Constant Cravings

Mum and Dad dropped us off at the airport at around midday. Our flight wasn’t until 3.45pm, but the time actually went quickly. The flight from Melbourne to Singapore was only around 7 hours and it was quite fun. The food was really yummy and I watched the movies: Rock of Ages, and To Rome with Love. Both were OK. Simon watched Spiderman and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. On the next leg Simon watched The greatest Marigold hotel and I watched some tv shows. and listened to music.
The flight from SIngapore to London was so LONG! Neither of us slept - we both dozed for a couple of hours. The flight was around 13 hours and it felt like forever. SIngapore Airlines were fantastic - can’t really fault them. Great service, great food and a really comfortable Plane - the A380 Air Bus. The air hostesses are ALL beautiful. Delicate and immaculately groomed. They wear beautiful long skirts with a split up the front.
The arrival at Heathrow was busy but ran really smoothly. The customs line moved quickly, and by the time we got through, our luggage was being unloaded. We went to the Trafalgar desk, and was served by a lovely, polite young British man who asked me if I’d like to lose Simon at this point and continue my holiday single…cheeky young Brit. We went with all of the other Trafalgar travellers to catch a mini bus to our hotel - The Hilton Kensington. We couldn’t check in straight away because the hotel’s computer system had crashed, so we left out luggage with the concierge and wandered over the road to Westfield. We had a coffee and some yoghurt and a muffin and used the free wi-fi to check in on facebook and check and forward some emails.
When we got back to the hotel we met up with the Trafalgar rep and got our welcome package. Whilst we were doing this, we met another couple, Don and Anthea, who are doing the same tour as us. We had also met some others on the mini bus, and a NZ guy, Tony in the lobby. Don and Anthea asked us if we’d like to go for a walk up to Hyde Park and to Kensington Palace with them, so we went up our hotel room, had a shower and went back down to meet them. The walk up to Hyde Park was about 4 kms and a good walk. It was great to see all of the trendy little eclectic shops around the area. We walked through Hyde Park and stopped to see a few squirrels - cute! Then we went on a tour through Kensington Palace. It was lovely, but some of the modern touches seemed a little tacky. We then had a bagel and orange juice with Don and Anthea in the park, then made our way back to the hotel. On our way back we passed some of the beautiful, expensive old houses in the area. One of them was being guarded by a big, tall policeman. We asked him if he could tell us where Portobello Road in Notting Hill was. He said in a very strong English accent, “Hang on, before I can tell you where it is, I need to ask where you’re from. ” We told him Australia, and he said “Sorry -no way I can tell you”, then laughed and said he was only joking. He told us that he was hoping to move to Australia. We said that he needed to get a bit of a tan before he comes, so he rolled up his trousers to show us how pasty white his legs were. We told him it was lucky we had our sunglasses on! He then proceeded to give us directions to Portobello Road. Imagine the following in a very strong rough English accent. “Alright then, you head down this road, and you see that big building with the writing on it, Well you turn down that road and head down to you find a roundabout. You will see a long road to the left off that roundabout…ignore that road. Then keep on going to you find a lovely little pub…that’s the beginning of Portobello Road”. We got back to the hotel and I had a half hour sleep while Simon grabbed a few supplies from Westfield. We were sitting on the bed discussing whether we could be bothered going out for dinner (no sleep for 2 days had left us dizzy and a bit nauseous) when we got a phone call in our room from Anthea asking if we’d like to meet them in the bar for a drink…which we did, and we ended up chatting for a couple of hours, and also had a light dinner.
Our first impression of London is that it’s old…SO old. It was a little gloomy today, which is what we expected. The Kensington area where we are staying seems quite affluent mixed with a bit trendy and eclectic. We haven’t been in to the city itself yet so I’m sure we’ll get a better feel of London then. It’s 8.40pm now, and Simon is snoring away next to me. Time for bed - it’s been a long, exciting couple of days!
Weather: overcast, few showers and 16