Trip Log

The first plan for today was to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Checking with the guy at the Big Bus stop revealed that they only change the guard every second day this time of year (every day only in summer), and today was not the day. We went to the Palace anyway and caught the horse guard moving down to the parade ground. Walking up to the palace, we caught the horse guard approaching the palace then proceed along beside the palace. After this, going in the opposite direction, were a couple of open royal carriages in a short procession with a Rolls Royce and a few other vehicles. The people in the carriages I did not recognise. We took photos anyway, mainly for the carriages!

We bought some take away sandwiches in Green Park and munched them on a park bench, watching the autumn leaves fall around us and squirrels doing what squirrels do .. exploite their cuteness and politely request food from tourists.

This was on our way to the Royal Institution at 21 Albemarle St. Mayfair. The RI has been a society of scientists that have demonstrated their discoveries in the lecture hall since the early 1800's, Michael Faraday being one the more famous. We were allowed free access to walk through the building including the museum and the famous lecture hall. I spent some contemplative moments in the hall, thinking about all the learning that members and guests of the society had shared with colleagues and the public over the past couple of hundred years. After a cuppa in the cafe, we then went to Berkley Square, not far away where I expected to experience a view from the top and slide down the tune of the ArcelorMittal Orbit Slide. However, it was nowhere to be found! Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Another address for it was about 10 km away, not conveniently located, so we reluctantly let that plan go. Linda's tummy was playing up so we decided to bus our way back to the hotel. On the way, Carnaby street attracted our attention so we hopped off and explored the lively area. We also decided to see what was in the biggest you store on London, Hamleys on Regent Street. Many of the staff were dressed in Harry Potter costumes, some giving broom riding lessons, others doing all kinds of other interactive stuff with the customers. Fascinating place, and expectedly expensive.

Back on the red route bus, then switched to the orange one, then to the blue to get us back home at about 5pm.

Restaurant for dinner tonight, La Brasserie Italiano, Curious mixture of French and Italian names but very Italian menu. Linda wanted to satisfy her craving for pasta, I did what I was told.

A couple of sandwiches again from Pret A Manger for breakfast then a walk into Kensington Gardens, past Kensington Palace then down towards the Serpentine, all in light misty rain. Great to see all the swans, geese, ducks, squirrels etc. all through the park. We walked around the Serpentine, seeing Diana's memorial fountain but it was not on. It was 9:20 and it was not due to be on until 10:00. We towelled the moisture from our clothes back at the hotel.

Check out time was 12pm so at 11:45 we went up to the lobby where we had planned to meet Linda's friend who lives in London. We checked out, checked our luggage into the luggage counter at the hotel and went to lunch.

The lunch location was cunningly chosen by Linda's friend to show us how to get to Heathrow airport later tonight with our luggage .. Nando's at Earl's Court. No need to purchase subway tickets .. just used my Visa card to swipe on and swipe off. So simple.

So now we know to take the underground from Bayswater station, not the closer Queensway station, take the one that is not on the circle line because that one goes to Gloucester station and you have to back, like we did. At Earl's Court take the lift up to the first floor then the big lift down to the Piccadilly line platform 6 get on the train and get off at Heathrow terminal 3. Easy.

We said goodbye to Linda's friend back at Bayswater station at 2pm and then spent the afternoon in Kensington Gardens, this time seeing Princess Diana's memorial fountain with water flowing in it, the Peter Pan statue and being entertained by the antics of the abundant bird and animal life.

At 4:30 we collected our luggage and faultlessly followed the plan outlined above

arriving at the airport about 5:30.

I used the self serve baggage ticket and boarding pass printer, (it just scans our passports to do that), found some seats in the terminal to wait on, and waited until 7:00pm when we can check in our bags.

After 7:00 we checked on the bags but a bug in the system thought our three bags for two people were excess baggage. The guy fixed it by printing new baggage labels and replaced the ones we put on. Not our fault, a bug in the system we were told. More waiting until the plane took off at 10:15pm. Six hours to Dubai.

 

At Dubai, the wait was two hours, then 13 hours to Melbourne.

During the Melbourne leg, the entertainment system feeding all the passenger screens had to be rebooted about 4 times because many of the screens were not working properly. Even after that, Linda's screen was not showing movies properly. She watched one on my screen while I snoozed.

 

The plane arrived about 15 minutes early at 6.20am, our bags were quick to pick up off the carousel and we waited until about 7:30 for Niko and Eric to pick us up in Linda's car. I drove us back, very nervous about driving on the left of the road again after six weeks of driving on the right and about thirty five hours with not much sleep. Fortunately, we arrived home without any adverse incidents.