London Town

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London Calling

After travelling from NY via Washington to London overnight we were feeling pretty exhausted when we arrived in ye olde london town at 6AM but we began to feel even worse when U.S Airlines told us that my suitcase hadn't been put on in Washington! we were not off to the best start and were too early to check in so we decided to kill some time with a double decker bus tour around the sites. We got to see all the london icons, in a somewhat lack of sleep induced haze, including big ben, tower of london, london bridge, the palaces, london eye, westminster abbey and many a museum. We finished it off with a boat cruise down the Thames.

After leaving our lovely little bnb lodgings behind London university, we headed to find a friendly and familiar face-Dimmer!And don't worry he is still an aussie- no pommy accent and he is looking very tanned (think he goes to a solarium). Dimmer and his lovely girlfriend Anna were kind enough to left us crash at their nice pad on the sofa. Wise and learned Dimmer was now an experienced londoner and taught us the ropes, he was pretty much a walking encyclopaedia of all the london sites, tube stops and nightlife. But most importantly of all, he taught us that a lovely day in london depends on the particular shade of grey of the clouds and what the shades meant for the days weather, so we didn't foolishly carry our wet weather gear everywhere we went, like the tourists we are. We managed to distract dimmer a lot from his studies so he can blame us if he fails, but we are forever grateful for all the help. If you want a tour of marmion or shoalwater let us know!

Anna kindly lent us her student pass so we got into the tower of london as students- 1 pound, the best bargain we got in london, as we forgot to take Pippa and dales advice to get student cards before we left....oops! We stepped back into medieval times and got to see the crown jewels- the queens that is, and where the Boleyn sisters worked their magic on henry and one of them lost their heads. We finished the night at the west end taking in a show- we will rock you by ben elton. We rocked on to the queen hits, but no lighters were allowed.

Also made some time to have tea with the queen at buckingham palace but unfortunately the old lady stood us up. We got to have a tour of the palace and the state gardens but weren't allowed to take photos. Her royal highness sure has some fancy stuff including many a fine painting, jewellery, tapestry and gold. Chris was waiting to be recognized by his princely birthmark as a long lost royal member but alas it wasn't to be. We also got to view the state banquet room set up for a VIP party, we're still waiting for an invite.

We then got to catch up with Geoff and he and dimmer escorted us to check out the good old english pubs in brick lane, and caught up on the adventures of the Aussie ex-pats. I then finally got to meet Dimmers gorgeous girlfriend in person, and she was a wonderful hostess who had been lining up for hours for us to have dinner at a pakistani restaurant. We had a beautiful dinner, with the steam from the dishes clearing our nasal passages thoroughly, but it proved a little bit spicy for the tastebuds and some of us paid the price the next day. After a few too many drinks we stumbled home all the merrier.

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Photos

Dimmer Studying
Think he was just putting it on cause we were there.