We made it back to London, it was a miracle that we made it considering the queue at the Keflavik airport in Iceland.

The flight was very easy and we had fast track passes to skip the lines at security in Gatwick.

The wonderful Mr Gavin was coming to collect us AGAIN. We have to be his worst visitors ever.

He had kindly brought our other luggage with him and was taking us to our hotel in East London. That was about an hours drive, if luck and traffic was with us.

Luck and traffic was pretty good until we got to the Blackwell tunnel, then we got to experience some true London traffic. Thank goodness it did not last too long and we made it to our hotel a little after 300pm.

SHOUT OUT! Thanks again to the Honey family for taking such great care of us in London, I don’t know what we would have done without you. And thanks to Sir Carter for the bedroom and entertaining conversations.

London and the Gang

London had put on an amazing day to welcome us back.

We got settled into the Ibis Docklands, kind of a strange place. No reception. You take a seat and someone comes and checks you in with their mobile devices. It feels weird when you want to ask questions, get a map, etc.

Our room was quite tiny, but had what you needed. The bathroom was like an afterthought, Jason likens it to a camping shower. A dome that had been installed afterwards, quite unusual.

We unpacked and got a quick lay of the land before heading over to find Hui, Stacey, Akira, and Kailani! We had to sort out the bus route and, with the guidance of Hui and Google Maps, we made it to Mile End, East London and to meet up with the family.

Akira had a music recital so we found Hui in the most unexpected of places – church. I was relieved to see they were drinking wine and hanging out, phew!

After the kids were herded together we went back to the house. Hui had been cooking and we were very excited. I had been telling Jason about Hui’s cooking since the beginning of our trip, so he was very wound up. Plus I had not really fed him, oops.

After three helpings of beef rendang we moved onto the chicken and pork. Oh, my, good, GOD I was not exaggerating. The food was amazing.

It was fantastic to catch up with the family. I had not seen them for about 7 years and Kailani was a new addition. Such great kids!

At around 830 we waddled to the bus and headed back to the hotel.

We fell into a food coma and slept really well.

18^th June – Getting Reacquainted with London

Time to do some site seeing in London, though we had been using Greater London as a base the previous two weeks we had not had the time to venture into the centre. Now was that time.

Google maps and an Oyster card in hand, off we went! Straight into the heart of Westminster and the type of chaos that comes with so many tourists and security lumped together.

There were armed police everywhere, understandable with the ongoing events, there are constant sirens, helicopters overhead, beeping, cars whizzing past. You always knew to look around you and were in a constant state of awareness.

As we were walking around Westminster Abbey we started to hear the sound of bag pipes. So we decided to follow and see what it was all about. There was a parade of mostly elderly men marching around a memorial. They were led by officers on horseback and followed by bagpipers.

We spoke to the local police who told us it was an Irish unit laying a wreath to honour fallen comrades.

Very cool to stumble across things like this.

We walked on towards Big Ben, around Westminster, before setting across the river to Southbank and walking towards Tower Bridge. We wanted to see as much of the town as we could. And London had put on another stunning day for us to do it.

Jason loves the heat, that’s a lie actually, he hates it and really struggles to cope. I can tell you it was a damn hot day. Around 32 degrees, not a lot of breeze,

But he did really well, we walked for hours and hours, then we found a pub. Time to stop for a drink. It turned out we stopped at the The Anchor, apparently one of the oldest pubs in London and was used as a dressing room by players at the Globe Theatre – back in the day.

The drink was lovely and refreshing. It charged us up to continue our walk. Onwards to the bridge.

We did the Tower Bridge tour, you take the lift to the top and there are walkways across the bridge. There are glass panels throughout the walkways that let you look down on the road below. I love that feeling. Plus, once you have stood on the glass panels at Chamonix, everything else is quite low.

It was getting late in the afternoon and we had a date with Roberts clan and the ever lovely, always entertaining Michelle Downey.

We jumped back on the buses, went to the hotel and cleaned up, before heading to the park to meet up.

At Victoria Park, back in Mile End, there was a free concert where up and coming entertainers get to perform and try out their material. It was pretty damn cool!

We spent a couple of hours lying around and catching up. It was so lovely to catch up with Michelle who I had not seen in around 10 years. She has not changed a bit.

When the concert was over we headed back to the leftover Rendang for round 2.

Another lovely evening spent with Hui, Stacey, and the girls. It is a shame they are so far away from us.

Back on the buses, which we have mastered BTW, and home for another good nights sleep.

More site seeing tomorrow and the weather is expected to be hot, hot, hot.

19^th June – The Melting Pot of London (literally)

Our last full day in London, time to make the most of this town. As expected the weather was stunning, perfectly blue sky and not a cloud, quite unusual for London – or so we are told.

So we had to dig out the clothes we had not used since our Mediterranean cruise. I was loving it, Jason was not as impressed.

We were back on the tube, we are masters at it now, and into the centre!

We were going to experience the London Eye. It stands at 135 metres high and takes 30 minutes to do a full rotation which averages out at 1 pound per minute – Jason thought it was worth it just for the air conditioning. On a day like we had, the views went forever.

Next on the list was The Monument that is the name, The Monument. So we walked over towards it, a good couple of kilometres away. It was getting close to lunch time so we stopped at the Greene King for lunch and a couple of drinks before climbing the 311 steps to the top.

Probably would have been wiser to have the burger, fries, and wine after the walk – hindsight is a great thing.

Anyway, The Monument is dedicated to those that died in the great fire of London.

It is 62 metres tall and 62 metres from the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666. That is not a coincidence by the way. Its height marks its distance from the site of the shop of Thomas Farriner (or Farynor), the king’s baker, where the Great Fire began – bet he felt stink.

The Tower of London was only 2 kilometres away so on we went. We walked on the Thames Path wherever possible, it is pretty, less noisy, and if theres any breeze you will find it there.

We made it to the Tower and hooked onto one of the beefeater guided tours. Those guys are very funny and knowledgable. It was a great way to get some insight and history. Lots of photos too. I am not sure if people were taking their kids out of school early but there were an awful lot of tourists!

Cruising the River Themes. My planning got a little up the shite. I had us booked om a river cruise, you have to do it when you are in London, but the timing didn’t quite work out so we ended up doing a lot more walking than we had anticipated. The 3.5kms back to where we were on the London Eye only four hours before.

A hot, fast walk back, as we did not know if they would let us take the next tour since we missed the one we were booked on. We arrived, hot and sticky, and stood in the queue to find out the fate of our cruise.

Warning Tangent: I am not going to miss queues. Queues at the airport, queues at the bus, queues for security, queues for shows, queues for food, queues, queues, queues. Sometimes you don’t even know why there are queues, there just are! All that time waiting, and waiting some more. I am glad we have not kept a tally of how much time we have waited in queues, it would just be depressing.

Back to the sightseeing. Eventually we got to the front of the queue and the lovely young man behind the counter changed our tickets and didn’t even charge us the 10 pound to do so. YAY, made our day, just a little act of kindness goes a long way.

The river cruise was good fun with a very entertaining young man doing the commentary. Of course there were Australian’s on the tour and they found Jason – there is no escape antipodeans are everywhere.

It was so hot I even drank a beer, though apparently Budweiser isn’t actually beer – something about it being closer to puddle water. But at 32 degrees and high humidity it tasted really good, and I nearly finished it (Jason benefited from the leftovers).

The other awesome thing about being on the cruise was sitting down, in the shade, and just chilling. We had such a busy day so far we needed to rest our legs. So far we had clocked up 12kms.

But, we weren’t done yet!

Michelle, god bless her, had told me about a shoe shop. One I had not heard of before. Needless to say, I had to go there. It was not that far, around 1 kilometre, so off we went. It was in Covent Garden, a very pretty area and still not too busy with people. Michelle was right, the shoes were amazing the only problem is narrowing down your choice. Jason waiting patiently, as always, and a selection was made.

The last thing on our sightseeing hit list was to see the big streets. Oxford, Bond, Regent, etc. Jason wanted an appreciation of how busy it is and how many people squeeze into this area.

Not my idea of fun, but what the hell. When in London, do as the Londoners do!

And it was crazy! Wave upon wave of people. It was nearing 530pm so people were pouring out of work and into the streets. Tourists were everywhere and it was hot.

I have to say he coped well. I thought he would have lost the plot but he was really interested in walking along the monopoly board so we kept going.

Around 630pm we threw in the towel, plus we had dinner plans with Hui and Stacey, grown up time!

The tube stations on Bond Street had queues of people standing outside to get in. There had been an incident and so they were closed. We opted to keep walking and find one that was a little friendlier.

Which turned out to be quite easy. All you had to do was walk a few blocks and the queues were gone. Onto the tube (I wish they would air condition the damn thing) and back to the hotel. Shower, refreshment, poor feet, stinky clothes, suitcases to pack, and off to dinner.

This time we were not eating at the Roberts kitchen extraordinaire but going out for dinner at Canary Wharf. It was not far away but we opted for uber (our feet were thankful).

Hui and Stacey came to meet us and we went to a really nice Mexican restaurant. The food was lovely, the wine was cold (so was the beer apparently), the service was ok, and we got full! Really full.

It was the perfect way to finish our wonderful time in London. With friends.

SHOUT OUT to Hui for her amazing cooking and to the Roberts family as a whole for their fabulous hospitality.

Jason wanted to get a real English black cab back to the hotel. So we flagged one down and said goodbye to our friends.

The cabby was lovely and when he saw how excited Jason was, he offered to let him drive it. This was politely declined as we had been drinking. What a hoot!

Finalise the packing. An early start in the morning – for a change.

Time to rest the weary legs.

Farewell London and Friends – 20^th June

Tomorrow we head to New York! So very exciting as I love New York. But very sad as we are nearing the end of our wonderful adventure.

We experienced the usual level of service from Lufthansa – don’t fly with them. But our departure was pretty hiccup free.