Saturday 24th: Fly from Melbourne (all the TVs in the departure lounge were showing ads, none the footy), arrive in London Heathrow. The flight to Singapore was uneventful and I was planning a nap during the 3 hour changeover, but a very noisy PA system in Changi airport was blasting bursts of static at everyone. The free internet was good though. During the next flight I was sitting next to a girl from Iceland who was heading home from Australia and between us and her neighbour we had fun discussing what movies to dial up. We taxied forever and were an hour late by the time we disembarked. At immigration everyone wanted to queue with scant regard for personal space. But then - Louisa was there to meet me! It's always so nice to be met when you arrive somewhere, and when the welcoming committee is Louisa, even more so!
I didn't recognise London at first - everyone was wearing T-shirts and I'd only ever been there in Autumn and Winter. Louisa lives in a nice housing estate in Acton (which has 6 stations, compass points etc), with her housemate Tim, a keen rower and a BBC TV producer, who was also generous with suggestions and assistance. I arrived on the evening of the Eurovision Song Contest, and after a stretch of the legs walking around the park next door (it was nice to see women in burkhas kicking footballs around with their kids) I managed to stay awake through the performances before crashing out for a big catch-up sleep.
Sunday: Louisa took me to the wonderful Musical Museum and we explored Kew and Hammersmith, had a cider at the historic Dove pub on the Thames and had dinner at the Red Lion pub in Barnes. The Hammersmith cathedral had cool shadecloth - it was covered in a 'architect schematic' design.
Monday: cousin Leonie's Wedding to Laurent, which was the main reason for my trip. It was pouring! However Anne-Kristine assures me that there is a saying in Italian, "A Wet Bride is a Happy Bride". My mobile phone adjusted the calendar entry for UK time and rescheduled the wedding for 5am! Louisa and I gave ourselves 2 hours to get there and we arrived just in time, and just slightly damp. Father Digby was a real character, and St Patrick's was very grand. We didn't get to take photos outside due to the weather - cousin Elizabeth did a great impression of Mary Poppins with her umbrella.
Then a quick dash to the reception at the Prospect of Whitby, hundreds of years old, and with it's own hangmans' noose. The speeches were fantastic, and it was a great party all round.
Tuesday: I took the Tube in to town (I'm most impressed with the Oyster Card - really easy to use and surprisingly sensible, and I'm a fan of the Tube itself - I never had to wait more than a minute or two for a train) but you don't get much of a view, so I got out and explored on foot, and thus discovered the magnificent Natural History Museum and also the Science Museum. I only had time for a quick look at each but both the buildings and exhibitions were fantastic. From Green Park I strolled through Kensington, along Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, and St James Park. Louisa had recommended the Hunterian Museum which has a selection of medical oddities on display, mostly in specimen jars. Most interesting - but after about half an hour I started to pick up a sense of the suffering of the victims of the disfigurements and not long after I'd had enough. (With all the museums - and the city as a whole - I was quite enjoying crowd-watching as well!) As day turned to evening I crossed to Southbank - I took a river cruise, then attended to another item on my 'must-do' list; last time in London in 1998 I departed on the weekend that the London Eye was being hoisted into position and it was tilted at 45deg, so this time I wanted to ride it. There were three girls who were uni students from Thailand and they must have taken hundreds of photos each of themselves. I have concluded that there are 2 types of holiday photographers; those brought up on digital cameras point and click, and click and click; those who learnt with film cameras spend a minute lining up a shot, then count '1, 2, 3', then pause - then click. Mainly when I am waiting to walk through the scene. As we disembarked the London Eye, everyone was being evacuated for some reason.
It was getting late, though I didn't realise it since the sun was still high in the evening sky. I headed across to a fun Swing Dancing evening at Wild Court in Holburn, and was delighted to bump into Leah from Hobart, who has just moved to London. I can't remember if I actually danced with any Londoners, I kept seeming to meet other travellers.
Wednesday: Too much Time Team has got me a bit interested in archeology and the history of places so I headed to the Museum of London, which is OK but somehow didn't quite grab me. I toured Tower Bridge (magnificent engineering!) and saw two sundials - I have made it a habit to visit the one at Tower Hill plaza each time I'm in London.
I had organised to meet my cousins at the National Portrait Gallery at 3pm, then they posponed until '4pm, we're all meeting at Aldgate East'. Alas, they *meant* 4pm at the Portrait Gallery, then going to Aldgate East afterwards. And they didn't have a phone with them. But I was able to contact another cousin to work out what had happened and with a quick dash by tube back across town to the Portrait Gallery I managed to find them and still have time for a quick squizz at the portraits.
We all headed to Brick Lane for dinner (also another of Louisa's recommendations) and Leonie showed off her haggling skills with the restaurant touts to great effect. After dinner, word arrived that a railway bridge under construction had collapsed (slightly) only a couple of blocks away. Afterwards we went back to Leonie and Laurent's place at Shadwell Basin.
Thursday: Louisa and I explored Borough Market, then Tapas for lunch, then to The Clink Prison Museum (which I thought wasn't authentic enough but otherwise quite good). We then met Leah at the Tate Modern - modern art escapes me slightly, I wonder if I would have appreciated the place more with the power generation machinery still operating. Louisa showed me Gordon's Wine Bar but we didn't stay. We had a quiet night in - I think we were both worn out! Louisa had (against my protests) given up her bedroom for me for the week and sleeping on the couch couldn't have been too comfortable.
Friday: After farewelling Louisa, I got the train to West Hamstead and then Luton. Luton has a lot of budget airlines, so all the travellers seemed to be bucks' parties and football fans. It also had rather annoying security staff. The flight to Paris was an hour late, not that they told us that until they were ready for us to board.
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