Steve & Ella's Excellent Adventure

Manchester - Day 2! Sunday 11 th November (and remembrance day!), we awoke to another chilly, windy and rainy Manchester morning. Before I get into what we got up to for the day I thought that I should provide a bit of background about Manchester (for those who are interested of course!) . Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. The city part of Manchester has a population of approximately 450,000 while the entire borough has a population roughly at 2,240,000. Manchester is also home to two Universities - The University of Manchester & Manchester Metropolitan University. It was created in 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester & University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. The Manchester Business School is also part of the University complex. Manchester is also home to two football clubs - Manchester United & Manchester City. Manchester also hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2002. Anyway, on Sunday Ste...

Destination : Manchester United - Day 1! Friday (the 9th November), Steve and I hopped on a train at Euston Station in the evening and made our way to Manchester. Why go to Manchester you ask? Because we can! Actually, I had this mild obsession about going there from the moment I chatted to a young gentleman while we were stuck at Regent's Park tube station one evening on the way home from work, because of a faulty train. We struck up a conversation on the platform after a sighed heavily at the possibility of waiting a long time to get another train.. he told me he was in a hurry and needed to get to Marylebone because he was getting a train to Manchester where his family was. Fascinated, I talked to him about Manchester a little and decided that Steve and I should make an effort to visit! So, anyway.. after a 2 and half train journey we arrived at Manchester Piccadilly to a chilly Manchester! Bloody England! I must say after our weekend in Manchester - I adapted to the cold reall...

London : MACBETH - Featuring Patrick Stewart! On Saturday (the 29th September), Steve and I decided to increase our cultural experiences a little more and head out for a traditional and cliche dinner and a show! We actually purchased tickets for this show before we went to France, just after I dragged Steve to 'We Will Rock You'. We were wandering down Shaftsbury Avenue and saw that Macbeth was opening at the Gielgud Theatre. Steve being a dedicated Star Trek series watcher and a fan of Captain Pickard.. LOL.. INSISTED that we get some tickets. I figured it was a fair trade - I got to see 'We will Rock You' and he gets 'MACBETH' with Patrick Stewart. I also thought that I should go and get myself informed and see what MACBETH was all about. I only ever did Romeo & Juliet in high school, so I figured I should experience this as well. Just a little history on the Theatre itself, it first opened on December 27th in 1906 as the Hicks Theatre. In what named the ...

Destination : Cannes to Paris! Saturday (22nd September), brought the end to our French Riviera experience in Cannes - a very sad, pouty end to our Summer experience... *sighs* We headed back to Paris by TGV (Trains a Grande Vitesse). The bright side was that we got to enjoy the trip back along the coast between Cannes and Marseille and the proceeded to fly through the French country side until we reached Paris at Garè De Lyon around 3pm. Steve and I had booked the same hotel we had at Garè De Nord at the start of our Paris experience, so we caught the Mètro from Garè De Lyon, back to Garè De Nord. On arrival, Steve and I kicked off our shoes and jumped into bed for an afternoon nap. Well I did anyway, Steve booted up the lap top to check email because we didn't have wireless internet at the hotel in Cannes! LOL... He just can't help himself sometimes.... ;o) A bit later on, feeling refreshed from our 5 hours trek across the French country side, we decided to head down to the...

Destination : Monaco - Monte Carlo! Friday (the 21st September), Steve and I awoke to another beautiful morning greeted by the sunshine blaring through our rustic wooden shutters. On awakening, I decided after breakfast we were going to find a way to get to Monte Carlo as advertised in some of the brochures we had seen when we arrived in Cannes a couple of days earlier . I myself had grown up watching Grace Kelly movies and reading about Prince Ranier , Prince Albert and his sisters Stephanie and Caroline, so curiosity just killed the cat. I wanted to get there and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and how the Rich and Famous have flocked over decades to Monte Carlo. After having a glorious breakfast by the beach again, Steve and I headed to the train station on how to get a train ticket to Monte Carlo. For 12 Euro's each return, we hopped on a train and started our 55km journey along the coast towards Monte Carlo. This train was not nearly as luxurious as the TGV tra...

Cannes : Ile Sainte Marguerite! On Thursday (20th September), Steve and I woke up with the sun blaring into our room... and the day had greeted us with a glorious start. Enthusiastic, Steve and I went down to the sea shore boardwalk to find ourselves some breakfast! I impressed the lady in the kiosk by ordering our breakfast in French (a panini for each of us and a strawberry milkshake), so much so she went on to ramble off in French some more. Embarrassed by the fact that I could not understand a word of what she had just said to me, smiled and said "Merci Beaucoup Madam!" *chuckles* That strawberry milkshake was no ordinary one, it was made with real strawberries blended in. What a perfect start to the day, we had our breakfast "Al Fresco" relaxed and in the morning sunshine..with a view to match. With our bellies full (as usual!) Steve and I set out for our truly exploratory walk of Cannes. With the sun now blaring, Steve slapped some sunscreen on every exposed p...

Destination : Cannes! Wednesday (19th September) rolled around and we packed our bags and said Goodbye to Paris for a few days and jumped on a fancy French Fast train - Trains à Grande Vitesse. These guys travel up to speeds of 300km/h which is pretty cool. They are such comfortable trains and have a split level double story almost that can fit heaps of passengers and is roomy and comfortable at the same time. We need those trains back home in Australia I think! I am not so sure Steve is so keen on train travel, me on the other hand love them. For a couple of reasons, one because I grew up on them practically and travelled on the trains with my DAD! The second is that they are the only form of transport involving motion that doesn't make me ill... Cars are OKAY only if I am driving. LOL I know, shocking isn't it? With the idea of future travelling presents the problem of HOW we are going to travel. After our horrendous flight over here (with Steve having not only to nurse me, b...