I'm in London still!

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See I can write a song title every now and then! London has just been fantastic, I leave tomorrow.

Well for the last few days I have been in a sightseeing frenzy.Yesterday I bought a ticket for the Big Bus Company which does jump on jump off bus trips around London. Well worth it I reckon. Left my motel and got to the bus stop at about 9ish and got on for the trip that would take me to the Tower of London. Now the same friend** that told me not to visit Edinburgh Castle told me also not to visit the tower, and again it was something that I was so glad I did! (** Read Melody Arnold!!!!) I have had beautiful sunshine on practically my whole trip but it was rainy this morning. I sat on the lower deck of the bus and enjoyed the hour it took to get to the Tower. We had a live commentary which was great and very interesting.

The tower as you can imagine is very old and it was awesome exploring the different towers. As it was raining I did not get to hear the guards talk about the ravens but learnt enough on my bus tour to know that it is believed that if the ravens fly away that the kingdom will fall. In the 1800's the birds all caught a disease and only one survived. When they had the recent bird flu fears, the ravens were kept locked up inside. Of course to stop the ravens flying away they clip their wings. Anyway they look like crows to me!

The Crown Jewels were of course magnificent. No photos were allowed but I did try to snap a couple to show the folks back home, however as I was trying to take these stealthily without being busted they did not come out all clear which serves me right I guess!

As part of the Big Bus experience, I had a free Thames cruise so I hopped on after the tour. The cruise went for about half and hour and dropped us off at the London Eye. That was quite fun but the Thames is absolutely filthy, give me the Brissie River anyday! I was keen on doing the eye but the weather was not really conducive to it so I hopped on the tube and made my way to Piccadilly Circus. From there I walked to Regent Street which has some cool shops. I had a quick drink at the Cheers Bar before heading up to Hambley's, one of the worlds biggest toy stores. Five floors of toys and all kinds of interactive stuff for the kiddies, not too mention a mighty fine sweet shop where I stocked up. I wanted to go to a theatre performance so I made my way to the half price ticket booth at Leicester Square but nothing really caught my eye when I thought about The Vegemite Tales. It stars Blair McDonough and it supposed to be really good. The ticket office wasn't open so I rang the ticket line and score the very last ticket for the matinee this afternoon. Stoked!

This morning I walked through Hyde Park to get to the bus stop where I used the rest of my Big Bus ticket and hopped on and did the blue route which took me around Mayfair, Kensington, Gloucester Road and to Notting Hill where I got off and walked over to the Portobello Road Markets. Kept my eyes open but did not spot Jude unfortunately!! Notting Hill is very hip and has some great little stores. The markets were very antiquey and quite interesting and I imagine if you lived here you would be there all the time, but it was unrealistic stuff to think about carting back to OZ. They had some very nice jewellery but I kept comparing it to what I would be able to buy it for in Thailand so did not purchase any.

As it's my last day I am desperately trying to cram stuff in. I head back to Harrods for a last lap, what can I say I love the place. I found a great second hand book store in Notting Hill where I have stocked up on some reading matter for Thailand. From Harrods, I have made my way to Leicester Square where I am typing this up, will get lunch and then go to the theatre.

THis will be my last entry until I get to Thailand so thanks for reading and see you then!

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