I bet you all thought I’d forgotten you! Actually this is the first chance we’ve had to get to the net - our hotel has free internet but it is hellishly slow. So, where to begin?
Firstly, the flight was bad, but not as bad as we’d been led to believe. Singapore do look after you - the only problem was that the plane was terribly hot and we didn’t get enough to drink at any time. Fortunately, when we got in to Heathrow, there was Robin waving at us, and he guided us all the way through the Tube and to our hotel. The Tube was so hot and crowded and there were so many people and we were so brain-dead that it was wonderful to see him, although I don’t think we were very attentive or responsive! Hotel is in a lovely part of Bloomsbury, almost directly opposite RADA. It’s a lovely friendly hotel too - the man who runs it has been very helpful with suggestions every day.
London is wonderful. I can’t see how any city in the world could be more wonderful than this. I could live here. It’s also been very unexpected! All the things people warned us about have not happened. For example - “It’s hell of a cold place, darlin’, you’ll need a big coat” - my dad. Untrue! I have not been cold once, apart from the top of a boat down the Thames at 9 PM at night! It is HOT and humid here - it was 28 degrees yesterday, and we have all run out of short-sleeved things (fortunately the hotel does washing!) Other exploded myths are that the Poms are grumpy and give bad service (everyone has been delightful and helpful so far) and that the food is bad (I have really enjoyed the food, my English heritage must be coming out!) I didn’t expect that the city would be so bright and clean-looking. There are so few skyscrapers or tall buildings that the light is able to reach every part of the city. Our street looks very wide and clean.
What have we done? On Sunday we took a bus down to Westminster, and all our jaws dropped simultaneously as we went around the corner and saw Trafalgar Square for the first time. Nothing could mark us more obviously as tourists! Then we went past our stop, got off a stop later, turned another corner and THERE was Westminster Abbey, right in front of us. We couldn’t go inside because it was Sunday, but we took plenty of photos outside, and were glad we did so because when we went back later in the week the grounds were crowded with tourists. Then we gazed incredulously at the Houses or Parliament, Big Ben and the red buses and the taxis, and walked over the Thames and went on the London Eye and soared above London, getting our bearings. As Kenneally says, it’s the strangest city, because of the mixture of old buildings and shiny buildings. It all looks perfectly natural though. Then we went to Regent Street to pick up our London Passes, which give us access to so many attractions for free. We then had lunch and waited for Kenneally at Picadilly Circus. So strange being in these places we had seen in the movies and on TV so much! Kennneally, who we’ve known for years, lives in California now; he and his workmate Caspar were in London on their way to Amsterdam for work, and they met us in Picadilly Circus.
We headed down to Trafalgar Square - K kept saying “Guys, we’re in London!” and it did seem too good to be true. We did the photo thing and then walked down to Buckingham Palace - it was really busy because the Tour of Britain race was ending there that afternoon. We stood there at the gates and photographed the guards and the palace, and then drums started up; we all ran towards the sound, and a magnificent busby-clad band of the Queen’s guards were marching and playing. Perfect, perfect timing.
After that we headed to the Orangery near Kensington Palace for high tea, and then we took the Tube and light rail to Greenwich and hopped on a Sunday evening Thames sightseeing cruise. If you are ever in London I thoroughly recommend this - it only runs on Sunday nights and it was fantastic. The narrator was a real character and sounded just like my grandfather, accent and all, which was nostalgic for me! Seeing the Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge all lit up at night is fantastic.
On Monday we did the Tower of London and Tower Bridge Exhibition. I’ve always wanted to see the Tower and it did not disappoint. Then we went down to Shakespeare’s Globe and did the tour - just wonderful. That evening we went to see the Comedy of Errors at the Globe - we were “groundlings”, standing up aroumd the stage just as people did in Shakespeare’s time. The production was fantastic - possibly the best live Shakespeare I’ve seen.
On Tuesday we all went our separate ways for a while. K and Caspar went to Stonehenge (since it was their last day in the UK), Adam and Lou went to the Tate Modern, and Rohan and I did a mini Rohan-specific tour of London. First we went out to St John’s Wood and photographed the Abbey Road studios. We met another pair of fans there who we managed to converse with in their broken English. They were from Argentina and when they found out we were from Australia they pointed to themselves and us, and the studios, and said “Long way!” Yes, we had all come a long way… After that Rohan and I went to BBC Television Centre, the old one we see on the Goodies and all the other old 70s shows we grew up with. I took a photo of Rohan there. Then we walked down Carnaby Street, which is obviously Tourist Town these days. At lunchtime we met up with Adam and Lou, and Lou’s friend Lucy, and we all went down to Hampton Court Palace, which is just indescribably magnificent. I can’t even begin to tell you. We were there the entire time, and we saw the massive Tudor kitchens and Henry VIII’s apartments and the Georgian apartments, and walked through the astounding grounds and saw the Great Vine which has given fruit for over a hundred years. We were in rooms left just as Henry saw them 500 years ago, hung with tapestries he had bought. The staff were all fabulous and one of them let us out a shortcut to the gardens. After that we staggered home, and were so footsore and weary that none of us could move to go out and farewell K and Caspar. Rohan and I fell asleep at 7 PM and didn’t wake up till after midnight; then we slept again till 6. No dinner, but we didn’t feel the need.
On Wednesday we went to the British Museum. Sadly, most things here don’t open till 10 AM so you miss out on half the morning. We only got to see the Egyptian section, then A&L went to view the Elgin Marbles and Rohan and I went upstairs to the mummies and the Sutton Hoo treasure. After that it was down to the Houses of Parliament for a guided tour. This is apparently something that they don’t always do even in the summer when parliament is not sitting, but they do it at the moment. It was astonishing. The interior of the Palace of Westminster (to give it the correct title) is magnificent, with wonderful decorations in the Royal part (high Tudor-style gilded and painted ceilings). We got to see the Queen’s throne, which is more real gold than I’ll ever see in one place in my lifetime, and we got to walk around the two houses and learn about the system of government. There were a lot of Americans on our tour and I don’t think they quite understood the Westminster system 
The whole place smelled of the oak that it’s panelled with, lovely.
After that we went to Westminster Abbey, which was very crowded and beautiful and also very strange. Strange enough to see the tombs of kings and queens from hundreds of years ago, but stranger still to be walking on top of memorial stones. I am not used to this walking-on-graves thing. Some of the stones are so worn you can no longer read the incriptions. Apart from the assorted royals, we got to see Chaucer’s tomb in Poet’s Corner and a few lesser-known favourites like Aphra Behn.
Wednesday night was The Mousetrap - again something that I have wanted to see since I was quite young, since I’m a big Agatha Christie fan. The play is, of course, the longest-running show of any kind in the world; this is its 54th year. We saw it in St Martin’s Theatre which was the perfect venue, small and red-velvet-seated, and we were even allowed to move to nicer seats than the ones we’d paid for
And that brings me up to today, Thursday. A&L are in Greenwich at the Observatory, but R and I have chosen to buy a few things (I needed some cool pants, all I have are jeans!) and to walk down Oxford Street. At lunchtime we’re all meeting up at St Paul’s to climb to the top, and then we’ll visit the London at War Experience so that I can experience the Blitz and the air raid shelters and all the things my mother and grandmother told me stories about. Then this evening the National Portrait Gallery is open late, and we’ll be going there and I will get to see the famous painting of the Bronte sisters with the tall lump that is brother Branwell, painted out, in the midst of them. Tomorrow we go back to Heathrow to pick up our rental car, and then we’re off to Cornwall.
I have picked up a cold but it’s not interfering with the holiday. I won’t let it! We are also badly in need of what Adam calls “magic foot goo” as we’re all very footsore, but we’re all having so much fun. I will miss London. I could live here. It is so inspiring to walk down the wide worn pavements and see the blue plaques on the buildings, and to see the tiny pubs squished in between other buildings. I think next time we need a fortnight in London - we could be here a month and not see everything there is to see!
