I was met on arrival at the Sundowners base in London by my Sydney girlfriend Sue and we hung around for about an hour, lining up collecting letters and luggage, and saying my various goodbyes to all my fellow travellers of the last 80 days. We then booked into the Hotel Trianon in Earls Court (where else would an Aussie backpacker go?!) at a very moderate GBP5 per night B&B for a good room with its own facilities.
That afternoon, we went into Piccadilly Circus to check it out and ended up taking a 90 minute tour of London (75p) on a double decker, giving us the full transport treatment of cab, metro and bus all on the first day. We saw all the main sights of London and got orientated, so it was a really worthwhile trip.
The following afternoon, some sightseeing preceded a photo stop with all the birds in Trafalgar Square. We then hopped up to Oxford Street for some shopping at Marks & Sparks and Carnaby Street, before catching the tube back from Piccadilly. We had dinner that evening with Bob and Julie (who by that stage had an ‘item) at the
Hot Pot, a great meal of minestrone, spag bol and apple crumble, washed down with a wine. We all then went down to Sundowners for a nostalgic viewing of the overland film and the few grogs with the at ‘The Kings Head.
After breakfast next day, we took the tube into Green Park and walked through this and St James Park. We also checked out ‘Buck House and Westminster Abbey etc on the way to Whitehall, where we got to view the Changing of the Queens Life Guard and the Horse Guards. I then took the tube to Moorgate by myself where I met up with my English cousin Peter for lunch, steak and kidney pie with cauliflower and a pint of bitter – good English tucker! Then it was back to meet up with Bob and Sue at Earls Court and then out to Northfields to check out some Kombis for our Europe trip. We werent very impressed with either the quality or the prices, so we decided to leave any further searches until after the weekend.
the onward train to Cambridge (1 hour trip, GBP1.60 fare). We arrived just before midday and had a lunch before taking a canoe trip up the River Cam. After that it was just a relaxed stroll through ‘The Backs of the University Colleges, checking out the punts and the lilywhite sunbathing students as well as the great architecture and gardens. The city itself is not surprisingly very with a predominance of houses. We were very lucky to get a warm cloudless day for our trip. Around we decided to make it up to Ely so we hitched the 16 miles there with a minimum of hassles. We checked out the famous cathedral, which was unfortunately covered in scaffolding, and listened to the choir practice before making it back to London on the 6pm train. From there it was a late Chinese dinner at Earls Court before crashing around 10pm.
First trip next day was down to Buckingham Palace in time to see the end of the Parade of Trooping the Colour. Very colourful with the Horse Guards, Palace Guards, Grenadier Guards, Brass Bands etc as well as a brief glimpse of ‘Maam taking the
salute on her pony, while the rest of the Royal Family gave us the royal wave (not personally!) from the landing in the Palace. We then made our way to Baker Street for Madame Tussauds Waxworks, which was good value as there was a greater variety of celebs than I had imagined. Our evening activity was a trip into Leicester Square for dinner at the Golden Egg – a good value portion of minestrone, ravioli and pancakes. We then took in a midnight showing of ‘Papillon, which was probably a bit disappointing after reading the book. We got out after 2pm and with the lack of taxis we had to walk all the way back to the hotel, a full hours walk but a good view of London at night.
We slept in next morning (well, it was a Sunday!) until 10am, but so too did the cooks so we didnt miss breakfast. It was a late getaway, and we didnt reach Petticoat Lane until midday.