Woohoo! After much anticipation we left North America and were soon flying to the mother land (as Nat likes to call it). As we walked out of immigration at Heathrow Airport there was a huge big sign stating:
We felt very welcomed! And we were hardly questioned at immigration for once! A much smoother process. Although while I (Candice) was waiting for Nat, I watched a very drunk British man try to get through immigration without his passport. He claimed that he had lost his passport while in Australia and the airport in Australia had let him on his flight back to London without his passport. All a little strange. Although I found it quite ammusing, and could not work out how any airport would let someone on their plane without their passport. Moral to the story - don't drink too much on planes because you might lose your passport and have to make up some stupid story about how you ended up there!
When we got outside we were actually shocked to find that it was quite hot! We actually arrived in England on the hottest day that they had that year. Which was a nice 30 degrees celcius. It was quite humerous because there were announcements made while we were on the train to 'make sure we drink enough water on hot days like today'. Thanks for informing us! We did find that although it was not that hot by Australian standards, buildings in England aren't made for such weather, which means we couldn't even open the windows in the pub to let in a cool breeze. The train had no air-con or even air for that matter flowing through. This made it feel hotter than what it actually was.
We arrived in London at about 7am which meant that we had to wait to 2pm to check into our hostel and it didn't help that we had not had much sleep on the plane trip over. So we dumped our luggage at our accomodation and tried to merrily make our way around London, althought we didn't get very far. We were staying in Paddington so we just made our way down to Notting Hill and the Portebello Road Markets - something which I have always wanted to see.
The infamous red telephone boxes were everywhere to be found.
The Underground at Notting Hill.
Nat could not wait to try out McDonals in England.
Us at the Portebello Road Markets and lots of teapots were for sale.
We're not sure, but we think this might be a piece of artwork by Banksy.
After our adventures around Notting Hill, (which is where I have chosen to live if I were to ever move to London - slightly on the pricey end of the market I know),we met up with two friends Nat had met in Thailand a couple of years ago. Laura and Kelly were absolutely lovely and despite our jet lag they managed to show us around London find a nice place to eat and fit in a couple bottles of wine.
Laura, Nat and Kelly in Leicester Square.
Posing after our meal in a really nice English pub! Nat even had Steak and Ale pie.
The tube! Very efficent but quite expensive.
Day 2 in London we went on a wonderful tour of the Royal sights that one must see while visiting London. So we saw the typical stuff that I am sure a number of you have seen before. The changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. The Queen was even in at the time we were there. Her flag was flying high over Buckingham. As we walked around London we began to realise that London is really like one big museum! So it was quite easy to have an amazing time in London checking out all the sights without even paying a cent.
We got a snapshot with a guard in a fluffy hat etc. etc. I'm sure you can see the photos for yourself!
The changing of the guard.
The hoards of people at Buckingham palace. It was actually quite difficult to see anything.
I (Candice) look so incredibly short next to this guard. They must breed them well.
The famous Monopoly places - Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly.
Oh and don't forget Pall Mall.
A red doubledecker bus! Not sure what the red obssession is about! Perhaps it brightens up grey old London.
Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
The National Art Gallery, which had some amazing Monets, Manets and Turners, just to name a few.
BIG Benny!
Westminster Abbey, beautiful!
The Westminster Houses of Parliament
Some more red phoneboxes. They are everywhere! Which is good in case you need to ring someone, or in case you want a picture inside one of them.
The Tower of London
2 little pigs in front of the Tower Bridge. Can you see the other couple behind us posing! hehe...it must be the place to pose!
The river Themes and London.
Now this is the famous London Bridge, we originally thought the much prettier Tower Bridge was the London Bridge, but now we know the truth!!
A view of the more modern parts of London.
London is famous for its museums and we certainly had to check them out as they were all free to go and see!
A pig in the museum! Watch out for more pigs in up and coming blogs because we found some more in other random places.
A statue of Venus at the British Museum.
On Day 3 in London we ventured around Hyde park and Paddington (unfortunately we didn't see Paddington Bear, but we had marmalade on toast for breakfast!).
Changing demographics in multicultural London. There were seriously so many full-hooded Muslim women with only their eyes showing that this whole side of Hyde Park looked like a sea of black.
As it states this is Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, where people come and debate in public about issues in London, the UK and the world.
It just so happened that my (Nat's) uncle Jeff was in town as he was going to be presenting a paper at a seminar at Cambridge University. He was staying at a college in the suburbs of London and so we thought we would pay him a visit.
A photo of normal suburbia just outside of London CBD.
Some fields overlooking London.
A sunset!
The place where Uncle Jeffrey was staying. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos with Uncle Jeffrey.
Hmmm. Are we the only ones that find this a little strange?
We went to Asda (a supermarket in the UK) to try and buy some food on a Sunday evening at about 6pm. However it was already shut. Most things do shut early on a Sunday anyway, but Asda was advertising that they were open 24hours, yet their opening hours stated that they were open 9am until 10pm Monday to Saturday and 11am until 5pm on Sunday. We had no idea what this 24 hours business was about. I think it was all a lie!
We ended our time in jolly old London and made our way to Ipswich, a town in East Anglia to stay with Laura for few days. This involved us renting a car, the best decision we could have made. There is no better way to see Britain as a whole than by car and thus our driving adventures began...
We ended our time in jolly old London and made our way to Ipswich, a town in East Anglia to stay with Laura for few days. This involved us renting a car, the best decision we could have made. There is no better way to see Britain as a whole than by car and thus our driving adventures began...
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