London Calling!

17^th September 2011 – 7:30pm

Whoops. Six days without writing home? I’m not sure where to start to catch this up… it’s going to be a biggy, so I apologise in advance.

Let’s go back to Toronto. We didn’t do a whole lot in Toronto to be honest. It’s quite a big city and if anything we know we want to go back one day. Matt went up the CN tour to check out the view. I chickened out because I was told at the front desk that the elevators have glass walls and floor. No thanks! 

We wandered into the centre of the city with the main street being Yonge Street. The “crowd” in Toronto is quite trendy/eccentric… for want of better words. How is the word trendy so… daggy? Fashionable and bordering on Hipster is probably a better way to put it. There are not many tourist spots in Toronto so let’s just say we spent the afternoon walking around, just soaking it all up.

The overnight flight to London was truly awful. It was the first bad flight of the trip. Two toddlers, one possessed and the other a row in front, played scream in tag team and were so loud, I could hear them over music AND earplugs. It was rough and I had the beginnings of a migraine. Enough said.

We arrived in London and were met by a customs line that snaked around all of the barriers and around the corner. It was frustrating watching people skip the queue and we stood there for nearly 2 hours. Zeph and Lou were waiting for us on the other side, they had been waiting for even longer. It was very much a recovery day that gave Zeph and I heaps of time to catch up. 

On day one in London we got a lot crossed off our list! We started off at Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. It was surprisingly warm and sunny so obviously the place was packed. Apparently Lizzy wasn’t home that day because the flag was the British Flag. The Royal Standard only flies when she is at home. I imagined she was at home, peaking out through the curtains in her nighty, wishing all of us would just bugger off. I thought it was quite rude of her to pop out actually, she knew we were coming. Unless she’s not reading the blog! No. That can’t be it. Sorry back to the Changing of the Guard… There were a lot of horses, a marching band, and some of those fuzzy-helmet guys yelling at each other. I didn’t really know what was going on most of the time but I assume that somewhere in there, some guy got to knock off and some other poor sod had to clock on.

OUTSIDE BUCKINGHAM PALACE

FUZZY!

JOB SATISFACTION?

GOT YOU ALL ONE FOR PRESENTS. YOU LIKE?

Zeph and Lou accompanied us to the city and we also met up with an old friend of mine from school, Luke. He has been living over there for just over a year. We had lunch at a pretty typical English pub and then set off for Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Big Ben is big. Bigger than we expected and really impressive. Not far from there is Westminster Abbey, where we forked out the cash and braved the crowd to go and check it out up close. I wanted to see where Kate and Willy got married. There are tombs EVERYWHERE. In every little nook and cranny. We saw the tomb of King Henry III which was a bit mind blowing because he has been there since early in the 13^th Century. I’m no mathematician, but that’s a long time. Most of the ornate details of the tomb have crumbled away but a few metres up, where I suppose people can’t touch, there are still fine mosaics and detailed carvings. When people say that these places make you realise how young Australia is – well white Australia anyway – they are right! There are many tombs under the floors and you walk over the engravings in the stone, some of which are nearly completely worn away, sadly beyond recognition. It’s dark and eerie inside and amazingly beautiful on the outside. Matt wants me to add here that ironically, Charles Darwin has a memorial inside.

BIG BEN IS BIG!

IT SMELT LIKE PAINT EVERYWHERE, AHEAD OF THE OLYMPICS

I HAD DR WHO IN MY HEAD ALL DAY...

WESTMINSTER ABBEY, BEAUTIFUL...

A CLOSE UP OF THE DETAIL OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY, PRETTY AMAZING

We walked across to ride the London Eye and got a great view of the city. We then headed to St Pauls Cathedral where we missed the last tour by about 15 minutes but went and had a look around the “free bits” anyway. We could have stayed for Mass but we had to get home because I needed to wash my hair.

WALKING ACROSS THE THAMES, THE LONDON EYE

I SAW HIS MOUTH MOVE, WHAT A CON ARTIST!

BIG RED BUSES, NOVEL AT FIRST... THEN THEY JUST GET IN THE WAY!

THE DOME OF ST PAULS, IT'S MASSIVE

We made a quick stop to Trafalgar Square which was just a lot of paving and pigeons. The group was getting pretty tired so we settled in at another pub for the evening in Covent Garden. It’s a very nice area with loads of restaurants and bars. On a side note… The English love to drink. It was Wednesday night and the pub was full. When a pub fills up, the punters stand on the footpath with their beers and keep drinking. I thought Aussies were bad, but we got nothin’ on these guys! It ended up being a late night home after a 3 hour marathon on public transport. All of the train services had stopped due to one reason or another and we were all stranded a million miles from home! Basically, don’t ask!

TRAFALGAR SQUARE

We slept away most of the next day as a result and didn’t get as much done as we’d hoped. We got out to the Camden Markets which were pretty bloody cool! The whole area was really quirky and old, with loads of character and the stalls themselves were old horse stables. We hopped on the Thames Clipper (a ferry) to Greenwich Village which was a beautiful spot. It was pretty late and mostly closing up by the time we got there but still great to wander the streets. 

NOVEL AT LEAST... COMFORTABLE? NOT SURE.

AWESOME CAMDEN TOWN, LOVED THIS SPOT SO MUCH

MATTY AND THE LONDON BRIDGE

A CLOSE UP OF ONE OF THE TOWERS OF THE BRIDGE

PIT STOP AT GREENWICH, WE WERE POOPED!

After that and more public transport (I think over half our day out was spent in transit) we met Luke and his girlfriend, Martina, at Piccadilly Circus and walked up to SoHo for dinner. We tried for an early evening but with over an hour and 3 trains to get home, it was after midnight again.

SOHO AT NIGHT

For our last day in London we headed to Abbey Road and crossed the road for photos like all the other tourists, pissing off the locals no doubt. The fence of Abbey Road Studios is covered in graffiti, mostly messages to the Beatles and sadly I didn’t have a pen. We then checked out the Tate Modern. Now, I should enjoy art but seriously some of that “art” was scribble. There were pretentious wankers studying it like their life depended on it! We saw a Monet which was quite nice but mostly I just realised I’m not that into it art galleries! 

JOHN LENNON IS SO PHOTOGENIC? RANDOM.

CROSSING ABBEY ROAD!!

Just outside Tate Modern is a pretty new walking bridge. It looks like it’s from outer space. It was featured in one of the Harry Potter movies. Actually, it was completely destroyed in the movie and we both thought it was pretty cool to be there. Walking across you get a really good view of St Pauls Cathedral. 

I'M SURE THIS BRIDGE HAS AN ACTUAL NAME, BUT WE'LL CALL IT HARRY BRIDGE!

MATT ON HARRY'S BRIDGE AND ST PAULS CATHEDRAL

More trains. I can’t say enough how many trains we had to get every day. The Underground system is very efficient for getting around and extremely cheap but still a lot to have to deal with. We made our way to the last thing on our to do list, the Tower of London. Like so many other buildings in the area at the moment, it was half covered in scaffolding, presumably being cleaned up for the Olympics next year. Luke told us a way to sneak in the back door (yes really, the back door) to see the Crown Jewells for free. But the pair of us were in horrible moods after being on our feet for 3 days straight. Plus, believe it or not, it was hot and we were OVER IT! We resigned to going home to wash and pack for our next adventure.

THE FAMOUS UNDERGROUND LOGO... MIND THE GAP!

OVER IT. THIS IS WHAT WE LOOKED LIKE AT THE END OF EACH DAY

This morning Zeph and Lou dropped us off to hire a car and today we headed south west from London. First stop was Windsor Castle. It was absolutely massive and right in the middle of town, which is not what I expected. Windsor the town was quite lovely, and when we arrived we were wondering why there was a massive crowd gathering at the gates of the castle. I got a bit excited that we might see Liz, but next thing we know, a marching band struts out and down the road right in front of us. We couldn’t have planned it any better, and to be honest, it was a complete FLUKE! Lizzy was out again so unfortunately we couldn’t pop in for a cuppa. We enjoyed scones with jam and clotted cream which was the best thing I’ve ever eaten, and continued on our way to Stonehenge.

LIZZY'S PLACE

MARCHING BAND, RIGHT ON CUE!

WINDSOR CASTLE

AND AGAIN...

SCONE, JAM, CLOTTED CREAM. MY NEW FAVOURITE!

WENT FOR A WANDER AROUND WINDSOR, VERY PRETTY

Stonehenge was amazing to see. I cannot imagine how man managed to get those massive stones on top of those other massive stones! It was impressive and so beautiful, surrounded by green hills – farming land basically. Sadly I didn’t learn much more than I already knew about the history of it, we did a runner and ended our audio tour when the rain started. First drops of rain we’ve had. Amazing!

STONEHENGE

AMAZING...

STONEHENGE WAS REALLY SPECIAL TO SEE, LOVED IT!

We are currently enjoying some quiet time in our room in Torquay, Devon, which is not quite as far south west as Cornwall. We hope to go for a bit of a drive around the area tomorrow morning and go down to Cornwall and then back up the coast. We’re not sure how far we’ll get tomorrow but we’re trying to move along fairly quickly as we don’t want to sacrifice any Europe time at the end of our trip.

We both think the trip is going too quickly which I guess is the best way to tell that we’re having a ball! 

Amy.