9th June                                     LONDON

Robyn writes: Well, it's been a hectic few days. We got away from Saundersfoot by around 9.30 on Saturday morning, and had a generally good run into London on the M4 with only one or two minor glitches of wrong turnings here and there (inevitable really with the roads around Heathrow....) Anyway, we got our car back to Europcar, got onto a shuttle bus to Terminal 4, bought ourselves an Oyster Card each at the train station (they're the equivalent of the Qld "Go Card") and caught the train into London (one change). Everything took so much longer than you'd think and we finally got to our accommodation late in the afternoon in the Stepney/ Whitechapel area absolutely exhausted after lugging our heavy ports up and down the stairs at the railway stations and along the roads. I must say, though that at both train stations extremely helpful young men carried my port for me, in fact at the second one there were two mates together and they insisted on carrying both my bags for me! I was most impressed!

We weren't so impressed, however, with our accommodation - the Ibis we booked into turned out to be a "Budget" hotel. Avoid these like the plague! Its most abhorrent feature was the shower - which turned out to be a hole in the wall which opened into the main bedroom, right next to the door, with a partly obscured glass door. And not even a bath mat! The toilet was almost as bad - at least it had a wooden door but it wasn't full size and didn't close properly and the light switched on automatically when you opened it, and stayed on for about 5 minutes....lots of fun when either of us got up to go to the toilet during the night and automatically woke the other! The only good thing about it was aircon, the breakfast and the view ( lovely outlook towards the Shard). We resolved to stay 2 days only and look for something cheaper and with that ultimate luxury; a fully enclosed bathroom!

Best thing about our hotel - the view!

We had found ourselves in the middle of the Islamic district (the London Mosque was right next door outside our window!) so the area was full of Halal restaurants. We had a delicious meal at one of these on Saturday night just up the road from our hotel. The main problem there was deciding what to eat - the menu was so extensive and everything was so cheap and sounded delicious. Finally I had a cheese naan and a tandoori chicken salad, and Lex had Haloumi and tomato flatbread wraps and a Bangladeshi beef curry - it was all lovely and just over 22 pounds for everything plus cups of tea (only problem with Halal restaurants...no alcohol!) We collapsed in an exhausted heap (except I then found that my pillow was the most uncomfortable one I have met in this country - it took me ages to get to sleep and I was NOT a happy vegemite!)

Anyway, I finally did get some sleep and Sunday morning saw us downstairs for breakfast, which was a help-yourself Continental for only 5 pounds so quite good value. Being Sunday, it was packed, and we ended up chatting to Deb and Gerard, a nice couple from Melbourne, who we had sat next to. We exchanged travel hints and stories then went off to explore.

 

Famous London Landmarks 101:

 Buckingham Palace

 Big Ben

 Westminster Abbey

Methodist Hall where we had lunch

We decided to try to make the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace at 11.30 ( a bit of a rush after our slow start to the day), but after consulting the train guides we walked to Aldgate Station then took the tube to St James' Palace and followed the crowds, to find that several thousand others had had the same thought! Unfortunately we ended up on the wrong side of the road to see the actual changing, but got a good view of the bands marching in and out. After it was over, we took some nice photos of Buck Palace then went around the side to the gift shop there where we ran into Deb and Gerard again! We resolved to meet up for tea, then went our separate ways again.

We decided to go to Westminster Abbey, but got there to find that it's closed to sight-seers on Sundays. So we went to Plan B, the British Museum, and started back towards the tube station. It was around 1.30 by this stage and hunger pangs were biting when we walked past a huge domed building, the Methodist Hall, and noticed they had a cafe and toilets - two things we needed! We were very pleasantly surprised by the cafe, which was in the basement but had a big glass ceiling so wasn't at all claustrophobic. And it was very cheap for London - we both had a lovely plate of spag bol and a cuppa for about 7.50 each - amazing for London! Fortified, we plunged on back to the tube and underground and found our way to the museum. It was a gloriously warm 24 degrees so of course the Poms were out getting sunburnt everywhere!

 British Museum

 

Ancient Assyrians

 

The Rosetta Stone

 

 This is a truly amazing building

Sutton Hoo burial mask

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the museum, which closed at 5.30. We both wanted to visit different areas so split up - Lex went off to prehistoric Britain and Europe while I revisited ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome, the Rosetta Stone and saw the Assyrian gallery for the first time - absolutely amazing! We met up for a cuppa in the cafe there at 4 then plunged back into it - Lex to the classical areas this time while I went and saw the Roman Britain and Anglo Saxon halls (the Sutton Hoo hoard is amazing) and the recently reopened King George III Library - the museum as it was when it first opened in 1753. We were ever-so-nicely kicked out at 5.30 and headed back towards the tube and our hotel with aching feet! We got back at about 6.30 and had time to shower and change before meeting Deb and Gerard at 7.30.

We walked along Whitechapel Road (really, it's very like being in a game of Monopoly here sometimes!) in search of the "Curry trail" - a supposed area of lots of Indian restaurants, but got waylaid by a bar with comfy chairs, where we settled in for several hours! Had a lovely meal there too for a reasonable price, and it was around 11 after two wines (me) and several Guinesses (the others) by the time we realised we were the only ones left and the poor staff clearly wanted to go home! Rather a late night, but lots of fun!