Welcome back my friends, armchair travelers and whoever else you are! After being back to Sydney for 4 whole months I’m finally back on this blog. Lucky for you! I shall continue blogging about this adventure til the very end, bitter or not.
So in the last post, I visited Munich, attended Oktoberfest, got drunk, lost a day, enjoyed my friends’ lovely apartment and had a good old time. From Munich I flew back to London, stayed in a hostel for 2 nights, caught up with Kiem and Wendy for 1 last photo walk. Then my parents came! Wow wee! I went to Heathrow to pick them up, handed them their oyster cards and we took the tube (damn it, now I keep calling it subway) to Kensington where I collected my luggage from my hostel and we moved to a bed and breakfast at Olympia.
We did a few days of sight seeing in London. You know, the usual suspects.
London bridge at night
Downing St, yeah that tiny alley in the middle. (I had no idea it was completely blocked off like that)
Changing of guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace, I want their furry hat, looks so warm!
We actually went into the Buckingham Palace and saw all the public areas. The tickets were damn expensive, but I quite enjoyed it I have to say. The Buckingham Palace from the outside is very plain, the inside is grandeur, but compared to say the Versaille, it is a lot more stately and much less fluffily pretty. If that makes sense? We got to see the Queen’s stables and her many carriages as well, including 1 that was a gift from Australia. No photos were allowed inside most of the palace grounds, so sorry, nothing to show you. I do have film photos of the Versaille back though, but that’s a post on its own.
Then we hired a car, a nice little Hyundai or something which accompanied us on the rest of our European trip. I became quite attached to the car as it became the only stable thing in our lives for the next month, it felt like our house in a way. I suppose it’s just like the way I got really attached to my 38 liter backpack which also felt like my house… Well, that there is up for interpretation by some psychologists.
My parents were actually really impressed with London. Standing at Oxford Circus looking at the grand old buildings, rows upon rows of them, they saw the great political, industrial and financial power that Britain once was. It was good to see it from that perspective, which I hadn’t before.
Before leaving the British isle we did a day trip to see the stonehenge and Bath.
The little black bits to the right are people for a sense of scale. To be honest this photo makes it look a lot more magnificent than it is, the distance and the gloomy clouds help a lot. I didn’t feel anything special even though I really tried and the audio guide really tries to evoke something surreal too… but meh…
Each block of stones weighs several tons, what you see above the soil is only about 1/3 of it. 1 interesting thing was the stone is a warm stone. Not that it’s hot, but it’s not as cold to touch. They had samples of normal stone and stonehenge stone for tourists to feel and true enough the stonehenge stone really isn’t so cold on the skin.
After the stonehenge we went to Bath and had dinner there before returning to London. I really enjoyed Bath and so did my parents. It was very pretty.
Just a pretty picture, look there was even sun for a while!
Hot air balloon!
Driving into Bath was magical. We drove through the English country side, it was evening and the sun was low, we wind through some streets and there it was below us. The rows of pretty sandstone buildings, all uniform and bright in the sun. The hot air balloon bobbing in and out of view. Such a cute and quaint town, we felt instantly relaxed.
The building that houses the Roman bath. Yes, this is what the town is named after. It’s now a fine dining restaurant.
We arrive too late and the bath is already closed for the day, so all we could do is try to gawk from the outside. The wall’s too high so we didn’t get to see the actual bath. But, see those statues in there, they surround what I presume is the bath dug into the ground.
Rows upon rows
Great laneways to explore
Next stop, Dover tunnel! Til next time, stay fit you lot 
