Earth has not anything to show more fair:

I love London. 

On my first visit to this great metropolis seven years ago I didn't enjoy it so much. That time, I didn't stay right in the city and found everything very disorientating and muddly when I came in each day. I found my way around okay, but just couldn't get it all sorted in my head.

This time is different though. My internal GPS is working. When we were first here in June we saw and did a few things we wanted to. This time we're having a weekend to try to do more. Only thing is the list is quite long...and new things keep getting added, some even jumping the queue and we end up going somewhere we hadn't actually planned to go.

On Friday when we arrived, we left our bags in our tiny room in a small family run hotel and went for a walk. We collected our tickets to see Ben Hurley & Jarred Christmas later that night and had some lunch at Fiore in Leicester Square. Yum. Our walk took us to Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, The Strand and Fleet Street (a bit of a Monopoly board tour !) We found Yoda (actually several Yodas) hovering in Trafalgar Square - how do they do that ? and the Twinings Tea Shop on Fleet Street where it has been since 1706, now dwarfed by neighbouring buildings. Then walked back to rest our feet before going back for dinner and a good laugh.

 Regent Street

 Piccadilly Circus

 Yes he is floating - but how ?

 Twinings Tea Shop

the lights in the M&M shop window

Saturday we thought we'd try to find the New Covent Garden Flower market, since they have moved from Covent Garden. The "tour" people I asked about buses didn't seem to be aware of this, even though they have been at the new site near Vauxhall since 1974. We found it though, but it had ended just before we arrived. Oh well. Then we walked back along the Thames Path towards Westminster Bridge. On the way we stopped and bought a ticket for a river cruise to Greenwich so we wouldn't have to queue at the pier. What they actually meant but didn't say was, we wouldn't need to queue twice. The queue to actually get on the boat was almost as horrendous as the queue for the London Eye (which we haven't done, but might next time). 

 Sir Walter Raleigh

We eventually got to Greenwich but only stayed for a coffee. Although there seems like there is a lot to do and see, it felt like we should have planned to spend the whole day there, and there didn't seem to be a lot of information about where to go exactly. So we cruised back to Tower Bridge and went to see the art installation of poppies which is still growing in the moat of the Tower. It is part of the commemoration of the beginning of WW1 and honouring those who gave their lives. Pretty impressive. It will be there until November at least so if you can, you should go see. From there we caught a bus back to Trafalgar Square and walked back via Neal's Yard (a not so secret alleyway near Covent Garden) to give our feet a rest before going back out for dinner.

Sunday we caught a train to Waterloo, then walked along the Thames Path again to the Tate Modern. We were meeting a cousin for lunch so decided we'd give ourselves an hour - turns out looking at art takes much longer than you think. We saw the exhibition "Poetry and Dream" and only just made it back to Waterloo in time for our train to Woking. We were met at Woking by my 4th cousin, who I have been emailing for the last four or five years sharing family tree research. We had a lovely home cooked lunch and spent some time comparing notes about the family. Then back on the train to Waterloo. A short walk to Trafalgar Square and we thought we'd have a quick look at the National Portrait Gallery if it was open and there was enough time. It was, and there was. Although to be fair I think we only managed to see part of one floor, there are so many rooms with other rooms going off on all sides !

It has been great to tick off some things on our list and get in a few extras as well - and a lot of them have had no cost attached. Bonus.

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth

Our last two days in London

No post yesterday because we didnt actually do so much...and the wifi at the hotel was having a r-e-a-l-l-y bad day. I kid you not. It was so slow it was like dial-up.

We learned two things yesterday though, weather forecasters here get things wrong too, and when it rains; it RAINS.

Storms and rain were forecast for lunchtime and the afternoon, so we set off (minus umbrellas or coats) to use our HOHO ticket and travel the alternate route since it was valid for 24 hours. We intended to go to the market at Portobello Rd and wander through Kensington on our way back, and to beat the rain.

The bus though took forever getting anywhere and while we were on it it rained. We decided to get off earlier than planned and walked through Kensington Gardens up to the Palace. No-one opened the gates for us though. 

We wandered up further and had a drink and scone with clotted cream at the cafe, all the while eyeing up the ominous black clouds. While we were in the shop looking at royal souvenirs there was another heavy shower. Anyway once it was stopped we set off on our walk again in the sun. On our way I spotted a wee squirrel. So cute.

And also this gorgeous colourful carousel.

Then we walked up toward Notting Hill Gate to get to our destination. Almost there and down came the rain. In torrents. Like a rainstorm in Sydney. We were soaked. We decided the market wouldnt be so much fun so jumped on a bus to get us back to near where we needed catch the DLR back to the hotel to dry out and blob for the rest of the day.

So today we decided we'd just use a combination of transportation to get around and see some things before we leave London tomorrow.

DLR from hotel to Tower Gateway; tube from Tower Hill to Blackfriars, then a walk along the embankment toward Westminster. A lovely elderly gentlemen saw Lauren taking photos of the London City School and stopped to give us a history lesson. We walked with him to Temple station where he was off to Lords for a picnic. He was great, told us all sorts about all sorts of places. He was lovely.

We stopped and had a cuppa at a tea shop in the Victoria Embankment Gardens, then carried on our way. So many people though once we got to Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. From there we walked up to Buckingham Palace and then alongside St James' Palace to Green Park tube station.

how funny is this - on a little laneway behind St James' Palace

From there we caught a train to King's Cross to check out Platform 9 3/4 which was a bit of a let down having become a gimmicky commercial enterprise. We managed between us to get a photo of the sign and of the luggage trolley disappearing into the wall sans the queued up posers wearing the "house scarf" held by the photographers accomplice.

From there we caught another tube to Bank and then changed to the DLR to go and check out the shops at Canary Wharf. Omigosh ! So much to look at, but nowhere to fit anymore into our luggage right now.

So we had a bite to eat at "Leon". We cant get over how many healthy option places there are here and vegetarian as well. Why had no-one told me about "Pret a Manger" "Vital" or "Leon" (plus more that seem to be dotted all over the place).

Finally the train from Canary Wharf back to the hotel. Quite a productive day I think.

And then down came the rain in torrents again. But at least we were inside this time.

'ello, 'ello, 'ello

Before we fall asleep again, I will try to write a coherent post.

We're a bit cranky with Qantas. They were a bit officious about having the blinds down so that people could sleep this morning. So we missed most of Europe. I said to one of them "how long do we keep the blinds down" and she said "until we tell you. You should sleep so you have your body clock in the right time zone" I said "I think we had enough of that in the last 14 hours" Most people slept most of the way on that leg. But no. They were useless - the new crew who joined at Dubai. Mealtimes were a debacle, but that didnt seem to matter which crew it was. We got ours way early, but sometimes the others around us were still waiting 30-45mins later. We had 2 pastas and some curry looking thing which we didnt eat. The salad on the two occasions we got it was just lettuce or spinach leaves with dressing - not even a tomato in sight. Breakfast this morning (which was nice), the useless crew hadnt even started serving to the rest of the plane 80 minutes before we landed, and we'd hardly seen the 10 of them during the other 7 hours. The crew from Sydney were much better, they were slow with meals too, but every seat was full so they'd have had their work cut out to begin with. For a customer facing role, most of them had no interaction with their passengers that I saw. (rant over - until I send them feedback directly)

Dubai was a welcome break, we got a cold drink at McDonalds and then had rush to get to the gate because the gate opened an hour before the flight and close 20 minutes before...and they wont let you on after that. Lots of people almost got caught out. It is a monster airport, we didnt have time to wander around much, but it was good to stretch our legs. When we landed there, it was so smooth you didnt even notice. It was like driving on the road then onto the footpath. No jolt like Wellington. It was warm there and the middle of the night.

Getting through immigration was pretty quick. Actually a lot quicker than I thought - and getting out of Auckland too, now that we have new passports. The most stressful bit was steering the luggage trolley and getting to the train....then getting to the taxi rank at Paddington once we were off. Train cost 21GBP each. Taxi cost 45GBP and took about 45 mins - we'll have to remember that on Monday - our train to Bristol goes from there, so at least we sort of know where we will be going.

We are about a 2 minute walk from Canning Town station and there are buses from there as well as the Docklands Light Rail and tube. The HOHO (Hop On, Hop Off) buses have extended the red route and it now comes out this far ! There is a stop at the skyway (gondola thing over the river), the Thames Barrier Park and somewhere else. The first two are about a 5-10 minute walk from here, so we might fit that in to our day tomorrow and get back here easier.

When we got here and the room wasnt ready so we put our bags in their lock up, then thought we'd get a cold drink and have a sit down for a while...and then the room was ready. We had shpowers and thought about going out, but decided to have a couple of hours sleep first. Felt much better when we woke up, so went for a walk down to the skywalk & rail station. Got some nibbles at Tesco and came back here...and changed rooms. The sofa bed wasnt made up in the first room and they had no staff left to fix that, so moved us. A pity really as I think the first room was better. Oh well. Then we went and got pizza from the fancy restaurant next door, which also does takeaways - and isnt too pricey. They were monstrous, but I said we might be hungrier than we thought, and we did both manage to finish them.

The rain is here. It was quite warm when we arrived (didnt see weather to know how hot) but had cooled off when we went for a walk, and even more when we went for pizza. There were even raindrops when we walked back with the food...and then we heard Wimbledon had stopped play, and there is rain on the windows here.

We're about to fall into bed again and hopefully wake up in the right zone. The plan is to catch the DLR into London and go to the Tower, it stops near there, then either wander around or save our feet and get on the HOHO buses. Hope the rain isnt too persistent.