Our first taste of London

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Day 82
Up bright and early Jez was bounding around the room at 6am. So after breaky, we bought a train card and headed for our first experience on the “tube” as we made our way towards Reed Healthcare. Amazingly we found Reed hassle free, and began to sort everything for day to day life in England such as bank accounts, finding the right limited company, accommodation in Birmingham and a train tickets to Birmingham. Afterwards we wandered around the streets of central London gawking at the street names feeling like we were on a Monopoly board! We made the most of the beautiful London sunshine (and were mildly amused at the extreme heat warnings blasted over the tube warning people to drink plenty of water it was nearly 30 degrees) and enjoyed a beer and chips at an Oxford St Pub. With our body clocks struggling to adjust we dined in style at the Spaghetti House before crashing at the backpackers.

Day 83
With our couple nights on Reed spent, and no vacancies at Globetrotters we moved to less impressive O’Callagens Hostel and set out to see the (free) sights of London. We set off on the “free” city walking tour with a very enthusiastic London girl who provided us with many stories who and how those had broken into past Buckingham Palace, how not to get a photo with the less than friendly queens guard at Spencer House, the process of the Catholics being hung, drawn and quartered for planning to blow up the Houses of Parliament with Jez her volunteer, Big Ben, through Leister square, past statues of Duke of Wellington, Trafalger Square, Westminster Abbey, St. James Park (the home of the pigeon eating Pelicans), and Hyde park. And at the end you pay what you deem appropriate, so a free tour turned into ten pounds. We wandered past the line hundred people in the queue for the London eye and decided to see if we could catch a glimpse of Wimbledon. On our walk from the train station, two young guys saw us as perfect bait to sell there day tickets to for 10 pounds, with only a few pounds on us they agreed to give them to us for 2 pounds! Including tickets, arm bands and map. Slightly apprehensive, we confidently walked through the gate, to have a arm bands checked and we nodded through. Slightly shocked at how easy it was to get in we weren’t sure what to do next. We found Sam Stosur starting her doubles match with one of the Black brothers, sitting amongst the oppositions coach and family we quietly gloated in Sams win over a chicken sanga and beer and listened to the English cry as Andy Murray lost on show court to Nadal.
After another amazing day we headed back to the train station stopping for some fish 'n' chips for tea.

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