Tour de France - Stage 7 - Rennes

One of the things that we definitely wanted to do on this trip this year was to see some of the Tour de France. The second weekend of the tour gave us the opportunity to see two stages without doing too much driving around.

On Friday afternoon we flew into Paris and met Jonathan at the airport, he had already caught the Eurostar to Paris on Thursday and spent the day looking around. We picked up a car and set out west towards the Bretagne region. After negotiating the Paris ring roads, belting rain, flooded roads and Parisian drivers, we ended up on the A11. Driving in France is not a bad experience. The main motorways (Autoroutes) are well maintained and the speed limit of 130km/h is not unwelcome. We drove west for 3 hours until we found our first night's accommodation in Laval.

On Saturday morning we drove into Rennes, the town where Stage 8 finishes. Stage 8 is an individual time trial that starts in a little town called St Gregoire four kilometres to the north of Rennes. Rennes is not a huge town, but with all the road closures we had a bit of trouble finding our way to St Gregoire. Once there though, we were greeted by a little town that had been completely taken over by team buses, corporate areas and the race. The sleepy little town had awoken to a mass of people and a carnival like atmosphere. Fortunately the team busses were strung out along a narrow road in the town - so even though we didn't have passes to get into the team area, we were close to the mechanics and team busses.

We hung around and watched a few of the starts before making our way along the route back to the car. It is just an amazing sight to see the riders winding up their gears and settling down into a rythem that they are going to maintain for the next hour. They really are machines. On the way Jonathan found a stall that sold local sausages wrapped in a crepe. They were really tasty and we finished off a few of them for lunch.

We drove back into Rennes to find the finish line. Luckily we were able to park right at the 400m mark from the finish line. The crowds on the edge of the barriers were generally four to five people deep. We walked around and watched a few riders come up the finishing straight before heading down towards the media finish area. As soon as each rider crossed the finish line they were mobbed by media. Photographers and reporters shoved each other to get photographs and shove microphones into faces. A lot of the riders aren't too interested in talking to the media after the stage, especially if they posted a bad time. These ones would just ride straight through the media without stopping - this included some of the big names - Landis, Hushovd, Evans.

Results for the day: Serhiy Honchar won the time-trial stage and took the Malliot Jaune. Robbie McEwan kept his Malliot Vert. We watched the presentations. Robbie McEwan didn't want to talk to the media today and after receiving his jersey he weaved off through the crowd and was picked up by his waiting car.

And then it was over. As soon as the last official stepped off the podium, the cranes had already removed the finish banner and the barriers were being picked up by a truck. Hundreds of tour roadies streamed out of somewhere and each got to work on their specific job like a pack of worker ants. Everything was torn down within the hour and packed up into the waiting trucks, ready to roll out to the next town that the Tour de France tornado would blow into. As for us we walked back to the car and set off to find our nights accommodation.

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TdF 2006 Stage 8 - Rennes

Jul 8, 2006 - 28 Photos

Windsor Castle

Kelly, Liam and Jonathan, along with Kate took a day trip out to Windsor Castle. The castle is in the town of Windsor, not too far west of London. Windsor is set on the southern side of the River Thames, and across on the north of the river is Eton - the one with that famous college.

The castle is the largest and oldest occupied fortress in the world. As you walk through the town up to the castle it is not hard to appreciate that. The grounds and buildings would have been an ominous site as they were approached from below. These days the castle is the Queen's main residence and it is her most favoured.

We each got an audio guide and did the tour through Queen Mary's doll's house and the State Apartments. The apartments are the public third of the castle, and they have halls, bedrooms and functions rooms such as St George's Hall. Most of these rooms are still in use. The rest of the castle is the Queen's private residence. We didn't get to see St George's Chapel as it is shut on a Sunday.

One of the rooms in the State Apartments was the Queen's private chapel which was destroyed by the 1992 fires. We managed to get through the tour of the state apartments, but just as we were leaving the fire alarms went off. The apartments were evacuated and fire engines could be heard climbing up through the town and into the grounds. We were quickly ushered out of the grounds and back down into the town.

Jonathan, Kelly and I went down to the River Thames to have a look around. The area of the river around Windsor is teeming with birdlife. Mostly there are swans and pelicans, fed by the amply supply of tourist's bread and food pellets. We took a river boat tour up the Thames, which gave a different view of the castle and showed just how prominent and dominating it is over the area.


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Windsor Castle

Jul 2, 2006 - 13 Photos

Wimbledon

The summer sporting festivities had begun. The world is in the grip of World Cup fever. Aussies all around the world are rallying for the seemingly impossible - a place in the Round of 16. However there is still another little sporting event in London that might be worth a look... Wimbledon.

Wimbledon tickets are hard to come by at the best of times - there are ballots, many corporate tickets, freebies etc. For mere mortals the way to secure a ticket is to line up on the day and hope that you are one of the 6000 that can get general grounds admission. That is us this morning. Our dedication to tennis was not so great that we would camp out, but there were plenty of people who did. At 5:45am Jonathan, Kelly and Liam jumped in the car with Dave to drive out to Wimbledon. After parking we started the long walk back along the line towards the end of it. The line snakes many times across the length of Wimbledon Common. We joined the rear of the queue around 7am we are issued our queuing card - number 2500. There are only 2500 people in front of us... in the north queue. By all indications the south queue should be similar. There should be a good chance of getting a ticket. By 10am the queue starts moving and we snake out of the common, through security and the ticket office, and secure our ground pass.

There are a couple of Aussies playing today. Ley-ley is second up on Court 2, so we join the queue to get into that court. A few famous faces walk past us in the queue - Andre Agassi coming back from a warmup on the outer courts and Rolf Harris (in a bright blue suit) on his way to the centre court restaurant. Jonathan indulged in some true Wimbledon food - strawberries and cream, washed down with a cider. Lleyton enters the court and we are still 20 people from the entrance to the standing area, so we listen to the first set from outside. By 2pm we finally get into the standing area of the court and get to see the last two sets of the match that Lleyton breezed through in 3 sets.

Next on court 2 is Venus Williams, so we stay for a bit of that match. The afternoon is whiled away watching various other matches around the outer courts.

In the evening there is a mixed doubles match with some Aussies. The "Wayne-train", Wayne Arthurs, and Alicia Molik are up against a Swedish pair on court 13, unlucky for some. They play well in the first set taking that, but begin to crack, losing the second set. The third set is close - in the fading light of 9:30pm - but it eventually goes the wrong way for the Aussies and their mixed doubles campaign is over. All that is left to do is exit and head for the car. Wimbledon is a great day out. We had plenty of fun getting around the courts, watching the games, sitting on the hill and eating strawberries and cream.

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Wimbledon

Jul 1, 2006 - 16 Photos

Lords Cricket Ground

I snuck a day off work to spend some time with Jonathan in London. We didn't quite know what the plan would be, but we decided to first go to Lord's Cricket Ground at St John's Wood in north London.

We caught a bus from Angel and managed to jump onto the end of the tour. There was a match on between Oxford and Cambridge for the final of the MCC Universities Challenge. The tour initially took us through the rooms of the Pavilion - the Long Room, the Members Room, up onto the Members balcony, back through the members bar, much to the chagrin of the members having their breakfast. We spent some time in the museum, and had a look at the original Ashes trophy, and memorabilia from some of the greats of cricket.

The tour wrapped up with a look around the NatWest media centre - that's the space age looking one at the western end. In the photos there is a picture of one of the function rooms used during matches. We sat in the stand and watched some of the match, although Jonathan had a bit of a snooze - it had been a long first few days in London.

Just up the road from the cricket ground is Abbey Road, which is famous for the Beatles studios and the cover of the Abbey Road album. We had a quick look at that before jumping on the tube down to the south bank of the Thames and had a walk around past Tower Bridge and a look inside the Tower of London.

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Lords Cricket Ground

Jun 29, 2006 - 19 Photos

Jono arrives in London

Jonathan arrived in London today. London was raining quite heavily and he walked up from Trafalgar Square to my work on Fleet Street, if he had known how far it was then I don't he would have done it in the rain with a small case and backpack. His first activity was to get to our flat and sleep.

That night was Australia's appearance in the World Cup finals with their match against Italy. We went up to a local pub, The Winchester, to watch the game. As I am sure we are all aware it was a gut-wrenching game for the Aussies. It was a good experience for Jono to experience the pub with a football game on. It was a great atmosphere, though it must be said that there were quite a few Aussie supporters - I don't think there were many English supporting the Italians!

Royal Ascot Races

And they're off...

To the Royal Ascot Races - Horses, Hats, Pimms, Bookies, The Queen, Jockeys, and more Pimms.

We went out to Ascot on the last Saturday of the Royal Ascot Races. It is your typical race day except that the Queen and a few other Royals are there. Well, not in our section, but they do ride past in a carriage and give a wave before ascending into the stands.

Not being big gamblers, we didn't have much of a budget for the bookies. And a good thing it was too because we only picked one placing in seven races.

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Royal Ascot

Jun 24, 2006 - 11 Photos

Bath

Another day trip out of London. Bath is an old Roman town near the west coast of England, just east of Bristol. The bus ride there takes 3 hours. Kate, Kelly and I caught the 7am bus from Victoria and headed west to spend a day out in Bath.

The town is built on the banks of the Avon River - the same one that flows through Stratford-upon-Avon, through the Cotswolds, Bath, Bristol and then the ocean. The town's main claim to fame is that it is built on ancient hot springs that the Romans constructed bath houses on. The main square of the town is focused around the ancient bath house. It seems like a typically Cotswold town with narrow cobbled streets, gothic churches and plenty of character.

We firstly went into the Roman bath house. It has a self-guided tour and it is amazing to see the infrastructure that was built for the baths, the church nearby and the old town square. You can almost get the feeling of being there in Roman times.The town also has a famous author, Jane Austen, who spent some of her life living and writing in Bath, taking inspiration from the country side surroundings. Kate and Kelly spent some time in the Jane Austen house, looking at a history of her life. We walked up towards the northen side of town, up the top of the hill, to the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is a half moon of stately Georgian houses that overlook a park and the botanic gardens.

The arched Pulteney bridge crosses the Avon river and it has houses and shops built on top of it, probably much like London bridge would have looked before its many rebuilds. We stop to have dinner and a couple of beers at a cafe that looks over the river before getting back on the bus for the trip home. It is little wonder that Bath has been listed as a World Heritage Site. The town is a beautiful example of golden sandstone architecture blended with an interesting history and window into Roman-esque life.

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Bath

Jun 17, 2006 - 14 Photos