Dad lived in the UK for 15 years and never saw this happen at all. We’re there for two days and bang, there it is.

We got up early this morning, quickly ate some breakfast and rushed to the museum — which is close by — to line up for a chance to get one of 500 tickets to see the terracotta warriors.  The tickets are only available in person and as the exhibit is booked solid this was our only chance to see it.

As luck would have it, we did get two tickets after waiting almost an hour.  Next we rushed, via the tube, to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards.  We arrived around half an hour early (as advised by almost everyone) and when we saw the massive crowd, realised we should have come an hour early.

Fighting our way through the crowd, we jostled for a good position.  After around 15 minutes I lost sight of Justine but soon found here right at the front of the crowd, snapping photos.  The changing of the guard was interesting but is lessened but the immense size of the crowd.

We finished off all but one Monopoly street; Whitechapel Road was particularly seedy as had been Old Kent Road previously.  Rushing back to the museum in order to make our allocated entry time we weren’t able to get to Portobello Road as we would have liked.

The terracotta warriors exhibit only had around 20 of the 7000+ warriors, but they are still quite impressive to see in person.  Taller than life size, they are surprisingly life-like and quite imposing.  Standing directly in front of one and staring into it’s eyes, you can easily imagine them springing to life.

After finishing off Monopoly we headed out to a Korean restaurant for dinner.  The barbecued the food at our table and we wrapped meat, vegies and rice in lettuce leaves.  Sort of like Korean tacos.

Even the best laid plans can go awry.  We’d planned to go to Bath today but quickly learned that only a few trains run daily, and it takes over two hours each way anyway.  French TGV trains can cover the whole of France in that time so it came as quite a surprise.

Instead, we headed to the British Museum which was just a couple of blocks straight out of our hotel (we only realised how close after we left since we came in via the back entrance).  As the museum has been free for over 250 years, we left a small donation as well as buying a book.

I didn’t know that the museum held the Rosetta Stone, which I was happy to see.  As well, it contains large sections of the exterior of the Greek Parthenon, Cleopatra’s mummy (which is, obviously, Cleopatra herself) as well as numerous ancient mummies, and plenty of other great stuff.  We spent around four hours inside and unfortunately for us a number of galleries were closed meaning only half of the place was even open.  The Chinese Qin terracotta warriors are at the museum but are booked solid for 3 weeks meaning we can’t see them.

We headed to the Museum of London which is on the outskirts of where London originally reached, but the museum was not as good as the other or even that good at all.  It seemed to be aimed at a young audience.  There was a painting of a “Sir William Hewett” who was the first protestant mayor of London.

A quick stop in at Hamley’s before we headed to Shakespeare’s Globe to see the Merchant of Venice but the standing room tickets for today and tomorrow are all sold out.  Disappointing but what can you do?

We had dinner at a small place called “Cagney’s”, where Justine had fish & chips and I had a hamburger with chili which wasn’t as good as expected.

Even though the number of beds far exceeded our needs, we only used one. Breakfast was a low quality English Breakfast, but at least we got one. We checked out — the place was fine, not at all like the previous one — but we already had bookings for a higher-class place.

We took the tube one stop and walked to our new hotel: it has a concierge! It’s hardly five star but after the last few months of low-class places it feels like the Ritz.

Our first destination today was the Chelsea Antiques Fair; we headed the opposite direction after learning the entrance fee was 15.00 each.

Lunch was a quick pasty while walking back to the tube. Using our Oyster card — it’s a proximity card you swipe over a reader at the start and end of your tripe; they’re used a bit in the UK and Europe — we took the tube to Westminster Abbey. Being the first church to demand entry took us back; the Notre Dame and even St Peter’s in Vatican City allowed people to come in and look around; we decided not to spend the 10.00 each to see another church, no matter how good.

Across the road at the Houses of Parliament, we saw a large group of people so headed over to investigate. It turns out that the Houses of Parliament open for summer in the same way Buckingham Palace does. We decided to take a tour of the Houses.

After waiting from 14:50 to 15:20 in a line for security, we both put our valuables through the scanner and were patted down very closely by security. Not comfortable at all.

I was surprised to learn how recently the Houses were built (around 140 years ago) given their Gothic designs. The tour took us through the “robing room”, where the Queen puts on her formal wear for the yearly opening of parliament, as well as the incredibly elaborate House of Lords, which has what seems to be an entire wall of gold leaf, where the Queen sits, naturally.

The guided tour took us through the Common House as well. This area had been bombed during the second World War but has since been rebuilt. During the tour, we were forbidden from photography, straying, sitting on anything or touching anything. We were surprised they allowed us to wear our own shoes and breathe!

The tour concluded in Westminster Hall which has an original wooden roof which is around 600 or 700 years old and uses a technique — Hammer Beam — no longer used but is quite impressive, given the size and age.

As we left the premises we were on Whitehall so decided to do some more of our Monopoly Tour. After adding Whitehall and Old Kent Road (thanks to our new more detailed map) Justine wanted to go to Harrod’s, so we did.

We purchased very little and still managed to spend a large amount of money (it is Harrod’s, after all) and left.

A restaurant we both like in Melbourne, “Wagamama”, is also nearby so we ate there.  The meals we usually got in Australia taste quite different here despite having the same name and description.

Another tube and short walk later and we checked into our hotel… and had a twin room.  Easily sorted.  It feels very nice to be in a reasonable place.  Many of the ones we’ve stayed in have been fine but lacking in the comfort department.

After eating a final croissant each for breakfast — mine was an apricot and Justine’s chocolate — we checked out of our Paris hotel and took a couple of Metro trains to Nord.

Justine managed to spend the last of our Euros on a small coffee each while we waited for the boarding call on the Eurostar back to the UK and London.

Three uneventful hours later we disembarked, again in London, and headed for the Underground and on to our hotel.

We checked into our hotel, only to find our room had a bed propped up against the wall.  They gave us another room, on the fourth floor — no elevator — and let us know they’d been spraying for pests.  Great.  Our room wasn’t any better; mouse droppings squished into the floor, fittings falling off, broken lights, floor coming up.

We went downstairs to the nearest Internet cafe and found a different hotel for the next few nights.  When we asked to cancel the next night the staff refused and after half an hour of arguing we checked out, disgusted, having to pay for two nights accommodation.

I tried to call our bank to dispute the ludicrous charges but the reverse call number wasn’t working.

Over the next four hours, we scoured downtown London for an available hotel and only found two we could afford.  We’re in a room with 5 beds (one double) and have spent a lot on it, but at least it’s not the first place.

Let’s home tomorrow’s place got our booking!