England - London and East Sussex

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England in 6 days.



Accommodation : - Number 63 a Bed and Breakfast across from Hyde Park, 50mtrs from The Swan a traditional London Pub, 300 mtrs from Tube station, a 10 min walk to Notting Hill. A perfect location for us. Rooms small yet big enough for what we needed, heating worked a treat, double glazed windows so no traffic noise. Breakfast Yummy lots to choose from. Price was on the expensive side yet now I’ve seen London I would not hesitate to stay there again.



WOW what can one see and do with only 6 days in England.

We managed to see all the sights, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Palaces, Southbank, London Eye, Royal Albert Hall, parks and so on.

As we went in Winter, we had less day light then travelling in summer, sun rose about 7.30ish and was set by 3.50pm. So that meant we needed to plan out days well. I found even with the best of planning things happen. Line up to some attractions I did not allow as much time in lines as it was off peak season (mistake), another mistake was to assume the web site opening times are correct, Westminster Abby was closed for an American holidays (thanksgiving) when we arrived even know the web site said open. That did not bother us as such, just something for other travellers to be warmed about.



London Tubes are easy once you get your head around them, My suggestion would be buy a map of London and get to know your orientation, as you are under ground and you want to head on the red line to Notting Hill, the sign says west Notting Hill, well you need to know where you are to start with. Once I got my orientation I was right.



If you have never been on an underground it’s so different to train travel the tube comes in at high speed, all via tunnels, it’s dull light platforms, all old pavers and tiled walls, dusty dirty, my jacket was so dirty after 6 days in London….



London was amazing the city the just kept on going on, the buildings built thousands of years before Australia was settled, so the Architecture was so unfamiliar and Ore Inspiring, I was just blown away by the stone work. What I also found so fascinating was how they rebuilt after the war, you can see when you look at a building the bricks to see where the pre and post war build happened, and over the years how a building has been extended. Here at home they do an extension and they try and make it look perfect so if no extension had ever happened, yet in London the building told a story by the different bricks colour and design, the different roof tiles, even different stone mason work, it was stunning to stand there and hear about a buildings life and then see then the actual extension for your self.

As it was Winter and the lead up to Christmas the Parks in London where packed with Christmas activities, Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park the Christmas lights at Royal Botanical Gardens. Regent Street and many more had stunning displays of lighting.



Portobello Markets at Notting Hill are a must see you have never seen so much vintage/antiques ever streets upon street of stalls selling antiques, as we are such a young country our antiques are nothing like these.

I had to take a trip to Paddington Station to See Paddington Bear, I loved seeing Paddington statue I was disappointed with the Paddington shop it was all made in china type bears, not the unique Paddington Bear I grew up with and wanted to buy. Sham on Paddington shop for changing the design of the traditional Paddington.





English folk are very social they meet at pubs after work ( there is a pub at every corner) they walk their dogs several times a day they are far more active fitness wise then we are, I saw more walkers and joggers in their parks then do at home and it was their winter.



We left the big smoke to take a trip out to East Sussex to meet a couple I meet on our traumatic trip to Africa. Words can’t express how I felt upon meeting Maggi and Nick for the second time since Africa. Maggi and Nick welcomed us into their home and drove us around to see the sights, well I love it, the country side is breathtaking, we have some nice country here is Australia yet nothing on this. I think it was the rolling hills mixed with extremely old cottages and houses plus fences and hedges of over 400 years old or even more that just blew me away.

The coast line we have lots of yet to see sandstone escarpments of the Seven Sisters, was breathtaking. The chill to the air the beach of pebbles rather then sand, the sound of their sea gulls just made the trip so rewarding.

I have this little quirky thing I do, if I can I will swim, dip or touch water in every ocean in the world so English Channel was there for the taking I thought You did the Arctic Ocean from Alaska when the sea was still partially frozen you can do the English Channel so in a went, if my jeans would have went higher I would have went in deeper.. It was cold yet it was worth it for the experience and yet another ocean/sea ticked off. I have ticked off 13 in my time… YEAH !!





I will write a blog per country in the coming weeks.





I will be writing a blog that will have more detailed

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