God Save the Queen

After another 10 hour bus ride (we are getting very used to long days of travel) we finally reach our last European destination, sunny London. We were only here for five days and if Scotland was a flurry of sightseeing, then London was…well…much more of a flurry. We had a tourist map and we were determined to tick as many boxes off as we could.

Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard (tick), Trafalgar Square (tick), Tower of London (tick), Tower Bridge (tick), London Bridge (tick), the Crown Jewels (tick), Piccadilly Circus (tick), boat tour on the Thames (tick), London Dungeons (tick), open topped bus tour of London (tick), Les Miserable at the West End (tick).

We’re living in a cupboard. The cheapest room we could find was basically a glorified box with a bed. There were no windows, there was no space.

While it may sound as if I’m being a little blasé about it all, it’s because I am. So to paint you a picture……

Two months in Europe, all alike in scenery,

In fair London, where we lay our scene.

……So we’ve been traveling through Europe and we have five days before South East Asia and we hit London. It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s expensive. It’s very expensive. We’re living in a cupboard. The cheapest room we could find was basically a glorified box with a bed. There were no windows, there was no space. If we wanted to watch a bit of TV we had to buy a remote for five pounds a pop. Oh and it only lasted 24 hours. Now I can all hear you thinking that I should just be grateful for being over here and that I should enjoy every moment. Well to you I give a big raspberry and ask you to share my experience by setting up a bed in your toilet!

To be fair, Linda loved London and she should probably be writing this blog entry. The fact remains that she’s not, and I am and that’s something she may live to regret. However for my lovely wife, I will try not to be so cynical, and to be honest there were some real highlights.

For example, just to be able to see all those famous monuments, buildings and places that we’ve heard so much about was a big thrill. The changing of the guards was very impressive with so much pomp and pageantry, right up Princess Linda’s alley. As were the Crown Jewels. I have seen them before and they were just as stunning the second time around.  It’s sobering to think that the GDP of a small country is in a small glass box in front of you.

The biggest highlight by far (apart from the traditional Sunday Roast), was going to the West End to see Les Miserable (thanks Mum & Dad). Linda had been looking forward to this for so long, and I had been looking forward to it for about 15 years longer than that. It was perfect and definitely lived up to all the hype and expectations. I think my favourite thing about the whole experience was that Linda had tears in her eye through the whole musical. In fact, even the next day while listening to a few show stoppers on the mp3 player in the airport, Linda started to tear up again. It was a beautiful thing!

What a great way to spend our last night in London. The next day we headed off to continue our journey into South East Asia. What adventures would we experience there? Only time would tell.

However first we had to get there, which almost didn’t happen. As is our custom we arrived at the airport about six hours early, only to find that our names weren’t actually on the manifest for the flight Bangkok. We did not want to spend another night in the “Easyhotel” Kennel, and so managed to get ourselves on the last remaining seats on a Qantas flight leaving a couple of hours later.

So alls well that ends well and while there was a small pang of sadness at leaving behind the comforts of Europe, we were more than ready to experience what Thailand had to offer.