Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Friday, 5 September 2014

Day 12: London it's Been a Blast


Our whirlwind tour of London is almost over, and I think we have packed as much into our 3 days as possible. Our appartment is in a fantastic location in Kings Cross, 5 mins walk from the tube.

Last but not least was Buckingham Palace, we caught the tube and walked through a beautiful park, not Hyde but another one, so many people out enjoying the sunshine.

Buckingham Palace sure is one big house with very flashy gates and lots and lots of gold. We had tickets to the state rooms and the Royal Childhood exhibition. Wow those rooms, so much gold, so much luxury, so much pomp.  It is such a shame I wasn't allowed to take photos, because it really is hard to explain, but this is one of the rooms we were allowed in ( obviously when no-one was home though)
The exhibition itself was great and so was the footage of the Queen acting like any normal child, dancing and showing off for the camera. Sandy had a déjà vu moment while in the palace, not sure if she was channeling the Queen Mother, more likely Princess Margaret I think.
We went through about 10 rooms and after about 2 hours ended up in the backyard, not a corgi in sight.
Sandys palace fact: The backyard is 36 acres, just a bit larger than a courtyard block.

What Her Royal Highness does have in her backyard ( apart from a couple of dickheads taking selfies) are royal squirrels, this was our first squirrel so we were very excited( it's the little things).

After the palace tour we had to go back into Oxford St to pick up some shoes I had ordered, This involved a 2km walk, once again because our internal compass seems to always point in the opposite direction, maybe it's hemispherical( not sure if that's a word but I'm going with it), anyway by the time we got there it was new feet we needed and not new shoes. I think if we were doing that 10000 steps for everyday in sept we would be up to about the 22nd by now.
London you have lived up to all our expectations and more, heres to visiting again, when you're not so far way.

Words to Sum up London:  Expensive, Historical,Surreal, Busy, Crowded, Tiring

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Day 2. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Another long day.... Up at 4.30am for a 5 am pickup and that 5 star hotel that was yesterday is now about 4.5, due to the lack of hot water this morning.... Dubai Airport, wow, wow and wow.... So busy, we even had to have an " if you get lost action plan". Fairly uneventful 7hr flight except for Sandy being yelled at by the bossy South African flight attendant when she tried to go to the toilet when the seatbelt sign was on.... made me laugh!
 Gatwick Airport, just another airport, has nothing on Dubai, chaotic luggage collection, and the amount some people have OMG. We finally found our way to the train station and got on the train with seconds to spare, only to have it breakdown 3 stops into our journey ... Yes the Griswalds are on holiday!!  Finally we made it to Kings Cross where we transferred to a good old fashioned reliable cab to get us to our final destination, where we get picked up tomorrow to start our bus tour!