Day One (?)
London
August 9 2007 (?) - 20:10

Wow! What a trip it’s been so far, and I’ve begun to grasp what a long road lies ahead.

Dad, Cheryl and Richard waved goodbye to us and we left on time from Melbourne at 16:05 local time.

Our first plane flight was eight hours or so, and we were fortunate enough to have screens behind every seat. I watched “Breach”, which was only so-so and tried to pass the time by sleeping. It didn’t work.

Arriving at Bangkok, we saw their gigantic new international airport, which was quite a modern design. We had three hours to kill and after we had mistakenly gone through check-in (there are no shops or anything once you go through security!) we went back out and wandered through duty free for a bit.

Eventually our plane left — 20 minutes late — and to our displeasure there were no personal screens. Honestly, it didn’t matter after my feed and Singha beer; I went to sleep rather easily. The plane was an “overnighter” so the lack of personal entertainment ended up being a non-event.

Both Justine and I managed five or six hours of broken sleep and eventually our plane landed (even later still!).

Excited and rearing to go, I realised I had forgotten to record our hotel’s address! Thanks Richard for the prompt SMS. Being prompt didn’t matter since we had another 35 minutes to wait to get through customs.

Again excited we headed for the underground from Heathrow and were again forced with a delay; not a good impression of London’s transport system! Changing at Hammersmith station (and then leaving, crossing the street and re-entering another part of the same station) our next train was canceled and the one after that was delayed again.

Finally we arrived at Euston Square and asked for directions from a guy working there. If we’d have followed them we would be on the other side of London! Another few km of walking and we found our hotel. Only took three hours from landing to finding the place.

Since check-in wasn’t for another four hours we went exploring.

And exploring we went.

We visited (in rough order):

• Harrod’s
  Super elegant and swish , I thought it was over hyped (as in the fanciness) but it still even topped that.
• Hamley’s (almost)
  For some reason I thought Hamley’s and Harrod’s were close by. Nope. We walked up and down (and again) Knightsbridge before moving on (after we were told we were way off).
• Buckingham Palace
  We only checked out the exterior and missed the changing of the guard but intend to go back. We ate lunch at the worst (and overpriced) cafe in London (the coffee was not bad); I had a Chicken Tikka Sandwich. Yes, it tasted as bad as it sounds.
• St James Park
  We sat on the cool lawn chairs.
• Horse Guards
  Just in time to see them change, which was cool.
• Trafalgar Square (completely by accident)
• The London Eye (but we didn’t go on it)
• Big Ben (didn’t go on that either)
• Westminster Abbey (best abbey I’ve seen; but it was already closed)
• Picaddilly Circus and the Eros statue
• Hamley’s (finally!)
  Justine bought a teddy bear. Had to get a larger one as the small Union Jack ones were sold out.

Totally and utterly exhausted, we walked back to our hotel (near King’s Cross). That’s ten hours of straight walking, after a 20+ hour flight with only a few hours of sleep. I’m still wearing the clothes I was wearing some 48 (36? who knows?) hours ago and reek. I am in some need of a shower and change of clothes so that is what I will do shortly.

Before I forget, I will mention that London is loud, busy, messy, smelly (especially the Thames!), dirty, the buses hit people (we saw the aftermath; it was a sideswipe so no mess) but we love it so far. People even drink outside the pubs! Classic!

P.S. Richard, feed the fish!