The Final Stop...LONDON!

We arrived in London after 1 train ride to Brussels and then hopped on the Eurostar, officially our last train day!

Our hostel is located in West Kensington, on an adorable townhouse lined street right near an underground station (or tube as the locals say) for easy access to all the hotspots of London!

After settling in we deceided to walk the Kensington High Street and found a great restaurant to have some dinner. We then walked back to a cinema we had seen on the way and stopped in to catch a show, The Blind Side. The movie theatre had assigned seats (which is a common practice here in Europe) and it also cost us 11 pounds each which is equivalent to about 17 Canadian dollars and the inside of the theatre was comparable to the late Three Star Cinema in Guelph. None the less it was a nice evening out to relax and pretend we were locals rather than tourists.

Our first full day of sightseeing in London we had some confusion, as we had come from Amsterdam which is one hour ahead of London and there was daylight savings, somehow we started our day thinking it was an hour later than reality. As a result we arrived an hour early for our scheduled walking tour and finally figured out what was going on by about noon. We then made our way through Picadilly Circus to Leicester Square to see about getting theatre tickets. We managed to get last minute tickets for STOMP for that evening so we deceided to walk up to Camden Town in the meantime.

We spent the afternoon at Camden Market, which was incredible. Vendors were selling everything from clothes and accesories to some of the most amazing fast food varieties. After spending a couple hours walking through the Market we headed back towards the theatre district and had dinner at our new favourite establishment - Pret! A common topic of conversation amoungst Ty and I has been our plans to open a Pret Franchise in Canada, and we are convinced it would be our ticket to the good life! We then headed to Ambassadors Theatre to see the show which was mind blowing. The performers used everything from brooms to matchboxes to zippo lighters to inner tubes to kitchen sinks and pots and pans to make music. It was amazing!

On Monday we finally had the time right and took the walking tour which showcased Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, The Parliament Buildings and many other attractions. We then deceided to see about more show tickets and we were lucky enough to get 2 of the last 3 tickets for Oliver! We spent the afternoon strolling Oxford Street and when we were heading back towards the theatre after dinner we stumbled upon the world premiere of Clash of the Titans! It was really neat to see the red carpet and the cars arrive. Unfortunately we missed the bigger stars but I did manage to see the Director of the Last Harry Potter film! haha ya I know not that cool, but the experience was neat none the less!


Oliver was amazing, the sets were elaborate and the actors were all extremely talent both as actors and vocalists, we were both so impressed! As well the theatre itself is one of the oldest one's in London!

Yesterday morning we headed straight for the Tower of London. We were able to see the crown jewels and some of the armour that was worn by knights in London in years gone by. The funny part about the crown jewels is that alongside the display cases they had people movers to ensure that (annoying) tourists would not spend too long staring at the jewels, pretty efficient system we thought! We also went and saw the torture devices in another part of the tower, which were pretty gruesome.

After touring the tower we had our authentic English fish and chips, and then strolled along the Thames river to get a better view of London bridge. At that point the weather started to turn rainy and cold so we thought it would be a perfect time to visit the world famous department store, Harrods. We walked a bit further to the underground and on the way were able to view the gorgeous St. Paul's cathedral.

We arrived at Harrods and were in awe. The store itself was 5 floors high, everything from the escalators to the washrooms were beyond elaborate. There was also a memorial on the ground floor for Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed, as Harrods is owned by the Al Fayed family. Some of the highlights of Harrods included:

Ty liked:
- the food halls, where he had his first Krispy Kreme donut
- the futuristic kitchens, which were clearance priced at £50 000, half of the original cost of £100 000
- the sporting goods floor where they had these things called Sea Bobsleds, which were basically like small, hand held underwater Ski-doos. You will have to ask us to properly describe them!

Jenna liked:
-PET KINGDOM!! Everything from collars, clothes, toys to beds (with canopy's) to a bakery full of dog treats and you could even purchase hamsters for £50!! (That is 75 CDN for a rodent?!?!?!)
-Children's (specifically girls department) where they had dress up boxes containing elaborate gowns for £800!
- Outdoor furniture, featuring sectionals and canopy beds for outside, I can only hope one day I might have something even half as cool as the designs they showcased!

After Harrods we had Dinner on Picadilly Street before taking the Underground back to the Hostel. We packed up our belongings and Ty and I watched the football match, Manchester vs. Bayern Munich (us being the only people in the bar cheering for Bayern...and they WON...Siegfried we were wondering if you might have been at the game??)

This morning we checked out and are waiting till noon to check-in to our luxury hotel which is overlooking Hyde Park (Thank-you Dad!!!!) for our last night in London!

We head home tomorrow?? Where has the time gone, we are very sad this incredible adventure is coming to an end but thank-ful that the pain can be eased by knowing we have so many wonderful people to come home to whom we have missed very much!

Our flight lands in Toronto at 11:20am EST on Thursday and we are looking forward to seeing all of you very very soon!!

xxx ooo
Jenna and Ty