Merci et au revoir!

We're back in Canada after our wonderful wonderful trip, and now I'm going to close down this blog.  Thank you to everyone who has followed our travels, and especially to all the many people who came to see us, met us in exciting places, or had us to stay, it has been brilliant to see so many friends and family. 
Merci!

Wales

As well as lots of time with relatives, we have taken a week here in the UK to go camping in Wales.  We spent most of our time in Pembrokeshire and a couple of nights in the Brecon Beacons.Apart from a bit of rain in Brecon - that came when we were at the top of a mountain, of course - we had lovely weather, and really enjoyed it.  I had forgotten how beautiful the coast is around there - really fabulous.  Being in exotic Wales "Land of the Dragon" made it seem all the more exciting.  We had lovely times in castles at Carew and Caerphilly, and enjoyed walking the Wales coastal path near St. Davids.

We had a chance to try out old fashioned archery at Carew Castle

Carew Castle

Manorbier beach

Fish and chips

The boys had a great time driving go-karts

We saw A LOT of sheep - what else would you expect in Wales!

Celebrating reaching the top in the Brecon Beacons.  Five seconds later the big rain behind him was on top of us.

 

London

Stewart and I left the kids with their grandparents and had a brilliant day out in London.  We mostly just walked walked walked, enjoying a beautiful sunny day in one of the best cities in the world.  When I grow up (and after the kids leave home) I would love to live in London for a couple of years.  We were planning to go to a show, but there was nothing in the last minute cheap ticket booth that really grabbed us, so we went to the Proms instead, it was brilliant.  Unless you have been organised and bought seat tickets in advance you just queue on the day for 5 pound standing tickets which let you go anywhere you want in the gallery, which is the top level of the Royal Albert Hall.  There are also standing tickets for the bottom area right by the orchestra.  It was really fun, with people lying down, sitting or standing all over the place, and lots of picnicing.  We listened to Beethoven's 5th and 6th, and a couple of shorter pieces of modern music that I can't remember.  Was a ton of fun.

Going past Olympic Park on the train

Tower Bridge

St. James Park

At the Proms

Olympics

We weren't able to get tickets to any of the big Olympic events in London, but we did manage to see one Olympic event - watching the Canadian women's soccer team in Coventry.  The security was ridiculous, but other than that it was loads of fun.

It is interesting being in the UK while the Olympics is on - there is such excitement about it.  Team GB (as they're known - not sure what is wrong with "British team") are doing amazingly and when watching coverage on TV you can come away with the impression that they're winning everything.  The problem is that events where there is no British hope are not covered at all.  The newspapers are full of the Olypmics, and the nightly 30 minute news has only seconds on news other than the Olympics.  The impression from here is that everything is going brilliantly.