Day Twenty Five - My Birthday!

It's my birthday today! We both managed another good nights sleep and a lay in until around 9.30am before having some breakfast and opening some cards. We took a trip to St Ives for the afternoon, only about 40 minutes drive from Royston.

Another lovely old town, we explored the town centre and popped into a few shops. Over the bridge by the river we stopped in at a pub for some lunch. Two toasted panini's and diet cokes later, we watched a wedding in preparation complete with men in kilts and full Scottish regalia.

After lunch and a t-shirt purchase by Barry later we drove back into Royston and began to get ready for my birthday dinner. We started with a glass of champagne in the garden before the taxi arrived to take us to the King William in Heydon not far from home.

Enjoying the garden on my birthday

We arrived just after Justin & Kim and Dad & Maria and so the eight of us sat in the pub garden this time for a drink, a chat and a look at the menu. After opening some more cards for Jo's belated birthday and some presents (both completely spoilt!) we took some pictures including this great group shot taken by a lady who was enjoying a drink with her husband!

Birthday dinner at the King William

Dinner was superb. Jo and I had crispy duck with an oriental salad to start, I then had a pork tenderloin and Jo had teriaki salmon with noodles - both divine. There were clean plates all round, but not clean shirts. Even after Barry was clingwrapped to his chair to protect his shirt from the bbq ribs there was still a spot of sauce post unwrapping!

Barry being wrapped by the waitress - beware ordering BBQ ribs!

We said goodbye to Dad & Maria who we'll see again on Saturday for a few days and Justin & Kim who we see tomorrow night for dinner and headed home. We ended up staying awake with a nightcap or two going through old photos of me as a baby until about 3am!! Brilliant birthday!

Day Twenty Four - Lavenham

Barry thought it would be nice to see some of real England so we all took a drive to Suffolk and to Lavenham - a beautiful old village filled with picturesque buildings and streets.

Relaxing in the Gardens at Chilford Hall

Before we got there, we made a few stops. First at Chilford Hall, an English Winery - yes Winery! We tasted a few white wines and Barry bought one! We then stopped off at at Long Melford for a cold drink and a bit to eat at a little Tea Room on the main street there.

Beautiful old town of Lavenham

Lavenham was a gorgeous place, only enhanced by the blue sky on another warm and sunny summer day in England - we have been very lucky with the weather so far! Some of the buildings there are from 1340!! They made for some good postcard pictures - you wonder how they are still standing and are in the condition that they are after all those years.

The Crooked House at Lavenham

After the drive home we relaxed in the conservatory for a little while before enjoying a family dinner.

Day Twenty Three - Cambridge

Today was a trip into Cambridge - It's been 4 years since Jo and I were here and it was another stunningly sunny day in England so it sounded like a good plan. We must've brought the good weather with us like last time.

Cambridge in the sun

Barry drove us girls in and let us lose for some shopping while he parked the car. Not much has changed but the shopping area certainly has! The new (well, new for us) Lion Yard is now much bigger with new shops including G-Star :) Jo and I both spent most of our birthday money in here - Jo on two tops and me on a skirt and top.

Corpus Christi looking magnificent

Cambridge really is a lovely city, it's not until you go away and come back you realise just how picturesque the place is, especially in summer. We got asked twice if we wanted to go punting (we went last time) and there were plenty of people out enjoying the water and the parks. Including the cows that were roaming around on the walk in - Jo tried to be friendly and say hello but the cow was a bit grumpy.

Me and Mum by the river

We wandered around the usual places like Marks & Spencer before going home via Mum & Barry's allotment to pick some fresh rhubarb for dessert and some onions. Yum! There were a few strawberries left too so we nibbled on a few of those too.

Jo after some successful shopping!

After that, we popped in to say hello to my Nan and see how she's doing - she turns 90 this year and is looking well. It was lovely to see her again after all this time. We then did our last stop of the day to see my brother and Kim and my little nephew for the first time.

Awwww! Little Noah and his favourite plastic cups

Little Noah didn't fail to impress us all with his skills stacking little plastic cups and is too cute for words! Looking forward to catching up with Justin & Kim later in the week and see the cutey again.

Day Twenty Two - Home Sweet Home

The flight wasn't too bad, I amused myself with Night at the Museum and Jo watched Valentine's Day. Not a wink of sleep though but the spinach & ricotta lasagna for dinner was surprisingly OK.

Relaxing in Dad & Mia's kitchen with Mum & Barry

We arrived in London and had to get a bus from the plane to the terminal! It took about 15 minutes then we finally got through immigration before seeing Mum & Barry and Dad & Maria waiting patiently for us to appear.

With my Mum

It was a great reunion after nearly 4 years since we've seen Dad & Maria and nearly 2 1/2 for Mum & Barry - we all hopped in cars and went back to Dad's place for some champagne and a light lunch. We were all greeted warmly by Harvey (the dog) who was happy to have everyone round to make a fuss of him.

Mum & Dad pose for a pic

After a few hours we made the drive back to Royston to relax and try to get so sleep - we managed until about 9.30pm with only a short nap in the afternoon, not too bad I thought!

Day Twenty One - Travel to the UK

Our last day in New York was fairly uneventful, mostly killing time waiting for our flight at 9.30pm. We asked for a late check out from the hotel and they said the latest we could have was 1pm, which worked well for us.

We spent most of the morning watching some TV and packing up our bags for the last time in the US. At 1pm, we checked out and left our bags with reception and set off for yet more walking. We trudged up to Macy's around 34th St, got a drink and some lunch. We attracted the attention of an 82 year old in Pret who spotted our map of Manhattan. After asking us if we needed any help he gave us some tips (get the free ferry to Staten Island to get the view of the Statue of Liberty and take a trip to Jones Beach for some sun and relaxation), told us some old stories of traveling Europe in his youth and reminded us not to smoke as we said farewell. Bless.

We walked around some more and I managed to find a nice pair of Tigers for $65 :) Much cheaper than Australia. We picked up our bags around 5pm and after what was one of the hottest days in NY we sat with the laptop in McDonalds to sponge their free Wi-Fi and Air Con and to check the best Subway line for the airport.

We found that we could get on right at 28th St where we were! Excellent! We went three stops to change to the E line and discovered that the line was shut for track work! Not excellent! We bumbled around with another lost American girl for a while before getting on an A train that went the long way round but got us to Howard Beach Station and our connection to the AirTrain.

Some more uneventful time at the airport before hopping on our BA flight 15 mins late for a 6 hr flight to London.....

Day Twenty - Jo's Birthday in NYC

It's our last full day in NYC and it's also Jo's birthday today! As it was another beautiful sunny and warm day we logged on to the internet and booked some bikes so we could explore Central Park a bit more - 50% discount for booking online!

We decided to make the most of the day and walked the 30 or so blocks from 28th St to 57th and 9th. We tried out another coffee shop, this time on 38th St and two very respectable cappuccino's. So we weren't rushed we booked the bikes for 1pm. We walked with the bikes 2 blocks to the south west end of the park and then took off to explore.

Lou on the groovy rental bike

The bikes were pretty good and fun to ride - as Central Park is so huge it really is the best way to get around and see it all. It would take hours and hours to walk it but in about 30 mins we had cycled up to the north end and part way down again - just in time to have some lunch by a lake in the shade.

Relaxing in sunny Central Park

The park is an oasis in this city, it contains baseball pitches, several lakes, a zoo, playgrounds and heaps more and it was completely packed being a Saturday. There is one line divided for walking/cycling and two lanes for traffic - this must translate in American as "go wherever you like" as there seemed to be no order to it at all! Bikes on the road, cars in the other lanes, people walking everywhere. We managed to get around twice without hitting anyone or anything and dropped off the bikes around 3pm.

We were being cheap again so we walked 30 blocks home (via buying some new jeans for Jo - hey, it's her birthday!) to rest for a bit.

We booked the Mercer Kitchen for Jo's birthday dinner on the recommendation of Carolyn - it was a great choice! We started with crispy squid with a chilli-lime mayo, Jo enjoyed a slow baked salmon and I was a total pig and had confit duck. We also tucked into a warm chocolate fondant cake with vanilla bean ice-cream and the best cheesecake we've ever had - with cherries and a cherry sorbet. Delicious!

Very good cheesecake - what's left of it!

A few days ago we were accosted in Times Sq by a guy selling tickets to a comedy store on the Upper West Side - we got two tickets for $5 each so we decided to get the subway there and check it out. When we arrived, we didn't realised you needed to call and reserve prior so they put us on the waiting list. We managed to get a seat (very lucky) and laughed our asses off for the next 2 hours with 5 great comedians taking the stage.

Amusing ourselves waiting for the subway

The subway home at around 1am and then to bed - checking out tomorrow and then more traveling to the UK to see family and friends....

Day Nineteen - Brooklyn Bridge

We slept better in our new comfy bed than that last few nights so it was nice to have a lay in. I popped out into the sunny and warm morning to get some milk and some free coffee from the hotel so we could have some cereal and fresh strawberries in our room. We didn't really have any plans for the day other than a trip to Macy's as a refund that was supposed to come back onto our Cash Passport hadn't as yet.

We took a walk up to 34th Street and the hugest Macy's you've ever seen. It was packed as it's sale season it seems and a browse around turned out to be fruitless with endless floors of sale crap stacked high. We found Customer Service and told them about our non-refund and we got directed to the Shoe Dept. Several people in the shoe dept we asked obviously thought this was a challenge beyond their meagre skills and told us to look for someone with a "red name tag" which denoted a Manager. We found Roger, the red-name-tagged-manager who was helpful and sorted it out for us after about half an hour on the phone with the San Francisco store - one thing sorted for today.

The Brooklyn Bridge

In the half an hour wait, Jo managed to find some shoes to spend our refund on and a pair for me too both in the sale. The only thing was, one of my shoes was in the box, the other was *somewhere* on the sale stand. Now picture this....a shoe department the size of Greece, 25,000 neatly stacked shoe racks, all sorted into sizes in and orderly fashion. Now picture a F5 tornado going through the area and about 500 sale-hungry women all buzzing around like vultures. Do you think there is anyway to find the missing shoe? Not a snowflake chance in hell. I wasn't Cinderella today but as Jo was paying I did manage to find another pair, in my exact size, just what I was looking for next to the register! Meant to be? I thought so too.

The Manhattan Bridge from the Brooklyn Bridge

By then, it was time for lunch so off to Pret again for one of their yummy hot wraps. We wanted to walk the Brooklyn Bridge today so we caught the Subway across to Brooklyn and took a stroll around, taking in the views of Manhattan from the Promenade before making our way to the bridge and walking across. You do get great views, especially on a day like today and the crowds were out as people battled with cyclists for a lane. The pedestrian walkway is above the cars and was flooded with tourists and locals alike.

Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade

After this, we took another walk around Soho and the village area popping in and out of shops that looked interesting and different. I bought a top and Jo almost bought some jeans but today it wasn't to be. We were exhausted with all the walking again today so when we found a great little noodle house we took our chance and stopped in for some dinner before catching the subway home and to relax for the evening. Only one more sleep until Jo's birthday tomorrow so it will be an early to bed for us tonight.

Day Eighteen - Empire State Building

It was Kathryn's last day in New York before she heads home so we wanted to go up the road a few blocks and to the top of the Empire State Building.

Before we went thought Jo & I packed up our prison cell at the Latham "Hotel" and gladly checked out 3 nights early. We walked 2 mins to the glorious saviour of the MAve Hotel on Madison Avenue. They stored our bags whilst we went for breakfast.

Jo and I at the top of the Empire State Building

After some food and coffee, we walked up to 34th Street and the Empire State. It was $20 each to get in and to be honest I was sceptical about value for money here but once up the top on the 88th floor the views really are spectacular.

Looking North from the Observation Deck

We waited until today as the weather forecast was good and we had blue skies but it was windy up there! I wouldn't bother paying the extra $15 to get to the 102nd floor but we got some excellent photos of all Manhattan, New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx from the observation deck.

Looking down at the bustling city of Manhattan

It was hard to get a good spot but some jostling for position all three of us managed to get some good shots of us and the view.

Once down on ground level around 1pm we headed up on the subway to Central Park for walk around and some more exploring of the city. We wandered around in search of food and Pret a Manger came to the rescue in the overpriced tourist area of the city. After a great toasted wrap, our feet were still too tired to walk so we all agreed that a cup of tea and a chocolate brownie would do the trick and also keep us seated for a bit longer.

Waiting for the 6 to take us south on the Subway

We took another subway back 'home' and Jo and I finally checked into our hotel - it's fantastic! Very modern and funky, the bed is super comfy (unlike the spring laden crap at the old place) and very clean. Absolutely perfect and absolute heaven!

Looking South down towards Wall St and south Manhattan

After downloading some photos for Kathryn we walked her to the subway and said goodbye :( It's been 2 years since I last saw her and not sure when we'll all catch up again but it was so great see her again and spend some time together I hope it's not too long before our next time.

Kathryn posing for pics at the Empire State Building

Jo and I had the afternoon to ourselves and it was pretty uneventful - I spent most of it at the laundry place washing and drying our clothes whilst Jo picked up some food and went back to our hotel to unpack.

It's so nice to be in a decent hotel room again that we stayed in, had a cheap bagel for dinner and enjoyed a few cold beers with the footy! Heaven!

Day Seventeen - Statue of Liberty

About 2 months ago I bought three tickets to the Statue of Liberty but still couldn't get Crown Access - it was sold out until September. September!! We all made our way downtown on the Subway to near City Hall & the Brooklyn Bridge and walked over the the Ground Zero site.

The last time I was here in NY about 8 years ago, all you could see at Ground Zero was a huge hole in the ground but now the design for the Sept 11 memorial has been decided and construction is underway. It now just looks like a building site and life goes on as normal. We found a nice local cafe to enjoy oatmeal (Jo), pancakes (Kathryn) and eggs/bagel (me) for breakfast - very good it was too.

Getting up and close with Miss Liberty

It wasn't a long walk down to Battery Park at the south end of Manhattan to pick up our tickets and catch the ferry to Liberty Island. We hopped on with about a million other tourists to see Miss Liberty. She is an awesome sight from any distance and close up even better - it was great to wander around and get a few good pics. Originally a gift from the French to celebrate America's 100th anniversary of independence she is now a symbol of freedom to all Americans and perhaps the world.

The most famous sight in NY

The weather wasn't that great today and after all the walking yesterday and today we decided to skip Ellis Island (original Immigration centre for America - nearly 12m Americans entered through this island) and went back to Manhattan.

We got the subway uptown to 59th & 5th Ave and took a walk around FAO Schwartz made famous in the move BIG with Tom Hanks - yes the Big Piano is still there. You can have a go if you take your shoes off and you can buy it for a mere $250,000! We needed to get on at Grand Central Station so we took the opportunity to take some shots and have a look around what must be the nicest and most beautiful train station in the world!

The beautiful Grand Central Terminal in the heart of Manhattan

We stopped in a few shops here and there but had no luck so we headed back to the hotel & prison to have a shower and get changed for dinner. After we managed to get the shower taps back on and another subway ride uptown we took a stroll around Times Sq at night - tacky and full of tourists but still lots of fun and makes for great quintessential NY photos.

Relaxing in Times Square

Kathryn's iPhone lead us to 'Restaurant Row' and we finally selected a nice Italian place for dinner. The spaghetti meatballs were great and the wine even better! By the time we finished it was about 9.30 so we go the bill and gave our moody awful waitress a $2 tip on a $75 bill haha. The usual is around 18%-20% so I bet she wasn't happy! Still, I don't care...she was crap but the food was good.

Posing at dinner

We had planned before leaving Australia that we'd go see Sex and the City 2 in NY - and we did :) It was strange watching Carrie & Co on the big screen in NY when we were sitting in the middle of Manhattan too. We all really enjoyed the movie and laughed our way through it until 1am!

The buzz of Times Square at dusk

The subway home got us back safely but not before it absolutely bucketed it down as soon as we got to 28th Street! Thank god it was our last night in hell hole too, tomorrow we switch hotels to the awesome MAve hotel just around the corner. Can't wait!

Day Sixteen - New York

Our first full day in NYC meant we met Kathryn who's joining us for the next few days. We walked around the corner to the proper hotel where Kathryn had just checked in after flying in from Portland.

Me and Kathryn at dinner - I got ridiculed for my lack of smiling in pics all day!

Hmmm, could have a point tho!

Our day was pretty relaxed, after getting some breakfast for Kathryn and a coffee for us we finally found some free Wi-Fi in McDonalds and booked a different hotel for our last 3 nights of our stay here! Thank Christ for that! It was about $17 more expensive per night but includes Wi-fi and free coffee/muffins in the morning so it probably works out about the same!

Yankee Stadium in the Bronx - brand new. Only $1bn dollars!

We headed south down to Union Sq and took a walk (and shopping trip) around Greenwich Village - it was a really nice warm and sunny day so it was great for wandering and exploring. Jo and I found a great little coffee shop called Joe's and couldn't resist a good coffee finally - yum!

The Yankees getting ready for the game

After going back to our hell hole and getting changed, we met up with Kathryn again and had some Thai for dinner before heading to get on the Subway all the way to 161st Street - otherwise known as The Bronx and Yankee Stadium. I think we must've set a new world record for most people on a subway train as we couldn't move or hardly breathe! It was heaven when we finally arrived and walked a short way to Yankee Stadium for the game against the Phillies. Our seats were up in the nosebleeds so we watched a few innings from there before taking a walk around and taking in the atmosphere.

Oh yum, a pretzel for 1000 calories!

The funnest part was walking past all the food areas as it's now NY law that these places must put the number of calories that are in each food & drink items. It's supposed to help people make and educated decision but there were still plenty of garlic fries with cheese being sold! The game itself was really good - fun to watch and the Yankees won at the top of the 9th so the crowd went home happy.

Day Fifteen - New York, New York

Our plane arrived on time at around 5.50am in New York. This is incredibly early and we were both shattered after not sleeping a wink on the sat-by-the-loo flight. We managed to negotiate getting on the AirTrain and then the NY Subway to Penn Station in Manhattan. It was time for food as we hadn't eaten either and we found a coffee shop not far from 34th Street and took the opportunity to clean teeth and waste some time before attempting to check-in.

The stairs to the prison cell...only another 8 to go...

Eventually we had to leave our bags at the Latham "Hotel" on 28th Street as it was only 8.30am when we arrived. Check-in was 3pm. Oh how excellent. We thought we'd just go for a walk and we ended up on 59th Street! Nearly 30 blocks later, on the edge of Central Park we turned around and headed back and found ourselves in Times Sq (42nd St) - by this time we nearly extremely tired and feeling a bit dizzy. Jo had a great idea of going to the movies so we found a place nearby and opted for Iron Man 2. It was perfect, only us and 1 other person there so Jo and I lay down on the seats for most of it! After that, it was time to walk back and check in.

The Social Service Directors office - in the "HOTEL"!!

To say that the Latham "Hotel" is a hotel is being generous to say the least! It's more like part prison, part high school. It smells of disinfectant, we had to walk up 8 flights of steep steps to our cell and the accommodation is shared with the Dept of Social Services so there are young mothers with small kids everywhere (who cry all night)! It sucked. The bed was small and awful and it didn't feel safe at all. On the first night, the toilet roll holder fell off, the taps came of the shower, the shower is like a hose attached to the wall, there were bugs and the front door handle is hardly on the door. Terrible!

Now I know it was cheap (for NY which is known as the most expensive place to stay for hotels), but honestly this takes the cake. It's nothing more than a half way house. Anyway, we won't let it ruin our visit to the big apple.

Day Fourteen - Travelling to New York

Today was a fairly uneventful day as we spent all of it travelling in some way or another. We packed up all our stuff and said goodbye to Vegas and headed back to LA – a 5 hour drive, followed by a 3 hour airport wait, followed by a 5 hour flight to New York.

As not much happened today I thought I’d share some of my observations of America so far, liberally sprinkled with some whinging and ranting as I’m over today.

American…..

…Airlines is shit. Where do I begin? Could it be with the seats right at the back next to the toilets so all you can hear is flushing every two minutes (plus the occasional waft of urine). If it’s not the flushing, it’s the “flight attendants” working hard and chatting about basketball or their child’s latest school achievement or some other drivel. They also charge for everything. It was approximately –2C on the plane and they conveniently charge $8 for a blanket. Food has to be purchased also. You get one complimentary drink so Jo opts for an Orange Juice. When the lady offers me something, I have to decide if I want tepid OJ or OJ with ice which would render the actual drink volume to about ¼ of an orange. I’m surprised they didn’t charge us for our oxygen usage or perhaps apply a seat tax or something other rip off. Top cap it off, the “movie” of the day (on communal strain-your-neck-style TV) is that cinematic triumph “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. Dear god.

...people seem to think that the indicator in a car is either a) entirely optional b) there for decoration or c) I thought it was the windscreen wiper. This makes driving in America not unlike Super Mario Kart except instead of Luigi screaming past you unannounced at 85mph it’s some bloke in a Ford Humungous or some other beastly vehicle. He’ll cut right in front of you and then brake for no reason, causing you to quickly change lanes and cut up some other poor bastard. Then Ford Man will then accelerate as quickly as he braked, meaning your lane change was completely pointless. This went on for 5 hours today.

…advertising is shameless. It’s not just the adverts themselves; it’s the way that the advertising companies use every trick in the book and pray on your fears to sell absolutely anything. Some such examples include:

• 1-800 GET-THIN (actual number) advertising the delights of Lab-band surgery. Oh yes, that quick and painless solution with zero consequences, why didn’t I think of that?
• Background Checks. Yes, adverts for background checks. Queue advert of pregnant woman, clutching her tummy and declaring “No-one is coming into my home without a background check!”. Yes indeed, god forbid.
• The arm weight thing that shakes and looks rude. Honestly, does anyone believe this crap? All these shiny, happy women gleefully pinching their tight triceps, and all thanks to shaking this weird weight thing for 6 minutes a day. Honestly
• And my all-time favourite - a flashing sign outside a showroom selling motor homes – and I kid you not – proudly displaying “Let’s believe something good can happen – an RV is the best form of marriage counselling”. MARRIAGE COUNSELLING. Sweet Jesus.

…food choices are limited at best. Particularly if you are on the road. I believe I’d be correct in saying there are precisely 3 types of cuisine available when travelling; American, Mexican & Tex-Mex (blend of American & Mexican). There are also only 8 chains that seem to have the road-side catering contract in America. Our food consumption today consisted of; filter coffee, a chicken burrito, some frozen yoghurt, 1 banana, some almonds. Not exactly Conde Nast Gourmet Traveller is it. We discovered that once off the road, things don’t improve with LAX a prime example. A terminal of probably 9 gates the food outlets consisted of: TWO Starbucks (two! That’s like 1 per 12 people), Chili’s (Mexican-esqe), On the Border (Mexican), a place selling pastries and the newsagents. Well done Los Angeles, such a coup for quality how ever did you manage it?

….Gas stations are the work of the devil. It’s the most inconsistent experience you’ll ever have – some places you pay up front for cash, some places for cash & cards, some places you can pay at the pump, some you can’t the list goes on. It makes every time unique and mysterious and you find yourself wondering “what secrets will unfold this time?” On our final fill up, after attempting to pay at the pump with my Visa (which has worked before) and it failing miserably I go in to see the ‘Attendant’. “How much do you want?” he asks me. I know I have to tell him a number but I’m feeling obnoxious and mildly childish so I say (with a hint of sarcasm) “I don’t know. I haven’t filled it up yet.” He just looks at me so I pluck out a number that will hopefully fill it up as we have to return it full and go back to the car. Now, follow this closely. I pick up the bowser thingy, put it in the car and squeeze the trigger. Sound familiar? This is how I’ve filled up with petrol on several hundred occasions before. It doesn’t work. Jo goes and tells the ‘Attendant’, he says to flick the clip or some such vague and useless instruction. Jo inevitably returns to him again, he then storms over and lifts UP the metal cradle thingy that the pump sits up and petrol flows freely. What sort of evil is this? This covert pump that works like NONE OTHER ON EARTH.

On the positive side, we’ve found Americans on the whole to be incredibly friendly, very inquisitive of accents (Jo only has to say Hi and someone will pipe up “Are you Australian?”), happy to help and are very courteous. It's a fantastic place to visit and all the places we've been are so different. But I still hate tipping.

Day Thirteen - Last Day in Vegas

Our morning started late and we took a walk to get a coffee and something to eat as we were planning to watch the England game. We stumbled upon a Tix4Tonight place so we thought we'd check to see if there were any good deals available. Jo spotted a few Cirque du Soleil shows for tonight and we joined the queue and scored cheap tickets for "Zumanity" for this evening.

After that, we headed back to our hotel room at the Venetian to watch the disastrous opening England game vs USA. Two reasons for this; 1 - We are being cheap and it was hard to find anywhere to watch it that wasn't table service and 2 - I wasn't that confident. My suspicions were correct and after the now infamous Green fumble I painfully watched the rest and was glad when it was over!

The trashy Excaliber Hotel

The rest of the day was our last day to look around so we walked and walked the strip, picked up our tickets for Zumanity from New York, New York and then took the opportunity to look in the Excaliber - by far the trashiest casino so far - the only one to have dancing girls out in the open in bars near the poker tables, then the Luxor (also a bit crap).

Opening scene from Zumanity

Later on in the evening, we had a great steak at the Planet Hollywood Hotel (we bought 50% discount tickets earlier so we got 1 steak free) before heading to New York, New York for our 2nd Cirque show in 2 days. It was a good pick as it was completely different to O. More cabaret and part burlesque it was tagged as the "sensual side of Cirque du Soleil" - what they really mean is rude and a bit risque. We laughed at the comedy acts, the drag queen host had everyone in stitches and the cirque acts were awesome as expected. Another fantastic experience.

Cirque du Soleil's "O"

Even before we set foot on a plane this was the show we wanted to see. We'd been told by Jo's friend Carolyn that this was a brilliant show so we booked tickets online and our budget was good and allowed us excellent front row seats.

This is one of SEVEN Cirque du Soleil shows on the Vegas Strip and it's at the Bellagio Hotel. They are all themed and this is the only one to have a huge pool as the centre piece which means this show can't travel around the world as the stage & pool have been specially designed and built for it's home in Vegas.

Now, for some reason I was picturing a huge 'fish bowl' type arrangement but in hindsight this was completely preposterous!! Jo and I were whinging about our seats (how precious) thinking that we wouldn't be able to see anything in the 'tank'! This is why I'm not the Art Director for Cirque du Soleil. Once the huge red curtains fell away we were greated we a huge stage with a large swimming pool that's at floor level but can change shapes and depths in seconds and we could absolutely see everything.

Jo and I looking forward to the show...

Being at the front certainly had it advantages, we could see every detail of the performers costumes and literally felt part of the performance with the water about 3 metres away. Now, if you haven't seen a Cirque du Soleil show before, them I'm sorry as my description just won't do it justice and your paltry imagination wouldn't even come close to the reality.

The show contained 8 ex-Olympians including synchronized swimmers and divers. It's more than contortionists, better than gymnastics, not just acrobatics but a magical dream-like performance of diving, dancing and much more. This show tested your peripheral vision to the max as while you were watching one amazing performance you missed the man at the back who'd been on fire for the last 5 minutes!

Our favourite part was when there were three large 'swings' set up each with 3-4 people standing on them and they would take it in turns to do massive leaps off the swing and dive into the pool below. We could've watched for hours but the show came to and end with all the performers taking a bow standing on the stage and the stage lowers to form the pool again and they wave goodbye to us as the water seems to steam with dry ice until it turns dark. Fantastic show!

Day Twelve - More Vegas

It was an easy morning in sunny Las Vegas and we set out late around 11 in our morning ritual of trying to find a decent coffee. We failed. Miserably. There are somethings that Vegas does well, mostly; Margarita's the size of a small African country, beer in every shop including pharmacies, large scale shows and performances etc etc. There are something that it does very poorly, namely coffee and any type of healthy food. Everything here is designed for eat big, drink big, bet big and party hard.

Outside the massive Monte Carlo Hotel & Casino

Today we walked the strip from end to end (almost) in the blazing heat. We started off at our hotel The Venetian and then crossed over the road to Caesar's Palace which was beautiful inside and full of the spendy shops. Next door is the Bellagio, also beautiful and very elegant. We lined up to pick up tickets as we booked to see Cirque du Soleil's "O" here tonight. It's the one with a huge pool as the centre piece - more on that later.

Jo posing in front of the fake Trevi Fountain outside the Monte Carlo

The Monte Carlo Hotel looks really good from the outside, I don't think we went into this one yesterday as we just ran out of time. The strip is deceptively long, you think that you only need to walk to the next hotel, but when you factor in all the people, traffic lights or going up and down escalators to get across the walkways it can take you at least 20 mins to half an hour!

The Bellagio hotel - cool water show every half an hour

We continued walking, avoiding the annoying people 'flicking' flyers at us and everyone for call girls, people selling 'ice cold waaaater' for $1 and everything in between until we reached New York, New York. We took a walk around the fake streets and took some pictures of the lunatics on the roller
coaster there. Opposite is the Paris hotel which we really liked. It has a fake Eiffel Tower (below), a fake Champs Elysees and inside the streets and cafes are really well done.

Fake Eiffel Tower at Paris

Across the street is the MGM Grand and once inside we saw two magnificent female lions in the exhibit. We also took a peak at Treasure Island at some point, I forget when but it was by far the crappiest and tackiest of all the casino's so far.

Vegas by night....

The round trip took a couple of hours to complete and by the time we were back at our hotel we needed a little rest from walking. We decided when we were at the Bellagio that we'd eat at a Noodle restaurant there so we needed to leave at around 6pm to walk there, have dinner and be at the "O" theatre for 7.15pm. The noodle place was awesome, I had the best BBQ Pork noodle soup and Jo enjoyed a Vietnamese Seafood Pho. The timing was good so we headed to the theatre just in time to get our front row seats......

More on Cirque du Soleil next...