London

Well, here we are about to start day 2 in London and it’s raining! We think it’ll clear which is good as today we plan to start sightseeing!

Our flights were both good. As usual we asked for aisle seats up the back of the plane and ended up with 4 seats for the two of us-much more comfortable than most of the other people on the plane! The stopover in Bangkok was a great idea. It allowed us to get a few hours sleep then take a walk around the morning markets before getting on the plane and doing it again.

It was great to have Mick waiting for us at Heathrow and great to have him just lead us home to his place. We arrived here at 9.15 pm on Wednesday night. The flat he shares with Kate Taylor (from Warrnambool) and Janelle (from NZ) is quite large and airy and really well located just a 10 minute walk from the Tube station and town. The suburb of Wimbledon is really nice-lots of trees and feels really safe. It was also nice to walk with Mick the following day and have him speak to 3 people he knew-it really does have quite a villagey feel about it.

Russ was up early and took himself on an hours walk around the suburb and to one of the local supermarkets Tesco’s to do a bit of shopping. Later in the morning, we walked to Walkabout pub where Mick works about once a week and had lunch; we walked around the shops and checked out the other two supermarkets and just generally relaxed. We dropped Mick home, then took another walk to the next suburb through the back streets, along a river where we watched people fishing, past the very old Merton Abbey Mill and printing complex and onto the Stainsburys Hypermarket.

Merton Abbey Mill Complex

It was a two hour walk and really interesting. Lord Nelson lived here and his family bequeathed land for a little park in town, the mill has the last working water wheel in the city of London and the abbey that is part of the mill complex dates back to the 1100s. It’s amazing just to see those things as you walk around town.

Lord Nelson's Park

Russ cooked dinner for us all-Mick’s favourite pasta dish then we headed to bed about 11ish. I’m sure all that walking was the secret to making us both sleep really well and wake feeling great this morning. I’m just about to wake Mick and we’ll head to the centre of London to see all those things you should-Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Parliament house etc etc etc and if we don’t see it all, we’ll do it again. Mick is working tomorrow at the pub and umpiring a couple of Aussie Rules games on Sunday, but we are pretty confident we can find our way round easily armed with his Collins London Street Maps!

It was great to turn the computer on and find an usecured wireless connection nearby. It means we have unlimited access (for free) which Mick and Janelle are enjoying.