Wednesday 21st - Thursday 22nd August. - London

Susie had to work, so Jason brought the kids up to London at about lunch time.   SO good to see them, and the kids have grown so much - particularly Charley - she and Harry are now about the same height!   When they're bored, they tumble about, over each other, like a couple of puppies.........

We walked over the Millennium pedestrian bridge across the Thames to the South Bank;  it's still school holidays in England, and for Melbournians, it was like Moomba - mobs of people milling about - a queue a mile long for the London Eye, and everything else it seemed.  We stopped for a very average bite to eat, and continued along, and back over the River.  We then walked over past the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and wound our way over to the Palace, hopefully to visit with Betty & Phil, or even one of their dogs.  However, there was nobody to be seen within the Palace gates other than the red-coated guards, and apparently as the Royal Standard was not on high, it meant 'she' was not at home!!!  So, after the kids had done with climbing on the statuary out the front, and posing for a couple of photo's, we headed back home to Northumberland Avenue.

The kids hadn't really wandered about London before, so it was nice to share the day with them.
Susie came over after work, and after a catch-up and a drink or two, we wandered off up The Strand to find a pub and some dinner.  Did manage to find one (there's a pub and/or restaurant at least every 20 metres!), and we all had several drinks.  The kids were fantastic, and were very late to bed!

On Thursday we headed off to catch a ferry down to Greenwich (for a quick coffee) and then down to the London Flood Barrier.  Weather still not brilliant, but it wasn't raining - rather a cold wind blowing out on the River though, so I did some of my sight-seeing from inside the ferry.  We got off the ferry at the stop before The Tower of London, and walked along through parts unknown...

Charley had been hankering for some Sushi, so we found a small restaurant/takeaway and bought some boxes of food.   Went outside, and sitting on a window-sill eating (as Londoners do), I looked up to see where we were, and was amused to see the lane was called Pudding Lane.  On drawing Susie's attention to the 'funny' name, she announced that this was in fact the street where the Great Fire of London had started in 1666, and on quizzing a fellow "luncher" nearby, he confirmed that it was true, and that the enormous monument we were sitting below was in fact constructed in memory of that fire, and there was also a plaque on a building nearby....  Amazing what one can happen upon in an old city, with so much history, as London;  even the Bowens had never been to Pudding Lane before.

We continued walking and got to The Tower of London, and were delighted to be able to see the tens of thousands of ceramic poppies being planted all over the (grassy) moat of the tower, in memory of all the victims of the First World War.  It is a splendid sight, and a really lovely memorial.... On one corner of the Castle Wall, it appears that 'blood' is pouring out of one of the gun turrets(?) onto the grass below. The planting began on August 8th and will continue until November 11th - Armistice Day.

We walked all the way home along the North side of the Thames - lovely to be able to look around without crowds of people, and the kids were again fantastic - not a word of complaint from either of them, and they must have been really knackered!!!

Once again a pub nearby fed and watered us, and we all felt we'd had a really lovely day.  Sadly all going our own way on Friday, and it will be some time before we catch up again....