BUSY BUSY LONDON

WEATHER:  Tops 25C – Lows 18C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  The London Eye

BUMMER OF THE DAY: No WI-Fi at the hotel – it’s broken L

BUYS OF THE DAY:  New pair of sunnies ( the 3^rd for the trip ) 13GBP

WORD OF THE DAY: - Sunny

I am not sure if I am just lucky, or there are a bunch of people who complain about the weather in London.  The last time I was here in August of 2008, we hit a sunny spell.  The people were shirtless and half naked basking in the sun in Hyde Park.  Well the same has happened again.  We got tops of 25C today and the streets of London were buzzing.  There were so many people about it was on the verge of too many.  No-one walks in a straight line, people don’t watch where they are walking, there are children who are not old enough to know the etiquette and then there are the teenagers who do and just don’t care.  It drives me nuts, and this is why I try to stay out of mainland Europe during summer, as I can imagine it is a lot like this, or I shudder to think even worse?  I am sure part of the ‘busy-ness’ is due to Easter this week-end and then the ROYAL WEDDING next week-end which Chelsey and I fly in on the BIG day, but not till 7pm that night, so we do miss all the action. 

I have stocked up on a few Wills and Kate souvenirs though.  You just never know they may be worth something down the track right?  Needless to say the WEDDING is a BIG deal here and the preparations are at a peak.  There have been some road closures already, so they can sweep the Royal Route for the next week for security purposes and flags and decorations have also gone up along this route as well.  The place does feel and look very festive and they are expecting 600 thousand to 1 million people to be in London on the day!  I think I am glad that I won’t be here for the whole day!  There are people who have already started to camp out on the route in tents!!  They have been moved on twice apparently, but they just keep on coming back and haven’t moved the 4 days I have been here.  Now that is keen!!!

I had the morning free before having a Rock N Roll tour in the afternoon and the London Eye in the evening.  So I walked for 2 hours around London from Lambeth North to Piccadilly Circus where I had lunch and then proceeded to Trafalgar Square to pick up my tour.  The tour was a 3 hour driving tour of the Rock N Roll history of London.  The guy was awesome and looked like he stepped out of the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.  But the history and bands were a little before my era, but interesting all the same.  He showed us places like where Jimmy Page used to live, where Cream recorded their first album, where the Sex Pistols first met, Led Zeppelin and a whole bunch of other people I hadn’t even heard of!  The highlight of the tour was a visit to Abbey Road for the Beatle lovers where we got to get out and re-create the famous album cover of the guys walking across the crossing out the front of Abbey Studios.  You can write on the fence of the studio, leave your mark so to speak, but it only stays there for 6 weeks and then they white wash the walls and the graffiti starts all over again.  It had only been done that week, so my message will stay for at least 6 weeks!

After tubing it back to the hotel to freshen up, I was off again for my 8 o’clock date with the London Eye.  I have always wanted to get onto the Eye, but either been time poor, or by the time you get here and have had a massive day, you just can’t be bothered.  This ticket was a birthday present from the Ashgrove team, so it was pre-booked before I left Australia, and I have to stress it is the ONLY way to go.  We paid an additional 8GBP for me to go on the champagne flight, whereas the title suggests, you get a glass of champagne, but it also gets you priority check-in at a counter that had no-one in line and a complimentary ‘Eye Guide’ that points out all the major landmarks as you circle around.  To give you an idea on the ‘plebs’ line.  No exaggeration, I rekon there would have been 150 people in line for the general admission tickets and it was busy.  I got there around 7pm and this is the queue, can you imagine on a beautiful day like it was how many people would have been there at lunch time for example.  Pay the additional money; it is so worth it, to not have to line up with the hundreds.

I chose a later time slot, as I was hoping to either get sunset or some photos with London lit up, and I tell you the 8pm flight was the right one to pick.  I got some awesome photos of London at dusk, and the city looked truly amazing!  With a champagne glass in hand and a top up offered later on, I can tell you the London Eye experience is definitely worth doing and definitely worth pre-booking and paying the extra to get the champagne.  What a top way to end a top day.  I also managed to get some-one after the 2^nd person to get a Bernstar jump on the London Eye in our capsule.  It took them 5 attempts to get the shot, but they were quite adamant that they were going to get the shot for me.  It was really sweet.

Back to the hotel, after grabbing a hotdog from Mr. Whippy for dinner, to get packed and ready for plane travel again tomorrow.  My flight is at 9am – so hotel pick-up at 5am!  My bag was strewn all over my room, so I had a BIG job ahead of me and finally finished packing at 11pm.  I think the packing process is getting easier.  It all seems to have settled down a little and it easier to zip up.  I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  Good thing is I am getting better; the bad thing is maybe I have left stuff places so this is why it is easier!  Well besides the jewelry I left in Beijing and my padlocks and keys I left in Mongolia – I haven’t left anything else – well that I know of anyway!!!

Goodnight London – I will be back in 2 weeks, and then in July and then also in November.