Goodbye London, Hello Paris!

Yesterday was our last real day in London. We caught the No 88 bus from Clapham Junction through the Village streets until we had close up views of Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Downing Street, Whitehall and got off at Piccadilly Circus.

We did some last minute London shopping before heading to Victoria station to meet a friend for lunch. We picked up some Pret a Manger takeaway (my favourite of all 'fast food' takeaways, which I wish we had in Australia) and walked to the gardens outside Buckingham Palace, only to have something like a firecracker go off as we approached the palace. Everyone stopped in a silent panic, hoping it wasn't anything sinister. After lunch, we walked through the park admiring the different bird life - geese, swans, pelicans, egrets, a funny looking tan and black duck and all the other birds.

We then went for a train ride to Camden Town to visit the eclectic markets and the famous Camden Lock. 

We then went to our hotel for some chill out time before we ventured back into the city, near the London Eye to the Troia Mediterranean Restaurant and Bar for a lovely dinner with my 'first' boyfriend, who now lives in London. It's always nice to catch up with him, and we're lucky to be catching up three times within three months in three different cities in the world - Melbourne, London and Amsterdam.

Today, we packed up our things and ventured out to King Cross St Pancras train station to catch the Eurostar to Paris. After our long journey by train, we found our hotel in the 20th district. Unfortunately, our room seems to have had a flood in recent times, and the carpets are wet. They can't give us a new room tonight, as all the triple rooms are booked out, but they promised us a new one (and free breakfast in the morning) tomorrow for our last 3 days. They also gave us some air freshener to deal with the musty smell. The staff have been very obliging, which is nice.

We ventured out to get some dinner, and found a small bistro bar on the side of the road which was very Parisienne. The staff were lovely and between our mixture of average English and French we managed to get a traditional French meal.

So tomorrow, we will hit all the big sights and sounds of Paris. Better rest up then!

Madame Tussauds & the London Eye

Fresh from a good night's sleep and converting to London time, we woke up extra early (around 3.30am!) to get the day started... well, maybe it was more like 6.30am that we were restless enough to get out of bed... however, wasn't happy that the sunlight was streaming in through the windows at 5am.

We booked tickets for Madame Tussauds early with a combo purchase of the London Eye, so we ventured out to Baker Street to check out the 'Madame.' The first surprise for the day was Baker Street... had no idea it was the first underground rail station in the world, dating back to 1863. Plus it's the home of Sherlock Holmes, so that was an added extra 'win' for my boys. Luckily we got up early enough to be the second in line for the entrance at 9am and were in the first group of people to take photos of all the 'stars.' We took pics with most - I sat down and had a chat with George Clooney, the boys were contemplating deep and meaningfuls with Will Smith, they rode the bike with ET, asked Einstein what the theory of relativity really means, sat in the Oval Office with Obama, I got a hug from Robbie Williams (or maybe it was me hugging him!), and the boys got punched in the face by Muhammad Ali. After all the picture opportunities, we loved loved loved the Streets of London exhibition where we got to sit in a London taxi and see the history of London unfold. And then there was what the boys were waiting for.... the 4D Marvel Comic experience. Very cool!

We're finding the London Tube amazingly simple, and love how all the train stations have interconnecting lines. Wishing Melbourne had a similar system. From Baker Street, we caught the Jubilee line down to Waterloo to the London Eye.

We walked down to Southbank and found a few more people than just the couple who were in front of us in the Madame Tussauds queue. We thought we had our tickets, but they were just a voucher to go to the Fast Track ticket booth to exchange the tickets to line up in the standard queue... which was just a 50 minute wait. By this time, our feet were already sore and screaming to sit down (I had blisters on my toes from yesterday's walking around). The London Eye was quite spectacular looking at the historic grandeur mixed with modern architecture. The boys loved seeing Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminister Abbey as well as seeing the Royal Guards strutting their stuff at the Barracks.

We grabbed some sushi for lunch before catching the train to Green Park and walking through the park (complete with deck chairs) to Buckingham Palace. We were happy to see some of the Royal Guards in action, including one walking through the gate and smiling at us! That just never happens! We threw a coin each into the Victoria Memorial fountain and made a wish, before walking into Green Park for a little bit of a lie down to rest our weary feet.

We headed back home, with still so many sites to take in. However, we do like our little village of Chiswick we are staying in. It has a warm mix of trendy style and community as well as gorgeous architecture and charm.