Actually, we landed last Friday morning, but I’ve had such a busy week there has been no time for blogging! I wanted to take a moment to write down my ‘tops’ before they disappear out of my brain.

Top day: Can I nominate them all? Lots of people have asked me what the highlight was, and it’s too hard to choose. Everyday was amazing and different and fun.

Top journey: The drive from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Lovely countryside, lunch in St Andrews (and a cathedral and castle), a Pictish hill fort. This day had it all really.

Top town: It’s a pretty close race between Durham and York. York wins by a nose – it has a great vibe, with a very well preserved city wall, and free city wi-fi. We had two very happy days there.

Top castle: My favorite has to be Conwy in Wales. It was a great ruin to climb all over – you can take the 100s of steps up to the tallest towers for fantastic views of the city.

Top cathedral: That would be Wells, hands down. It has an amazing scissor arch that I’ve never seen anywhere else.

Top accommodation: Langley Castle. An actual bona fide 14th century castle! So cool.

Top meal: I had a delicious lamb shank at Hotel Noir in York. Mmmmm, yum. Expensive, but worth it.

Top ‘doh’ moment: The day I realized, 1 hour into a 3 hour drive, that I’d left my wallet at the hotel. So a 2 hour detour back to Bournemouth before we got to Glastonbury.

Top purchase: Well, the iPads of COURSE!

We really did have the most amazing time. There were no difficult or horrible moments, nothing really went wrong, we got along very well and had immense fun together. We had a budget and we stuck to it, but still did everything we wanted to do. We didn’t deny ourselves anything because it was too expensive. The trick was that we saved hard and had plenty to spend. We even managed to bring some money home!

And of course, we’ve already started planning the next visit – it’s the only way we can feel okay about all the cool places we didn’t get to see.

We didn’t do any sightseeing at all today – just hung around London and rode around exploring on the Underground. We managed to collect some Light Blues and our last station (Marylebone) in the morning. We had lunch with our friend Phil at a local pub. Phil moved to London from Christchurch a few months ago, and seems to be having a great time here.

The afternoon was more Monopoly, with a lovely break at the Tower Bridge for ice cream and a sit down on the banks of the Thames.

We had dinner at the same place we did last night and met Maggie again after class. We went to a toy store on Oxford Street that has five levels! One level is devoted entirely to Lego. Awesome.

Even though we didn’t really do much, we arrived home exhausted and grateful to sink into bed. Home tomorrow! There is much packing to be done.

We were out of the flat early again this morning. We stopped on our way to collect Bond St, then headed for St Paul’s Cathedral. The original church on this site was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 (though it was already in ruins after the Reformation). The current cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1669. Its also his final reseting place. The crypt below the cathedral contains the tombs of Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. They are huge monuments.

Because it was built from the ground up in the 17th century, this church looks quite different from all the Norman and Gothic churches we’ve seen. The columns are square rather than round, and the ceilings are arched rather than vaulted. I’m imagining that Wren was very fashion-forward with his design.

The next stop was Westminster Abbey. It’s a strange place. Ostensibly, looks very like many other cathedrals we’ve visited. But this cathedral bristles with historical figures. It was first built in 1065, and then remodeled several times in the next 500 or so years. It contains the tombs of Edward the Confessor, Edward I, Henry III, Richard II, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Queen Anne and a vast assortment of other royals, poets, statesmen etc etc. The effect is a packed jumble of monuments and tombs that span 1000 years. You can’t move without standing on someone important!

We wandered our way up past 10 Downing Street to Trafalgar Square, and went to the National Gallery. This contains some of my favorite art works – Sunflower by van Gogh and Madonna of the Rocks by Da Vinci, as well as Cezanne, Monet, Renior, Raphael, Rubens. It’s pretty stunning stuff.

And then, more! We went to the top of the world – on the London Eye. Amazing views of the city from a giant ferris wheel, 135m up. It’s pretty freaky, but very cool.

We retired to our room for a rest, and then just as we were starting to think about dinner, Maggie called to see if we wanted to meet her – she’d just finished her class at University of Westminster. We met at Oxford Circus for dinner and more excellent conversation.

St Paul’s from the Millennium Bridge

Riding the rails

We intended to be out of the flat early this morning, and we were hurried along by a fire alarm at 7:30am. We grabbed our gear for the day and left. I noticed that only two other people actually left the building!

We popped down to the local Starbucks for coffee, and concocted a plan to entertain ourselves for the morning on the trains. We’ve decided to visit as many of the 26 place cards on the Monopoly board as we can – 22 streets and 4 stations. I’ll take a picture of each one and post them up on a separate page. It’s a great way to see all different parts and it keeps us occupied when we are waiting for attractions to open in the morning, and after they close in the afternoon.

So we went Monopoly hunting for a couple of hours this morning, and then landed at the Tower of London. We did a power-visit of the castle complex. It’s very much like the other castles we’ve visited – so good to complete the story by seeing the place in which so much history has taken place.

Next stop was the British Museum. It bemused Stephen to note that, 30 minutes into our visit to the Museum, all we’d managed to find was the coat check, two cafes, the New Zealand collection, and a toilet. That’s what happens when Bebe is in charge of the map.

The British Museum building is magnificent, and the collection is staggering. There are treasures from every corner of the world. every time I visit, I can’t help but be reminded of Britain’s colonial past – the museum is a collection of everything they have taken from others as they pillaged their way around the world in the past. On the other hand, it has collected in one place and preserved thousands of years of human history. It’s overwhelming to see it all together like that, but also very enlightening.

We went back to our room for a sit down and did some laundry, and then went back out again, for coffee and dinner with Stephen’s friend Maggie. It was nice to hang out with someone other than each other, and Maggie was great company.

The White Tower, at the Tower of London. Built by William the Conquerer in 1078, and a prison for Richard II and Edward V amongst others.

View of the Reading Room, British Museum

Our destination this morning was the Supadance shop in Wessex, on the outskirts of greater London. They sell ballroom and Latin dance shoes. In New Zealand, if you want dance shoes, they will come from England, from this shop. That makes them very expensive in New Zealand, and much cheaper at the shop in Wessex! We got shoes for me, Stephen and Bronwen for the same price that we’d get one pair in NZ. Bonus!

From there we skirted around London on the ring road and dropped the rental car off at Heathrow. So long Juke, you were fun.

And then we were off for our London adventure. The hotel we had initially booked was unavailable, so the hotel had offered another place. It took 3 hours, 2 tube changes, 2 light rail changes and a 15 minute walk (carrying our packs!) to get there. Not exactly central. I climbed the three flights of stairs to our room with trepidation. It looked more like a suburban flat than a hotel apartment. As soon as I saw the place I said no. It was dirty and old and very clearly not a hotel. We turned around, and high-tailed it outta there. We regrouped at the local pub and found a hotel apartment close to the tube and right by Kensington Gardens. Fab!

So 5 hours after leaving our car at the airport, we set our bags down in our tiny but functional apartment. It has a comfy bed, a kitchen, a dining table – everything we need to be happy.

We didn’t stay in the apartment for long – we had a city to explore! First stop was the local curry house for some sustainence. Satisfied, we headed down to Regent St to visit the glorious Apple Store, and then wandered down Regent to Piccadilly Cirus. It was bustling with people, and fancy shops.

We finished our day with a coffee at the Starbucks by the hotel, and then retired to plan our next few days. It’s going to be fun!

We had a leisurely start to the day since breakfast didn’t start until 9am. I was not very impressed with breakfast it has to be said. I usually have muesli, yoghurt and fruit. It lines my belly well and keeps my energy up all morning. They had muesli, but no fruit (except a single manky apple) and no yoghurt. I left the table a wee bit hangry. Not a great start to the day. Luckily while we were out walking down at the beach I found a great little cafe that served a good latte and sandwiches. Hurrah!

We walked uphill to the Captain Cook memorial, along the pier, and then jumped in the car and headed for York. We drove through the Yorkshire moors to get here – very cool. The moors are misty and soft and so different than anything we have at home. Lovely.

York is fantastic. It has a cathedral (but called a Minster, to denote that it’s special). The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, so it’s pretty important. And you can definitely tell as soon as you enter this church – it is obviously more wealthy than any other church we’ve visited. The church is undergoing a £10m restoration at the moment – re-carving the stonework and re-leading the stain glass windows. It’s been going since 2006 and is due to be completed at the end of 2012. It really looks magnificent.

It’s a funny thing really, to completely restore the church, since it will eradicate some of the original work that dates from c1100. It’s great that the church will be seen in its full glory, much as it was when first completed, but it will no longer be the same church as it was then. The restoration involves removing the original stonework and replicating it before installing it in place of the original. Some of the original stonework will be kept, and the rest will be sold to fund the continued upkeep of the church.

The upside of this process is that it provides a training ground for a large group of stonemasons and other restoration experts who will receive their training here and then take their knowledge on to other places. They are being taught how to carve and work on the cathedral in the manner of the workers who first built it. That’s a cool idea.

I’m feeling a bit travel weary today, so the remainder of the day (4pm onward) will be spent lounging in our hotel room and eating. Ahhhhhh.

York Minster