1st May 2019
Ahh, London. What a city. After another long flight from Singapore, we stepped straight out of the airport and onto the London Underground! There I was thinking that I’d ease my way into London but oh no! Hauling our massive suitcases, overweight hand luggage & our backpacks up and down to stairs to get from this platform to that platform, was a sight to see! We most certainly stuck out as tourists!! I must say, the underground is far different from that of Singapore! Let’s just say, Singapore has a much smoother, quieter and cleaner ride than what London does. But hey! I guess that shows the great age of London.
We got off the underground at Earls Court and emerged onto the busy streets of London. It was a sensory overload! Live music playing, the hustle and bustle of people, black taxi’s whizzing by, big red double-decker buses, the smell of the beer & smoke from the old English pub. Ahh London! Yes, we had arrived!
We arrived at Trev & Scott’s beautiful home (our home base for the next two weeks) in Clapham a short Uber ride later. We were welcomed by big smiles, hugs, a delicious dinner and a fab glass of wine! After catching up with everyone (Jess T included!!) we took ourselves off to bed to rest our very tired eyes.
2nd May 2019
We woke very early this morning (thanks to jet lag!). We had a somewhat slow start to the morning and then put on our walking shoes and that’s where the millions of km started! We took the underground to Covent Garden and met Jess where she showed us her workplace! We caught up with Jess for a while & then Morgan and I took off and toured a bit of London by foot. We walked from Covert Garden to Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey & Big Ben, although Big Ben is still covered with scaffolding. It was very surreal to see all of the landmarks. It was something I had always seen “on TV” or had learned about the history of these places but had never actually seen… So to see everything in real life was incredible! The architecture of Westminster Abbey is stunning. I was in awe of it! Knowing it is the traditional place of the Coronation and the burial place of the late Monarchs, and the Royal weddings that had taken place there. It was absolutely beautiful! It goes to show how young NZ is as a nation. Britain is so rich in history.
As we were walking around, I was quite taken back by the high police presence, but then again I also found it very reassuring given the nature of events that had happened on West Minster Bridge a few years ago. There is also a large number of ram barriers on the bridge & surrounding the Houses of Parliament which was a bit of a reminder to keep our wits about us.
After hours of walking, we caught the double-decker bus from West Minster all the way back to Clapham. It was great to see London “from above”, rather than using the underground.. and to be honest, at this stage I had worked out that I am not a very big fan of the underground. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fabulous system but I always have a slightly uneasy feeling sitting in my gut every time we descend down the stairs!
We had a low key night & another beautiful home cooked meal by Trev. We were off to bed early again as we had a big day of traveling the following day!
