Landed in London

Tuesday 23 – Friday 27 August

Monday night's dinner at a local French restaurant – La Vieille Forge – was totally divine. Such delicious food and wine and the ambience was lovely too. It was nice to walk through the town at night without the bustle of tourists and to see the buildings lite.

Tuesday we drove the 5 hours or so to the Frankfurt camp site we'd booked for our overnight stay. The one big highlight was stopping at a McCafe along the way for a soy latte.

Wednesday morning we handed back the motor home and much to our disgust, had to pay 85 Euros for the Austrian tolls - we'd traveled on the toll roads for only two days there. Ridiculously expensive.

Our taxi driver to the airport was quick to reassure us that all was well with his vehicle which he had to hang onto whilst putting our luggage in the boot, because the handbrake didn't seem to work properly and it kept sliding away.

The German customs agent was showing his younger colleague how to freak people out by asking us to prove that we hadn't stayed more then 90 days in Germany in contravention of the Schengen Agreement. Luckily we'd kept all the camp site receipts from where we'd been, plus our arrival and exit dates didn't exceed 90 days anyway.

The 1.5hr flight to London City Airport was fine and we were grilled by the customs agent on arrival about why we wanted to stay 3 months in the UK. They want to ensure you're not there to stay or work.

While in London, we are extremely lucky to be staying in Southwark (pronounced Sutholk) within sight of Tower Bridge in an apartment owned by the parents of our girlfriend Charlotte. It is such a great location, well appointed and comfortable, we almost feel like we're back in our Teneriffe apartment.

Thursday we took it easy first up and went for a stroll along the Southbank of the River Thames in the afternoon amongst all the other tourists. We organised two Oyster cards, the London version of the Go-Card, which is exactly the same concept – load funds onto the card when necessary, tag on only for buses, tag on and off for trains.

There is a lot of construction and renovation going on in preparation for the Olympics next year. What will be Europe's tallest building, The Shard, is just about finished and looks very impressive.

That night we met up with an old Brisbane friend of Bill's who has lived in London the past 20 years. We caught the bus to Convent Gardens and met in a traditional English pub for a few drinks then onto a local pizza place for a quick bite.

Friday we were on a mission to buy a few things so headed back to Convent Gardens and walked from there. It was a very rainy day with occasional heavy showers but we persisted.

We also wanted to join the British Trust which is very worthwhile for then visiting museums etc and we can use it in Brisbane as well. However they don't make it easy via their website and their headquarters is locked up tight and unwelcoming so we'll have to find another way of organising that.

Finding ourselves outside Buckingham Palace, we organised tickets for a visit of the State Rooms on Sunday afternoon. Liz and Phil may or may not be there!!!

We've noticed that London drivers are very aggressive, love to use their horn and are quite partial to mouthing off to other drivers. The traffic is quite hectic, but maybe the added aggression makes it more so. We witnessed some “bus queue rage” as well with this guy mouthing off at someone wanting to push in, then wanted to pursue the matter once they were on the bus.

A quiet night in front of the telly was well deserved after a pretty full on day.

Saturday 28 August

Our nephew, Nathan, is living in Liverpool at the moment but comes to London a couple of days a week so we'll catch up with him today. He's a hair and make-up artist and recently finished a 3 month stint in Dohar in the Middle East and is now working on a local soap “Hollyoaks”, a bit like “Neighbours”.

We met at the Borough Markets which are a short walk for us. They are fresh food markets opened to the public Thursday – Saturday, and extremely popular. A duck sandwich was our choice for lunch. Yum.

We will be in London until Thursday, when we pick up our next campervan, so we will be out and about exploring this massive city.

More photos here.