London 6 May - 10 May

Friday 6 May

Landed at Stansted airport at about 9.30 pm London time which was about 4.30 am Perth time so we were really tired. Didn't sleep really on the trip so we took a taxi to Greenways Lodge in Bishops Stortford, just 10 mins away, and tumbled into bed. Woke at 7 and went for a walk. Saw some very old houses and a nice

old church. Also this lovely, ancient, very English, red phone booth!

 Then back to the airport, had breakfast, Good! English breakfast! Toast, sausages and eggs and bacon and baked beans. Then by bus to London, and by tube to our hotel. Booked in, dumped the luggage and caught the tube into the city, and went to Churchills War museum.VERY INTERESTING.


 

So then we walked through St James' Park and walked to Buckingham Palace. The weather was hot. We wore shorts and Tshirts. Lots of people were sitting and walking in the park! We sat at stopped for a tea and coffee and then checked out the bus station for our trip on Monday.

 We ate at a pub called The Iron Duke at Victoria Station. Great food, good beer and cider! On the way home we stopped at Paddington station and were treated to an open air concert. We still tried to do some emailing and blogging at McDonalds but the signal was not very good so we went back to our room and went to bed. It was still light at 9 o'clock. Wow!

Saturday 7 May

 Saturday we caught the tube to Picadilli circus and Trafalgar square. Got the hop on hop off bus and did sightseeing. Then went to Greenwich via the boat. Now there starts an interesting story.

Boarding the hop on hop off bus - a bit of drizzle!

 
 


 As we were boarding a group of rather pushy tourists... Oh wait no not us.... Asian tourists pushed us around trying to get onto the boat first. Then while on the boat completely disregarded the captain reading the safety instructions and the like. Getting somewhat of a rather shoddy commentary out of the captain dad went and spoke to the guy.

A few parting words from the captain included the following "I have been shanghaied in shanghai but I've never yet been hijacked on my own boat".

Poor guy. He was completely put off his commentary. What with a woman standing on a seat and "perambulating" around while he was trying to explain things, he was really put out. Several times he found those Asians doing things he did not approve of.

Oh and by the way Harrods department store truly is astounding!!!!!! Seeing is believing and even then I'm not quite sure I do yet :-) Had a lovely dinner at Victoria Station in a pub. Good beer and good food. Chilli con carne and Beef stew and mum had acider. It was great!

Now back to the hotel room for for some  peace and quiet. Listening to froggies in the background is kinda a put off.

Sunday 8 May

Well today is Sunday and we plan to go to church in  London - The LONDON CITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
This church is held at St Botolph’s -Without-Aldersgate, Aldersgate St, London. It's close to  St Paul’s Cathedral. The services start at 11 am and 6.30pm and the website is www.londonfreechurch.org.uk

We take the tube and go to church. We are early and sit outside the church in a small park, on a bench in the shade.

Soon people start to arrive and we go inside. The people are friendly and we take a seat. There is no use of instruments but a woman stands at the front of the church and leads the singing. Later we are told that a recent synod has approved the use of instruments but their are also people who are upset about this decision and plan to leave. The preaching is Scriptural, the message simple.
We stay for drinks and talk to some people, then we head for Hyde Park where we planm to meet with Greta Blohuis and Hester Bax. We have taken our lunch and we sit down on the grass to eat. Its warm and sunny. Somehow our messages seem to cross and it takes a while before we see Hester and Greta arrive, so we are very happy tosee each other at last. We walk to the river near Westminster. On the way we see a parade of British grenadiers with their bear hats on, playing the band as they march along. We stop and dad films the parade. At Buckingham Palace we make some photos. We walk accross Westminster Bridge and see the London Eye. Greta has never been here yet. Hester leaves us and we make our way to St Paul's Cathedral designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is a very beautiful cathedral. We go inside and listen to a half hour concert.
Then we say goodbye to Greta and take the tube back to our hotel.  In the kitchen we use the microwave to heat up some dinner.
we eat and go on time to bed. the next day we need to be up early for our planned excursion.

Monday 9 May

Back in Australia we planned to go on a guided bus tour out of London. This tour should take us to Oxford University, Stratford on Avon, through the Cotswolds and to Warwick Castle. We have our lovely English breakfast and make our way to St Pancras, where we buy some snacks for the day. Then we catch the tube to Victoria Station. From there we walk to the bus station. We discover that we are a bit late. It is peak hour on the tube and so things move slower than normal. We end up running along the road to get to the bus station on time, but then we discover that the bus driver has gone to pick up people fron the London hotels and is running very late. We have time to catch our breath and end up waiting for the driver. 
The bus finally does leave and our guide is a lady who likes talking. She is also quite humourous and we have lots of laughs. We look at the architecture of the buildings as we leave London and see that houses were built differently at different time periods.
Oxford University is the place where lots of students have recived their education in Britain for centuries. The buildings are old but well kept. There is ongoing work to keep them in good condition. We see Christchurch Hall where some of the Harry Potter movie was filmed.
Christchurch Hall


We see Alice in Wonderland in the stained glass window and hear how the book was conceived here by Lewis Carroll when he was working here. We walk through the town and see the many buildings which are scattered here and there through th etown, and together make up the university.
At Stratford on Avon we explore Shakesspeare's birthplace. Then we move on to Warwick Castle. We travel throught thr Cotswolds - the sheep paddocks - and at the Castle, we go exploring - up the castle walls. Dad gets dizzy going round and round first up then down again. Maddame Tussaud owns this castle and many wax figures illustrate life as it used to  be in the castle.
A young man demonstrates bow and arrow skills.

We make photos and buy some souvenirs.
By now it is after 4 pm and we make our way back to the bus. Its quiet in the bus on our way home. Everyone is tired. The bus drops off people at their hotels if they are on the way. We get off at the end point. We catch the tube and go to Oxford Circus. There we find a cosy pub, order our dinner and beer, then we make our way home. We are tired, have a drink and go to bed.


Tuesday 10 May

We got up later this morning. Had a rather relaxed breakfast.

After breakfast we went to the laundromat to wash some clothes. Dad and Will went to check the tickets for the Eurostar the next day.

Once done we jumped on the tube and went to Leaden Hall markets. The markets weren't on so it was quite quiet. A bit disappointing that there didn't seem to be much resemblance to the Harry Potter movie.

Moving on from there we walked down toward the gherkin building. This was the site or at least very close to the site where one of the IRA bombs went off. We walked on further and while taking a photo of an old church we got a surprise when on old lady opened the door and offered to let us in for a look around.

We tried to get into one of the tall buildings but were told that in order to do so we had to purchase at least 10 pound each of champagne from their bar.

We jumped on Liverpool tube and went to Westfield shopping centre. This place was big. Not huge but big. Lots and lots of the brand names shops like guess verdasco Hugo boss Armani Calvin klieg etc.

We had lunch and sat at an Internet cafe for a while after which we went back to the hotel and watched some tv.

Went to O'Neils for dinner at a different location this time. Had some very tap waterish beers and steak and guiness pie. The pie was good, but the beer was the worst we had tasted yet!

Back to hotel. Will and Dad to maccas to download apps for wills iPad.

Sleep before we leave tommorow. We look forward to our ride on the very fast Eurostar train - under the English Channel and into Paris!