Paris

Kelley and I took the Eurostar for a short break in Paris. We got there late on Saturday night and wandered around trying to find the Eiffel Tower and something to eat, the first was big and glowing and easy to find (and extremely crowded, even at midnight), the second not so easy and by the time we found somewhere we were starving.

Sunday morning is still a bit of a mystery to us, somehow we gained an extra couple of hours and we have no explanation for this strange occurence, other than both of us being unable to tell the time. This would have meant that we left the hotel at about 7 in the morning, which would have explained why the markets that Kelley was keen on did not exist, and why we were so exhausted by mid afternoon.





The weather was forecast to be sunny but it rained on and off all morning so we spent a lot of time ducking for cover under any form of shelter available and capped it off with a classy lunch on the steps of a shop doorway - romantic.

There were already crowds starting to gather on the Champs-Élysées for the finish of the Tour de France so we grabbed trendy bright yellow ponchos and claimed a spot on a car park barrier to await the riders.

Looking down Champs-Élysées before the riders arrived



Miracle shot - picking out Contador from the peleton.



The peleton chasing down a breakaway



Sunday was supposed to be our night out but we were so tired we made do with an ice cream sundae from McDonalds and hit the hay.

Monday was a much nicer day, but didn't start off too well when I realised I'd lost my return ticket, technically not lost at all as I knew exactly where I'd left it - the seat in front of me on the train on the way over but that didn't stop the Eurostar staff charging me an extra €23 later in the day. We went up the Eiffel Tower and wandered down to the Louvre, by the time we got back it was time to go.

Looking down from the second floor.....



and looking up at where we're going



View from the top



Outside the Louvre

A night at the Prom

Not really something I'd normally do, but we decided to head along and check out the classical music at the Royal Albert Hall. The Prom we went to was number 16 (of about 72) and I know we heard something by Beethoven but can't remember the others. The place was pretty packed out and it was actually really good but I was very pleased that it only went for a couple of hours. Still, was well worth doing.

The crazy white pebbles in the Royal Albert Hall, apparently there to help the acoustics.

Cricket in Canterbury

Hamish, Josh and I scrambled to the train on one of the nicer summer days we've had so far for a short trip to Canterbury to watch day three of a four day county game. To be honest, the cricket was a bit boring as we watched a good couple of hours and saw no wickets and hardly any runs.





After hanging out for the tea break so the amateurs would get off the ground and let some real cricket get played (ie us, with Hamish's umbrella) we had a short break to go and get some lunch, came back and 3 wickets had fallen, typical.

We checked out the mighty Canterbury Cathedral which was very impressive before returning to London after a great day out.

Le Tour de France

In a surprising move, the Tour de France authorities decided to hold the Grand Depart for this year's Tour de France in London. The racing consisted of the Prologue, a 7.9km time trial in Central London, mainly around Hyde Park and Stage 1 of the Tour which started in Greenwich (after a gentle pedal through Central London to get to the start) and finished 203km later in Canterbury.

I basically dedicated the weekend to following everything the Tour de France had to offer and this began on Friday night with the Opening Ceremony in Trafalgar Square (which was very disappointing) but it was cool to see all the team buses and a few of the bikes and riders close up.



Josh near the finish line the night before, in front of Buckingham Palace.



A strange sand sculpture in Hyde Park, as if London has any hills.



Saturday was the day of the Prologue and there were a couple of UK riders that were expected to have half a chance so there was plenty of excitement and support around. We were there well before the start to get a position right on the rails so we could see the riders zip by. This meant we got to see most of them warming up, and the warm up consisted of churning out about half a dozen laps at a lazy pace (probably about 35 - 40km/h for these guys) so before they even thought about racing they had probably done over 50km warming up. To be honest, there wasn't a lot to see when the racing got going, just someone flying past on a bike every 45 seconds or so. Each rider was preceded by a couple of motorbikes, including a French or UK cop, and followed by at least one support vehicle and maybe another motorbike with a TV camera. There was a big screen set up in Hyde Park so we watched the last hour or so on that which was when all the good riders came through including Andreas Kloden who took the lead by a comparatively large margin of 13 seconds. With only a few riders to go I thought Kloden had it in the bag but then the current World Champion time trialist, Fabian Cancellara ate up the course and beat Kloden’s time but about 10 seconds which was incredible. He was threatening to pass the motorbikes on the corners because he could take the corners at higher speed, it was brilliant to watch.



A Liquigas rider working hard as he flies past us.



It all just got a bit too much for some....



Sunday's viewing wasn't quite as thrilling as we clung to the top of a fence to get a glimpse of the bunch as they powered over the start line. Was interesting to see all the support vehicles, team buses and a whole lot of punters cruising along on bikes behind everyone, obviously keen to try and do a stage of the Tour themselves which isn't a bad idea. There was supposed to be a big screen set up at Greenwich Park but we couldn't find anything so kicked off a game of cricket in the park which was a great end to the weekend.

The start in Greenwich.

Princess Diana Concert

Sara had managed to get a hold of some tickets to the Diana Tribute concert so we joined the crowds on the tube out to Wembley and got there in plenty of time to warm our seats for the marathon 6 hours of concert that was to follow.

It was the first time I had been to the new Wembley and it is a pretty awesome stadium, actually reminded me of the Wellington Stadium but obviously on a far bigger scale and they have red setas rather than yellow and black, and they usually play a game with a round ball there rather than an oval one.

Anyway, the concert was quite good, there was a bit of down time between the acts which is understandable I guess. We were a bit let down by a couple of the big names but Rod Stewart was brilliant, particularly as he was kicking footballs into the crowd, and we also enjoyed the Andrew Lloyd Webber selection (which sounds a bit sophisticated but it was really good). We were also able to spend time Royal watching using the binoculars which wasn't particularly exciting but I had strict instructions from Juliet so thought I'd better make an effort - sorry no good snaps and no autographs Julz.