London Baby!

Verdict on Sail & Rail...not the best way to get to London when you're lugging along rucksacks that contain you're worldly goods for 5 months. No seat reservations = no seats which was a major pain between Crewe & London..not pleasant when you've been up for a long, long time! But..it was a great adventure and that's what this trip is all about :)

When the 3 of us (Lemmie, Loonie and Trish) finally arrived into London Euston we were waaaaay too tired to go treking the streets or tube line to find the hotel, so we got a cab. We're staying at the fab Park Plaza County Hall hotel for our last two nights of luxury before the bus..and I gotta say it's pretty swish. I'm loving their free wifi in the bar in particular! Lots of neon pink and green around the place which is not to my taste normally but it works well here - my only complaints would be the frosted glass, sliding bathroom door and the the lobsided glasses in the bar and the rooms! What's with that? The hotel is just behind London's Eye so is majorly central. We ate around the corner at Ned's Noodle Bar - great noodles (tried the rice variety for a change and they were ace!).

We were up early this morning to meet Lucy (who it transpired was running late) so we wandered off up to Trafalgar Square and got to see the changing of the guards completely by fluke along the way. When we met Lucy the four of us headed off to Tate Modern for a nosey around and grabbed some lunch there. I've never been before so will definitely be going back the next time I'm in London to have a proper look around. I don't know if it's a weekly occurence or not, but there seemed to be some sort of festival on outside with lots of activities for kids, it looked like a lot of fun.

From there we went to Walkabout Ozzie Bar near the Temple underground stop to watch the Heineken Cup Final. We were hoping to meet some of the other OzBUSers there but we didn't recognise anyone so just kicked back and enjoyed some afternoon beers with the rugby game..and what a game it was. Leinster started so well and then things seemed to turn and I was very, very worried. But the better team were indeed victorious on the day and the boys in blue reigned supreme.

Shortly after Lucy ran to get her train, we headed back towards the hotel. Just as we finished up our noodles (yes, for the second night running) Loonie realised that she'd left her shopping bag from Tate Modern in Walkabout...oh the hilarity! So herself and Trish headed back over to try get it back to find that they were charging into the place at that stage. They talked their way in and after much crawling around on the floor they got it back. Great news..but not so good for poor Loonie's feet which were already blistered before walking all the way back over there and back!

We leave at 7am tomorrow morning from Cleopatra's Needle. We've gotta repack the bags :(

For the photos of the adventure so far, take a look here: