London for a quick stop.

London!  We had a stop here before embarking on the “Chunnel” to Paris with Eurostar.  We have been learning a lot about ourselves on this trip, and one of the stand out things is that we all like being in and around nature.  London was big, busy and bustling, but fun all the same.

We stayed in Kew, Richmond in a B&B. Interesting experience.  It renewed our conviction that self catering apartments are the places for us!  We were on top of each other,  the place was a bit jaded and the mistress of the house was…well, strange.  But Kew was lovely – great village and a brilliant Italian café bar and fantastic restaurants.  Saving grace at the B&B was it had wifi. Yay.

Saw the sights of London, Sasha’s first time there.  Ed caught up with Ben Wiles, a fellow Aussie internet entrepreneur (for want of a better term) who was staying in London for a while, after Thailand. It was great to share info and ideas and hear what he was up to.

Wagamama’s at the Tower of London was a fave spot for eats – a little taste of Subi and we were all hanging out for some decent noodles. (We ate at Wagas in Harrogate and Newcastle too).

A highlight of the London visit was going to Madame Tussaud’s.  We ended up buying tickets from a ticket vendor at the Tower of London for cheaper than they offer at the door and managed to side step the ENORMOUS queues.  We are not that patient – they went for miles!!

Madame Tussaud’s was a lot better than Ed and Lois remembered.  The little London cab ride in the middle was great, we all had a giggle.  We didn’t do the full chamber of horrors – wasn’t recommended for under 12’s, but walking through the bit that was supposedly ok freaked us out enough anyway!

We managed to get a bit of nature into our London visit, as we walked through Hyde Park and the little

squirrels emerged.  Sasha was darting around, feeding a grape to a little squirrel and managing to get quite close.  We had a great time there, very relaxing amongst the hustle and bustle after a bit of shopping in olde London town.

St Pancras station was brilliant (where we got the Eurostar London-Paris).  A very new, state-of-the-art facility. They had done a lovely job of blending functionality with aesthetics, wonderful sculptures on the top level where the Eurostar trains departed.

The ride to Paris was fine.  Unfortunately we had a very annoying girl right behind us who prattled on the whole way to her long suffering boyfriend.  Urrghhh…..

But beautiful Paris was there as the reward at journey’s end…