Lodging in London

Our arrival into London was memorable to say the least. We had prebooked a shuttle from the airport to the hotel and our driver (holding a blue sign) was supposed to meet us outside Costa Coffee in the terminal. However, there was no Costa Coffee, and no driver. We tried unsuccessfully to call him (the airport's internet was fairly unreliable) several times and then located an information desk.

A very nice woman there called our driver's company for us. They confirmed we needed to meet their driver outside Costa Coffee. The woman explained there was no Costa Coffee as it closed months ago, but the company insisted. Eventually the woman spoke to a supervisor and once again explained there was no Costa Coffee, but the supervisor insisted we should meet the driver there. The woman became agitated and said to the supervisor (rather loudly), 'I have worked at this airport for 22 years and I can tell you there is no Costa Coffee'. Eventually it was agreed we would meet our driver outside Burger King.

So, we waited outside Burger King - we'd been off the flight now for 45 minutes. Still no driver. Penny just happened to see a man rushing past us with a 'white' sign with our name on it. Eventually we got in the car, and he drove like a madman, sometimes up to 160kms per hour. Finally, we arrived at our aparthotel - which was modern and centrally located - in one piece.

The Old Spitalfields Market was a short walk away and had a variety of craft stalls and restaurants and right across the road was the Goodman's Field pub where we dined a few times. There were also two supermarkets close by.

There are many wonderful sculptures along the streets of London;

this one is outside the Old Spitalfields Market

We caught many tube trains from one of the three underground stations close to the hotel, the first day to the British Museum where we spent a few hours discovering our ancient past.

Inside one of the tube stations

Inside one of the tube trains

Ramses II

Assyrian stone carvings

Asian ancient history

We followed this visit up with a delicious lunch at the charming Plough English pub nearby. Penny was delighted to learn that famous authors like Virginia Wolff and Charles Dickens had frequented the area, but was even more excited to know perhaps we were sitting where Charles Darwin had once sat...

Penny's meal and Jim's meal...

That evening we walked across the Tower Bridge and dined at Browns, one of many restaurants along the riverfront.

Penny is a big fan of David Attenborough's work and for many years had wanted to visit the Natural History Museum. Neither of us was disappointed, spending four hours there.

Some of the thousands of minerals on display

The extinct Dodo

The extinct Giant Tree Sloth

Ichthyosaur fossils, from the Jurassic period. The first (and many subsequent) Ichthyosaur fossils were discovered by amateur fossil hunter Mary Anning on Britain's south coast in the early 1800s.

The famous Hintz Hall at the museum

Charles Darwin

The most valuable fossil at the museum is this Archaeopteryx, an avian dinosaur that helped paleontologists discover that some dinosaurs evolved into modern day birds

Blue Whale skeleton in the Hintz Hall

Penny with 'Blue', the velociraptor from Jurassic World, celebrating 30 years

since the release of Jurassic Park

One cannot go to London without visiting Harrods, so we did. The food hall is amazing, and we were completely blown away by the prices - rump steak (Wagyu from Australia and Japan) - $60 per kilo, whole roast chicken - $40, rack of lamb - $96 per kilo and 200 grams of smoked salmon for $34!

Jim had always wanted to see the famous Victory ship, so we travelled by train to Portsmouth on the south coast and spent five hours at the Historic Dockyard seeing not just the Victory but the Mary Rose (Henry VIII's flagship) on permanent exhibition.

We spent the first few hours viewing the remains of the Mary Rose in a fascinating modern museum complete with holograms and a 4D theatre. The ship was built in 1511 and sunk during the Solent Battle in 1545. The search for her began in 1965 when the first artifacts were recovered, and then in 1982 she was raised. Unfortunately, only that half of the ship that was buried in mud survived.

A hologram of Henry VIII telling us the story of the Battle of Solent

The outline shows the difference between the original ship and what is left

Showing the three viewing floors from the bow. We walked along the length of the ship as well.

Recovered artefacts

We then moved on to the HMS Victory, first sailed in 1765, and the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission. She is currently under wraps as she undergoes major work.

We were issued with listening devices which guided us through the various parts of the ship as we moved along the walkways and climbed up and down five decks, mindful of our heads due to 5ft ceilings! It was hard work, but well worth it.

There were 104 cannons on board, 

Re-creation of the galley

Crew sleeping quarters

Infirmary beds

The 'last meal'

The carpenters' walk

The carpenters' workshop

Low ceilings!!

On our way out of the dockyards we took a detour to the HMS Warrior. It was built in 1860 and was the largest battleship at that time, however it didn't see any action. We wandered over the extensive deck and at 4pm two crew arrived to lower the flag in military fashion.

On our last day in London, we caught the tube to Westminster and admired Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament before taking a Thames river cruise to Greenwich and return.

Our river boat at the dock with the London Eye in the background. When we bought our tickets the woman behind the counter asked which part of Australia we were from. When Penny told her she said, 'I'm from the Blue Mountains, but I've been here 24 years now.'

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

As we started out one of the crew members grabbed a microphone and explained that he wasn't a tour guide but that he had been working on the river for a couple of decades so if we would like him to give some commentary, he'd be pleased to do it. Everyone agreed and he talked all the way to Greenwich, giving us the history of the river, pointing out various buildings and adding little anecdotes. Not only was it one of the best 'tour' talks we'd had on our trip, but we were in fits of laughter along the way.

It appears that one can never see enough ships, and there on the dock at Greenwich was the streamlined British clipper ship, the Cutty Sark. Built in 1869 she was one of the last tea clippers and the fastest of her time.

At Greenwich we wandered through the market and then lunched at the charming Admiral Hardy pub before returning to London.

We left London and flew to Zurich for a few days.