Advertisement
Published: June 17th 2015
Are we in London or are we in London?
The red bus is the clue followed by the building behind it!Well it's much bigger than it was in Dickens time of course but it's still a great place to explore on foot as he liked to do. But first things first!
The girl sitting opposite us on the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station recognised us as Australians based on Kevin's boots! With the plane getting in at around 9.30am Tuesday morning, by 11.30am we were booked in to the Victory Services Club which was a pleasant surprise as we didn't expect the room to be ready so early.
By virtue of the fact that we'd only had a couple of hours sleep on the plane we spent some time relaxing in the room before we headed off for a walk to explore the surrounds. The VSC is very well placed, being close to Marble Arch and the Edgeware Road. The surrounding area has a strong Middle Eastern flavour with lots of Lebanese and Persian restaurants; we ate at a very nice Lebanese place and were given so much food it was hard to eat it all.
Back at the VSC we welcomed Dickens' great-great-great granddaughter Lucinda Hawksley - a meeting we'd organised earlier thanks to the magic of
Michelle and Lucinda
A drink and lots of chat in the lounge of the Victory Services Club Twitter - who joined us following a game of tennis. Having brought a couple of copies of NSW Dickens Society's 'Boz in Oz' and 'Household Words' plus a copy of 'Constance Dickens' written by Robin de Costa-Adams for Lucinda, once these were handed over it was on to some serious business. Talking! And a very enjoyable business it was until finally, around 10.30pm, we called it a day. Thanks Lucinda for dropping by! As you can imagine, it didn't take long, once our heads hit the pillow, that sweet sleep followed!
Breakfast Wednesday morning was a chance to get together with Seb's mum Mary and his Auntie Alison (Mary's sister) as they are both staying at VSC, on holiday from Australia and New Zealind respectively. It afforded us the chance to give Mary and Alison a report on Grace's graduation.
When Mary, Alison, Kev and I parted company we headed to Hyde Park and from there walked through to Kensington Park then to the Café Rouge in Kensington where we met Sally and Ann for lunch, the pair having caught a coach from Leicester to London. Fourteen years of my early life were spent living on opposite sides
What's going on in Hyde Park?
Vacuuming up the Oak Processionary caterpillars which pose a threat to humans as their poisonous hairs can cause skin irritation and asthma. Their eggs arrived on oak imported in 2006 and despite a huge effort to eradicate them the moths are steadily expanding. Bet you'd have never guessed that! of Mill Road, Rearsby to Sally, Ann, their parents and brother David and it's always nice to catch up with them on visits to the UK. After eating a very nice lunch washed down with some French wine the four of us walked to Kensington Palace to do a tour which consisted of four aspects; the King's State Apartments, the Queen's State Apartments, Victoria Revealed and an exhibition of dresses of the Queen, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana in the Modern Royals section.
Finally saying goodbye to Sally and Ann, who were catching a bus back to Leicester from Victoria Coach Station, we once more walked back from both Kensington and Hyde Parks for a bite to eat, finishing the day feeling that it had been a great one! Thanks Sally and Ann for travelling to see us; we look forward to getting together again at some time in the future, either here or in Sydney.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0468s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
