London - Tower of London

We had a pretty easy going day today. It started off a little cold but fined up by the end of the day.

We headed to Oxford Street and did some shopping as Amelia needed a light jumper. Was a little tricky because all of the stores have put out their summer stock!

After finding a jersey at GAP (the third shop we looked) we stopped for a pint at "The Argyle Arms" before meeting Simon at the Baker St tube station.

From Baker St we headed to Tower Hill and had lunch at "The Minories" they had a two meals for £7.95 deal. Nice.

Simon had to head off to a stag do at the Spearmint Rhino so Amelia and I went to the Tower of London. It is really huge and we spent several hours wondering around the castle and the all the buildings contained in its walls. We saw the Crown Jewels (sparkly), Traitors Gate, the White Tower, the prisons and the humongous ravens. Lots of weaponry and armour too :)

After the tower we tubed back to our hotel so we could fill out this blog with what we have been up to over the last few days... so keep on reading!

London - Sunny Sunday (Day 6)

Today we went to Camden Markets with Toby and Katie. The markets are truly massive and maze-like with stalls selling everything imaginable but lot's of the same thing in each one. The streets are so completely crowded with people that you have to be carefull not to be pushed onto the road!

We started with aFull English Breakfast in 'The Elephants Head'. This was a much nicer then the one we had yesterday at a small greasy spoon off Trafalgar Square. Eating in pubs is a bit hard to get used to because people are allowed to smoke; restaurants also have smoking areas. Apparently all smoking in pubs and restaurant is going to be banned in June or July this year.

The good thing with the pub was that we got a window seat so we could watch the crowd go past. Lots of goths and alternative fashions worn in Camden so quite interesting to watch.

After brunch we spent the rest of the day walking through the markets.

One of the best stores we went into was called Cyberdog. It supports the dance/rave culture and sells all sorts of glow-in-the-dark outfits, some with changing LED displays. They have a DJ playing thumping dance music, dancers up on podiums and black lights everywhere so it almost feels more like a club then a store. It was hilarious to watch people buying clothes like tight day-glo pants with enormous puffy bottoms.

That morning we had stopped at King's Cross Station to pick up out tickets for our train trip to Edinburgh tomorrow. This was pretty cool since we ordered out tickets on the web back in New Zealand, then to get the tickets we found a Fastticket booth, put in our credit card and it printed out the tickets !

So tonight is our last night at Simon's as we are off to Edinburgh tomorrow. Apart from not seeing Simon for a week or so we are also going to lose access to his nice high speed broadband and his laptop. Oh the manatee! So our posts may become a little less frequent and less likely to have pictures for the next wee while :(

Anyway off to dinner with Simon now at Shish, Turkish restaurant with yummy tapas style mezze dishes and Baklava ice cream!

London - What we did on day 5

What a fantastic day. The weather was brilliant really hot and sunny. We met up with some friends Jonathan went to school with that he hadn't seen for 10 - 15 years, Chris and Kirsteen, at the National Gallery inTrafalgar Square. The gallery has some awesome paintings dating back hundreds of years but its not really my (Jonathan) kind of art.

After that we wandered down to Carnaby Street and had a look at the shops there, then we nipped round the corner to Hamleys which is a giant toy store with six floors of toys !

We then walked back down to Covent Gardens and met up with another friend, Sean. We had lunch there and had a really good catch up.

Sean had to go, but the rest of us went off to the London Dungeon. It was a little pricey at £20 each but it did last 2 hours and had some pretty neat things. I really liked the free fall during the simulated hanging ride.

Chris and Kirsteen had to head back to Milton Keynes (about an hour and half out of London) so we went to dinner with Simon, Toby and Katie to Suzie Wong's in Soho. This is a fantastic restaurant and does a Thai/Asian tapas style menu. The decor, service and food was great with the five of us sharing six or seven dishes.

After a hard day of walking and with me feeling fluey, Amelia and I headed home whilst the others went out to party (until 5am apparently).

London - Day 4

Today was a day of more exploring by foot. After a late start due to updating this blog and doing some research on Simon's computer we headed to Covent garden. The markets are a busy place filled with shops, stalls, street performers and lots of good smelling food. Lunch today was traditional Cornish Pasties which were delicious!

We then explored the streets nearby, ending up at Leicester Square where we bought some tickets for next Thursday to the Monty Python musical 'Spamalot'. There are a bunch of booths in Leicester Square where you can get discounted tickets for many of the shows especially for that night's performance. The queues are not long but it takes ages to get through each person so can be a long wait. Unfortunately there are no discounts for Spamalot as it is generally sold out on the night but our tickets were still much cheaper than seeing a major show in NZ at £25 ($67NZD) per person.

We continued walking to Picadilly Circus which was packed with people and then to Trafalgar Square. The buildings are all so incredibly beautiful and ornate it's hard not to take a photo of every one! Everything is also on such a grand scale with the buildings towering over you and the roads crowded with people.

London - Coverage of Day 3

Our third day in London started with a frantic rush to get out of the house in time for a walking tour of the changing of the guard with 'The Big Bus Company'. The tour departed at 10am from Trafalgar Square and after 2 tube changes we made it there at 10.02!

Luckily there was still time so we greeted our guide Richard and his Umbrella of Pointing and we were off. We walked down the Mall, seeing the changing of the cavalry, to St Jame's Palace to meet up with the retiring regiment, The Coldstream Guards. We were right in front of the palace when they came out with a full brass band and burst unexpectedly into 'Downtown' by Petula Clark. Despite knowing all the words I resisted the urge to sing along, (damn you singstar!). Then we were off in a foot race with the quick marching Guards, our eyes firmly fixed on the Umbrella so we didn't get lost in the crowds, to catch the new regiment, The Blues and Royals as they came out of their barracks on the other side of Green Park. Richard was excellent getting us prime positions and we saw so much more than we would have trying to cram up to the gates at Buckingham Palace with the 5000 other people who were there.

Ater the tour the went and had a traditional pub lunch at a The Albert on Victoria Street which was recommended by Richard. Amelia had good ole fish and chips and Jonathan had chicken kiev with a nice pint of Strongbow cider.

As well as 3 walking tours the Big Bus Company's ticket gives you access to a hop-on-hop-off bus service and a river cruise up the Thames. So after The Albert we jumped onto the "red line" big bus (which has live commentary) at Westminster. The bus tour takes about 2 and a half hours and wanders all around the central part of London.

Patsy our tour guide was excellent and it was very cool to see London from the top of the open double deaker bus. It's amazing how old parts of the city are (1000 to 2000 years) and how many old buildings still stand, often housing the same business for several hundred years.

Unfortuantely the weather closed in so we were forced to go to the lower level of the bus for the last 30 minutes of the tour.

Feeling pretty much wiped out and with the weather going to pot we decided not to do the river cruise and headed home.

When Simon came home we went out to West Hampstead and had dinner at GBK a gourmet burger joint.