London Day Twelve

Sunday, 16 April, 2017Sunday, 16 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Thursday 13 April

Today we returned to England from Paris. We caught the Metro back to the Gare Du Nord right where we started from, but this time it was easy.

Again we had a nice little bottle of wine each and then I fell asleep completely missing the Channel Tunnel, last thing I remember was the yellow flowers flooding the fields and then we were back in England.

Before catching the train back to Oxted we checked out Kings Cross Station which is across the road from St Pancras and that’s where platform 9 3/4 is located for all the Harry Potter fans and there’s a shop. But the queue to get your pic taken pushing a trolley through a wall was ridiculous and I couldn’t even get anywhere near it to just take a photo. The shop was crazy busy too and we had our luggage so I didn’t feel like dragging that around narrow shop aisles.

So we went home and then for dinner we went to a really good Nepalese Restaurant called Gurkha Kitchen.

Day Eleven – Paris

Saturday, 15 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Wednesday 12 April

How fabulous to wake up in Paris and see the Eiffel Tower out your hotel room window. And what a gorgeous sunny day it was too. After a great breakfast in the hotel we set off for the Louvre. I didn’t need to go in as I have been in before – but I did want to see the pyramid entry point built a year after I was there. Just as well we didn’t want to go in as about a million other people were queued up in the biggest queue I’ve ever seen. Look closely at the photo below and you’ll hopefully see what I mean, the queue went way past the 1.5 hour indicator point so I’d say it was already a two hour wait. But in the mall where we exited the Metro was an Apple Store which looked fabulous, but we were too early for it so I just looked longingly through the windows.

After a lovely coffee in a flash Pret’s we headed for the Lego Store which was actually better than the Legoland store, flash, big, classy and fun.

Next against my friend’s civilised tastes we went to McDonalds for lunch. Surrounded by all that French cuisine made eating there all the more hilarious but I loved it.

After some shopping for shirts and shoes we went to the Notre Dame.

After a rest back in the hotel it was time to meet the tour group for our fabulous dinner up the tower followed by a cruise on the river Seine to see the night lights. We were even lucky enough to see the sunset.

And then the lights came on.

Being close to the tower when the sparkling lights come on really is something to see.

London Day Ten – Paris

Saturday, 15 April, 2017Saturday, 15 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Tuesday 11 April

Today another very exciting thing finally happened – we went to Paris on the Eurostar (one more bucket list item ticked off). The Eurostar leaves from the stunning St Pancras station.

The train ride took just over two hours and after consuming a cute little bottle of wine I slept for most of the journey and woke up in France.

The first challenge we had in a foreign country that doesn’t speak English as a first language was trying to figure out how to get to the hotel from the station. We had two options – the number 42 bus or the Metro. Both options were fraught with problems; the Metro looked to be a complicated system of about three different trains and trying to remember which stations to change at, and the bus stop we needed to get a number 42 could not be found. Even the info centres were no help as they only gave info about the main line trains. After much walking around the station inside and out we found someone who could help and were on our way on the bus which was a great way to see a lot of Paris before even arriving at our hotel.

Once we had dumped our bags we set off for something to eat and drink and then walk to the Eiffel Tower. The main reason I wanted to go to Paris was to photograph the tower at night, plus go up the tower and drink champagne.

Security is extremely high right now, so to get anywhere near the tower involved long queues, body scanning and bag checks, but once inside the area under the tower the queues were even bigger just to get up the tower. One of my friends pre-booked a dinner up the tower and river cruise for our birthdays so we wouldn’t be worrying about long queues tomorrow night.

At last the lights came on and it was fabulous and near the park there were very cool little bike taxis that were all lit up in LED lights and looked invitingly cool.

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We found a nice corner cafe for dinner where we could watch the world go by and soak up the Parisian atmosphere.

One of the girls had a room on the 4th floor with a view of the tower so she very kindly swapped with me, so I sat up till the lights went out. I learnt the sparkling lights come on every hour for five minutes till 1:00am when the orange lights go out and the flashing lights come on one last time.

London Day Nine

Tuesday, 11 April, 2017Tuesday, 11 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / 1 Comment

Monday 10 April

This morning I woke up in Oxted – my new home for the next week. So after a quick coffee we walked in to the village for breakfast. Oxted is such a pretty little village, just like what you see on TV as a traditional English village, I was expecting the Vicar of Dibly to pop out of the post office at any moment.

After a big walk round the whole village we went home and I had a chance to sit out in the back yard and enjoy some more sun.

Next we drove across the border in to Kent to visit Hever Castle – Anne Boleyn used to live there. Fabulous gardens and magnificent castle/home – well worth a visit.

I even got to have my photo taken with Anne Boleyn.

On the way home we had to stop for a stunning view of a field covered in yellow flowers.

London Day Eight

Tuesday, 11 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Sunday 9 April

Today was a nice relaxing day at home. While my gracious and kind hosts allowed me to sleep in they were busy shopping and cooking up a storm for a big family dinner.

The weather was once again superb allowing them to have their guests sit outside in the beautiful backyard.

After the party and many many drinks it was time for me to move to my new home, so my new hosts drove me all the way from Egham to Oxted.

London Day Seven

Tuesday, 11 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / 1 Comment

Saturday 8 April

Today we went to Kew Gardens and so did 1,000s of other people. The weather here has been great all week and today sure was a hot one which seemed to get all the Brits and all the tourists out of their homes & hotels and into a park to soak up the sun.

We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the queue to get in the gate was down the road way past the bus stop. And that was just the queue to get in to the queue once inside the gate – but it was well worth the wait. It was beautiful especially with all the cherry blossom trees in full bloom and daffodils and tulips.

London Day Six – LEGOLAND

Tuesday, 11 April, 2017Tuesday, 11 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Friday 7 April

Today we went to Legoland, something I have wanted to tick off my bucket list for a very long time.

It was a lot bigger than I imagined but very very cool. Because the Lego Batman movie is the big thing at the moment there was loads of stuff connected to the movie and you could even get your photo taken with him.

There was a little roller coaster which looked like fun and even tho I had said I wouldn’t go on any rides made for kids, I really did feel like a big kid again and so it seemed the right thing to do.

My favourite part was Miniland.

Clever Lego creations everywhere and plenty of cool rides for kids and really beautiful gardens everywhere.

We even went on a log flume type ride that travelled through many different fairy tales.

And just when my poor tortured friends thought we could finally go home I found a roller coaster that we had to queue up for. At least I hoped it would be a roller coaster, it wasn’t possible to see from outside the castle facade but there was a big queue so we joined it and hoped it would be worth it – it was.

Near the entrance to Legoland there was a whole gallery of busts of famous people.

Near the exit was a whole area dedicated to Star Wars which had many amazing creations from the various movies and a shop for me to buy Luke’s Landspeeder.

London Day Five

Saturday, 8 April, 2017Saturday, 8 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Thursday 6 April

Today I had lots of free time till 5pm when I was meeting up with another friend who lives in London who I haven’t seen for a while. So I had a nice relaxing morning at “home” and then set off for Turnpike Lane the Tube station I used to live near in search of the flat I lived in back in 87/88.

When I exited the station nothing looked familiar, it was really weird. Obviously the park across the road and all the shops had always been there because they looked old, but I don’t remember them and I used to walk past that every day on the way to work and home again, guess it was just always dark!

As I walked towards Alison Road, somethings did look familiar, like the church on the corner of my road and the building that used to be my local pub, but now it’s a shop, shame!!!

Luckily the house I used to live in was still standing and looked familiar and I had flashbacks of lugging all my groceries and laundry up the hill all the way home.

Back on the main road I recognised the place I bought stuff like pots and pans and a jug etc, at least that was still there.

And I used to live above a shop just like this one for about a week when I first moved to London (top floor, a lot of stairs).

The grand old abandoned hotel was still there, but it doesn’t look any more utilised than back in the 80s.

As I still had a couple of hours to fill in before meeting my friend I decided to catch a bus back to the city so I could see everything I’d always been missing by travelling underground. Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long for a bus that took me all the way to London Bridge. I got to walk across London Bridge and saw Tower Bridge and the Monument.

I met my friend and we walked along the Thames so I could get a great view of Tower Bridge and actually walk across it!

We walked past the Tower of London, waited for an Uber to take us to a pub called Boot and Flogger where we had dinner. It was a really lovely day and fabulous to have such a great walk and a catch up with my friend.

London Day Four

Saturday, 8 April, 2017Saturday, 8 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Wednesday 5 April

Today was the day I got to return to the Lego Store to get my portrait made out of Lego. When we went in to the store yesterday I discovered you can’t just rock on up to the Mosaic Maker and get your picture taken, you actually have to book on line and the earliest appointment I could get was the next day at 5:15, so I said to the nice lady who made the booking “oh well such a shame… I’ll have to come back tomorrow and do more shopping”.

So that meant we could do a bunch of things during the day but we had to be at the Lego Store at 5:15!

First adventure was on a couple of Tube trains to get to Knightsbridge for a luxurious shopping spree in the Harrods Department Store. We spent several lovely hours being overwhelmed by the amazingly fabulous merchandise and displays. The food department was incredible and I just wanted to take photos of everything but somehow I knew that would be tacky and probably not allowed. The main reason for making the trip to Harrods was so I could see the model of Harrods made out of Lego situated in the toy department, it was not disappointing and in fact it was bigger than I expected – and how often does that happen in real life!

While having lunch across the road from Harrods the sun came out and we decided to make the most of it and take a trip up The Shard for an incredible view of London. Somehow we timed it perfectly for the next lift and there were no queues or waiting times.

After The Shard we got the Tube to the Lego Store in time for my 5:15 appointment with the Mosaic Maker.

Here’s my box coming out of the machine, very exciting.

And here’s the finished product. Well it’s the instructions I still have to make it once I get home. The further away from the image you get the more it starts to actually look like me.

Feeling quite pleased with myself, Michelle and I looked for a place to have dinner in Leicester Square. We found a cool looking place called Steak & Co where you received your steak on a hot plate so you could cook it yourself. As anyone who knows me would realise at this point it was a terrible idea – I don’t cook – but Michelle assured me it was the best way to make sure I got it exactly how I like it – and it was! What an awesome dinner experience.

From there it was a beautiful evening stroll past the National Gallery, then to Downing St to say hi to the Priminister and see Big Ben lit up at night.

London Day Three

Thursday, 6 April, 2017Thursday, 6 April, 2017 / BeeJayGe / 3 Comments

Tuesday 4 April

Today’s main mission was to go to the brand new Lego Shop in Leicester Square, but we ended up doing sooooo much more. It was a totally awesome day and there were many moments of nostalgia from when I lived here back in 87/88.

First we caught the train to Waterloo Station, which reminded me a lot of the Westend Girls video, but maybe all big London stations look like that.

From there we strolled along The Strand in search of coffee and a Vodafone store. Apparently we couldn’t go to just any old coffee shop so luckily it wasn’t too long before we found one called Pret A Manger.

After coffee we found a Vodafone store where the very helpful man sorted my phone and we were off again.

Yes at long last I made it to a real Lego store. Luckily there was no queue (there were queuing barriers but not needed at that time, many other times I walked past there and there was always a queue). The Lego store was amazingly cool.

After that we went for a walk to Picadilly Circus to see my old work, which closed down long ago, but the building is still there.

After that we were hungry so we headed back to Leicester Square to find somewhere to eat. We ended up at Little Italy. After eating Michelle went to some tea place and I headed towards M&M world via the old Hippodrome where I used to go clubbing, but now it’s a casino.

M&M world, close to Easter in the school ideas was not the best time to go – it was crazy busy, packed, unbearably hot and not really all that great. It was four floors of mayhem.