Coastal Walkway

Missie, Dof and I went for a wander along the Coastal Walkway today, just a short one as after climbing over some rocks my ankle was not super happy with me :( Missie was not super impressed with the Wind Wand, but that was not all that surprising cos she does have taste hehe, still she got her photo taken with it just to show she had seen it :) 

London day five pics

Italian Gardens

Hyde Park

Random horse head 

Marble Arch

Fake Platform 9 3/4

The Worlds End Pub

One of the many subway stops

Trafalgar Square

Admiralty Building 

St James's Park

Random old buildings

Big Ben

London Eye

And gotta have the telephone box pic :)

UK adventure summary

Missie has decided that traveling is dangerous, not only am I covered in bruises and cuts but both packs have minor injuries, my iPod charger has a plaster on it where it's insides were showing and most impt (to her) she has been burnt atlst three times by someone (I'm not naming names but am sure she will) carrying a hot drink and wanting to take a photo so puts her and hot drink in same hand... Considering how many times this has been done I think being burnt three times ain't bad at all, really.

We have discussed it and have our fav places in each country, note we are not including Edinburgh as we lived there which is not the same as just visiting, also Europe is excluding the UK cos they have been done separate:
Scotland - Isle of Skye
Ireland & Northern Ireland - Galway
Wales - Caernarfon
England - Brighton
Europe - Luzern, Switzerland

We would def do a trip like the last six and a half weeks again but maybe not from having living somewhere and moving home as we have stuff in our pack that we wouldn't need if just traveling, but it's still been mega fun :) we have met some incredibly awesome people and seen some spectacular scenery along with things like seeing a show in London and ice hockey in Northern Ireland that we wouldn'tve gotten to do otherwise :)

I think the highlight of the trip would have to be exploring castles and ruins along with making some life long friends in Edinburgh :)

London day five

Today was all about Sandy, Missie and I realised last night that she hasn't seen much of the UK and is not really in any photos so we took her sightseeing :)

First off we wandered around Kensington Park for a bit and found the Italian Gardens, this was purely by accident lol. Then we wandered through some of Hyde Park. Next it was off the the random horse head statue and the Marble Arch where we had fun taking photos and didn't care that people were looking at us like I was a lil mad, that's old news lol.

Then we took Sandy on the subway as we headed to Kings Cross Station to see platform 9 3/4, which by the way so not as cool as we had imagined. First it ain't by platform 9 and 10 it's just on a wall, and second there was a massive line of tourists all getting the same pic as professional ppl do the photo taking. So us being proper us we snuck a pic of the trolley and the wall btwn tourists getting their pics taken and then we headed to The Parcel Yard (biggest station pub in UK, or so the sign said inside) which was above the fake platform 9 3/4 and we watched everyone have the exact same pic taken below us hehe.

When we got out of Kings Cross it was raining quite well so we decided to head back to the underground (we have a bit of money we can use on our card hehe), and we stared at the map for ages looking at the names of stops. We finally decided that Camden Town sounded like a place that it wouldn't be raining as bad so we went there. Turns out we were right, it wasn't raining as bad it was just drizzling which was still annoying :( but we wandered for a lil short while and then found the Worlds End which was nice and warm and dry, and as we were at the worlds end it only made sense to have a drink and say cheers to the world hehe. First impressions were a lil skeptical about this place but it was actually pretty cool, awesome music, good vibe etc :) nice place to chill for a bit :)

Then we headed to Charing Cross which turns out takes you to Trafalgar Square, after taking daylight pics around here we wandered in a diff direction to last time and found a cool archway, and also a cool old building (turns out it was Admiralty House), then wandered through St James's Park till we saw some other cool buildings and got distracted. Note by this stage Missie was insisting we were lost but we were just sightseeing. Saw Big Ben through some other buildings and headed that way and found ourselves on Westminister Bridge again :)

We are now just having one last pint in the UK before our long flight home :)

Ps photos are to come as I cannot get my phone to load them :(

London day four

Today was a relatively chilled out day. We first went to the London Eye, we were pretty sure it was gonna be a waste of money but we had nothing else on. When we got there the line was so long we decided we would skip it and just go find Big Ben instead. Such a smart decision, Big Ben is cool :) we then wandered round the Westminister building for a while. 

Last night at the theatre we met a lady who recommended we go to Covent Gardens as it's the one place she always goes when she's in London (she was from Northern Ireland). Turns out it's not a garden, it's a square full of market stalls and high end shops lol and we even ran into our friend from last night :) 

We then made our way back to Soho to explore it in daylight and enjoyed a drink and dessert in a pub then a hot drink in a cafe. 

After this we met up with Eli (from Ireland tour) and we headed out to where Alex (also from Ireland tour) works which is a pub in Wraysbury. Way outta the way but was fun to catch up with him and Eli again :) 

Tomorrow we are not sure what we are gonna do, have seen all of London we want to and will have both packs with us, but I am sure we will find something fun. It's meant to be wet so that's a good sign to be chilled out hehe and we fly back to NZ tomorrow evening where Missie's NZ adventure will begin, she ain't seen much of NZ so we will have to go exploring, and maybe she will be good at tramping like Sus is :) 

London Eye

London Eye and Thames

Big Ben

Covent Gardens

HMS Belfast

The HMS Belfast was a wicked awesome distraction yesterday. We didn't even know it existed let alone that you could go on and explore all how ever many levels there are. There are a bunch below the main deck and some above, yes there is a guidebook I got and fully intended to look at but was more fun running up and down the ladders and sides we figured Brudda would like it :)

I will admit Missie and I got a lil lost at times, esp in the boiler room which is actually below the waterline :) but it turns out that Missie can do every job on the boat so we were never in any danger :) she did love playing with the missiles though, maybe I should be a little worried...

We also chilled in the Admirals Chair for a bit but don't worry, we know we are not admirals cos duh I'm a king and Missie is a queen :) hehe

We spent a good hour and bit just wandering around, am sure if you read all the notices and signs and listened to audio guide it would take a couple hours atlst :) such a fun time :)

Missie helping in the kitchen

Checking to make sure everything is all good 

Just adjusting things 

Full steam ahead

No stopping yet

Seeing if she has any mail

Checking on the sick crew members

So many missiles...

Hanging with the crew

Whoops I somehow got me locked up, prob deserved it hehe

Helping with the mending 

View from on deck 

Chilling in the Admirals chair 

Emergency emergency

Don't worry, Missie is on it 

Passed the test and got a hat :)

London day three

This morning we walked over to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. Honestly we thought it was going to be more spectacular but it was still good even if a lil disappointing. We got there way early, website suggested to get there early for a good spot so we got there even before that lol. It did mean we were right by the fence so could get photos with no fence or heads in them :) most the photos are on my camera so if you wanna see them you'll have to come visit me hehe. 

We then took the subway to London Bridge which was very meh, disappointed bridge!! Not even cool in any way shape or form :( Tower Bridge was next on our list and as it was close we decided to walk there, and along the way got rather distracted by going to the HMS Belfast, it's a boat for those of you who didn't know :) it was so cool, separate post coming for that one as we took so many photos and had such a fun time :) 

We finally got to Tower Bridge and walked over it, sadly it was full of roadworks, boo. We walked around the Tower of London but turns out there is no tower and we weren't interested so didn't pay to go in. 

Then it was off to Piccadilly Circus, which is real cool and very busy, but not an actual circus. We found Liberty (Department Store) which Pravina recommended and had a cool wander round there. We then got lost and found ourselves in Soho, got back on track to have an early dinner at Planet Hollywood (just so we could say we did), then we continued to wander and found the M&M Store, Nickelodeon Store and the Lego Store and then found ourselves in Leicester Square and we checked out the Christmas Market there, we saw a sign for Trafalgar Square and as it was on our wanna see list we headed that way, totally worth going to as well :) The National Gallery is by the square so we checked that out, there are some fantastic and incredible painters out there. 

And as you can't go to London and not see a show, well atlst not in our book, we finished the day by going to see Jersey Boys at the Piccadilly Theatre, man what a busy but great day :) 

Cute as swan that posed for pics in Hyde Park

Arch, think it's Wellingtons one as everything else in this square was his 

Changing of the guards

And the actual real guards lol

HMS Belfast

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge and Tower of London

Random sculpture in Soho

Random something else in somewhere lol

Trafalgar Square (National Gallery is behind the fountain)

Piccadilly Circus Christmas Lights