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Published: July 17th 2011
Dear All,
We have been away for two weeks enjoying the hustle and bustle of European life. Our first stop was London and although we were tired after being on a 21 hour flight we knew we needed to get on th go and make the most of the day. Of course our first outing was to do a little shopping (Miss Bolding and Miss Barker - the two shopaholics, would be proud). Down Oxford Street and Regent St, taking in the sights. We met a lovely old fellow as we were coming out fo the train station on our first full day. We were heading to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. As we were getting our bearings on the map, he offered to take us through the park and show us the best places to stand and watch. It was fantastic to feel like we were 'in the know'. So we stood on one side of the road and saw the first lot of guards go to St James' Palace. then the band players came up and marched in. Unfortunately, it got completely rained out so they were playing their instruments and the changing of the
guards then didn't go ahead. Poor old Stanley nearly got washed away on account of the weather. In fact it was my bright idea to leave the jumpers and raincoats at home because, of course, I didnt' want to carry them. Since the day before had ended up so warm I didnt' want to get stuck carrying them again. What a mistake! We were completely saturated and freezing! So we had to go all the way back to the hotel to change clothes and get dry. Needless to say, I was happy to pack every warm item of clothing! We toodled around the city on day two. We were really looking forward to seeing Les Miserables so we just pottered around the city. We went to Trafalgar Square but we didn't see anything as the Harry Potter World Premier was going on and it was full of security but we took int he atmosphere. Then we headed to Picadilly Circus where the westend is. We knew that would be around where Les Mis was, so we would find it easily. Then went to Harrod's, a big department store. We picked up a few little things from there. On our way
back home we had a little bit of a disaster. There had been an accident further up our line and we were unable to get home on our train. So we sat for ages on the train! In the end we decided to get off and get a taxi. The only problem was, it seemed everyone else in London had the same idea. The taxi driver said he hadn't seen traffic like that for a long time and it took us over an hour to get back to the city. Over $100 later we arrived at the hotel, but too late to make it to our show. I was so dissapointed. Especially as if we'd been just a coupld of minutes earlier we would have missed the accident and been fine. But my mum says everything happens for a reason and did seem that way. We went tot he theatre the next day to see if we coudl get any other tickets. Our original ones were way way up in the top ofthe theatre right at the back. After standing in a returns line for two hours someone returned their tickets in the very front of the theatre! What were
the chances! The people int he queue behind us ended up with tickets next to us and said the Queen's grandson (not Harry or William) was in the next row to us. We looked for him but we didn't see him (but it's still a good story). The production was amazing! It was so good to finally get there. I was so worried we'd miss out. Alfie was phenomenal, Mr Smith would be so jealous. You have to pass onto him how brilliant it was. And yes, Chris, Eponine was still much prettier than Cosette! And no, Nick Jonas was NOT in the stage production. Everyone had beuatiful voices and were just so passionate about their role. The boy who was sitting next to me (our new friends form the queue) had never seen it before but his girlfriend was like me and knew the whole thing from when she was a little girl. They loved it and also thought it was so romantic. The woman in the row behind us was so annoying though. She kept singing all the songs and then she cried for like the whole second act! It was really annoying, but at least she enjoyed
it I suppose! We had an amazing time at Bath. It's a little town with so much history. Poor old Stanley nearly flew off the top of the tourist bus though, it was so windy! He sure had to hold on tight. In the afternoon we went to a little teahouse for lunch and he certainly enjoyed his toasted sandwich and coffee! There was a massive thunderstorm and we weren't sure how long it would take to pass, but we took our chances and went for a beautiful spa in the new hotsprings. I thought it would be ncie to swim at the Roman Baths but they're just for visiting. The fancy Thermae Spa is for swimming in nowadays. It was just what we needed to rejuvinate us! We got home a little after 1am and boy we were tired!
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