Busking in London!

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

Off to the airport by 7.45am – the Allegra hotel ran a free bus to the airport, which was convenient. We checked in our luggage and explored the shops a little – my watch had broken in the preceding days, so I picked up a Swiss watch as a souvenir! Then to customs….and the problems began!

When I handed over our passports, Steven's passport gave a beep – but the guard asked if we had other passports and I handed over the Italian ones as well. Maybe we'd entered the UK on the European passports? Then, Rita and Elio, at the counter next to us, called out that there was a problem with them, and whilst they should only be a little while, we should go to the gate without them. Uh oh.

We struggled along with the huge crowds, through this very (physically) large airport – trams to a different part of the airport etc. And we waited for Rita and Elio, as our gate time came closer and closer. Finally, just as we were about to board, they arrived. The problem had been that they had stayed in the Schengen countries (which include Switzerland and Italy) for more than 90 days in a 3 month period without a visa – despite not staying in either for more than 90 days. And because they were not in either for more than 90 days, neither country would give them a visa before we left Australia! Oh well, they were fined $250 each, which is what they would have paid for a visa, anyway! And we were all on the flight to London, though some of us had higher blood pressure than when the day had begun!

An easy flight to Heathrow, and we passed through the formalities very quickly – Terminal 5 is lovely, so clean and uncrowded (we only really appreciated it when we were at Terminal 3 the next week!). The car that we had arranged to meet us was late, so we had a few stressful moments there, but soon we were all swept up into a big black car and heading into central London. We must have gone the tourist route (luckily it was a fixed price trip!) as we went down through Kensington past Harrods, then straight into Piccadilly, through the Circus, up through Soho and the Theatre district and past the British Museum. Our apartment was on the same street as the British Museum – the most wonderful location, although it was a bit knocked around and the furniture was quite cheap. And it was large – an enormous lounge room, separate dining room and kitchen, then upstairs to three twin bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Once poor Steven had carried up the 9 suitcases up the four flights of stairs, he felt like a walk…or rather, we decided we had to eat! Off to Pret-a-Manger for some prepacked sandwiches, which were surprisingly fantastic….or was this influenced that it was nearly 3pm Zurich time and we were all starving? Feeling better after food and coffee, we set off for a walk around London – reinforcing that we were in a marvelous location in Bloomsbury, so close to everything!

We were one block from our apartment to the British Museum, and it was fantastic to walk in and see the new Annex, created for the Millennium. What a wonderful piece of architecture, that respects the old but creates such a fantastic new space! With Rita and Elio, we headed off in search of the Rosetta Stone – the stone with writings in three languages that, when found by Napoleon's soldiers, allowed scholars to finally understand the hieroglyphics of the Ancient Egyptians. I guess it is more impressive for what it did, than what it actually is! But the small corner of the Museum that we explored that afternoon certainly fired the imaginations of the kids – the boys loved the Egyptian room with the mummies, and Georgia was impressed with the beauty of some of the Persian sculptures. But the day was too lovely outside, so we left Rita and Elio in the Museum to see some of the other sites of London!

We headed down towards Covent Garden – walking down Drury Lane, looking for a muffin shop ("Do you know the Muffin Man, who lives on Drury Lane?" is a nursery rhyme) – we didn't find one! When we got to Covent Garden, a busker was just starting his show, involving him climbing onto an 8 foot unicycle. It was here that Matthew made his comic debut!

The busker called for a “cute kid from the audience” to help him – despite Tom nearly busting his arm trying to be chosen, the man chose Matt! Matt (who responded to a question “where are you from, Matthew?” with his full address including the postcode!) needed to throw 3 juggling skittles to the man, who was perched on top of his unicycle. Unfortunately, Matthew hasn't really developed his throwing muscles or aim – the first skittle headed off into the crowd, the second into the spokes of the unicycle. The busker's banter, and Matthew delighted giggles of response, were hilarious – at one point, G was actually on the ground, rolling and screaming with laughter, and I wasn't far behind her – I certainly laughed until I cried! The finale was when the busker paid Matt 5 pound for his efforts – he acknowledged that the show wouldn't have been half as good without our little comedian!

Then, we walked back to Russell Square, looking for a pub for a good old-fashioned English pub dinner. (We walked past the tourist shop where the kids could pose as Paddington Bear on Downing Street, and saw squirrels in Russell Square). We really had to move away from the tourist areas – Friday night office crowds meant that any pubs were not really serving meals at 6pm and weren't really places for kids. But, just outside the Russell Square tube station, we went down a little road that we'd never noticed before and found it – the perfect pub for dinner! “The Friend at Hand” – the pub sign was a large St Bernard dog with a bottle in its mouth – was built in the 1700s, and has been frequented by Charles Dickens (he learned of the death of his daughter whilst delivering a lecture here), William Pitt the Younger (Prime Minister), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Oscar Wilde. The pub stands opposite the Horse Hospital on the Colonnade, a famous horse hostel where the horses were kept which were used to transport the victims of the plague! It was a great night – great pub food and a friendly Aussie barmaid from Inverell who gave the kids a blowup English hammer.

I have remembered that I LOVE London!

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