Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Day 16 of Batty tour
This is it.....We've almost reached the end of our Batty Journey, but we still have a whole lot to do!!!
Another beautiful, warm day in London, and off we were to fly the London Eye.
We had another opportunity of a 4D-experience, this time based on the sights/ views of the London Eye. This time we had smoke, and bubbles and "snow".
We boarded our pod and through the half hour ride saw just how big London is. We recognised sights we'd visited and made the most of this sky-view by snapping pics of one another and the great view.
Safely back on the South Bank we made a quick stop for some ice cream and then headed off for our last few hours of London shopping :)
We met up back near the hotel in our Russell Square Park, ate our lunch and chilled.
4 o'clock seemed to roll on really quickly and before we knew it we were boarding our shuttle bus to Heathrow.
With sad hearts we say goodbye to this vibrant city and this amazing country. We have loved every minute of our trip. And with happy hearts we look forward to seeing our parents, siblings,
children (for Mr and Mrs Nel) and other family members.
Day 15 of Batty Tour
Madam Tussaud’s was an eagerly anticipated attraction by
all. And the queues were worth it!
It was so delightful to see the Batty learners admiring the
first few wax models we saw. You can imagine that because the wax models looked
so life-like, the battys would stand by waiting for the model to move or blink.
A couple of pokes and prods reassured a few girls (Charity, Kholofelo and
Samia) that the models were in fax not real people.
We made our way through the different themed rooms, posing
with our favourite look-alikes. And then we arrived at “Scream”. We were all
macho going into this ghost tunnel but as we moved through it, we grabbed onto
one another, screaming like girls all the way out.
And then the cherry on top of this visit to Madam Tussaud’s
had to be the 4D theatre experience. Moving into the dome theatre wearing our
4D glasses, you could feel the excitement. ….
Splinters of glass flying at you,
water from a near fountain splashing on you and Hulk’s incredible power blowing
you away were a few highlights of a brilliant never-to-be-forgotten experience.
Day 14 of Batty tour
Free day!!!
A day to explore, to get lost, to laugh, to take pictures, to
shop, to enjoy London!
Day 13 of Batty Tour
Bring on London!
We enjoyed a hop off/hop on bus ride through London today.
The bus ride took us past all the big sights of the city, and with audio
commentary gave us a good insight into London.
We made our way to Tower Bridge and then jumped off to walk
to Tower Pier where we boarded the cruise boat for a ride up the Thames River.
As we came to end of our cruise we docked at Westminster Pier, with Big Ben
towering above us. We jumped on
another bus to take us on to Buckingham Palace.
We spent the rest of the day getting lost and exploring
London along the way.
Day 12 of Batty tour
Another travel day for the Batty team. With sad hearts we
bade farewell to the great town of Linlithgow and its wonderful hospitality.
We got a train from Linlithgow to Glasgow Queens Street,
with a quick walk on to Glasgow Central Station to board our train to London.
The train ride was 4, 5 hours!!! We all used this journey time for some much
needed recharging, to fill up our energy tanks for our London leg of the tour.
On arrival in London, we were taken aback by how busy it
was. The station, the streets and our hotel were all jammed packed with people.
Once we’d booked in at the hotel, we grabbed some supper and
had a chilled evening.
Day 11 of Batty tour
The morning started with one of our Batty members being down
and out for most of the day. Although we were short of one person we kept our
spirits high throughout our shopping trip to Glasgow. As usual the boys and
girls split up and for the rest of our visit it stayed that way until it was
time to meet up at the train station and leave. After our wee train ride we
convened at Low Port Centre were we made plans for our Burns Supper and
Scottish dance class.
Scottish dancing really exposed the musically inclined and
the people with two left feet. We all came in with predetermined mindsets under
the assumption that it would be easy but within the first ten minutes the
instructors had us sweating like dogs.
We learnt and performed a variety of traditional dances such as the
Gay-Gordons and the Boston Two-Step. To sum it all up the dances involved a lot
of jumping, partner switching, polkaing and laughing (A.K.A. a very hilarious
intense aerobics class).
Our Burns Supper was almost derailed when it was discovered
that one of our members had forgotten her newly bought goods at Glasgow train
station but thanks to the amazing trust system that Scotland has the goods were
handed in to the authorities and waiting for its owner. With that out of our
minds we got dressed to the nines and congregated in the dining hall for the
commencement of the Burns Supper. We were treated to a wonderful menu of food
including haggis. The haggis stabbing ceremony was preformed by Mr Nel and
after the meal the Battys performed The Mans, The Gowd written by world renown
poet Robert Burns (whom the dinner is named after). The most challenging part
of this apart from us not understanding the poem was reciting it in a Scottish
accent. It’s safe to say that as a team we sucked but nonetheless it was
hilarious. We forgot lines, could
not pronounce words and our accents were something else…
We ended the day with a stroll through the Linlithgow palace
gardens and a photo shoot in our formal wear.
By Boipelo
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Day 10 of Batty Tour
Today we spent our morning on the beautiful Loch of
Linlithgow.
Kitted out in waterproof suits, we loaded the kayaks and
headed down to the loch. After some time getting used to rowing in our the
kayaks, we headed across the loch for activities. The first being a game of tag.
The next few minutes were very interesting to see you could outsmart (and out
row) the rest of the pack. Boipelo did well to outlast being caught, and was
announced the winner.
The kayaking activities were enjoyed by all, especially when
we had to “raft” and two of us had to move across boats. By the end of the day,
everyone was wet either from falling in the loch, or being pulled into the
loch.
After lunch we headed to the climbing-wall hall, which the
guys discovered was a basketball court too. Needless to say, they worked their
magic and managed to book a scheduled time for them to play this evening.
The climbing wall was great fun! We mastered the skills of
wall climbing, and with a little boost managed to get everyone up the wall.
When our instructor called the last few minutes, we scrambled to get in a few
more climbs.
Today was a lekker day!
Monday, 1 July 2013
Day 9 of Batty Tour 2013
After a defeated or victorious sleep after the match between Brazil and Spain, we head over to explore the way of life in the town of Stirlling.
We visited StirlingCastle, finding ourselves between ancient walls and ancient graveyards with a beautiful view of the land of the Scots. After our cultural top-up we walked along the streets singing High School Musical backtracks and getting lost, running in all sorts of directions.
Stirlling is a calm and chilly town, with a profound tale of struggle and the essence of Scotland. As we rounded off our day in Stirlling and seated ourselves on the train back to Linlithgow. we thought the day was over, BUT our day has not ended.
After a power nap, we set off to indulgein and be captivatedby the history of Scotland. We headed up to LinlithgowPalace, where we found ourselves playing hide and seek around the castle walls and searching for the hints of a castle quiz.
By Elaine
Day 8 Of Batty Tour 2013
Church!
We visited St Michael’s church today in Linlithgow. The sermon was uplifting and the people were warm and welcoming. To our surprise they played us an African praise song, which took our spirits to a whole new level.
Edinburgh Castle!
Going through the castle was honestly breathtaking. Seeing the honors(the crowns) made the whole experience even more special. After viewing the castle we got to wander around the town and ‘do our own thaaaang’. SHOPPING was one of the highlights of the day, not only did we get MAJOR discounts we also got the most fashion forward clothing anyone could ever dream of. From what we saw thee most popular trend happens to be colouring your hair, from crazy colours like orange to laid-back colours like faded purple. The funniest part of the day was trying to find our way back to the train station while struggling to carry shopping bags (made out of paper) in the rain and having to pick up the clothes which had fallen on the wet paving, we found ourselves carrying the handle of the bag without the bag itself LOL!! Overall, the day was FUN-DUBEE-DOUZEE!!!!
By Charity.
Day 7 of Batty Tour 2013
Day 7 of Batty Tour 2013
Today was a travel day. We left Lagganlia, and got the train from Avimore to Linlithgow. The train ride lasted about 3 hours, and then we finally arrived at our next “home”.
MrsNel had us all believing we’d need to walk kilometers to our accommodation from the train station, when it is really around the corner J
In the afternoon, we decide to head to the Peel (the grassed area around the Loch) in Linlithgow. To our delight, the “Historic Scotland” group was hosting a jousting day. As we strolled through the crowds we got to see some role-play of Scottish history in the beautiful setting of the Linlithgow palace grounds.
Our last stop before heading back to Lowport Centre was Tesco for the legendary Minstrels.
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