Happy Birthday to me, 50 years old today!! Don't feel any different but not so happy with the number.
So, no sleep in for us, the alarm went off at 6.30, up, showered, had coffee and the Van packed ready to leave by 8am. We had a last couple of photos with Dafydd and Marian before we said our goodbyes then back on the road heading South.
We had a quick breakfast stop at about 9.00 then straight on to Flamstead where - after much confusion and frustration - we filled the Van with fuel ready to be returned at the depot. The process here was a lot quicker than we thought, and we then got a lift to Harpenden Rail Station. This was the part of our journey we were not looking forward to, but it was not as stressful as our previous experience. We caught a train to Farringdon Station and then by chance discovered the platform that the next train to Paddington left from, so we jumped aboard the next train and arrived at Paddington Station at about 1.00.
Once we were back in familiar surroundings we breathed a sigh of relief. My birthday lunch consisted of sausage roll and lemonade at the station before heading off to the 'Quality Crown Hotel' our accommodation for tonight were we stayed prior to heading off on the road trip.
Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived so we left our luggage and ducked down to the hotel bar for a coffee and cookie - my birthday cake apparently! - before walking back to Paddington Station to collect a couple of gifts we had left until now along with some photo's of our two favourite restaurants.
By the time we returned, our room was ready so we had a couple of hours to relax and catch up on messages before catching a cab to the Lyceum Theatre. We had pre-booked our tickets for The Lion King before leaving Melbourne, so we ducked in and collected them before finding a little Italian Restaurant for my birthday dinner. The two of us squeezed into the corner of this very busy restaurant and enjoyed pasta and chicked followed by dessert and coffee.
It was a lovely way to kill time before heading back to the theatre where we climbed what seemed like thousands of stairs up into 'the Gods'. A good view of the show from there and we even paid one pound to use binoculars (which didn't work very well!). The show was brilliant - stunning, simple but effective staging, the costuming and puppetry was so very believable - overall it was a great show. It was a lovely way to end my 50th birthday.
We jumped into a London Black Cab who drove us back to the hotel via Buckingham Palace where there is obviously going to be somebody important visiting as there were flags flying everywhere on the main drag up to the Palace.
Back up to our room for a cuppa and final check of today's emails before we headed off to bed in readiness for our last day in England.
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