Thursday 29 January 2009

Frozen Over

Here's a quick vid we did one Sunday a couple of weeks back, when we drove into London for a look at the Winter Wonderland funfair in Hyde Park. As you will see we had a bit of a cold snap at the time and it was freezing - so much so that the Serpentine (Hyde Park's famous lake) had frozen over. The ducks and birds didn't seem real impressed but all the kids were having a great time skimming ice across the lake.

There's also a bit of squirrel action at the end, for all you squirrel fans out there.








This is the same video as above, except it's li'ler - as Lucy would say in her recently developed cockney accent. This might be better for slower internet connections.

For fast internet connections, we suggest playing them both at the same time for a cool echo effect!

Wednesday 14 January 2009

A Great Park (near Windsor)

We've made a couple of visits to a great park near Windsor, aptly called Windsor Great Park and we'd thought we share some more pics with you. It's a nice place for a walk, with trees, deers, statues (all your usual park stuff really) as well as the off chance of spotting a member of the royal family. Luckily we haven't seen anybody of note as yet, but we did hear some distant gunshots last time which we presume was Harry skylarking again.





This lot were taken back in October when the weather was still OK, the trees still had leaves, and the park had a nice autumnal feel.
Lucy is wearing her medal awarded at karate for getting her yellow/white belt. She was very proud and didn't take it off for weeks.


Secret squirrel





These shots were taken in late November when the weather was a bit cooler and trees had less leaves - nice colours though


That's Windsor Castle in the distance


And here we have Lucy in front of a humble little statue of King George III, known as The Copper Horse - presumably due to the metal from which the statue is made, or otherwise because George had a strange nickname. We like the invading Roman Emperor look.


The wording is in Latin, which is not one of our languages. Apparently it reads something along the lines of "King George III. Top Dad. Top King. Top Bloke." The statue was erected by George III's son, George IV, and apparently they didn't get on.


Big, isn't it?
That's the girls off to the left.


The walk from the Copper Horse Statue to Windsor Castle is known as The Long Walk - another fitting name

Monday 5 January 2009

A Rainy Day in Paris

Following on from our pics at Disney are these ones around Paris. We visited Disney on the Friday and then left Saturday free to travel into Paris and have a look around. It was a particularly cold day with the wind blowing, but it started out sunny, and our interpretation of the French weather forecast left us thinking that would be it. We got out and saw Notre Dame Cathedral and a few of the streets on the south side of the Seine before heading off for an early lunch in a cafe near The Louvre.

Unfortunately, our interpreting skills need improving (either that or the boys down at the French Weather Bureau got it badly wrong) because as we emerged from the cafe it was raining steadily, and kept on so for the remainder of the afternoon. We tried to stick to undercover footpaths and walkways, but this can be challenging. At least you may get a laugh at our waning smiles as these pics progress. For future reference, "pluie" is French for "rain".


It was cold but sunny at 10am outside an important looking Parisian building.


It was still cold and (somewhat) sunny outside Notre Dame a short time later.


The stained glass windows in Notre Dame are even more impressive than those at Cinderella's Castle in Disneyland.


More from inside Notre Dame.


Another from inside the Cathedral... the bright light you can see is an incoming bolt of lightning, probably sent by God, to warn off photographers from using flash cameras whilst the priest is saying Mass.


More action from outside Notre Dame - it's looking a touch greyer than earlier.


You may have noticed that Keezee is missing his trendy brown cap that he was wearing at Disney - it was lost on the train and was sorely missed.


Your typical "Boat on The Seine" tourist picture.


There were so many lovely Parisian-looking buildings everywhere, we had to get a few photos of them.


And here we are now shortly after lunch, admiring the golden statue of Joan of Arc, outside the Hotel Regina on Place des Pyramides - note, rain.


This is about as close as we got to the Eiffel Tower in the end. Lucy's still loving it, whilst Keezee is trying to put on a happy face.


Our spirits were lifted slightly when we stumbled upon a bunch of market stalls selling mulled wine (for the adults) and fudge (for the kids). Caiti even decided to make an appearance when the fudge came out.


And it was nice of them to provide some warm fires to drink your wine beside.


And here we are on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées still smiling.


We made it all the way up the hill to the Arc de Triomphe, but by now we were rather cold and rather wet, and it was getting harder to raise a smile - Caiti had the right idea.


The obligatory street sign shot just to prove/recall where we were.


A warm, dry, well-lit and expensive Parisian cafe.


This is the lovely Christmas tree at Val d'Europe shopping centre.


Val d'Europe had a really cool toy shop that included an animatronic pony that responds to kids and even pretends to eat pretend carrots.


Giant escargot anyone?