The beginning of the European leg of our holiday got off to an exhausting start with a marathon three flight journey to London. Since we arrived at 6 am, we had to fight sleep for the entire day, so that jet lag didn’t get the better of us. The fight was greatly assisted by the fact that Jane was having a “work” from home day, so we checked into our Wimbledon B&B and went over to see her, had lunch at the pub (really yummy veggie burgers), hunted for Wombles in the Wimbledon Common (didn’t see any) and then rejoined Jane, Neil and Anne (Jane’s mum) for dinner and drinks. We were very proud of the fact we stayed awake for the whole day, taking our awake time to 48 hours. Needless to say, we slept like logs for the first night – take that jet lag!
The next day we decided we needed to keep active and as Jane had a secret wedding dress fitting, we took off on our own to see the Tower of London and the Natural History Museum. We loved the Beefeater tour (recommend getting on the first one of the day) and the Crown Jewels were amazing – we did the circuit passed them numerous times, to get a really good look at the Star of Africa diamond (the largest cut diamond in the world), in particular. We wondered whether Kate Middleton had gazed with similar awe at the jewels as a little girl and had ever imagined that she would wear them one day!! The NHM had two major highlights – the building itself is amazing, with such intricate detail of plant and animal themes on all the columns, walls, ceiling and floors, both inside and out (see photos on flikr). The other was the statue of Charles Darwin presiding over the great hall (and his dinosaur friend). The exhibitions were, of course, excellent.
Day 3 in London started early, as we both woke up before 5 am ravenously hungry (jet lag rears its ugly head). Breakfast at the B&B wasn’t until 8 o’clock, but luckily we had a chocolate fudge brownie that we had bought the day before, but not eaten. So at 6 am we were sitting in bed, eating a brownie, drinking tea and watching the BBC – jet lag conquered!! The day then proceeded with a London walking tour with Jane and Anne – through Camden market and around the major parks. It was a lovely day (and hot), so an evening BBQ at Jane’s was just the perfect end to a fantastic day. This was also when we convinced Chris (Jane’s brother) that he wasn’t feeling well enough to go to work the next day, but instead needed a medicinal trip to the tennis to see the Wimbledon round of 16 matches!!
Our trip to the tennis was a fantastic day! It started early with at 5:30 am Chris pick up and then we joined The Queue (they really do capitalise it – see the photos for proof). Wimbledon is one of the only major sporting events in the world where you can still get tickets on the day, but you need to be committed. We arrived in The Queue at 5:50 am and were numbers 2627 – 2629. Although we queued for nearly 4 hours to get in, it was a fun experience. The tennis was great. We saw Bernard Tomic in his successful round of 16 match (and then saw a dejected Xavier Malisse catching the Eurostar the next day), some great doubles matches and Novak Jokovich (on the big screen). The whole experience was topped off with delicious strawberries and Pimms, which we got free from HSBC (thanks for banking with them Chris!!).
The next day we took off to France on the Eurostar – these adventures are to come in Part 2, but check out our London adventure photos on flikr.
Click here for London photos
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