5 nights in London hety so what are we going to do? We had no real plans but thought that considering that we were in one of the biggest cities in the world that we should be able to spend our time in a way that is both constructive and fun so hey let's give it a shot.
We flew in on a Saturday and by a little after 3pm we had found our apartment near Paddington and were getting settled. It was a great place with a bedroom 2 toilets, bathroom and living area with a complete kitchen to use also. This was going to be a totally different stay in London to what we had been used to. All those years ago we stayed with T near Ladbroke Grove in his apartment and then we were lucky enough to stay with Glenn and Cath numerous times in Southfields. Both of these were great but you are staying in someone elses place so you always feel like you are having to be on your best behaviour. After that we stayed again in a B and B in Southfields and then a B and B near St Pancras so this was the very first time that we had a whole apartment to ourselves. Hooray! Lets see how it goes then.
We tried to stay awake on the first night for as long as we could which meant that we made it to about 8pm before we crashed. That gave us enough time to find a coupe of pubs and eat out so that was in our eyes a pretty good start to the trip and also got us back on the road to a normal sleep pattern.
The rest of the stay in London afer that fisrt night revolved around numerous pubs, and visits to different places both in and out of London and a heap of walking. No joke we walked a hell of a lot in London and it was not because of the weather as that was not that great but simply the fact that walking is still the best way of seeing the city. Anyhow we did see a heap of good stuff but I will keep it to a couple of things to talk about and here they are.
1) The Mousetrap: no not the instrument to catch little rodents but the play. Yep this play has been running for 37 years non stop I think although Tara would know better than I and in fact took a photo of the number of consecutive shows as we left the theatre. Either way this show is lengendary and is one of the few shows that does not give discounted tickets to the patrons. It may be because of this that the theatre was only ha;lf full but hey who cares it meant that we had better seats. The show itself is a murder mystery thingo that is a bit tricky at the end and the crowd is sworn to secrecy about who did it. It was bloody entertaining and we worth the money and was even better because the crowd was small and the theatre intimate. The meal beforehand, curry, was also really great which meant that we had a great night out in London....Hooray!
2) Harry Potter World: Whilst not totally in London but actually in Watford this place is simply awesome. Not the cheapest or easiest place to get to it is certainly worth the effort and has everything that a Pothead nerd needs to stay happy for a number of hours. All of the sets, props and cars, buses and bikes were there and it was bloody great. Butter Beer was also on offer and of course we had some and it tasted just like a SPIDER!!!!!! YUM! We walked around that place for hours looking at everything that there was to see and I found out that the major stars of the show were all mini people. Yep they were all tiny! It was a pretty miserable old day outside that day so to spend som much time undercover was great. The olnly dodgy thing was the cost of the shop at the end......jesus christ! It was incredibly expensive and we both passed on bueying anything as we left the place but both had a great time.
3) Harrods: The best shopping department store in the world did not disappoint us again as we as per ususal bought new treats for the dogs there. Lots of good stuff on offer in the pet section and we were sitting up there on level 4 umming and arghing about what to but them for agaes. After the purchases we headed to the food hal bout morning tea and ate it outside on the path. The most expensive store in the world is still a better place to buy cheap food that tastes great than anywhere in Perth. Go figure.
So that was a quick look at London in a visit that we really enjoyed. It was different to normal as we had a lot more of a "homely" stay and enjoyed it immensely. We also went to the Houses of Parliament and the Churchill War Rooms but hey maybe Tara can talk about that a little later. It was all great and I am just about done right now saddened by the fact that Liverpool have just lost at home to Southampton....what a load of crap!
Next entry we will be in France so wish us luck.
Paul and Tara
