Our time in London was fantastic when we finally made it. We ended up missing our train from Paris.....they tell you to be there 30 minutes before and process the next train - and the one that doesn't leave for another hour together, so we ended up being held up through customs, then wouldn't let us on the train even though it hadn't left yet :( Thankfully they go every hour, so they just put us on the next one.
Our hotel was 1 block fromKings Cross so it was nice easy access to the Underground, and our time here was abslutely jam packed! As soon as we stepped out of the station we felt like we were in a game of monopoly :)
We dumped our bags at the hotel and headed straight to Leicester Square to get some cheap theatre tickets. There is just so much to pick from and it was a really tough decision to decide what we were goingto fit into our limited time. It is a shame that none of the shows do a Monday matinee, and very few do Monday nights so that limited our options a little as we had things booked for Wed/Thurs nights already but in a way that was a good thing as it limited our choice a bit. In the end we managed to see Les Miserables, Jersey Boys, Wicked and Thriller. They were all top knotch productions and we were thouroughly inspired!
It has been really nice just being in an English speaking country again in the middle of the trip and aplace a lot more like home, we have been able to relax a bit more - and everything is alot cheaper! We have absolutely loved it, it is a lot more laid back and quieter than Paris and and the weather has been superb. 28 degrees every day and brilliant sunshine - hotter than it was there in August.
After being in quite a few places with trams and double decker buses the novely wasn't there for the big red buses so we mainly got around on the underground - although we thought it was quite expensive compaired to the Metro, it was convienient being right by Kings Cross......and of course we had to go and see platform 9 and three quarters! We ended up travelling at peak times quite a lot and one of the stations actually locked its doors for safety reasons and would only let us in at certain times once crowds had cleared.
We managed to get to the London Dungeon which was great - quite a few screams and interesting facts to be learned.
It was great catching up with Jean, she did a show and a few dinners and drinks with us which was really good. The cocktails are 2 for 1 everywhere so they work out to about $5NZ each.....and there are cocktails bars for Africs in Soho (what a shame). There are a huge variety, so we did a cocktail bar, a dance club, and of course a gay bar seeing as it is right in the theatre district - but everything closes at midnight in the central city! A lot of the bars had attendants like everywhere in Europe, but they also had benches full of perfume they spray on you if you want some. Apparently perfume, flannels, and deoderant are all part of the service.
On Wednesday morning we headed to Camden Markets which are fantastic markets, but we couldn't really bu anything as our bags are right on the limit at the moment, and fromthe UK it costs over 120 pounds to send a package home! Wednesday night we got into our best gears and headed out to Claridges (one of Gordon Ramsays restaurants) for dinner. Wow......what a great night! Absolute top knotch silver service, and the food was amazing. We went for the 6 course tasting menu as we thought we could sample more that way, and it was all stuff we would never normally eat so were were a bit unsure, but it was all superb!! Some of the dishes included duck, sole, lobster, tuna, beef tartar, amuse buche, liquer profiteroles, quail egg, chickpea chips, truffles, curry butter, peach jelley with basil cream, and amazing dessert!
We ordered our wine on an ipad, and were pleased to see that they had a good NZ Malborough wine on the wine list.
Thursday morning we had our last chance to fit in some sightseeing so we went on a mission and managed to get in the London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, a drink at The Kings Arms and the Tower of London. The London Eye is a great way of seeing where everything is and it is quite an impressive feat of engineering! The Tower of London was well worth it just to see the Crowned Jewels...wow!! The vault you go into to view them is impressive, the doors alone are aroubd 75cm thick solid steels, not to mention the guards, army, police and general security around. Then with the massive gold collection and multiple crowns that have hundreds of thousands of diamonds in each crown you can understand why.
Thursday evening saw quite a contrast in dining, we went to a Medieval feats in a basement in St Katharines Docks. It was a really funb night and they pulled off an authentic feast and entertainmentreally well. We particularly enjoyed that you had to yell 'WENCH' as loud as you can to get you drinks refilled.....which were unlimited so consequently a bit nasty.
The fists were a bit sore by the end of the night from banging the tables out of appreciation but it was all in good fun. We had to take off once the official part was over as we had to be up the following morning at 2.30am to get our flight to Istanbul!
No comments:
Post a Comment