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When we left Britain in February we really didn’t want to return. We found though as we touched down in London that we were really looking forward to our week here. It was like a completely different country to the one we left in February. The sun was shining, the squirrels and birds were out and the flowers were in bloom. When we left it was grey, cold, wet and downright bloody miserable.
We had a very very long list of things we wanted to see and do during our week in London and really tried to fit in as many as we could but there is just too much to do in London! Even though we’d visited for a few days last year there were still some of the tick the box sights to see. We went for a stroll through Camden and Portobello Road markets. Even though we had the best Pad Thai EVER in a restaurant just up the road from our hostel, the Camden Markets are have some of the best international food places. There were so many people there though that it was a bit hard to shop unfortunately.
We splurged and went on
the London Eye flight and to Madame Tussaud’s which was so much fun, even if very touristy. The London Eye flight was pretty amazing, it is basically a big Ferris wheel (although instead of seats there are pods) that takes you 135m in the air. We also ticked the box and paid a visit to Harrods. Again this was crawling with tourists so much so that you could barely move. It would be interesting to know how many locals actually go there. I would think not too many! We also went to Fortnum and Mason’s which was so much classier and more English (in our opinion) than Harrods and there are not as many tourists but the prices are higher. Trish went there with a friend (on a day trip to London) just before Christmas and the window displays are incredible.
When we were here in July last year we did the Egyptian rooms at the British Museum but we didn’t have the energy to do the rest. So we decided we’d go back and finish it off. So we spent a few hours there and then another few hours wandering through the Imperial War Museum, National Gallery and
National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery sounds incredibly dull but was actually very interesting. It is, as the name suggests, full of portraits only. The collection ranges from portraits from the 1300s to now. All in all there are about 100 000 portraits!
We also decided to get some tickets to the theatre. There were so many shows to choose from, but after a tip off from the lovely Geordie ladies behind us in the queue we decided with The Sound of Music. The performance was absolutely fantastic. Daniel was very impressed with the technical aspects. The play opened to Maria actually sitting on the side of a hill. Incredible! We were so impressed with this show that we wished we’d cottoned on to the theatre thing earlier and spend the previous evenings going to shows. We went back to the ticket office the next day and bought tickets to Grease on Wednesday night. The Grease show was definitely entertaining but they played with the plot just a little too much and Sandy wasn’t even Australian!! What’s with that?! The audience was right into it though which made it a great show to watch. We got really good
32 tonne T34 Russian Tank
at the Imperial War Museum seats for both shows which was great. Next time we visit London we’re hitting those half price ticket booths at Leicester Square first thing and book our evenings out!
We left London for one night and caught the bus out to Oxford for a night to visit Trish’s friend at uni. We arrived to miserable weather and thought our visit would be ruined but woke to a lovely sunny English summer day on Tuesday. It was lovely to catch up with Sarah and have our own “local” guide to the university and town. Oxford is a typical pretty English town and the two colleges we visited (Christchurch and Magdalen) were beautiful.
We thought our bags were a little too light (after offloading our “excess” baggage to Jo in Turkey - THANKS JO!) so on our last day in London we hit the High Street (i.e. Oxford Street) and did some shopping. We weren’t really ready to leave but not sure if that was because we still had loads of things on our To-do list or because we knew that leaving London was also leaving the European continent and signalled the end of our trip (almost).
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