All photos related to this blog entry can be found at Grant & Julie

Riding the Monopoly Board

Arriving in London and there is still a month before the bike is to arrive. A very good thing we have such lovely friends to amuse us and keep us occupied. And how grateful we are to have such a lovely welcoming roof over our heads in Ealing.

We met Bonny and Mike in Namibia in 2007/2008 at a backpackers hostel and traveled with them, on and off, to Ethiopia. We never really believed we would ever see them, in the flesh, again, yet here we are.Since we saw them last they have had two children. Matthew, 4 and Duncan now 1. (This seems to be a common thread with people we met on our last trip ie: Hanka and Eric - 2 kids, Emma and Hamish - 2 kids, Mark and Aasha - 2 kids.... the list goes on.... a pandemic.) It has been great fun playing Aunt and Uncle to these two critters.

Our jet lag was tempered by the consumption of sleeping tablets upon arriving in the UK. This allowed us to function like "normal" humans during the day and sleep at night. The cold weather was a little hard to deal with and the hay-fever intolerable. It passed.

The UK spring weather can be very changeable, our first couple of days were brisk and chilly but the sun shone through and we had a great few days picnicking in parks and enjoying the outdoors.

We visited Northala Fields for a picnic and walk up the unusual hills. The hills are man made from the refuse and clean fill from the Wembley Stadium upgrade. The park offers spectacular views of Central London from the top of the hillocks, places for flying kites.

Time for a Beverage

We also took a day trip to St Albans Cathedral and the Roman Ruins of Verulamium. The imposing cathedral has been constructed from the stones and terracotta roof tiles of the ruined city of Verulamium. In its heyday Verulamium was a thriving market city with a large theater and municipality. The city was on the road to London and the fortified wall housed a large gate called the London Gate.

Whilst in London we hit some of the main tourist hot spots such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square.

A side trip to Iceland to while away some time was organised and booked.

We also used our time to wander the borough of Ealing and enjoyed walks along the Grand Canal, Hanwell locks, watching the long boats and pub lunches at the quaint locals.

We feel like our trip hasn't really started, that we are impostors, not really doing what we said we would... The reason ... waiting for the bike. We wont really feel like our trip has started until she is here with us.

V&A Museum - Turkish Fireplace and Chimney

Myth Busting

The British serve their beer warm and flat.... Fallacy.... sort of....

Larger are served cold and frosty. Jules has taken a liking to Fullers Honey Dew.

Ales are served at room temperature as they are live ales and to chill them would kill them.
They are not, generally, sparkling, but swirl them around and you can see the life in the fluid and they are very flavoursome. They do take a little getting used to.