Jake & Miles' European Excursion

Ok as promised, we have put together our “Top 5s” of Europe. I know there will be some arguments about the methodology, so here it is: everyone nominates their personal top 5. 5 points are awarded to first place, down to 1 for 5th. Total family points are then tallied and the winner wins, with 20 points being a perfect score.

Top 5 Country

1. France (20 points!)
2. Spain (14 points)
3. UK (12 points)
4. Italy (10 points)
5. Switzerland (4 points)

Top 5 Town or City

1. Chamonix (17 points)
2. Barcelona (12 points)
3. St Remy (10 points)
4. Paris (7 points)
5. London (6 points)

Top 5 Art

1. Starry Night over the Rhône - Van Gogh (10 points)
2. Two Crabs - Van Gogh (8 points)
3. Water Lillies - Monet (7 points)
4. Mona Lisa - da Vinci (7 points)
5. The Skiff - Renoir (6 points)

Note: Water Lillies beat Mona Lisa on a countback.

Top 5 Food

1. Croissants (16 points)
2. Baguette (7 points)
3. Ramen (6 points)
4. Escargot (5 points)
5. Macrons (5 points)

Note: Escargot beat Macrons on a countback. Please don’t argue with me about the countback system.

Top 5 Activity

Note: there were some ties in this category, no one really chose the same activity for most of them. So it’s actually our top 9.

1. Paragliding (10 points)
2. Mountain biking (5 points on a countback)
3. Tower Bridge and St Emilion wine tour (tied - 5 points)
4. Tower of London, Paris Catacombs and Montserrat (tied - 4 points)
5. Gondola to Italy and Paris bike tour (tied - 3 points on a countback)

Top 5 Monument or Building

1. Eiffel Tower (13 points)
2. Sagrada Familia (13 points)
3. Louvre (10 points)
4. Arc de Triomphe (7 points)
5. Tower Bridge (6 points)

Top 5 Natural Places

1. Cassis beach (12 points)
2. Alpine garden (12 points)
3. Park Güell (11 points)
4. Tomato Garden (7 ponts)
5. Hyde Park (7 points)

Note: more countbacks.

Top 5 Animals

1. Bees of Provence (12 points)
2. Squirrels of London (11 points)
3. Parrots of Barceona (11 points)
4. Horses of the New Forest (8 points)
5. Swans of London (7 points)

Note: Squirrels beat Parrots on a countback.

Top 5 Modes of Transport

1. Bicycle (16 points)
2. Gondola (15 points)
3. Train (9 points)
4. Walk (6 points)
5. Metro (5 points)

The final day of the trip dawned and it was off to Heathrow to pick up a car for the day. Since I had driven all around France, Sonia offered to drive this leg, and was instantly rewarded with a free upgrade to a Mercedes EQA.

High Wycombe

The first stop was a visit to Uncle Reg (actually, he’s a great-great uncle to the boys) and his marvellous garden in High Wycombe.

Reg, Sonia, Miles and Jake

New Forest

We then headed off to Minstead for lunch at the Trusty Servant. After a pie and a pint with some cousins, we discovered that the final resting place of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was next door, so we stopped in to pay a visit.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and me!

Then time for a group photo with Lesley (the boys first cousin, twice removed) and Robert.

Robert, Miles, Sonia, Lesley and Jake

Thankfully that was the end of the complex cousin calculations, so after a quick tour of the forest, we were off.

Jake, Miles and some local wild horses

With our time in Europe drawing to a close, there was time for one last pint at the Frog & Wicket before we were back off home. Thanks for following along! We’ll be back shortly with our top 5s.

It’s my birthday today. I went to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It was so fun.

Jake and Miles at the Tower of London.

There were some crazy guys wearing crazy hats. They are part of the Army. Watch out they have guns with swords.

Looking at Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge was amazing. It was so tall. We even got to see it open from the top. I got heaps of stamps in a book that answered questions. There was even a paw stamp at the end.

Mummy and Miles photo

It was amazing to eat cheese in a cave like that. And then I had dinner with my friend Isabelle. This was the best part of the day.

Isabelle, Miles, Fred and Jake

Day 2 in London, and finally we were greeted with what we came here to see: overcast skies and drizzling rain. A perfect day to see some indoor cultural sites.

Stop 1: Westminster and Trafalgar Square

After downing possibly the worst coffee I have drunk this year (after parting with £3.30), we jumped on the District line to Westminster.

The two Big Bs - Big Ben and Big Bus

Follwoing a visit to Nelson at Trafalgar Square, it was time to answer the greatest mystery we have tackled so far: what’s the best painting in the National Gallery?

Miles’ verdict

Miles was quick to find a winner: Valencian Fisherman by Sorolla (on loan). “It looks like a photo. Are you sure it’s not just a photo”? This was soon replaced by Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds by Constable, but only for a minute as this was overtaken by The Four Times of Day by Jean-Baptitiste-Camille Corot. A clear trend of finding the biggest possible painting was emerging. With this in mind, we headed to the renaissance section. Finally, Miles settled on the biggest and best painting in the gallery: The Adoration of the Shepherds by Reni.

Miles’ Top 4 (please contact me if you would like a quote for my professional photoshop service)

Jake’s verdict

After being inspired by seeing Starry Night over the Rhône in Arles, we decided to seek out some more Van Gogh at the National Gallery. Apparently there are some sunflowers or something stored here. It wasn’t long before we stumbled upon Jake’s favourite painting of the day: Two Crabs by the one and only Vincent van Gogh.

Jake and Two Crabs (although I think it should have been titled “Crabtacular”)

Satisfied with our morning’s work, we set out to find Sonia and head to our next stop: Leicester Square.

Stop 2: Leicester Square

After consuming a couple of cultural icons (namely Bacon & Egg McMuffins), we visited the second largest LEGO store in the world (another victory for Australia over England!), followed by the world’s largest wall of M&Ms.

This is actually only about 10% of the M&M wall. Need to go back with a wider lens.

Then it was time to check out London’s largest collection of stolen objects: The National Museum.

Miles with a stolen mummy. This one was the favourite of both Miles and Jake.

Stop 3: St Martin’s Theatre

We stopped by St Martin’s Theatre in the West End to see what was playing today. Unfortunately there wasn’t much choice as they have been showing the same play 9 times per week since 1974 (when it moved from a smaller theatre down the road).

Thankfuly, they replace most of the actors every year.

Actually there is still one original actor who appears in The Mousetrap. Deryck Guyler died in 1999 but luckily he only appears on tape and so we were able to catch his 29,749th performance of Agatha Christie’s creation.

Due to theatre tradition, the only thing we are able to reveal about the play is the following photo.

No spoilers!

Jake’s rating

4.5 stars. It was good and intense.

Miles’ rating

3.9 stars. It was scary and it was kind of intense and I didn’t really like it that much when it got scary. But that was only one part, the rest was good.

The changing of the guard

The changing of the guard is when the guards (that guards that guard the king) swap over to another set of guards that guard the king. They change every two days. And they guard for 48 hours.

The march

We went to a crazy mini golf course that has four sections: Dirk; Bozo (the one we did); Pablo (which was closed); and Gary. Dirk was a horror basement, Bozo was a freaky circus, Pablo was a polluted paradise, and Gary was 80’s themed.

Freaky clown circus

We went on a ferry that was going to Chelsea Pier but the tide was too high so we had to get a shuttle to Chelsea Pier. We saw: the London Eye, the Albert Bridge, the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, and the Millenium Bridge. The MI6 building is where James Bond works.

James Bond’s Headquaters

For dinner we went to this ramen shop that we coincidently walked past on the first day. Even though it was expensive it was worth it. I had 1 star spice, the same as Miles and my dad.

I love ramen!