A day out in the City

Well, welcome to what was a truly heavenly week end, it started on Friday with the long drive down to London. Luckily the traffic was flowing, and the weather was good, so it wasn’t the stressful drive we have sometimes had. We arrived at the Dartford Tunnel just after 10pm which meant we didn’t have to pay the toll charge...an added bonus! We arrived at my parents house about 10.50pm, a quick cup of tea, and we were ready for bed.

On Saturday we were up early, and after breakfast headed to the station to catch a train into London. We arrived just before 10am and met Mandy at the coffee shop at Victoria. After a cup of tea, and a chat about which walk we were going to do, we headed to the underground station guide books clutched in hands. It was so lovely to see Mandy again, it seemed like ages since we had last gotten to spend time together. We took the tube to St James Park, and from there started on our self guided walk, stopping every so often so we could read about the various sights, statues and history of the area. The walk started at Petty France, taking us over Birdcage walk and into St James Park. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the park full of tourists. As we walked across the bridge in the park, I almost bumped into a well dressed gentleman who I would swear was Michael Portillo! The walk continued taking us past St James Palace and St James Square, from there we continued along the Pall Mall and past Admiralty Arch. The architecture is so amazing and beautiful, there is history every where you look. The walk finished near the Sherlock Holmes pub, which is where we stopped for lunch. There is a lovely restaurant upstairs, with a recreation on the sitting room of 221b Baker Street and memorabilia everywhere. Lunch was good, and gave us the chance to talk and rest our feet!

After lunch we headed to Camden Market, one of my favourite places. I love the colours, vibrancy and energy! We headed straight to the horse stables, it’s the most interesting park of Camden. We looked around the stalls and had tea at the quirky little cafe tucked way at the back. I love it there!! I bought a few little things, but the high light of Camden Market was Cyberdog. The place is amazing, loud music, podium dancers, and a basement only the very brave and adventurous would venture into (and yes I have been down there!!). Camden was so busy, absolutely heaving with people so once we had looked around enough we decided to head back to the west end – oh my god, you should have seen the crowds at the underground station!! Not for the faint hearted, I have to admit to feeling a little apprehensive about being caught up in the midst of it. Being so short, it was quite a scary experience to get carried along as part of the mass!! We made it back to the west end and got to spend some time at the National Gallery. Not as much as I would have liked, but even a small amount of time there is worth while. The building alone is beautiful, and there are some wonderful paintings on display. Time was marching on, and we couldn’t stay for long. We had hoped to have dinner in the Leicester Square area, but it soon became apparent that this wasn’t going to happen. Lets face it 5.45pm in theatre land is not the greatest time to be looking for somewhere to eat. Everywhere was full to capacity with the pre-theatre dinner crowd. Alas, we had to walk away and made the decision to head to St Pauls.  Once there we soon realised that dinner was going to be an issue....nothing was open!!! It seems when the offices close in this part of the city, so does everything else. Luckily we found a cafe Nero next to the Underground station which was open, and we ate there. Actually it turned out to be a wise choice, and we had a very nice dinner. It was exactly what I had been in the mood for - bacon and brie Panini and iced coffee! After dinner we headed back to the underground station to join the ghost walk.  There was quite a crowd, maybe about 30 or so people. There were several Americans who seemed to be loving it. I can totally recommend this London Walk (www.walks.com/) the guide was articulate, informative and at times downright hilarious! The walk lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, and we covered an area that took in St Pauls cathedral, the Old Bailey and St Barts Hospital, as well as Ava Maria road and Amen close! Each stop brought forth another ghostly tale, sometimes accompanied by songs or poetry.  I think we were all quite sad when it ended, especially as it was time to say good night and go our separate ways. We finally got back to my parents house at about 10.15pm, just in time to break out the bottle of brandy....this was for sure the only spirit I saw that evening! 

Be interesting to see if anyone carries on down this far and keeps reading!! Ok, just for a little fun and a small way of saying thanks for stopping by and reading my blog - i have a little something to give away. The first person to answer the following question correctly will get a little surprise in the post from me - 

On what underground line is St Paul's tube station and if you were to travel west for one stop, where would you be?

Many apologies to all my lovely overseas friends, but due to outrageous increases in overseas postage this is only open to UK residents (unless you happen to be visiting the UK some time soon!!) I know some of you have had trouble leaving comments on my blog, so please feel free to leave your answers for me on Facebook.