London

After a bearable 24 hours curtosy of Etihad we finally arrived in London.
We managed to navigate the train system quite easily and after an hour arrived at our hotel - starving and a little tired (because who can stomach plane food!).
We found an amazing little Thai place right near our hotel and started to plan out our next few days.
After a long hot shower and a little sprucing up we caught the tube to Shoreditch to have a few wines with some friends from Melbourne. We ended up at Sushi Samba which is on the 38th floor of Heron Tower across from the Gherkin.

I perhaps had one too many wines as woke up a touch worse for wear on Sunday morning, but no time for that! We went off for some recovery porridge (for me) and walked all the way from our hotel in Fitzrovia to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. After what felt like a lifetime of stomping and music, we went for a stroll through Hyde Park and ended up at an adorable pub in Kensington (serving Thai food only - of course). As it was a decent day (a rarity I've now discovered for London) we decided to head across town to see the Tower of London. Having just watched The Other Bolyn Girl last week I was able to give Doug a history lesson on all the sights we saw. He however somehow knew more about the diamonds in the Crown Jewels than me! We had tickets to a play on West End that night so hurried home to change then saw A Comedy About A Bank Robbery. Doug told me he had booked a surprise for dinner which turned out to be the Michelin starred restaurant 'Hakkasan' - Chinese, of course. We ended up having dumplings for entree, Doug had Sweet and Sour for main (obviously) and I had Spicy Prawn curry for main which was amazing. For dessert we had a deconstructed coconut and chocolate ice cream thing. 18km later and it was a great first day in London!

Day 2 I woke up VERY sore - my poor legs aren't used to all of that walking. We had planned for shoddy weather but this was on another level. It was a day of misadventures. We went to Camden Market, which was less than ideal in the rain. We went to visit Harrods which was great but I definitely couldn't afford one thing in there! Finally we settled on a pub lunch and struck gold. Rain was pouring, it was freezing but we were inside this quaint little London pub having an AMAZING steak and ale pie, and of course bread and butter pudding for dessert. We decided after lunch that we needed an indoor activity so decided to go see the Winston Churchill War Rooms. We arrived and the line was over a block long standing in the rain! That was enough for us, we turned around and went back to the hotel to warm up, dry off and have a quiet night in.

Our final morning we woke up first thing and pretty much ran to the War Rooms. We got in and spend 1.5hrs exploring the underground bunker that Winston Churchill resided in and held all of his important meetings in during World War II. Doug then said he had planned some thing a little "spooky". We walked past the London Eye (where I was thinking well, heights are scary) and walked straight into "The London Dungeon" which is half history half scary ride. It takes you through all of the underworld "characters" throughout Londons history from Henry VIII, Jack the Ripper and the witch trials. A fun and educational different way to learn about London! Doug then took me to Hamleys and finally our favourite Thai for lunch from our first day.

Off to Paris on the Eurostar now!

- K x