London Baby...

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London Stopover

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First of all we decided to take a couple of family outings, one of which was to the Notting hill street carnival. Although the food is very much like the food you get at Afrophingston in Switzerland the actual carnival it's self is unlike anything I have ever seen, the costumes are amazing, so brightly colourful and some are so creative and the beats just force you to move your feet.

After the carnival and spending some long over due time at my mum's, enjoying mum and Bill's company and general recharging our batteries we decided to book a hostel in London central for a couple of days so we could take in the sights and sounds of the bustling city, as well as meet up with and spend some time with Simon's mum, Chris and one of our good friends and soon to be famous author Charlotte Daley.

At the start we had a couple of days to ourselves so we could explore at our own discretion and so we could acquire our tourist visa's for Thailand. Again we had purchased one of those city hop on hop off bus tours with a free cruise of the river Thames as well. Brilliant if your strapped for time and want to squeeze in most of the famous sites, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Buckingham Place, Hyde park plus many more, it was good but I must say, and I think Simon and I agree on this that out of all of London our favourite areas are Carnaby Street and most especially Covent Garden. Much more our style in both shops, restaurants and general layed back feel, we'd recommend it as a must for any one visiting London, especially Covent Garden and the Seven fingers area as it houses lots of lovely independent stores and Neals Yard Salad Bar - the best place to eat!

We had an excellent couple of days with Simon's mum, again exploring a little, enjoying some great banter and lots of great food, it was truly a perfect time and place for us all to catch up, it's a shame it went so quickly though, I think we were all quite saddened when it was time to say goodbye and until next time. All we had left was 1 and a half days back at my mums to pack one more time and enjoy the British way before we jetted off to Singapore and the next stage of our adventures began....

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