London Day 2 - Walkabout & Pub with Old Friends

Enjoying Londons spring weather and Pauls sinful hot chocolate
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Slept in late (and reread last blog entry realising that (a) it is too long to be really readable and (b) that we will never be able to keep up that level of detail and still actually enjoy the trip! So shorter more pithy entries from now on!)

We took the tube to South Kensington (the area of London that gets so much of its character from the time when the UK hosted the World Exhibition - V&A Museum etc) mainly because Denise wanted to share a 'find' from one of her previous London trips with me - breakfast at "Paul" - a French confectionary store.  Baguettes and a really thick and decadent hot chocolate!

London in Springtime - Randy Pigeons, Squirrels and Swans!

The famous hot chocolate
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We then headed by tube to Victoria and walked along Grosvenor to another travel store where we exchanged the sleeping bag liners for better models - and picked up an Essential Italian phrasebook.  Strolling past Buckingham Palace, through St James' park and the old War Cabinet rooms was really stunning - I have never been to the UK in Spring before and it is without doubt the best time of year I have visited - swans, pelicans, squirrels and flowers everywhere.  Traffalgar Square, the Millennium footbridge, the London Eye and Big Ben. and then meeting up with Jon at the First Contact Offices just around the corner from the Tottenham Court tube station.

In front of Buckingham Palace
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After a very quick bite at a small Italian eatery we walked over to The Langley pub/club in the West End where we enjoyed a very happy Happy Hour (with Pound jugs of Mai Tai's, nachos and onion rings.  Nice up-market pub with a crowd that grows as the evening progresses.  We had invited all our friends who live in and around London who we were not going to be able to see individually to join us for drinks and it was great to see so many pitch up - Lyndon, Holger, Stuart, Katzi and Francois - it was really good to see you guys again and we hope you will find time to join us this year on some of the parts of our trip (Stuart and Katzie we will see you in Thailand!!!).

In St James Park
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We finished up by 11pm and caught the tube back to Jon's house.