The London Eye.

Did the tourist thing and went up the London Eye. For those of you who don’t know, this is a massive ferris wheel-like thing on the banks of the Thames just near Big Ben and Parliament House. And its HUGE. The views were worth the ?10.50 entry ( Hmm..thats Australian $30- maybe it wasn’t THAT great) but it was a pity the weather was not the best, and London was looking a bit smoggy today.

I’m very impressed, by-the-way with the London tube system. It looks archaic and inefficient but we were getting about London very easily with our first go and the trains all came and left on time-more than I can say for Melbourne public transport.

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Kensington, W2, London.

We booked into our hotel at 8 AM and rested for a few hours before venturing out into the streets. I counted 3 pubs before we even reached the main street- I love this place already! There were at least half a dozen more pubs in the main street, Queens Way- pub culture is big here. Queens Way is kind of like a mini Brunswick or Greville Street in Melbourne, except there are a lot more backpacker types. I like it. Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are just at the end of the street, we’ll go for a walk there later. Maybe a more accurate description would be like King’s Cross in Sydney, but without the sleaze and with Mark’s and Spencers.  Mark’s and Spencers! I’ve never seen so many pre-packaged meals in my life. This place is heaven!

We bought a few things at a Boot’s Pharmacy which was big, well ordered and just like the Boot’s Pharmacy I had seen just a couple of hundred metres down the road.

We left our names at a couple of letting agents to suss out our options. It turns out it will be difficult, but not impossible to find a place that will allow us to have the cats. It may be more expensive but it is something we have to do.

On to London.

The first song we heard on the radio in the minibus that took us to the hotel was Kylie Minogue. It seemed strangely appropriate but we both cracked up laughing the second we heard her.

Hong Kong to Heathrow.

Tricky and I are now in London after our long midnight flight. Thank God we decided to stop-over in HK. A direct flight would have killed both of us. I also should say now, I’m incredibly impressed with the new Hong Kong airport.  I haven’t seen the old one but this is just an amazing building -huge, airy, comfortable, excellent food and drink, helpful staff, efficient beyond belief, and just a nice place to rest a while. Its everything other airports I’ve been in aren’t (except huge). Heathrow, on the other hand, managed to seem like a very small provincial airport and was a shambles. It was, in fact, everything Hong Kong airport isn’t. Nuff said.