Meeting Leanne and Brian in London

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The start of our European Adventure begins as we finished up work in Birmingham (again).

Day 440 (25/6/09)
After a another farewell dinner at Morrocan restaurant with Bill, Sarah and Chris, followed by a couple more drinks at the local Fighting Cocks. Jez kicked on into the wee hours and stumbled home convinced he'd been locked out despite having keys in his pocket.
We headed off to work to tie up all the loose ends for a couple hours, Jez feeling a little worse for wear. We picked up our gear, had quick lunch, tidied up and farewelled Birmingham for the next 6 weeks as we headed to London to met Jez's parents Leanne and Brian who were doing there own eight week European Tour.
We arrived in London, and after getting our fix of barbeque shapes headed out to Leiceister Square for Dinner and Show “Jersey Boys' of Frankie Vallie and The Four Seasons. We all enjoyed the lovely dinner and a fantastic show.

Day 441
With big plans to head to Wimbledon we were up early, but the weather forecast for torrential rain but clearing the following day we decided to change our plans for a day of sightseeing today and Wimbledon the next (Note: Never believe London Weather Bureau). We went to Greenwich Maritime Museum, we passed through the Naval Museum played with the interactive equipment bombing enemy ships and conversed with the Captain (like 5 year olds).
We then made our way up to the Observatory Deck, confirmed the time and fought for a photo of the GMT line. After lunch we cruised back along the Thames, Leanne and Brian jumping off to check out the Tower of London and we continued on to Westminster Abbey which was closed. Deciding instead to stop off at the Natural History museum for a stroll amongst the Dinosaurs and the life size Blue Whale.. very impressive. Back at Chelsea House we had a couple beers and watched the news reports of Michael Jackson death.

Day 442
After the torrential rain failed to eventuate Jez and Brian headed out early to line up for tickets for Wimbledon. But we hadn't done our research! Not only did everyone who wished to purchase tickets need to be there, we had left our run much too late. So we headed to Hyde Park to enjoy the amazing summer day (who would believe it not always like this) for a picnic lunch and some people watching. We met up with Justin at Shepherds Bush Walkabout to cheer Llyton Hewitt on over a couple ciders. After Hewitt's convincing win we headed back for dinner and caught the train out to the Russ Hill Hotel ahead of our early start the following morning.
Ahead of our six week trip around Southern France, Spain and Portugul.

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