London

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21 to 24 August 2009

Our tour is quickly coming to an end, and for the final four days we have set the insurmountable task of seeing London with a few side visits to some of the nearby counties.

First thing to note, the people, not the variety - the sheer volume of them. While it seems the rest of Europe was on a laid back summer vacation everyone is here and moving all at once. After a few deep breaths we got amongst it - after a nice sleep in at our fabulous accomodation Hotel Rubens at Buckingham Palace. You couldn't type-cast a more 'English' hotel it was great fun and for those of you familiar with the territory, it was across the road from the Royal Mews where the Queen's carriages are kept.

Hard to say what the real high ligh of London was, except that we did enjoy getting out for a day to visit Windsor Castle, the Roman baths in Bath (what else would the English call it?) and Stonehenge - yes all in one long day. We finally saw some rain.

Hop on - hop off buses are a good way to get orientated, but we couldn't help but notice that they are a lot slower in London with the amount of traffic.

We continue to have unbelievable weather, people say it rains here... we've seen nothing but sunshine. This made it perfect for the changing of the guard, got a good spot to watch the marching bands arrive and then got lots of photos of the tops of fuzzy black hats.

A sunny summer day in London can be rare, a sunny summer day falling on a Sunday in London is exceptional and everyone heads to the parks to relax, talk and watch everyone else - including us. One of hte many high lights was the trip on the Serpentine in Hyde Park by paddle boat. After checking we didn't have boat 9 we were off (you've heard the joke "Number 9 come in your time's up" pst "we only have 8 boats", "number 6 do you require any assistance?") Can someone please tell Tess paddle boating is a form of relaxing, not racing?

A goal for Tess was to see the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. This is an amazing area with history that makes London and England. Of course we joined the queue to see the Crown Jewels, of course they're stunning but we are pretty convinced they are fakes for display. Don't get me wrong, the 50 centimetre, 2 tonne doors are convincing, the old and shakey beef eaters standing between a simple glass box and the exit only 5 paces away are not.

The long days of wandering around of course included Camden Markets where all the street entertainers were out in force and the place was awash with colourful shops and markets.

The nicest part of the visit, Buckingham Castle. You would think after all the places we had been this would have grown a bit ho-hum. Buckingham Castle is a live, working facility and this makes a world of difference. The other thing that made a big difference was the number of locals visiting, the English have such a passion for the Royal Family. Most importantly we had tea with the Queen in the Buckingham Palace gardens and the royal ice cream is tops (well, we had afternoon tea where the Queen would normally have it, had she not been in Scotland).

We have come to the end of our fantastic European adventure, one part of us sad to be going home, the other part looking forward to familiar territory. We hope you have enjoyed our stories and photos along the way.

Au revoir

Al and Tess

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Photos

Gardens in Bath
Only photo we got of rain

Tower Bridge
Very lucky moment to see the bridge opening for the small sailing boat hosting a wedding

Windsor Castle
From a creative angle

Bath
In Bath - no confusion possible here

The fountain of youth
Not really, just the mineral water bubbling up from the volcanic spring - tasts fine, good for hang overs according to the bleary eyed boy serving it.

Stonehenge
Mysteriously, no matter what angle you take a photo it always looks like this.

Our digs in London
Look closely, that guy really is wearing top hat and tails

Big Ben
Am concerned this was built by Italians

The Australian Coach
Made for the Queen to celebrate Australia's 200 years. Complete with its own generator for heating, electric windows and some sick sub woofers

Fuzzy black hats
Not sure if these are the old or the new ones

After lunch
On a sunny Sunday in London

Boating on the Serpentine
"Full steam ahead"

This is not a steam boat
"Friendly motive power"

Comments

[Peter Crittall]

Enjoyed your blog
Big Al Back today after 5 week trip in California Give me a ring when you are back and we should trade war stories over a coffee Cheers PC

[juliette]

is it over !! I am going to miss this blog. and where are the photos of the most stylist bus driver in the world??? you must have some of Fabio