Advertisement
Published: September 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Horse Guards Parade
Held daily about 11am - the Queen's Life Guard leaves Hyde Park Barracks and rides to Horse Guards Parade I know you are all probably thinking only of the upcoming Grand Final on Saturday, but hopefully you all have some time to think of the Griswold family over here on their continuing European Vacation! I'm writing this at about 8.30am on Thursday morning while chatting with the kids. Dean is having a little lie in as he and Lochie didn't get home until midnight last night - they spent the afternoon and evening down at Portsmouth (I'll let him tell you all about that later!) while Ains and I had a 'girls afternoon' wandering around Harrods and shopping in Kensington High Street!
So...back to Tuesday! We wanted to see as much as we could (well Dean and I did anyway!) so got all day Travel Passes for the Tube and 'hit the town'. First stop was Hyde Park Corner where we walked down to Buckingham Palace, being lucky enough to catch the Horse Guards Parade along the way. There was no 'changing of the guard' ceremony on the day but we took in the sights of the Palace and the many tourists taking multitudes of photos (yes, me included..) A walk up through Green Park, enjoying the squirrels along the
way, worked up an appetite so we were ready for giant burgers, salads, music and rock paraphernalia at the London Hard Rock Cafe. Lochie was most impressed, especially enjoying the large LCD screens playing various old and new rock songs. After a quick look in the shop it was on the tube again up to Baker Street, as we were booked into Madame Tussaud's for 2pm - we probably needn't have booked, as has been the case for most of our trip there were minimal queues. Had a fun couple of hours taking photos - Ains especially enjoying the visit as she got to 'see' two of her favourite celebrities, Johnny Depp and Miley Cyrus. Out into very light drizzle - the first we've had since coming over to Europe. On the tube again to Piccadilly Circus, then hot chocolates and brownies for arvo tea before heading up to Hamleys Toy Store! The girls went one way and the boys went another (of course!) and Ains adored all the soft toys - if she bought every one she fell in love with during this trip we would need five suitcases! Lochie picked up a hard cover Warcraft book he's been
The pro and the pro..
Dean giving Tiger some much needed tips... wanting (his hard cover book tally is now at three - we'll definitely be getting Paul and TNT to courier those home!!). A walk up to Oxford Circus tube station then another train ride down to Embankment Station for our big finale for the day!! The London Eye!! We took in the views of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament while walking across the bridge, salivating at the aroma of sausages and onions cooking and warm savoury nuts in small cups being sold by vendors. Over to the short line at The Eye, then into our 'capsule' along with about 5 other people so there was plenty of room. Up until a couple of days before I had decided that I would give this attraction a miss, but we ended up buying 'Package' tickets with our Madame Tussaud's tickets so that kind of motivated me to give it a go! I knew I would regret it if I didn't, plus in actual fact it wasn't worrying me too much as I'd already tackled a couple of roller coasters earlier in the trip that seemed much worse than this!! It turned out to be wonderfully magical, and we all enjoyed
The London Eye
Lochie taking in the sights. the experience. The lights of the city were slowly coming on as we went (the 'round trip' takes 30 minutes) and you go up to a height of about 135 metres. It's a must do for those coming over here in the future!! Out into the cold and a quick tube ride home, getting some fantastic take away Chinese food just down from our apartment. So a huge but really fun day!
Yesterday (Wednesday), the boys headed off to Portsmouth on the train after an early lunch together at the apartment, and Ains and I walked up to Harrods. We so enjoyed 'doing our own thing' for the afternoon, looking at the things we wanted to (like the kittens, rats and little gerbils again!) in the Pet Section then leaving there and walking down Kensington High Street on the way home for some more shopping!
Today (Thursday) is our last full day - we're not planning to have a huge day, but will definitely be going to 'Fuller's' pub tonight for tea as we didn't get to it the other night as planned. Paul is picking us up from here in the morning to take us up to the Slee family home in Castle Donnington where we'll be until next Tuesday before our last 5 days in Hong Kong! We'll be sure to be up early on Satuday morning to enjoy Geelong's back to back Finals win xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0444s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Rick
non-member comment
You guys are surely supporting the African cocoa industry with all those hot chocolates! You'll be starting to look like Tiger Woods.