Off to London to see the queen

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An easy trip to London from Vendome. Phillipe drove us 40 min to Tours airport, 1 hour flight into Stanstead London, 45 min bus ride into Stratford and around the new Olympic site, to where Rhonda met us and took us to her apartment near by. 

Great to see Rhonda after four years from when we were here last. And her new apartment now three years old. Lots of reminiscing. Although her apartment was small - bedroom, lounge, kitchen, and bathroom were the only spaces - we fitted in fine and were quite happy. We were able to keep an eye on comings and goings in the street just like Rhonda and even watch Sophia out in the street playing with a neighbourhood girl Molly she befriended. 

Other than the wedding we only had time and inclination for shopping - surprise surprise.  One day we covered the Oxford St and Covent Garden area. And the next the huge new Westfield shopping centre at Shepherds Bush. More shorts for Olivia and a few more items for each of us. We'll do the sights next time we're back in a month or so.  We did also fit in a visit to Rhondas school. It was surprising to see the gated and high security setting (locks, video monitoring etc), the ethnic makeup of the kids (everything but English) and the large class sizes of around 30 for ages 3-6 - although a teacher and aide in every class.

We had breakfast Saturday morning at the local Broadway food market. Huge selection of international foods and cooking on offer - even better than at Womad. For tea Saturday night we tried to find a nice pub meal in the Canonbury area but they were all closed for private functions (weddings, being the wedding weekend of course). After walking past and rejecting numerous other options we ended up at Desperadoes (appropriate to how we were beginning to feel) which was a very cheap and cheerful and yummy mexican restaurant. 

London was great for the action and huge entertainment and eating options but on returning to Vendome we became instantly relaxed. The warmth, the birds cooing, the church bells and of course the wine bread and cheese we got stuck into on arriving.

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