Starting from
Number 5 : Brighton Beach
45 minutes from Victoria Station
Beautiful beautiful place, even during winter. Ok, its not like Bondi Beach, but it does pretty well for boring London! Didn't take us
long to get there, nice comfortable train ride. When we got 
there, we just loved it! Nice little town with little shop shop houses lining the streets, small little roads all leading down to the beach....very much like Newtown except its not that dirty....The beach was beautiful, but the strange thing about it is that there was no soft flowy sand. It was all little rounded pebbles instead. The beach had 2 jetties extending far out into the sea. One of the jetties is completed, the other still work in progress. I've heard heaps about the beach parties they have during summer, where tens of thousands of 
Londoners and tourists descend upon the beach for longs days and nights of partying. Fatboy Slim, a famous DJ lives near there in Hove and these 
parties are probably legendary because of him. We then walked up to North and South Brighton lanes where there are beautiful little shops just waiting to be explored. Our only regret was that we had to watch Chicago that night and didn't get to spend more time there, but it is definitely on our list of places we want to come back to again and spend a few nights.
Number 4 : Roman Bath in Bath (near London, not Rome!)
Another beautiful beautiful place in a beautiful beautiful town. Bath is a town about 2 hours (I think!) out of London, which we went to on a day trip. In the olden days, when the Romans had their empire stretched throughout Europe, and Bath was one of the towns they possessed. Of course, the Romans had to build something their to show off their superiority and decided on building a bath where men can congregate and wash themselves naked in full view of other men...hmmm....origins of all male saunas.....
Number 3 : Gondola Serenade in Venice
Yes, its very touristy and bodering on cheesy, but anyone who goes to Venice must try it. We took the shorter 45 minute private Gondola ride and it set us back by about 80 Euros, which wasn't as bad as I thought. The gondolier took us through little waterlanes and did as much explaining as he could with his limited English. Good thing they just had a major cleanup of their canals so it wasn't that bad. It was amazing watching the gondoliers squeeze 2 to 3 gondolas through a small waterway. Gondolas are purely for tourists nowaday, most people in Venice either walk to work or take the water bus, which can get really, really crowded.
Number 2 : Basilica di Sant Pietro and Cappella Sistina in Vaticano (Vatican City)
I am known to be quite unreligious but visiting these sites was more to do with appreciating the glorious artifacts and amazing architecture that has been around for ages. When we walked into St Peter's Basilica, our mouths just dropped (doesn't happen very often in a place of religious worship) in amazement at the enormity of the facade. 
Everything was so big, you could be easily engulfed by the beauty of it all. If I'm not wrong, all the Popes who have passed on are buried on the grounds. I had a shock when I saw people taking photos of what appeared to be the embalmed body of a previous Pope, and I thought that was so fucking disrespectful. Then I found out later that it was actually a marble cast of the Pope in his casket and that is the tombstone. I was so amazed by the fineness of their workmanship because every wrinkle on his face and every fold in his robes were cast using marble. No words can describe that, not even photos. You just have to see it for yourself. 
The Sistine Chapel is located about 15 minutes away from St Peter's Basilica. We were so glad that we planned our trip during this off peak season. We've heard that during peak season, people sometimes had to queue for 2 hours to get into the Vatican Museum, which houses the Sistine Chapel. We only took half an hour. It was still crowded, and we lost each other but had to proceed because the Sistine Chapel was open only to 2pm and we only had 1 half hours to explore that. What happens is you will get herded along like sheep through the Museum and finally end up in the Sistine Chapel. Wall and ceiling paintings are what we've come to see in the Sistine Chapel and again, they were exceedingly beautiful, depicting the Genesis and creation of Adam to the Last Supper and resurrection of Christ. The paintings were done by many artistes but the most famous using and abused in many advertising campaigns was the Last Judgement by Michaelangelo. Truly inspiring! We weren't supposed to take any photos within the Sistine Chapel, but we managed to a sneak a few in...hehhe.....its our touristic right!
And now.....Number 1 : Shakespeare and Company in Paris
You must be crazy, Martyn! All the beautiful places in Europe you've gone to and you choose a small English bookshop in Paris as your number 1 must see place??!!!!
Now before you get too excited, allow me to explain.
Shakespeare and Company is located on 37 Rue de la Bucherie opposite Notre Dame on the Left Bank near the Latin Quarter. At first, when Matt wanted to go there, I was sceptical because I know how fanatic Matt is with bookshops. However, Matt has read a book about this famous bookstore in Paris with a 97 year old owner who invites guests up for tea to discuss writing and other stuff. So I got bundled along for the ride. When we entered the bookshop, you truly become surrounded by books, all stacked up to the ceiling with no apparent system whatsoever. However, when some people asked for certain titles, the store assistants were able to find them! Must somehow work for them to have their books arranged this way. The feeling the bookshop gave me was that you wanted to pick a book up to read. I am not so much of an instore reader, you know, browsing and spending hours reading a book in a store. I'd much rather curl up in bed at home with my book. However, I was amazed that I spent about 2 half hours there, just browsing through the wide variety of books they have there, talking to other people about the books they recommend etc...it was such a refreshing change of pace from our hectic holiday schedule to be able to relax and enjoy other booklovers' company. We were then invited up to the founder's lounge room for tea. George is somewhat an icon in the literacy circles because of this bookshop. He gives people lodging in exchange of a few hours of work within the bookshop. Many famous writers have used the bookshop as a retreat while they did their writing. Of course, the premises wasn't a four star hotel, but the inspirational environment it provides is not something you can find anywhere else. There we were, 8 people cramped up into his lounge room, with George seemingly in a happy mood, greeting me with a Chinese greeting. He told us to walk into his room to look at his photos and other stuff.And guess what I did? My huge backpack hit one of his coffee cups, sending it splashing all over the floor! I was so embarassed!George didn't look angry and still continued serving us tea, but he did not come out to chat with us. I sure hope it wasn't be cause of me! He did mention to one of the assistants that there were not enough girls among the group, hahahha!!! 97 and still horny! Gotta give respect to this guy, a bit artsy-weird and cranky, but nevertheless still a legend!
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