London: Part 2

9th May 2019

The weather had really turned. It was a rainy cold miserable day. We decided there was no better day than today to go and explore the Natural History Museum (and it is free so very appealing when you are on a tight budget). We made our way there and got pretty soaked in the process. The Natural History Museum is spectacular! It is done really well. As you walk in the entrance, you are greeted by the skeleton of a blue whale suspending from the ceiling. If that’s not impressive, then I don’t know what is! I thought of my brother, Jonny a lot while I was there. It is totally up his alley!  We could have spent far longer than we did there but our feet were killing us and our tummies were hungry! 

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That evening we met up with Jess! She took us out to dinner at a delicious curry house to celebrate our engagement! We ate soo much food & drank a few bottles of wine! We made our way back to see Jess’s new flat and of course, stopped and bought another (very cheap) bottle of wine. We got the grand tour of Jess’s new pad, met her flatties, then got ourselves comfy on her bed where the 3 of us just lay for the next hour & hung out. We had such a nice time spending some quality time with her! 

At roughly midnight, Morgan and I made our way home via the overground. On the hour-long journey, both of our eyes got very heavy and before we knew it we woke up at the end of the line!! Thank god that was actually our stop otherwise who knows what we would have done! 

10th May 2019

The weather totally did a 180 and we woke up to a stunning, warm day! That suited us very well because we were off to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards! I have wanted to see Buckingham Palace for as long as I can remember so I was eager to get there.  

 We didn’t approach the Palace from The Mall instead, we approached it from the right-hand side. As we came around the corner and into the open ground, I instantly recognized the memorial statue of Queen Victoria that stands tall on the roundabout in front of The Palace. It is huge and quite amazing to see! Then, to the left of me, Buckingham Palace. Wow! Seeing it in real life was a pretty surreal moment. We made our way into the sea of people that were crowded at the front of the gates. It was a full hour long event! It was amazing listening to the sound of the horse’s hooves on the ground as they trot from the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. The guards uniforms are beautiful up close. I couldn’t help but think how hot they must get under it all, yet they stay so composed! Everyone was silent in awe of the whole event. 

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The crowds eventually dispersed after the Changing of the guards and we were able to get to the gate of Buckingham Palace so of course, I spent a bit of time with my camera snapping away at everything I could! We then took a lovely walk through St James Park. It is such a beautiful park with a lovely vibe. Everyone seems to be out getting that little bit of sunshine. 

We had big plans of walking the “Queens Path” all the way down to Tower Bridge but we were exhausted so instead we made our way home for a much needed quiet night in! 

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11th May 2019

Trev & Scott had gone away for the weekend so we were on cat sitting duty. We decided to have a day at home and just blob.. so that’s exactly what we did. We had been on the go since our engagement & our week up in Russell so we were in need of a “blobby day”. 

That evening, Jess has organized a BYO at a Thai restaurant in Clapham. She had invited a few of her friends, Whitney (Woo) & her boyfriend. We also invited the West Harbour crew who relocated to London about a year ago. We had such a great night !! The food was amazing and it was SO great to catch up with everyone. It was fab to see Woo & meet her boyfriend. I hadn’t seen her since Morgan & I were in Zimbabwe in 2015 (Morgan saw her briefly in 2017). Let’s just say, the evening started very civilized and ended for us at about 3 am with Aaron & Reesan trying to help me get Morgs into an Uber home (there was no way I could do that on my own!!). Apparently, the evening didn’t end for the rest of them until very early morning! So yes, everyone spent Sunday rather hungover. Was it worth it? Yeah, definitely.

12th May 2019

Well like I said.. everyone felt worse for wear. I was ok, more tired I’d say. Morgan on the other was feeling a bit sensitive that morning, however, he had to wake up and get himself together because we were off to see Chris and Ted for lunch! By the time we reached East London Morgan felt fine (thank god). Ted picked us up from the train station and took us on a quick drive round Bamp’s old stomping ground. We saw the house he grew up in. we saw where Nan’s sister, Sylvie lived and where my Great Nana, Hannah Margaret lived. That was really awesome to see more family history. 

We pulled up to Ted & Chris’s house and was welcomed by a big hug from Chris! Isn’t it funny that a month or so prior, we had never met Ted & Chris, and it just happens by coincidence that 8 months ago they booked a trip to NZ to surprise Mum! We had a fab few weeks with them in NZ and now here we are, a few weeks later, back in London together. We finally met Richard, Carly & their wee girl Livy and Hannah & Paul with their little bub on the way! I have spoken to Hannah for years via social media so it was great to actually give her a hug and chat in person. We had a beautiful roast dinner with everyone and again, ate ourselves stupid! Morgan was certainly back to 100% as he got into Ted’s keg of beer at his bar! We had a great evening with the Harvey’s eating, chatting and getting to know the rest of the gang. We are looking forward to seeing them again in October when we arrive back to London.

13th May 2019

Monday was the admin day. We had a lovely and much-needed sleep in and then hit the local shops (good old Primark & H&M) to get last minute bits and bobs before we pick up our van on Wednesday. 

That evening we made our way back to the West Harbour Crew’s house to watch episode 5 of GoT! Luckily for us Aaron, Caitlin, Awhina & Luke are all just as invested in GoT as us so they invited us over for dinner, snacks and GoT night. As you’ve probably noticed by now, GoT seems to have its own section in this blog each week. It has been highly important over the last few weeks to find where / how the heck we were going to keep up to date! So far, so good. Anyway, they introduced us to some seriously good (and seriously dangerous) snacks and chocolates that the UK has. Those Hippo chocolates have even come away to Europe with us! We all sat on the couch, eating far too many snacks while watching the “game changer”episode of GoT. 

14th May 2019

We finally made it to the Tower of London and it exceeded my expectations! Located right on the Thames river and alongside Tower Bridge, it truly is a postcard snap of London. 

We arrived somewhat early and I am glad we did. The crowds were slowly starting to gather and ques were getting long. Bronwyn had told us as soon as you get in, head straight to the Crown Jewels. So that’s is exactly what we did! I half expected it to still be crowded but to my surprise, Morgan and I were basically the only people in there!!! How amazing is that!? We took our time wandering through and hopped on the escalator that takes you past the Crown Jewels. Seeing them once wasn’t enough for us so we hopped on the escalator multiple times! We saw them from almost every angle you can imagine. They are so extravagant and incredibly stunning. The Crown Jewels were definitely the highlight of our day! Thank you so much, Bron! It was awesome to tick that off the bucket list.  We later spoke to the Yeomen Warders (Beefeaters) who are the ceremonial guards of the Tower of London who told us that if we had visited 2 weeks prior, the line to see the Crown jewels was 3 hours!! 

We had a tour of the Tower of London by the Beefeaters and which I would highly recommend! They provided a great overview of the history of the Tower of London and of course .. they love to throw in a few dad jokes. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the grounds before heading off to grab pizza by the Tower Bridge. 

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That evening, we met Jess in the SoHo district and had a delicious drink at a very trendy underground bar. The price of the cocktails was on the “trendy” side of the market too, so we slowly sipped our cocktails to make the experience last. Afterward, Jess has organized a beautiful dinner at a rooftop Japanese restaurant called Sushi Samba, overlooking Covent Garden Square.  We had a lovely meal and a great evening with Jess. We said our good-byes and made our way back to Clapham. We can’t wait to see Jess when she comes to jump in the van with us through the Algarve in Portugal!

Next stop, Europe.