Our European Adventure

At some stage we had to decided to extend our stay in London based on the fact that we’d spent a few days in Bristol, we hadn’t been particularly well, the weather had been crap, and we’d slept in too much to get everything done that we wanted to do. So we had a nice relaxing day checking out the Tower of London.

We were looking around King Edward’s chamber when a knight from the past started chatting up Mel! He turned out to be quite knowledgeable about all things medieval and we had fun asking him questions and trying to explain to him the purpose of television. That was great, but the best was when his wife rocked up. She was in a perky mood and felt like teaching us a dance (there were about 20 other tourists watching us, which was just great). So she taught us the steps. We all had to hold hands and walk around to the left, then the right, then something else, la-di-da, then “we all hop around in a circle”. All of us, including her husband, started actually HOPPING ON ONE FOOT (very awkward when you’re carrying a camera around your neck and you’re unco and a fat old bag like me) and she started cracking up laughing and said, “Oh no, I didn’t mean hop on one foot!! No no no… Like THIS….” Which meant not hopping, but SKIPPING – somewhat easier and less embarrassing than hopping, fortunately, since by then a small crowd had gathered and we were all giggling and blushing and puffing with exertion.

We saw the crown jewels (yawn) and got our heads full of history before departing under the big stone gates to walk along the thames and off to that giant circle of tourists in glass boxes, the London Eye.

Heaps of the major parks and gardens around London had special Bonfire Night fireworks displays on, which just happened to coincide with the time we chose to go on the Eye. Brilliant! There we were, looking out over the whole city, while flashes of brightly coloured fireworks shot up from different corners all around us. It was totally cool, although not nearly as cool as our own fireworks on the mound in Bristol. Maybe we should have been passing round a bottle of Baileys?

Have to mention the cute Italian restaurant under the train station where we had dinner. Stone walls, candles, and a slight shaking with every passing train above us. Nice. And the wine was amazing.