Weekend in the capital

On Sunday morning we caught the coach to London for two nights staying with Sheryl’s brother Phil and his wife Cheryl, who arrived in the UK last week. We crashed in their hotel room on the pull out sofa bed and managed to fit quite a bit in in our three full days in the capital.

On Sunday afternoon we each purchased a Big Bus Tour ticket for £20 which entitled us to a hop-on hop-off style double decker bus, a free boat trip on the Thames and three different walking tours. We did one of those walks on Sunday night – the London Ghost Walk! A bit of fun, especially as it’s crossed with a pub crawl, and who doesn’t like a spooky story down a dodgy London alley way!

At the end of the tour we shouted the tour guide a pint and spent the rest of our night having a few drinks over a pub grub meal.

The next afternoon we used our bus ticket to tour on the open top bus through central London’s most famous areas – Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Tower of London, Fleet Street and more. It got bloody cold in the fresh winter air so we hopped off and ducked into a pub in the Victoria area.

After thawing out we bee lined to find Gordon’s Wine Bar – the UK’s oldest drinking establishment (it’s held a liquor license since 1396!) – and along the way met Sheryl’s friend Jess. We ended up walking past it by a few blocks and settled for The Wellington pub on The Strand for some food and another drink.

We did get to the wine bar in the end and enjoyed a bottle of French Pinot for the table. This place was amazing! After going down a set of stairs the surroundings felt just like they would’ve when the place first opened. Low roofs, dark and smoky and very mysterious.

Our coach back home was late afternoon on the Tuesday but before then we squeezed in another walking tour. This time it was for the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Being with a guide we got the insider knowledge that the most interesting stuff starts at St James’ Palace where you can then march with the guards, and the brass band, down Pall Mall to the Palace. And march we did, albeit feeling amongst a slightly paparazzi style tourist mob who were running and barging in sheer desperation to get their prized photo.

After another pint and a bite in a central London pub, this time The Albert, we headed down to the Westminster Pier for our boat trip. It only took 20 minutes or so and wasn’t the most exciting journey we’ll ever go on, but they had the heating cranked so that was good. By this stage the wet, miserable weather had come over us so it was a bit of relief. Hey we’d had a solid run of two non-rainy days before that, surely some kind of winter record.

Our coach home got us back to Bournemouth on time which was nice, as last time coming back we were an hour and a half late!

We’re now hoping to arrange an interview with a recruitment agency and get ourselves sorted with some short-term temp work. We’ll see what comes our way.


(Sheryl, Phil and another Cheryl in Trafalgar Square...and thank god I've done my duty, a night shot of Nelson's Column)


(Thank god we've found a pub, it's cold outside!)


(Tower of London from the bus, and the Thames by sunset)


(Big Ben late in the day...and the cave like surroundings of Gordons Wine Bar)


("No Beer, No Spirits...We're a wine bar!", and traffic down Pall Mall was bloody awful Tuesday mornin')


(Sheryl chooses the wrong coloured beanie for the day and looks horribly out of place next to her Majesty's marching regiment...aaand us infront of the Eye)

Nineteen hours in London

Sheryl and I made last minute New Years plans to head to London on New Years Eve by coach and get involved with the public celebrations in the central London area. Earlier on New Years Eve morning I'd had calls from New Zealand with New Year there imminent. Thanks for the calls Mum and Dave, nice also to briefly chat with some of the gang back home.

We left a dark and stormy looking Bournemouth just before 3pm on Sunday and arrived in London two and a half hours later to a surprisingly dry capital.

We found our way from Victoria Coach Station down to the Victoria Embankment, opposite the London Eye and just around the corner from Big Ben and Parliament Square, where the main viewing area for the midnight fireworks was to be held.


(Big Ben in Parliament Square, and the London Eye)

Because we were several hours early we wandered around for a bit and then grabbed a bite to eat at Garfunkels Restaurant (more like a classy Denny's style diner) in Trafalgar Square. We had a 20 minute wait to be seated but it was worth it - we killed an hour and a half in there while it looked like it started to rain outside.


(Us along the Victoria Embankment)

We went back to the Embankment area and took our place amongst the growing crowd, killing the time away with a bottle of Oyster Bay Pinot Noir and a Rosemount Shiraz! Enjoyed from the classy plastic Santa cups as can be seen in the photos!

We had planned to meet up with our Canadian friend Sarah but due to a missed train and some delayed mobile network coverage it didn't happen until after twelve. Nevertheless, 2007 was brought in firstly with 'Right here, Right now' by Fatboy Slim (everyone enjoyed a little groove!) before Big Ben chimed and the fireworks off London Eye began.

The 10 minute display was probably one of the most impressive fireworks displays we've ever seen. Great stuff, but when it was all over it really was all over. Hundreds of thousands of people bee lined for the tubes, trains and buses to go home. All the bars, pubs, cafes and diners shut their doors and that was it!

We were forced to somewhat painfully kill time until our coach in the morning - next time we will be prepared that Londoners just don't know how to celebrate New Years!


(The cheap plastic cups avec Vin Rouge, and a screenshot of the fireworks)