Saturday, 19th July                    LONDON

Robyn writes: Another stormy night and HOT to try and sleep - more like a Brisbane night than a London night. Mikeal actually got up to make iced water in the wee small hours! Finally we got some rain and it did cool down a bit to let us sleep but there was a lot of cursing of Pommie windows and general lack of summer planning!

It was a very, very slow start to the day - Cait and Mikeal of course had to finally face the inevitable and pack. This took some time but was eventually accomplished with their major things and only the last minute items to throw in. At least it was a nice cool morning after the rain and there was still lots of cloud around.

We're organized....really!

By midday, they were fairly organised so we headed out for the day's excursion - a ride on the Emirates Cable Car at Greenwich. This was fairly low-key and easy - we took the bus up to the O2 (again - we've spent quite a bit of time going in and out of there!) then walked to the terminal near there and took it across the river to the Royal Victoria DLR station. We really enjoyed the trip as we had the cabin to ourselves and the view is amazing. It was the second time Lex and I had been on it but going in the opposite direction so it seemed quite different! The view of the O2 is wonderful from there and you can see right up the river in both directions and straight onto the runway of the London Airport nearby. Unfortunately it was still cloudy so not so good for photos; I'd been hoping for a sunny day this time.

The O2 from the cable car

Once we were safely on the other side, we took the DLR up to Poplar station, and from there we walked past lots more building sites (the docklands is a real boom construction area) to Canary Wharf, looking for a nice place to have lunch. We found the restaurant precinct on the waterside there and it was a tough choice, with heaps of lovely restaurants and tempting menus but we finally decided on Spanish tapas, for something different. We sat outside in the breeze under a big umbrella. (Of course by now, London had turned on the heat and sun. This is because Cait and I had taken umbrellas and cardigans. If we'd left them at home it would have turned bitterly cold and started raining.) We ordered eight different yummy tapas and greatly enjoyed trying them all. Cait and I had iced water but of course Lex and Mikeal felt compelled to try the Spanish beer, Estrella. They liked it. After the main course, we decided that perhaps we could be tempted by dessert so got two sharing platters of mixed desserts and churros. Yum! I am so going to try making churros when I get home to my own kitchen.

 Canary Wharf is just lovely!

 Bright sunshine once more and a 28 degree day

 Lunch at La Tasca at Canary Wharf

Duelling marshmallows!

After lunch, it was getting on for 3 so we headed back home on the train and Cait and Mikeal really started getting organised for their trip. We walked them to the station at about 5 and they are now on their way to Heathrow for their flight leaving at 10 tonight. They have a two hour stopover in Dubai - it's going to be a long, long, long trip! They'll get home Monday Brisbane time (quite possibly a bit weary).

 At Westcombe Park station waiting for Cait and Mikeal's train

We now need to start getting organised ourselves, as tomorrow morning we are off to Paris on the Eurostar train via the Channel Tunnel. Am most excited about this! We leave at 11.30, so at least we don't have to rush too much or get up too horribly early in the morning. It will be an experience, anyway.