Onward to London

Day 13, Thursday 23 August

Rhinefeld House oozes tranquility, sad to leave this magnificent haven deep in the
Rhinefield Forest but London calls. So like Dick Whittington we are off to follow the mileposts to Waterloo Station where we leave our two wheels and take to the streets of London.

Breakfast was in the Amarda room at Rhinefield House.

Drive to London

The drive to London was relatively straight forward except our recalcitrant GPS decided to take a more circuitous route via Heathrow Airport and bringing us into the city from the North-West rather from the South. It was a slow drive into central London as we waved to the crowds outside Buckingham Palace and those just dispersing after the house guard parade. We passed by Westminster and eventually made it to Waterloo Station. By the time we had off loaded the car, we were in no mood to tackle trains so we caught a cab instead. This was indeed a wise move as within a very short time we were delivered close to our accommodation in Covent Garden. The apartment in Neal Street is a very compact and totally satisfactory apartment right in the middle of the action in Covent Garden. After passing our introductory lesson on working appliances, we headed out to collect our London Pass cards and to start exploring London.

Cath tackles the blog from the living area of the apartment in Covent Garden.

London

Our cab driver had made a passing comment about how the crowds were light today. We were flabbergasted to hear this as our impression was that the whole games community were all still milling around London. Somewhat overwhelmed by noise and people, we decided to retreat to the relative peace of the hop-on-hop-off bus. In fact this was a great strategy, as it allowed us to get our bearings in a city that neither of us have visited before and start our strategic planning for our assault on the museums, places or interest etc that London has  to offer, and that we want to comprehensively explore in four days!

Our ‘The Original Tour’ hop-on-hop-off bus took a meandering route through central London and we figured out where lots of place were on the map rather than on the Monopoly board. We passed by Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, St James Park, Hyde Park, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, hotels like – the Savoy, the Grosvenor (with an assortment of Bentleighs, Bugatti Veyrons, Lamborgini's etc), Buckingham Palace (Marm was not in residence; apparently she was taking a short break at Balmoral), The London Eye (ho-hum), Kensington Palace, Westminister Abbey, Marble Arch, Saville Row, The Tower of London, Ebury Row; in fact we covered all of a monopoly board and more, because then there were the people. Lots and lots of people, jostling, clumping, talking, arguing, sticking together in fear of getting lost, and rushing around with familiar ease. But whether they were black, white or anywhere in between there were sooooooo many people.

Dinner tonight was traditional English fish and chips on the patio at the apartment.

Toasting the English fish and chips using a Chilean wine on the roof of the apartment.