[B] Fresh off the boat, er plane!

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Well, we made it!

After running the gauntlet of long distance flight, fending off the surly officials at Heathrow and navigating our way to the correct train (or, I should say the correct tube) we set off to find our backpackers in central London at around 8am. For future reference, avoid travelling on public transport in rush hour with loads of luggage.

Being a map type of person, I pulled out a street map which I assumed would be of some use. Of course, I had also assumed that the streets would be signposted and numbered like in New Zealand. They aren't. The streets are only signposted occasionally and numbers are virtually non existent. Anyhow, we found it in the end and dropped off our bags - it was now about 9 in the morning and we couldn't check in until 2 in the afternoon - so headed to the nearest coffee shop to wake us up for some sightseeing.

Our backpackers was on the south side of the Thames, about 1km from London Bridge so we went for a good walk around central London (just across the bridge on the North side), sucking up the atmosphere and feeling like real country bumpkins amongst the masses of people rushing about everywhere in their flash clothes and flasher cars. I was genuinely impressed with the sheer number and size of skyscrapers, and it was really cool walking around a big city with such a mixture old and new architecture.

We walked around the Tower of London (didn't go inside though - there was plenty of free stuff to keep us interested!) which is a big old castle on the Thames. It was a major English stronghold for centuries and it’s now a big tourist attraction. We walked over Tower Bridge and had a drink looking out at the river before heading back to our backpackers for a much needed shower and sleep!

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