London Weekend
So, arrived in London on Friday morning - early enough to beat the Customs rush at Heathrow, took a train into the city and made it to Kings Cross station before 9.00am. Then got massively lost trying to find the hotel. You'd think a hotel called Holiday Inn Kings Cross/St Pancras would be easy to find from the train station wouldn't you? But somehow I managed to get the directions I was given wrong - twice. But y'know, got there in the end.
Couldn't actually check in until the afternoon though, so I grabbed my laptop and found a café with free wifi, caught up with my email and then caught the Tube in to the West End and wandered around for a bit. All kinda low key coz I think I was a bit jet-lagged. Okay, I know I was jet-lagged coz when I did check-in to the hotel around 3pm, I kicked my shoes off and lay down on the bed for just a few minutes... and woke up around midnight. Tried to go back to sleep and woke again at 3am - and yeah, that was it - I was up for the day. My mornings are still beginning early-ish actually, but getting better. Today was 5am. But enough talk of petty things like jet-lag.
Let's talk about huge Earth-shattering events like visiting toy shops... Cuddles and I were once again in the West End on Saturday morning (and again on Sunday...) and, wandering down Regent Street, thought we'd pop into Hamleys and see if they had the new sonic. More to just compare prices because a few days before I flew out of Sydney I popped into the ABC shop and they'd just got a few in. Y'know what, current exchange rate and all, it's actually cheaper to buy the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver in Australia than it is in the UK. I'm gonna still keep an eye out to see if they have any on special anywhere or anything (yes, once again, I am that geeky) but somehow I doubt it.
Anyways, Hamleys toy shop has been around for 250 years. Yow! Kinda cool.
We then got back on the Underground and headed down to the river. Wandered past the London Eye and decided once again not to go up (queues are even worse in summer, unsurprisingly) and then walked to the Tate Modern gallery. When we were in London last year, we went to the Tate because I'd formed a vague interest in painting by Mark Rothko - but most of them had been shipped off to Japan for an exhibition there. You'd think that after more than a year they'd be back on display, wouldn't you? Not so. Apparently they are back but still in storage. Still, Cuddles took some time to admired some of the sculptures.
Since we were in the area, we checked out what was on at the Globe but Saturday's shows were sold out. It was the premiere of the The Merry Wives of Windsor apparently. So we booked a ticket for Henry IV Part 2 on Sunday and headed off to keep up our pretence of being cultured individuals elsewhere.
So we ended up at the Royal Albert Hall and went to the Proms.
There were two concerts that evening and, still a bit worried about the lingering effects of jetlag, I opted for the earlier one which was an organ recital of Bach's music rather than the later orchestral one. Don't pretend to be in any way learned about classical music, but I still recognised few pieces.
Then wandered down to Covent Garden and looked around the shops. They've now got the biggest Apple store in the world apparently, opened a few weeks ago, and I took advantage of their free wifi. Had dinner in a rather nice Indian place and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday was rather warm and sunny. We went to Covent Garden again (and checked out The Forbidden Planet sci-fi bookshop - yeah, geeky). And hey look, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus in sunshine!
We had afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason
Then we went back down to the riverside to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. We picked up a sandwich and salad from M&S for a picnic dinner, browsed the street markets, read a book in the park outside the Tate, had our picnic and then went to see Henry IV at the Globe.
So, yeah. It was actually a rather nice and relaxed London weekend. I'm now on a train to Newcastle. East Coast rail services also have free wifi. How cool is that?
Couldn't actually check in until the afternoon though, so I grabbed my laptop and found a café with free wifi, caught up with my email and then caught the Tube in to the West End and wandered around for a bit. All kinda low key coz I think I was a bit jet-lagged. Okay, I know I was jet-lagged coz when I did check-in to the hotel around 3pm, I kicked my shoes off and lay down on the bed for just a few minutes... and woke up around midnight. Tried to go back to sleep and woke again at 3am - and yeah, that was it - I was up for the day. My mornings are still beginning early-ish actually, but getting better. Today was 5am. But enough talk of petty things like jet-lag.
Let's talk about huge Earth-shattering events like visiting toy shops... Cuddles and I were once again in the West End on Saturday morning (and again on Sunday...) and, wandering down Regent Street, thought we'd pop into Hamleys and see if they had the new sonic. More to just compare prices because a few days before I flew out of Sydney I popped into the ABC shop and they'd just got a few in. Y'know what, current exchange rate and all, it's actually cheaper to buy the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver in Australia than it is in the UK. I'm gonna still keep an eye out to see if they have any on special anywhere or anything (yes, once again, I am that geeky) but somehow I doubt it.
Anyways, Hamleys toy shop has been around for 250 years. Yow! Kinda cool.
We then got back on the Underground and headed down to the river. Wandered past the London Eye and decided once again not to go up (queues are even worse in summer, unsurprisingly) and then walked to the Tate Modern gallery. When we were in London last year, we went to the Tate because I'd formed a vague interest in painting by Mark Rothko - but most of them had been shipped off to Japan for an exhibition there. You'd think that after more than a year they'd be back on display, wouldn't you? Not so. Apparently they are back but still in storage. Still, Cuddles took some time to admired some of the sculptures.
Since we were in the area, we checked out what was on at the Globe but Saturday's shows were sold out. It was the premiere of the The Merry Wives of Windsor apparently. So we booked a ticket for Henry IV Part 2 on Sunday and headed off to keep up our pretence of being cultured individuals elsewhere.
So we ended up at the Royal Albert Hall and went to the Proms.
There were two concerts that evening and, still a bit worried about the lingering effects of jetlag, I opted for the earlier one which was an organ recital of Bach's music rather than the later orchestral one. Don't pretend to be in any way learned about classical music, but I still recognised few pieces.
Then wandered down to Covent Garden and looked around the shops. They've now got the biggest Apple store in the world apparently, opened a few weeks ago, and I took advantage of their free wifi. Had dinner in a rather nice Indian place and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday was rather warm and sunny. We went to Covent Garden again (and checked out The Forbidden Planet sci-fi bookshop - yeah, geeky). And hey look, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus in sunshine!
We had afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason
Then we went back down to the riverside to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. We picked up a sandwich and salad from M&S for a picnic dinner, browsed the street markets, read a book in the park outside the Tate, had our picnic and then went to see Henry IV at the Globe.
So, yeah. It was actually a rather nice and relaxed London weekend. I'm now on a train to Newcastle. East Coast rail services also have free wifi. How cool is that?