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Wednesday 29 May 2013

Shopping and a show

Friday morning I headed to the airport to catch my plane to London. The flight was a bit of an adventure as we ended up being delayed due to an aircraft leaving Heathrow that had engine trouble. Heathrow ended up being closed to all departures and then not after we landed the airport was closed. We were delayed about an hour but I was very thankful to arrive and not end up getting diverted to Stansted or Gatwick - especially since I had already booked my ticket for the paddington express train.

I managed to meet up with Mum at Victoria station and we walked up the road to our hotel. Mum had been staying there for a week but had been in a single room and so we moved to a twin room. The room was tiny although I think that is pretty standard for London. The location in Victoria was great and when I go back with the family will definitely try to stay in that area. Mum had been to the Chelsea flower show the day before and caught the bus just down the road and then when we went to Billy Elliot we discovered the theatre was just on the other side of Victoria Station.

As it was raining when I arrived we decided to go the V & A museum for lunch. It is a beautiful building and we could of spent all afternoon there but mum had already been there so I had a quick look on the way to the cafe. The cafe was very noisy and busy - which is very typical of everywhere in London! We got our chicken, potatoes and veges and found a table.

From the V & A we walked in the rain up to Harrods stopping at Gap on the way for a bit of shopping. Harrods was great although very busy and the toy department was a bit of a disappointment as was quite small. I could have bought a British bull dog from the Harrods pet store for £5000 but decided to pass!

When I lived in London 15 years ago my favourite shop was Harvey Nichols so it was a bit of a treat to go back again. Mum and I decided that it was time for afternoon tea so went to the lovely but noisy cafe on the 5th floor and I had a coffee and mum had a cream tea which came with two yummy scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam - enough to share!

From Harvey nic we headed to Covent garden and when we came out of the underground it was pouring down with rain. We had a poke around all the lovely shops and sat and watched a busker for a while.

We carried on walking into leister square then ended up to Piccadilly Circus where we stumbled across a big sale in Lily whites sport store. We decided that we had better save some shopping for the rest of the weekend so headed off in search of dinner. We found a great restaurant just off leister square that served fish n chips - yah!

We awoke to blue skies on Saturday and headed out without jackets. Even though I had lived in London for two years 15 years ago I never went to St Paul's so Mum and I decided to head there. It is truly a beautiful building and after paying our entry fee of £16 we got to have a look around. We decided to head to the whispering gallery first which is where you can walk around the inside of the main dome looking down at the people in the church and whisper to each other across the empty space. I decided to brave my ever increasing fear of heights and go up to the next level. Mum had done this previously so decided to head down to look around the church. The climb was narrow but fine and I came out outside the dome.

I decided to head up to the next level although was not mentally prepared for the metal staircase that wound up inside the dome with being able to look straight down into parts of the church. I almost turned round but as it was one way I had no choice but to carry on. I eventually made it to the top and came out onto a tiny viewing area that went around the outside of the dome. The view was spectacular and worth the climb.




We then went down into the crypt which had an amazing display of plagues of people that had been involved in the church (including the organists)as well as artists. There were also memorials for soldiers that had fought in past wars as well as people that had contributed to London. The crypt gave me a real sense of the broad history of London and the church and was really worthwhile visiting.



We then wandered over the millennium bridge to the south bank.






Will post this now and write about the last little bit of our holiday tomorrow.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

1 comment:

  1. Oh so cool a little bit jealous but hay thats ok we had snow on Tue but not enough for a snow day. Sus x

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