London town

Far too many hours on a plane and a tube trip later I made to Earl's Court McDonalds and met Susan as planned. While waiting I discovered the wonders of 99p porridge with pancake syrup. I've now been to Maccas several times in a week... Over the next few days we jumped on the tourist conveyer belt and checked out the main tourist sites and museums around Westminster.

Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey

Slavery abolition monument

Big Ben! Plus a clock tower.

Tate Britain - everything opens at 10am...

At Buckingham Palace

How do they see? @ Buckingham Palace

View from the Observatory at Greenwich

London is an interesting place, but there are far too many people for me. Greenwich and Soho were really nice and had a much nicer vibe than the area we were staying in. I will of course have to go back, as we only covered a fraction of all the things you can do in london. Highlights were as follows:

• The National Maritime Museum, which was really interesting and very well laid out. Considering that we only intended to stop to use the loos on the way to the observatory we ended up staying there for several hours.

National Maritime Museum

• Patisserie Valerie, an amazing french cafe/pastry shop. Lunch was BLT triangle sandwiches with a side salad, raspberry tart and peppermint tea. We bought a lemon tart to take back to the hostel with us! 

Om nom nom nom

• Les Miserables, an awesome show (if a tad depressing given most of the characters die) with an excellent cast. Most enjoyable.
• M&M world and Hamleys toy store - so much unneccessary stuff! So many things to photograph...

Susan meets her knight in shining armour @ M&M World

Meeting Lego Queenie at Hamleys

A breakdown for the interested:


Wed 4th: Arrived, found hostel, wandered around Battersea Gardens and scoped out the local shops. Weather - overcast, freezing.
Thurs 5th: Tate Britain, V&A, Natural History museums.Weather - overcast, freezing.
Fri 6th: Leceister Square to get theatre tickets, tubed to Greenwich (Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory), back to Soho - saw Les Miserables at the Queens theatre. Weather - sunny, freezing.
Sat 7th: Wandered from our hostel in Westminster up to Buckingham Palace, down the Mall to Trafalger Square. Wandered around the National Gallery and through Leceister Square (visitng M&M world) to Soho shops. Spent several hours in the wonderful Patisserie Valerie then checked out Hamleys toy store. Weather - overcast, freezing.
Sun 8th: Train to Edinburgh.