Monday 7th January
After an incredible New Year in Iceland, we have bid farewell to my family to begin our "European Post Uni Gap Year Extravaganza"!
...Well, what a cracking start we had, as today comprised of resting in bed trying to get over the horrible bugs that we'd managed to pick up...woo!
Tuesday 8th January
We started off the day like any day should, with Richmond sausages, before navigating the London transport system to get to Windsor Castle.
Apparently castles can be closed. That was the fun fact that we learnt today. Windsor Castle was unfortunately (and rather hilariously) closed due to renovations. Not to worry, we could see plenty of the castle from beyond the walls and it was absolutely stunning! The architecture was truly remarkable and well, I just love castles!
We had a lovely afternoon wandering around the town of Windsor, with it's cobblestoned streets, and cute shops, all on the doorstep of the castle. We even wandered into a few stores for a little warmth and found some Zoella products, so I of course had to try a bubble bath product! We then made our way across to Eaton to explore the town a little before heading back to Auntie G's.
It was Thai night at Auntie G's and we were treated to a home restaurant experience of spring rolls and prawn entree before a main of phad thai and red curry, followed by (slightly untraditionally) apple pie. Mmmm mmmm.
Wednesday 9th January
We set out today to show Sam the district of Hammersmith. We made our way across via the bus and wandered through the high street before walking down to Granny's old house and a lovely walk along the Thames.
Tonight was our turn for dinner at Auntie G's and we decided to go for Mexican! We experimented (successfully) with homemade guac and tortillas chips (whatever they do to them over here, Australia has got to find out, they're ridiculously good!), followed by fajitas!
Thursday 10th January
Today was AMAZING! We set out early to Leicester Square to see if we could score some tickets to the theatre. We were lucky enough to stumble across a booth and pick up 16 pound standing tickets to Les Miserables! What a bargain! Tickets purchased we wandered through Trafalgar square and saw the giant Lion statues before hopping on a train and then the DLR light rail out to Greenwich.
Greenwich park is gorgeous, the grand, bare, deciduous trees lining the winding paths among large open spaces of perfectly manicured lawns of green make for a spectacular stroll.
We climbed up the hill to stand across the meridian line, but it had been fenced off and they now charge for you to stand on it (cheeky I know)! So we figured on our walk up we had crossed the hemispheres and that was good enough for us! We ate a picnic lunch at the top of Greenwich hill with an amazing view of the park and the city in the background.
We then wandered through the observatory on Greenwich hill and stopped to watch the squirrels on our way back down into Greenwich. From here we caught the train to the O2 arena. It was so bizarre! We were expecting it to be like the stadiums back home, but surrounding the arena was a ring of upmarket shops! Two storeys which included rock climbing, go karting and a trampoline park! The facade also looked like a movie set or like walking through Movie World, really cool (but weird) and totally unexpected.
From the O2 we caught the Emirates cable car across the Thames! It was honestly so much fun, and gave a really cool view of the city.
Leaden Hall market was our next stop for Sam to visit the site of the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron from the first Harry Potter movie.
Now back to Piccadilly Circus to find a Wetherspoons pub for our Thursday Night "Curry Night" deal. Three PACKED Wetherspoons later and fighting for a table we were seated and eating the biggest and best curry for value in all the land!
Les Miserables time! The show was absolutely amazing! The story, the music, the cast, the theatre, the atmosphere. Everything about it was spectacular! And our views from the back were great! There was even a bar to lean on so it was super comfy to stand! (and yes there were plenty of tears from both of us).
Friday 11th January
We made our way with our ridiculously HEAVY packs out of London and back to Uncle Noel's (with lots of stops to redistribute weight along the way) for dinner before being picked up by Auntie Tessa to head out to Suffolk!
wow and congrats on a fabulous blog, a fun and interesting read . It’s wonderful to see you enjoying the awesome UK. XX😊👏🏻