We had a huge weekend this weekend. Nic arrived from Aus on Friday and we were determined to make the most of the time we had her here!! We had been saving up most of our sightseeing until she arrived, so were well and truely ready to get out and explore.
Friday night we headed into Covent Garden and had a wander around the markets, before heading to a balcony pub to watch the street performers over a few beers, then off to tea at an italian restraunt.
Saturday was to be the big day of sightseeing, we booked the eye for sat night, and planned to take a big bus hop on hop off tour during the day. We woke up to the sound of rain (the first since we have arrived in London!!) and sean feeling very unwell wiht a cold. The decision was made that nic and I would brave the rain and do the bus tour, and sean would dtay home and rest up for the Eye that night.
The weather cleared up a bit and apart from some svcary looking clouds and freezing wind we managed to spend 7.5 hours on the us without getting wet. The bus was fantastic.
Firt stop was Notting Hill for the Portobello markets which were HUGE!! we walked for miles but had a great time, back onto the bus we realised we were going to have to limit our stops or we would never make it around the loops.
Cruising the streets of London we took Hundereds of photos and saw all the sights. My favourites definitely beeing Big ben and the London Eye! And the next person to tell me how dissappointing Big Ben is will get a mouthful! It was the most stunning Building I have ever seen! I was so impressed! Second Stop was trafalgar square were we decided to be sofisticated tourists and visit the national Gallery (for the free toilets and cheap lunch). Before it was back to the bus stop, where one of the tour guides for the cometitor bus tour company decided to punish me for not going on his tour by telling eveyr passer by on the street and every bus that arrived that I was his ex wife and had done horrible thing to him and his children. Kept us laughing for the 30mins we had to wait for our bus. Then it was past many more of the famous sights and over the tower bridge to disembark for our river cruise, or should I say refugee boat tour. We turned up just in time to miss the luxury cruise boat we could ahve travelled on and ended up on a boat that could only be described as resembling the refugee boats that arrive in WA, little did we know that we could have had a nice encolse luxury oat if we waited 10 more mins, but the driver kept us entertained wiht his sarcastic commentary and cockney accent and our laughing stopped us from completely freezing!!
Off the Boat and Back onto the bus back home to find sean and head off to the Eye. We arrived at the Eye just in time to get the heavy rain. Th view was amazing and the lights were just stunning, unfortunately the rain on the outside of the glass capsule meant taking good photos was impossible, but we enjoyed our "flight" and were able to spot all the sights well into the distance as the rain had cleared the air. After that it was home to bed to rest for a big day of shopping on sunday.
Sunday it was up early for an english breaky at the Spoons (cant beat 2 pound for full breakfast) the off to Oxford street for some serious shopping. Sean came wiht us for a few hours until the football called and Nic and I spent a few more hours searching for somethinmg we could afford to buy. Then headed back to the Slug (our local Aussie pub and supporter of the Westcoast eagles), where the soccer was just finishing in time for us to watch the eagles game (a day late but that's ok).
We decided to try the favoured slug drink snakebites. A potent concoction of a pint glass half full of fosters, topped up with cider and then with a splash of blackcurrent juice! Sunds awful but tastes fantastic! A little too good and too easy to drin k so before long Nic and I were having a very good time, an afternoon at the footy turned into a night at the slug listening to all the cliched aussie tunes and reminiscing about everything at home! Was the best night we I've had in a long time!! And surprisingly we werent feeling rough in the morning! Ive found my new London Drink! But there was still several more days until Nic was leaving for Bristol! Much more sightseeing to come!
