London

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Hello everyone,

Well a couple of days ago we arrived in London from Brunei - absolutely exhausted after a 13 hour flight but couldn't get into our room until the afternoon so left our luggage there and took off for the day. First we discovered where the trains and tubes were but ended up catching a tourist bus & away we went to the famous Madame Tussauds - no wonder it's famous, even though we had bought our tickets and were assured we could walk straight in..... it took over an hour - standing out in the hot sun waiting to get in!! Have had photos taken with many famous people. Quite an interesting place as you can imagine. Poor George had trouble keeping his hands off me... had to hold them down for the photo.

We then went to the Tower of London, loved the Crown Jewels there, this was after a Cruise down the Thames, saw Big Ben - did you know that Big Ben is the name of the actual chime and not the clock??? The clock is in the Tower of St Stephen.... thought you'd like to know this bit of trivia. We heard of a lot of history from the guy on the boat who said he was not paid to give out any information but was hysterical in telling us his version of things that happened at each point of interest, best places to eat and what to eat. We saw many things on the cruise including the London Bridge - funny seeing all these things that you've only heard about...

We finally got back to our room about 6pm and walked into one of the smallest, hottest rooms ever - no airconditioning at all except an open window and luckily a small fan in the cupboard. No luxuries such as a fridge or tea & coffee making facilities.... no way!! Why is hotels etc no longer supply face washers??? Luckily I still had a couple in my bag.. anyway we knew that any lodgings or homes for that matter, are tiny in London as well as being very expensive - and how lucky we are in Australia.

We went out for dinner - after finally having a shower - after travelling overnight and a hot day.... hmmm anyway off to an Irish pub for Irish stew and a few drinks.... we collapsed early that night after dinner.

It's been interesting being here in London and feel like we're living in a game of Monopoly with all the names I've seen on the game for years being actual places. It has never been a place I have wanted to visit but with the cruise leaving from Dover we had no choice but have really enjoyed being here and staying at Earl's court is great and quite central to everything.

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Photos

My mate George
Here I am with my good mate George - guess you might have seen him in something on the big screen... perhaps

Tiger Woods
John and his golfing buddy Tiger Woods - you might have heard of him - Tiger that is...

London Bridge
Seen from the boat

Guard
Guarding the tower of London