Leaving Santorini was so sad! It was as though the trip was over. Putting the bags on the conveyer belt and through the scanner at Santorini airport after being dropped off by the crazy and reckless hire car lady we felt a little deflated and certainly reminiscent. Manda, occasionally of the "glass half empty" thought, was surprisingly spot on though; we're off to London and another 5 weeks of travel! Hooray for that! Hooray also for American stupidity! A "lovely" American lass left her passport (yes, her passport!!!) at her Santorini hotel and the lady from the hotel picked us as upstanding Aussies at the airport and asked us if we'd meet her in Athens and return it?! I couldn't see any reason not to but for good measure and to get money conscious Mandas on side she gave us 20€ for our trouble!? Score! "Thank y'all so much" to quote the American lass in Athens who looked petrified her passport would never be seen again!
London was perfect; big red double decker busses, red post boxes, and eye catching red telephone boxes (complete with equally eye catching adverts inside!), black taxis, bobbies in tall helmet hats, slow and crowded underground trains and the Oyster Card, Boots the chemist and warm pints with a hearty counter meal (chips here hot as opposed to Turkey where they're served cold 99% of the time)! All experienced within hours of arriving! Rain and gloomy dark cloud, not wanting to be forgotten, also came to the party and has done so each and every day! No wonder they all carry umbrellas and own Wellington boots!
Spent 4 nights (3 days) at the 5 star and centrally located Hotel Jo Woods, which was terrific! It was lovely to see Jo who we haven't really seen since the wedding last year (with the exception of a few days in Paris all those months ago). Despite Jo's busy schedule we managed to squeeze in a West End show; Priscilla Queen of the Desert - jazzed up with sequins, coloured lights, pink feather boas, a ridiculously large silver bus and equally large glittering silver stiletto heel (not sure what it is about large things and this genre of show? Do you know Chris??? Thinking of Rocky Horror Show in particular!). Whilst it was very comical it was also a little touching, not bad for a show about a trio of overtly gay fellas traveling across Aus! Many Aussie jokes missed by British crowd but well appreciated by the 3 of us! Amazing costumes including cockatoos, koalas, bottle brushes, emus and waratahs. Also did an underwhelming and overly expensive meal at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen with Michael and Mel and Jo (Manda and I were at least 30 min late as the train was so slow and then we walked the wrong direction from the station... Talk about embarrassing...). Great to see you Jo!
We also saw Mel and Michael and spent most of our overlapping days with them seeing such sights as Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, parliament, London eye and 4D experience, Westminster Abbey, British museum, topped off with the essential round of warm pints/house wine at the pub! Being people who didn't learn from past embarrassing experiences on the metro system we often ran late for meetings with Mel and Michael leaving us sweaty and red faced!
British museum was my pick of the bunch; not only was it a magnificent building it had a marvelous collection of bits and pieces from all corners of the globe. Not surprisingly we didn't manage to see much of it, however we did see of note the rosetta stone (invaluable key to deciphering hieroglyphics: a decree written in hieroglyphics, demotic and greek), the well preserved carvings from the Parthenon (which are extremely contentious as the Greeks want them back and the Brits are refusing on reasonable(?) grounds) and some amazing egyptian relics, including my personal favourite, a body from 3000 years ago preserved in the desert sand complete with hair and skin! All this and SO much more for FREE! We will return.
West End shows another highlight. As mentioned before we were lucky enough to see Priscilla with Jo and also saw, on our own as Jo was out on a bender (go Jo!!), Jersey Boys (tickets bought in Picadilly Square on the day of the show gets a good discount). Jersey Boys whilst not bad only got a 4 out of 7 Brandy Stars. Good musical score (plenty of toe tapping and thigh slapping) but just lacked a little overall for us. No 'big' things rolled out was perhaps the missing piece?!
London tower and Beef Eater tour was exceptional (beef eaters are the guards who dress most elaborately and live on site - possibly the worlds best job?!); also saw the crown jewels here. Having arrived early (poor navigation on my behalf on the damned tube system saw us arrive later than planned however and didn't I know it!) we had loads of time to have a proper sticky which would be impossible later as it's FULL of people. Ravens (all 8) appeared in good health (and why wouldn't they be given they're the royalty who reside there now!!!) so there doesn't appear to be any concern for the monarchy at present (if they all die, ie none live here, it is rumored the monarchy will fall?!). Phew for that!
Struggling with the pound... Whilst Aussie dollar is strong prices still seem high?! None the less can't complain! It's been terrific to see familiar food on the plate including a favourite of mine the Weetabix and fresh milk! They're 'bix' whilst tasting the same have rounded corners so you can slam 'em down faster and strangely come individually wrapped in plastic?!?! The Brits seem to love over packaging everything! Marmite a reasonable enough experience especially on toast with loads of butter!
Now off to learn about conservation in Eden and see sone of southern England!
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