Before leaving Edinburgh, we did a fairly quick walking tour to find out a little bit more about the city. This was very interesting and we learned of serial killers, witches and hangings - great stuff! We had to leave half way through to visit Edinburgh Castle.
I think on a good day, this would be an amazing place to visit, but it was pouring with rain for most of the day so our visit was kind of spoiled by the weather. For lunch we both had hog rolls and a fried mars bar to finish, thanks to a recommendation from Banks. I quite enjoyed it, but Turls was not a fan. After lunch, we caught a quick flight to London and made our way back to Lauren and Jamie's. We arrived just as a BBQ tea for Jamie's birthday was being served.....great timing! Dug was there, so it was great to catch up with him and a number of Loz and Jamie's other friends were there too. It was so nice to eat some home cooked food.
We had a bit of a sleep in the following day, and then made our way to Camden Market. This is an enormous market and provided some excellent people watching. One guy was chased down by about 10 cops, so that was pretty exciting. There were tourists videoing it on their cameras and taking photos – it was so funny. We later visited Harrods and had our version of a high afternoon tea there. It is a very glamorous store, with everything from fresh food to designer handbags. I wish we were rich!!! Loz then showed us where she works in Chelsea and we had a beer and a wander around that area.
We had birthday drinks for Jamie at the Duke's Head, which is on the Thames. You buy your drinks inside and then take them out by the river and drink them out there. Very nice atmosphere and so different to the rules at home. We finished off having Spanish for dinner and Loz and I shared enough Seafood Paella for four people and drank lots of Sangria.
On Monday, we went to Hyde Park early and had breakfast by the lake. We walked around for a while and visited the Princess Diana memorial fountain which is just beautiful. I expected Hyde Park to be much greener, given how much rain London has, but it was quite dry in places. After our Hyde Park walk, we did a Royal walking tour which covered some major sights including Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Prince Charles House and Buckingham Palace. We saw the changing of the guards, which was really quite boring. There were hundreds and hundreds of people trying to cram into the front of the fence. The band were playing Michael Jackson songs which was very out of the ordinary, so this was a highlight. We then lined up for 40 minutes and went on the London Eye – the views were fantastic. After this, we walked up the Thames to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London which was a lovely walk. It was getting late, so we raced to catch a train back to Putney to meet Kane Conway for dinner an drinks. It was great to catch up with him as we hadn't seen him since our wedding.
On Tuesday we caught the train out to Windsor,primarily to visit the castle. The town is gorgeous and we ate breakky sitting in the sun in a little courtyard. When we were lining up to get into the castle we were standing behind Darren Lehmann. The castle was stunning and we spent most of the day wandering around. The doll house in particular is amazing. We didn't see the Queen as she wasn't in, but we did have a little chat with Charles on the audio guide! Windsor was certainly another highlight of our trip. We caught the train back to London and made our way to Wimbledon expecting to line up for ground passes. We didn't have to wait at all. We found a grassy spot on the lawn in front of the big screen and Loz and Jamie met us soon after. There were no big matches on, but we still enjoyed the atmosphere of being at the tournament.
Today we said goodbye to Loz and Jamie, and packed up all our crap again, leaving a fair bit behind for Lauren to bring to Nice. Our packs still seemed way heavier than they had before! We caught the Eurostar to Paris and checked into our accommodation which was very close to Gare Du Nord station. The place is beautiful and the owner speaks very good English which was a bonus. On his recommendation, we caught a bus to Hotel de ville, wandered around Notre Dam and had dinner in the Mairie area. This was our first experience ordering food in a foreign language – plenty of sign language involved! We are now looking forward to another four days in Paris!
Au revoir!
Ange & Turls xx
