Toulouse - Carcassonne
We only spent a couple of days here but it's technically not Provence which will be the next post so it's going up on its own.
Toulouse was really just a point of entry to the south coast so we only stayed one night. We found a deli while wandering around the city and bought the makings of a picnic which we had down by the river.
Carcassonne was our first stop, recommended by several people, and it was well worth heading a little off our path for. The main attraction is the ancient city - a narrow maze of streets and alleyways contained within formidable 12th-century walls.
Neil with the ancient city behind him
The region is the home of the Cathars and we visited a couple of museums covering the history of the people and the inquisitors who chased them down.
From Carcassonne we headed east to Arles and then Aix-en-Provence. Next post!
Out and About
Having decided not to go away for the Easter weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather to explore a bit locally. We spent quite a bit of time down in the park (photos to come) and on Sunday went to the Tower Of London.
Inside the Tower grounds
Originally built as a city residence for the Royal Family it was later expanded and fortified by different kings over several centuries. It houses the Crown Jewels which we had to queue quite a while for, and a very comprehensive armouries collection.
The Tower seen from the Ferry
After the Tower we took a ferry along the river to Westminster and then walked home. Yes, walked. Please note the distance on the map below! Although there's no scale so that's not much use - I would guess it was around 4-5km.
Houses of Parliament - Westminster
Where we live in Bayswater is kind of the equivalent to East Melbourne in demographic, price and distance from the city. We can walk in and occasionally do for Sunday lunch, but more often take a tube or a bus if it's evening or we're heading for the other side of the city. Bayswater is a very touristy area, advantages of that are that the shops are always open and there's always people out on the streets no matter what time of evening - makes it a bit safer for walking around at night.
Tower Bridge from the Tower of London Wall
Neil travels into the city for work, right near the Tower of London, it takes him about 20min plus 25min walking. I get a tube direct from Bayswater station to East Putney, 20mins with a 10min walk at each end. We generally go everywhere by tube, buses are much harder to work out and usually slower. The most annoying thing about the tube is that there's no mobile cover anywhere underground so it can be tricky if you're trying to meet up with people. It is somewhat unreliable on weekends but we are lucky in that we have a choice of five different lines within walking distance so you can always work out a route even if some are closed.
Where we went
Well, I've mostly just been rabbiting on today but I know there's some readers who like to know the little details.
Ciao :-)
