Day 54 London

Day 54 – London (Dover) – Sunday 8/7/12

Weather – Cloudy, with occasional showers, 14C - 16C

Sunrise – 4.49am

Sunset – 9.09pm

Time difference - minus 9 hours ex Sydney (back an hour last night)

Another Grand Slam city visit today, with the big ticket city of London. We again elected to do our own thing in London, using the Princess transportation there and back. We were out and off by 8.30am for our Sunday morning run into the city.

I was feeling a little sad as we drove through the Kent countryside, thinking of my late mother who came from around here (Deal). I thought of her as a young woman in these parts, and part of me wished that I had gone to Deal to see her home town, and meet family, who I have not met yet. As it would have been a rush job, given the time constraints, we would not have done justice to that, and we have committed to returning here in the very near future, and giving the visit through Deal and surrounds the justice of time it deserves, and hopefully bring Mum's ashes home.

So a lovely drive through the countryside up through to London. The usual drop off point had to be changed due to the London Run being held, and many streets around Victoria Embankment being closed off to traffic. So we were set free near Covent Gardens. It started raining 5 minutes after we got off the bus, as we walked towards The Strand. So on with the ponchos, but they were a bit forlorn after our day trip to Paris yesterday, and we omitted to bring our umbrella with us.

We used the long held traditional way of stopping the rain from falling, we bought umbrellas from a street stall. It worked a treat, the rain stopped before I could unwrap my brolly, and it went straight into the backpack, and did not come out...just what we need, more umbrellas!!!

We got on a Hop On Hop Off Bus at Charing Cross and worked our way around the highlights on the north and eastern sides of the city. Because of all the road closures and diversions, traffic congestion had a big impact on the loop speed of the bus, and we were going at snails pace for a good part of the journey. That worked for us, as it gave us nice slow show of this fine historic city, and we were able to capture all the photos we wanted, because of the slow speed.

We got off at Buckingham Palace, yelled out g'day to Liz, and apologised to her for not calling in for a cuppa, as were were pressed for time. She seemed OK with that as she did not chuck a wobbly at us :) She even got the guards to change shifts for us with a nice little display, so I am glad she was not miffed at us. I think the other 23,000 people who were milling around the gates with us were also appreciative of our visit, as they all clapped when the guards had completed their little show.

We were not able to walk very far down The Mall as it was closed off with the preparations for the Olympics starting next week. So a stroll through St James Park was in order where Donna was thrilled at the squirrels who were not fussed by all the crowd walking through their little part of the world.

We then walked Parliament St and Whitehall to Trafalgar Sq, and then along the Strand. By now we were pretty hungry, and we wanted a feed in a traditional English pub/restaurant. We came across Porters, near Covent Gardens that had very expensive, but extraordinary pies. I had the Steak, Guinness and Mushroom, and Donna had the Steak and Cheddar. They were sooooooo big, and tasty.

Then it was into Covent Gardens for a look at the shops and market stalls. Could not resist the little cupcakes on sale in a cute little shop here, yummy!!!

By now it was time to get back to the bus and return to our floating home. Again, certainly not enough time to see and do what we wanted to do in London, but we have seen enough to want to return. So our return to list is growing with Venice, Istanbul, Dubrovnik, Athens, Rome, Paris, London on the 'absolutely must return' list for an extended land visit.

At 8pm this evening we proceeded out of Dover Harbour, and set a south-easterly heading to cross the south-west bound traffic lane. We then altered course to the north-east, following the traffic separation scheme. At about 9.10pm we passed Sandette West Light Buoy. Once clear of the narrowest and busiest section of the English Channel we altered course to the north passing North Sea oil fields and continuing our passage to Bergen, Norway on Tuesday. Rest Monday at sea coming up.

Sus Sturcke – sorry, cant help you with the restaurant name in Petra. I did not go into Petra unfortunately, and Donna went it with a private tour, who had lunch in a completely different location to the Princess tours.

Kris – looking forward to meeting you in New York, which I think is only 11 days away!!!!

Wayne – Happy 50th Birthday, best wishes from us :)

Claire – I am still looking, although the task just got a whole heap harder today with 800 new folk joining us today !!! :)