Portabello Rd markets, St Pauls and general ramblings

As the more astute of you would have realised, this blog is slightly out of date and we are actually typing this while sitting in Germany (can't be bothered spelling where we are...can't remember actually manneheim or something. Daniel had a sausage today, he is happy as a pig in mud).

In an effort to get things up to date we have split ranks. Daniel is tapping away at his account of our adventures on the continent (ooooooooohh) whereas I am stil back in old London Town.

Our last entry was tapped out at furious speed so we could get back to the hotel and eat, so I think I might flesh it out a bit.

I also forgot to put some stuff in about the day we visited Windsor. That was the first night we went to a show so we went straight from Windsor to Picadilly Circus where the dinner and show was.

The actual Circus is a bit fithly and ordinary (aside from the Bridget Jones, huge New York looking display...thingy). Daniel managed to lose one of the few warm clothing items he bought so we went shopping in 'Lillywhites', which is right next to the statue in the circus.

The man on the big bus tour gave it a huge rap and suggested it was some hallowed hall of British sportswear....it was not! Rebel Sports without the airconditioning or spacious interior. Be that as it may, the sales were terrific and Daniel is now proudly proclaiming himself to be the new Ali G, he apparently now owns more Lonsdale. Aiiii.

Anyway, walking around Piccadilly once we got off the main street was fantastic. So many people, pubs, cafes (none of which we went into of course!). The Theatre was very very similar to the Civic, it had been renovated relatively recently.

(Just need to note that for some reason the Germans have swapped the placing of 'z' and 'y' on the keyboard. Freaks. Now that Daniel isn't watching I'm not going to fix any mistakes that I make).

The influence of pantomines was hilarious, they had changed the Mary Poppins story around a bit (I think) and the audience kept booing the 'baddie', even during the curtain call. It was brilliant. We should do it in Australia.

The weather was lovely when we came out, it makes you realise how much you miss summer and light long into the evening!

Fiona, I was meaning to say that we almost did a Da Vinci Code walk that was free with our Big Bus tour in honour of you, but we ran out of time. Sad!

This last day was pretty frantic, we'd hardly seen anything of the British Museum because we were so tired on the first day so we needed to go back there, and we also wanted to finish the Tower (we hadn't seen it all), plus see St Pauls, the Portobello Markets and do the London Walks Jack the Ripper walk.

Portobello Markets are obviouslv not booming on Wednesday, enough said. We were just too tired to go when I had planned (on Saturday).

I wasn't expecting to care much for St Pauls but it was pretty overwhelming. Very different from Westminster Abbey, which is absolutely crammed with monuments and memorials. It's fairly bare on the ground. The mosaics on the ceiling were amazing. Everything 'deathy' is down in the crypt, which is, lets face it, cooooool.

We didn't know that Nelson was buried in a sarcophogus that Wolsey had made for himself until Henry VIII took it off him. It had apparently been sitting around (at Windsor???) and they thought it was a good use for it.

When I expressed my 'wonderment' Daniel told me to 'wait until I see St Peters' which was a fairly bold statement since he confirmed a second later that he's never been there.

I never realised that it had been bombed during WWII (let alne had two bombs inside) for some reason I thought it had escaped completely.

Given our experience with Westminster Abbey we took a personal tour. Again, the guide was very careful to remember who were all were and where we came from and told us everything in the Cathedral that related to our respective countries. It was pretty impressive.

Daniel and I were shamed publically when we had no idea who one of the memorials was for. Some Australian Prime Minster. Still can't remember who it was, let's face it he didn't go for a swim and not come back again, and couldn't drink an amazing amount of beer, so who cares.

We did remember Florey and could pre-empt her comment that he discovered penicillen, so I think we recovered.

Plus we did not look as simple as the Canadians. I can see where the Americans are coming from, I kept waiting for their heads to go back on their hinges (a ha ha ha ha ha). This Dad from a group had one question and one question only (or some variations on the theme):

'Why can't we go in there'

'Why is that door locked'

'Why can't everyone come in here'

(Answer)

'Ohhhhhhhh'

Anyway, we ran out of time to climb up the stairs so we wandered off.

We had lunch in Ye Old Cheshire Cheese where Dickens and Samuel Johnson etc etc etc used to mingle. We ate in the cheapest part of course, the cellar. I smacked my head on a massive chunk of oak on the way out so that was good.

Back at the Bristish Museum we realised that it was just a lost cause. It. Is. Huge! We wandered around for a bit looking at Egyptian stuff (esp mummies). We can understand why the Egyptians are offended at them being displayed that way (but were secretly disappointed that there were no gory unwrapped ones to see).

Apparently Seti I's mummy is in the basement of some random building in London, yet more 'recovered' items.

We tried to get back into the Tower but the London Pass terms had changed since we bought them and we couldn't get into a site more than once. Bugger!

So we wandered off and did a quick Thames cruise before we got on the Jack the Ripper walk. We realised that we had not set one foot on the south bank, there is so much to see (excellent excuse to come back).

The Jack the Ripper walk was huge!! There were about 50-60 people out to do it, we thought that was pretty impressive (thankfully they had two guides). The walk itself was good, most of the sites have gone, we all pretended to gaze at a multi-level car park sagely and ponder the transcience of life. But it was very interesting and we were taken into some back streets to get a better perspective of how the streets would have looked at that time.

It was surprising how like the circular quay/rocks part of Sydney this area looked (i.e just across from the Tower of London and a few streets back).

I was really sad to leave London, it felt as though we'd be there for days so it was a bit mind boggling to realise that we still had 31 days to go!!

I was also amazed at how much Daniel enjoyed himself, I thought he would hate everything that we were doing. Good stuff.

Just because Daniel will not mention it, and for people who will know who I am talking about, there is an Aunty Barbara and Uncle Trevor on the tour, it's quite funny. For those of you who came to our engagement party, we had it at my Aunty Barbara and Uncle Trevor's house (if that gives you any term of reference).

I'm tired, we have to go and ring my and Daniel's parents (especially Daniel's). It's 11.00!!! We have a 6.00 start!!!!!