700 year old paintings that are huge tower over you as you walk in and you literally cannot describe the images and the scale, the sculptures and everything are just things we dont see in NZ. the place itself was 33 degrees and smells a bit (the canals) but is so pretty and unique you just do not care as you walk around and see and do stuff and I may just do a seperate blog on how cool this place was as I am going to get kicked off the internet soon. Off to Rome (Roma for the locals) tomorrow which I am expecting to be even better(and hotter, and dirtier)...

Berlin and Prague

2008-06-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

I'm realising photos are going to be difficult to get put up on this with limited time and what not, I will try and get some on soon.

BERLIN was cool. we got there the first night and went for a wander (which was a bone of contention, I wanted to see Berlin asap and Deb wanted to do it after a drink, I figured I wasn't in Berlin to see a Hostel bar and she said it would only be one. I still stick by my option, the next night indicated I was right) Any way so went explored Berlin at dusk and dark and it was cool walking aimlessly.
We woke the next morning to our bus being burnt out (probably by soccer hooligans as there was a game of the Euro 08 on that night) and some peoples belongings and most peoples sleeping bahgs went up in smoke. Not ours very luckily. We then went on a walking guided tour of Berlin with a very loud and knowledgable American lady and we saw the likes of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, The Berlin Wall, where Hitlers bunker and house was, the Jewish monument, as well as other sites, and got a very good and thorough history lesson at the same time. We then went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum which was a bit unessicary after the tour info but hey, you don't know this till you try, then we walked around Berlin till about nine that night out to the Jewish Museum (we didn't go in, as it looks huge, Debbie just wanted to see the architecture) and did a little bit of shopping (which I and Deb must say we haven't actually found anything cool to buy yet) and wandered around looking at more sights. After 12 hours of walking we ended up doing our first night of 'socialising' at The hostel bar which was on a balcony 7 floors up looking over Berlin at night. That was to 2am.

We left Berlin and stopped in DRESDEN, the city known for a very unfortunate reason as we all know. Summer has started, goddamn it was hot. We were there for 2 hours on a sunday which meant it was a little quiet but still plenty of tourists looking at the sites. I have noticed in Germany there are actually a lot of Germna tourists also (though I am probably chucking a bunch of Austrians etc in there with my untrained ear). It is also strange that all the cool architecture in germany is unfortunately mostly 'rebuilds' of the buildings that were nailed in dubyadubyatwo, but have been made to look 300 years old, so they still look cool.

PRAGUE is an interesting one. We got in around 6 or seven (it stays light very late here, Amsterdam like 10.30 at night and the rest like 9.30 -10.) and it was stinking boiling. We went straight to Prague Castle and its surrounding buildings on the hill in Prague which overlooks the city. Amazing, absolutely beautiful picturesque city and archtecture. We then walked from there down into the Old town Square acros the Charles Bridge. The old town I did not like I must say. I had read how you get scammed here and most of us on the trip have encountered dodgyness in the restaurants. Not speaking Czech or being able to read it does not help one bit either. The town itself is amazing with its narrow cobbled streets and great old buildings and the Astronomical Clock(which is not worth waiting for the 'show' it puts on every hour, I've seen better from a cuckoo clock) but unfortunately you feel very uneasy in the Old Town of Prague, I got offered 'hash,ecstacy' within ten minutes of being there and it's notorious for it's pickpockets, dodgy restauranters and taxi drivers, and the people just aren't friendly at all. (I must say the Dutch have been the friendliest so far). After getting back to the hostel and checking in we then spent the night till after one at the hostel bar (thanks to Deb, a disturbing trend I'm noticing, not unlike Doug and Frans scenario in SA). I awoke to the sound of an explosive bomb rocketing throughout the city about 5 or 6 o'clock this morning and then a nother not long after, I honestly wondered what was going on and the noise sounded like nothing I had heard before in volume etc. After about 3 of these horrendous bomblike sounds I got up and looked out the window, The sky was dark but there was no rain at all. It was thunder and went on for maybe 15 minutes sporadically and was honestly horrendously loud and I've not heard anything like it before, especially without rain. We then spent today (stinking hot and summery again) on a canal cruise and then spent over an hour walking through shops etc, and stopping at the odd one, to the National Museum to see the remains of a Woolly Mammoth. You can imagine our dissapointment after getting there to find they planned to close early today for 'technical reasons' and had closed an hour before we got there (remember that time we went all the way to Prague and didn't see the Woolly Mammoth coz they were closed??). So we went for a wander, some of the sights today included the building where Mozarts Don Giovani premiered and the 'dancing' house which is a strang looking building, among others. I must say after today I liked Prague alot more (as I always thought I would) the only thing is really you have to be on your toes and the people are not friendly, of well.

Amsterdam & Springsteen

2008-06-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

I realised our photos are on Stephs computer so London photos will have to wait, Ill get some Amsterdam and other photos on soon. Well we journeyed down to Dover by bus where the white cliffs are and caught the ferry across to Calais. We then drove through Belgium and on to The Netherlands. Thats 4 countries in 12 hours, pretty impressive. Got to Amsterdam and met Big Mal at the hotel we were both staying at and cheesed it out to Amsterdam Arena to see Springsteen. The Arena seats 60,000, the biggest gig I've been to as NZ's biggest would be only 40-45,000. It was awesome with a full stadium which was huge and Bruce played a full 3 hour set from 8 sgharp through till 11pm and with more energy than anyone you see, I would put him as the best living artist easily. I must get his setlist of his website, It can be one for the spaghetti incident Jimmy. Then we headed back into town and met Deb at The Grasshopper, a well known Amsterdam cafe and afterwards wandered through the red light district. Some very dodgy characters wandering\following around and subtelly yelling 'coke' at you as they walk past, wouldn't want to take a wrong turn on your own, caught a cab back with Big Mal the guy did about 90km\hr through the city streets, crazy, especially since there seems to be no defining footpath and there's cycles, pedestrians, cars, trams everywhere. The next night we did a canal cruaise and went out to dinner and went for a quick stroll and then back to the hostel for another early morning to head off to Berlin where I am writing this from at midnight on a computer set to German, it's confusing, but Berlin looks awesome already as Deb and I went for a wander this evening when we got in, the buildings and streets are amazing....

London...

2008-06-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

...is awesome. we've been running around like mad for the last 3 days going every place we want to see. Some cheesy stuff (buckingham palace, london eye, westminster abbey etc) but the highlights have been the Salvador Dali exhibition, the Jack The Ripper Tour(which takes you round the exact murder spots etc), all the cool art (Dalis, Picassos, Rembrandts, Cezannes, Michelangelos, Raphaels, that all Londoners and must take for Granted as you can walk down the local Gallery for free and step as close as a meter away from a 500 year old masterpiece)and all the cool architecture everywhere, and the St Pauls inside. We have been total tourists clicking our camera every 5 minutes looking at stuff going 'wow' but we've loved it, and it's been great having Steph take us everywhere like our personal guide, navigating the city for us saving us hours and stress. Having a ball so far, off on a bus to start around Europe in about 7 hours (what sleep? we're becoming fast acusstomed to running around all day and not getting much sleep and being a little constantly tired) and also Springsteen tomorrow night in Amsterdam, (awesome) internet is playing up, will add photos later.....

Singapore....

2008-06-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

So we got into Singapore around 7 or eight the first night and like everyone tells you, as soon as you walk out the airport 'wammo' the heat hits you, hot and humid and after some food and some beer we crashed out 2 hours later. We stayed with great hosts who showed us around everywhere, through chinatown, little india, the night safari, the Raffles hotel and more, and did the usual touristy stuff visiting the places of worship and what not (it's an expression). now in london, staying at stephs, and have caught up with friends will update soon......

and away we go.....

2008-06-09T03:15:00.001-07:00

Ok so I'm not big on blogs and Deb is even less, but hey this could be a good way of keeping a tour diary(if we can find time). 'Mini-cab-radio'? a line from a song, and the name of my next band(if Ian and I don't argue too much, but he likes london and thats where mini cabs are with their radios, so hey)!? Maybe!?. Anyway. So 2 nights to go till Singapore, 4 till London, and our goals are, among many, to see Bruce, and to see me on TV (did I say 'our goals'?). Ok so 'our' goal is to stay married through this, we are looking forward to seeing our friends and family in London and anyone who cares (i.e has a desk job and surfs the net during work time) can keep up with us on tour. i just hope we get enough time to keep up........