London

Arrived at Heathrow at 5:25am on 30th December. I passed customs without a worry so don’t expect to see me on border patrol anytime soon. We then caught the tube out to Victoria Station and dragged all our luggage in the rain to Jubilee Hotel. As check in wasn’t allowed until the afternoon we dropped off our bags and wandered around. We walked to Buckingham Palace, but didn’t get to meet the Queen (one of my UK must do’s, along with going to Antiques Roadshow). We visited London Bridge and walked past the London Dungeons (looks similar to Dracula’s Theatre Restaurant). We purchased Oyster Cards which you just swipe in and out of the stations instead of buying tickets…you also get a cheaper fare by doing so. Although I was never a fan of Melbourne public transport…the tube is excellent. Trains come about every 5 mins and no matter where you are there is a station within walking distance. Once we got into our rooms we had to battle 3 staircases with our luggage. The room was small (as most places are in London) and the shower…you may as well have showered over the toilet. Breakfast was tea and coffee, yogurt, toast and cereal. We hopped on the tube and went to Oxford Street. Top Shop was 4 levels of shopping….quite overwhelming. Clothing is fairly inexpensive at the likes of Top Shop, H&M and Miss Selfridges. It was quite amusing to see identical things that Sportsgirl sells over here.

Along Oxford Street there was a Christmas Market (a fenced off block filled with mulch). It was mainly food for sale but Chris had ‘the best sausage’ he had ever had.