London tripreport 29 – 31.10.2008

 

First of all I would like to thank Lucky, Rieke and the other angels for making this trip so enjoyable! I had a blast at the NTA’s , thank you again so much Lucky for arranging everything and for the seats upgrade! I never ever thought myself sitting in one of those boxes inside the Royal Albert Hall!

Although Jonas wasn’t nominated or Robin Hood, I really had a lot of fun watching the actors and presenters in real-life instead of my tv screen ;-)

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the whole cast of Strictly Come Dancing, right below our box! The other highlight for me was when Catherine Tate accepted the award for David Tennant and seeing them having a conversation through the video screens as David was due to play Hamlet and couldn’t be there in person.

The angels were all extremely friendly and it’s just too bad we didn’t have time to hang out a bit longer. But that’s what the convention in Blackpool is for! ;-))))

 

We planned a lot of things for our trip in London but as always, you just can’t manage to do everything once you’re actually there...

.

Our Eurostar had a 20 minute delay of arriving because of the incident in September, but it wasn’t too bad. After minutes of arriving I was kindly introduced to the Tube by Rieke as I never used it before in all my previous trips to London!

It is very easy when you have a guide like Rieke who almost knew the Underground chart by heart!!!! Otherwise with my lack of sense of direction I’d have ended up in the completely wrong part of London! ;-)

After finding our hotel and leaving our bags it was already 11.00 a.m.  First stop was Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We were soooo lucky to have beautiful weather, blue skies, no clouds....brilliant! We passed through the Italian garden with its fountains and swans , moving to the Peter Pan statue and afterwards finding our way , walking around the Serpentine to find a particular tree. ROTFLOL

You have to know that the lovely Mel left us a quest and message when she was in London back in August. But unfortunately the message was gone :-(

As I promised to call her, she told her our challenge by phone. You can proudly say Rieke that everyone who passed us by could hear the Robin Hood theme via your mobile! ;-))))

Next stop was Oxford Street and briefly meeting the angels before getting back to the hotel to prepare for the NTA’s. As we walked along Regent Street in the afternoon we came by the Apple store and I couldn’t resist opening the JAF website on one of the Macbooks and leaving it open after walking away ;-)))))))

After a brilliant night we were absolutely exhausted!

 

On Thursday we did really quite a lot! First stop was a visit to the Tower of London. It was amazing to see it after watching the episodes of the Tudors and reading so many books about the Tudor period. George was our ‘Beefeater guide’ and he was just brilliant! I laughed so many times! After a 3 hour long visit we walked via Tower Bridge to the other side to visit Shakespeare’s Globe. By that time the weather had changed quite a bit, it was freezing cold and it started to rain followed by hail! They were redoing the thatch roof and bits of straw kept falling down together with rain when we had our tour inside the pit. I really enjoyed the tour and exposition and really liked the fact they had a Starbucks around the corner ;-)))

It was definitely time for a well deserved Hot Chocolate!

Following our milk-ads campaign, Rieke thought it’d be a good idea to try a milk moustache ourselves ROTFLOL, which we did and she has pics to prove it!

Afterwards we walked via the Millennium Bridge to see St-Paul’s from afar and walking along the Thames until we came to Temple Church. We both wanted to visit it, me because I wanted to see this Da Vinci Code location and Rieke because it reminded her of Carter ;-)

Have to tell you that we were pretty much tired after that! Time to take the tube!

Had a quick look in Oxford Street again and then back to hotel where we spend all night gazing through Robin Hood screencaps , trying to sort out moods and so on for Rieke’s calendar! Don’t think I need to tell you how much fun that was! ;-)

 

Next day was already our last day....

Leaving our bags in St-Pancras station we headed back to Oxford Street and went to WH Smith. I made a promise to Mrs. Armstrong on forum and on my blogs that next time I’d send something for her son, I would add an envelope and stamps!

I’m happy to say that Rieke and I did just that and made ourselves a ‘S.A.E.’ with airmail stamps to add with his Birthday card and little gift ;-))))

We went over to his Agents’ building and I met the nicest mailman over there! ;-))

I left the card and gift at reception and afterwards we headed for Convent Garden, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. Time came too soon to leave London.

Thanks again Rieke for being such a wonderful travel friend, guide and literally lifesaver, as I kept on looking for cars and traffic in the WRONG direction! ROTFLOL

I really had the best time and can’t wait for our next trip in September!

xxxx

---------------------------------------------------------