London

Yikes!  Where is the time going?


On Sunday we went for another walk around the Roman ruins next to the Colosseum.  We admired the cats, fed the birds, marvelled again at the building achievements of the ancient Romans and nibbled on pastries.

Then it was time to catch our Taxi to the airport.  After squeezing through the narrow back streets with only inches to spare our driver picked up pace on the autostrada cruising at 140-160 kms/hr.  Luckily he slowed down a little when we reached the terminal!  Then it was time to join the leisurely queues at the airport... ... ...  after an uneventful flight where Mum got friendly with a nun we touched down in Heathrow., navigated the buses and the tube to arrive at our hotel.

Our first day in London we caught the hop-on/hop-off double decker bus for a look around the town.  Our first "hop-off was at Hamley's toy store.  We nearly didn't make it back on the bus!  There were so many amazing toys and games that we had never seen before.  After a few careful purchases (it was soooo hard to decide) we managed to leave the store.

The bus took us down Regent St, around Trafalgar Square,  and then along to Westminster where we got off for a walk over the Thames back to see Big Ben and the houses of parliament with their beautiful gothic achitecture.  Westminster Abbey was just next door and we saw where Kate and Wills got married.

Next we got on the bus and went to Lizzie's house.  She was home but she didn't come out to say hello (maybe she was having a Nana nap?) so we made friends with the squirrels at Regents Park instead.  We had a pocketful of almonds left over from Rome which they really liked.  It was surprising when they climbed right up my legs to try and pick my pockets.  Luckily we are on our guard against petty thieves.

By this time it was getting late so we headed back to Marble Arch and our favourite Lebanese restaurant.  Unfortunately the sauteed vegetables (which are the best thing on the menu) were unavailable but we enjoyed our lamb shanks with fragrant rice and sala, especially the first time.