After a good nights sleep, we woke at about 8am and we headed down for our last breakfast here in our Hotel in London. Tummies full after yogurt and toast, we headed back up to our room to pack our cases for the last time before heading down to the foyer to check out. We left our luggage at the Hotel then headed to Paddington Station to get our daily travel card then set about finding the bus that would take us to The Tower of London. After much frustration of not knowing where the bus would leave from, we asked a bus driver who told us "take a 23 bus to Trafalgar Square followed by a 15 bus to The Tower". So on board a 23 we got which ended up detouring round so many streets we had no idea where we were till suddenly we were at Trafalgar Square! Off we jumped and decided to do a quick photo stop as the only times we had been here was on a bus passing through. This only took about 10minutes then we found a 15 bus which took us on the next leg of our journey.
This trip took about 3 times longer than it should have due to a massive crane doing some repair work to a building along one of the streets. So what should have been a half hour journey took us 2 hours! We were exhausted before we began our visit to the Tower of London. We decided to have a bit of lunch before going any further so we found a restaurant where we had a Latte each along with an omelette for Michael and toasted sandwich for me.
This trip took about 3 times longer than it should have due to a massive crane doing some repair work to a building along one of the streets. So what should have been a half hour journey took us 2 hours! We were exhausted before we began our visit to the Tower of London. We decided to have a bit of lunch before going any further so we found a restaurant where we had a Latte each along with an omelette for Michael and toasted sandwich for me.
We both felt quite a bit better once we had re-fueled so we got our tickets and headed into the Historic site of Tower of London. In the 1070's William the Conqueror began to build a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. England had never seen anything like it before. He intended his mighty 'White Tower' to not only dominate the skyline but also the hearts an minds of the Londoners.
There were so many things to see here however the main attraction I wanted to see were the Crown Jewels, so we headed up towards the building where they were housed, and found ourselves facing a massive queue! Uninspired to wait, we ducked into Jewel Store and looked around before speaking to one of the staff who recommended it was definitely worth the wait, so back up we went to join the queue! 30 minutes later we did get to wander through and saw some pretty amazing crown jewels.
There were so many things to see here however the main attraction I wanted to see were the Crown Jewels, so we headed up towards the building where they were housed, and found ourselves facing a massive queue! Uninspired to wait, we ducked into Jewel Store and looked around before speaking to one of the staff who recommended it was definitely worth the wait, so back up we went to join the queue! 30 minutes later we did get to wander through and saw some pretty amazing crown jewels.
Once we finished wandering through the Crown Jewels display we decided to exit the palace as we still had to fight the traffic and get back to the Hotel, so off we headed - however this time we tried the train. It ended up being a much better option and about 45 minutes later we were back in the Hotel, sitting relaxing with a Latte and biding our time until our taxi was due at 5.30 to take us to Heathrow Airport.
The taxi arrived early and we were at the airport by about 6pm where we checked our luggage in, re-arranged the weight in our hand luggage, organised our VAT returns, then made our way to security. This time I was the one to receive the frisk as my boots alarmed as I went through the security check! Then I got pulled over to have my back pack swabbed whilst Michael sailed through. We had about 3 hours to kill, so between the two of us we found seats and either sat waiting or prowled around the shops stretching our legs.
The two flights home were on the A380 which we had both been looking forward to. We boarded the plane and were off just after 10pm so we settled in for the long flight ahead of us with food being served not long after take off and then we both managed to snooze on and off throughout the flight. We ended up losing most of the day as it was 6.30pm in Singpore when we landed and also quite humid which was vastly different from London. We both removed outer layers of clothing as soon as we could before finding a place to sit were we had a cold iced coffee.
I quickly grabbed the last small souvenir that I had forgotten before heading back to the transfer lounge to wait to board the next and last leg of our holiday - our flight back to Melbourne. This was boarding at 8.15pm for a departure of 9.30pm. We were seated on the upper deck for this flight and there appeared to be slightly more room up there which was great. This flight was only 6 and a half hours and again, more food, a little more shut eye before we landed into Melbourne at approximately 7am.
We proceeded through the various customs, security and baggage collection points reasonably smoothly before we organised a lift back to the long term parking to collect my car. On the way home we picked up Michaels car and then before we knew it we had arrived back home where our journey had began just five short weeks ago. As I unpacked and sorted our souvenir and gifts Milo (who I think had missed us both) gave me a helping hand to ensure that I sorted it all correctly!
This has been an amazing journey, we have seen so many things that we never imagined we would, we both turned 50 as well as celebrating our 3rd Wedding Anniversary! It almost seems a life time ago that we left, but we crammed so much into the time we were away. We have so many memories to treasure and will never forget our 2012 European/UK adventure. Thank you for sharing this journey with us, it was a diary I had always planned to write and will now work on transforming it into photo books so we can have the memories at hand!
Alison and Michael - FiftybyTwo xxx
The taxi arrived early and we were at the airport by about 6pm where we checked our luggage in, re-arranged the weight in our hand luggage, organised our VAT returns, then made our way to security. This time I was the one to receive the frisk as my boots alarmed as I went through the security check! Then I got pulled over to have my back pack swabbed whilst Michael sailed through. We had about 3 hours to kill, so between the two of us we found seats and either sat waiting or prowled around the shops stretching our legs.
The two flights home were on the A380 which we had both been looking forward to. We boarded the plane and were off just after 10pm so we settled in for the long flight ahead of us with food being served not long after take off and then we both managed to snooze on and off throughout the flight. We ended up losing most of the day as it was 6.30pm in Singpore when we landed and also quite humid which was vastly different from London. We both removed outer layers of clothing as soon as we could before finding a place to sit were we had a cold iced coffee.
I quickly grabbed the last small souvenir that I had forgotten before heading back to the transfer lounge to wait to board the next and last leg of our holiday - our flight back to Melbourne. This was boarding at 8.15pm for a departure of 9.30pm. We were seated on the upper deck for this flight and there appeared to be slightly more room up there which was great. This flight was only 6 and a half hours and again, more food, a little more shut eye before we landed into Melbourne at approximately 7am.
We proceeded through the various customs, security and baggage collection points reasonably smoothly before we organised a lift back to the long term parking to collect my car. On the way home we picked up Michaels car and then before we knew it we had arrived back home where our journey had began just five short weeks ago. As I unpacked and sorted our souvenir and gifts Milo (who I think had missed us both) gave me a helping hand to ensure that I sorted it all correctly!
This has been an amazing journey, we have seen so many things that we never imagined we would, we both turned 50 as well as celebrating our 3rd Wedding Anniversary! It almost seems a life time ago that we left, but we crammed so much into the time we were away. We have so many memories to treasure and will never forget our 2012 European/UK adventure. Thank you for sharing this journey with us, it was a diary I had always planned to write and will now work on transforming it into photo books so we can have the memories at hand!
Alison and Michael - FiftybyTwo xxx
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