London here we come …

After an early breakfast (that was all present and correct this time) we packed up and stuffed it all in the car. Yes, you can imagine how much stuff I have accumulated thus far, after 4 weeks in the UK. Try as I might, and I have, there is still plenty of stuff, but it could have been more!

We found the post office in Norwich, posted some more stuff to Robert, cashed some travellers cheques and then Leigh went on a hunt for a modem cable thingy for European phone lines.

Didn’t think much of their shopping mall, the selection of shops wasn’t even interesting, prices were high, and the car park is difficult to get in and out of. I guess I am use to TTP and other suburban places that are generally pretty good and have parking meant for decent sized cars. Here everyone drives a tiny 4 cylinder car and that is what the car parks are designed for. Bugger anything else, so the back end of our car (about the same size as Quin’s car) sticks out into the lane way every time.

Bye bye Norwich. Off to Cambridge we go.

Now this turned out to be one of my bright ideas that wasn’t so great. Cambridge is a university town. It is huge. It is made for cyclists and bikes are lined up against every fence that you see. It is also a nightmare to drive in, has heaps of roadworks, and no signs, especially no signs for tourists. Tourism is obviously not why Cambridge was put on the map. We went for a bit of a drive through that took absolutely ages and got nowhere. We turned around and left again, figuring London had to be a better option.



M11 to London. Easy game. Once in London, we did manage to find our way to our hotel without too many errors, and those we did have were a result of roadworks and oneway streets not going our way. We did spend a lot of time not knowing where we were, with little rays of hope every so often when we recognised a street name on the map. We just kept heading in the general direction and didn’t have nearly as much trouble as we did in Norwich. After unloading the car at the hotel (and receiving a £50 parking fine in front of the hotel) Leigh took it back to the rental place so now we are car-less.

We met up with Jason Issit (from the old iiNet days, he and Kathy are living over here now) in the late afternoon and the three of us ventured off on an ‘Undiscovered Pub Walk’, a guided walking tour in-between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, in the Southwark part of London. Pitty Leigh left the camera in the hotel room!

It was interesting and fun, visiting 3 pubs and lots of historical bits over 2.5 hours. We found out about Christopher Wren’s monument, built for the Great Fire of London in 1666 that was started by the King’s baker (he left his oven on) in Pudding Lane, 202 feet from the monument and the monument is 202 feet tall – funny coincidence that ;)

We walked across London Bridge, checking out the scenery along the Thames. Went to the Market Porter Pub near the markets (previously a traditional type of market and now the sort that is filled with yuppies on Friday and Saturday’s).

Apparently Thursday nite is the usual drinking nite for the financial district of London (ie the part we were in/near) and the weather has turned warm here, so there were people spilling out of pubs everywhere you looked.

Heading towards Tower Bridge we visited the Guy Hospital which has the only intact piece of the original roman pre-1830 London bridge, one of the arch domes from the top. Built by Thomas Guy, a benevolent crooked character, it is a prestigious teaching hospital of Georgian architecture. This is denoted by the 12 pane windows and the arch lighting over the doorways that stem from when candles were used to highlight the door. These building generally also have 3 steps leading up to the door as this was a convenient height for gentleman or lady of the house to climb into transports (lifted and carried by servants) so they could be carried around town.

We also visited the Horseshoe Inn, a traditional pub used only by the locals with a recommended local beer on tap – you’ll have to ask Leigh and Jason about that :)

We visited the Hayes shopping centre and heard that it was previously a dock where over 80% of breakfast consumables (especially tea) entered London. The actual docks have been filled in and are now pedestrian malls.

We finished off the evening at a nice little Italian restaurant at Embankment and caught a taxi back to the hotel from Trafalgar Square.