Next morning we bid a sad farewell to Thelma & Sue who had looked after us so well for the last two days, and headed off by train from Runcorn to London. The two hour trip passed quickly and comfortably, and once there we had the guidance of Emily and Patrick to buy our Oyster cards and navigate the Underground to Victoria Station. It was only a short walk to our hotel, and we gratefully checked in and dropped the luggage. Next task - a late lunch at a nearby cafe and the first lesson that everything in London is EXPENSIVE. Nourished and wiser we went for a walk to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Gardens, then returned the hotel and had a rest before venturing out for drinks and then dinner at a local pub rather than a restaurant. New ales were sampled along with a fig rum for Carmel, and the occasional plate from the menu to share between the five of us. A good time was had by all, and we made our way home in the fading light after 10pm.
Carmel, Tara and Emily had designated the next day as a shopping day and I was not keen to join them. The weather was reasonable for London in that while there was no blue sky, it wasn't raining. So I set off for a walk that took me past Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard and then to Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Gallery wher I spent an interesting couple of hours. Then I had a look around Leicester Square and Piccadilly before exploring a floor of the National Gallery and then walking past Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and then back to the hotel to meet with the girls. A cup of tea at the hotel restored us all enough to head of to Patrick's work for a drink then dinner at the nearby Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. Getting wiser to the ways of London, we bought a nice bottle of French red at Sainsbury's to share in the room before bed.
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