London

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We caught an Easy Jet flight out of Venice bound for London, arriving at Gatwick airport 2 hours later. To get to our Hotel in Notting Hill, we had the choice of rail or road as the mode of transport. Option 1 was train … cost, approx 17 pounds each. Option 2 was 2 brand new Mercedes Benz and drivers … cost, 15 pounds each. It wasn’t long before 2 new Mercedes Benz pulled up at the hotel with us inside.
The accommodation we had chosen in London was named “Hotel Blue Bells”. Ahhh, bluebell covered rolling hills and blue sky……not quite….. We had read lots and lots of bad reviews about this hotel, mainly that it is situated above Notting Hill subway line, and that the building shakes during the subway hours. We are confirming that, yes it does shake, but it never kept us awake during the night and it is very conveniently situated, and is quite cheap at $136AU per person for 4 nights.
We were booked in to the “Jack the Ripper” tour, for our first night in London, so we headed off and caught the subway to Aldgate East station were we started to follow the Rippers bloodstained trail of terror. For those of you who aren’t familiar with “Jack the Ripper”, in the late 19th Century, a series of murders were committed on prostitutes, in London’s East End. The murderer, called Jack the Ripper, was never caught, and the fascination of these unsolved crimes still continues today.
The following morning saw us armed with our oyster card and a subway map, heading off to the Queen’s residence, Buckingham Palace, to view the Changing of the Guards. We decided to use the hop-on, hop-off bus as way to familiarize ourselves with London, and as a way to get to the major attractions. Over the next couple of days we did lots and lots of walking but only managed to visit a few of the amazing sites that London has to offer.

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Comments

[Jan]

trip
Thanks Sandra for your informative blogs. Followed them with envy. Looks as if you had a great time.