Yippee. Just about all packed, badger has been packed off to Bons... Now I just need tO learn how to use the blog tool!

So.. We planned to leave work at 1300 then definitely at 14 00. At 1430 boss man came out with some changes... So dutifully I showed my mettle and made the changes ... 1500 I made it out ikarus had called like 15 times but phone reception dodgy at work... Anyway the role reversal. He was frantic to get to the airport I think it had to do with actually being away and the mindset that until we get our arses out of work the holiday wasn't real...

Most unusual but we had both also skipped lunch so fed him sesame snaps while waiting for the taxi.. Another stress.. No taxi when we finally did get to the rank!

Now we are sitting at the airport, some food ordered drinking beer/champagne and finally relaxing..

This morning I realised how attached to my trusty iPad I am.. So used to having information on hand, Facebook on hand even a book ready to go.. Don't know the answer to something no worries just look it up!

Now you are thinking what the you are blogging right now... It's not the same this is ikarus mini iPad and my trusty source of all information has been left on the bedside table sadly awaiting my return.. Possibly keeping the cat company.

My wallet with all its useless cards and detritus from living a normal public service life, coffee cards loyalty cards etc, health cards, gym cards etc, have all been left behind.

What surprised me was the feeling off loss like part of my brain was not going to be available anymore. Was a very odd feeling. Oe wonders how I will feel tomorrow leaving my phone behind.

Btw being me I have a book and a writing pad in my bag oddly I only have a pencil... Forgot the pens. Oh and passport headphones iPod .....

Ikarus will probably upload some photos. Room 920 of the Novotel Brisbane was very nice... Quiet comfy bed, pillows were too soft but we could have ordered others.. Hot hot water and good pressure..very friendly staff. Usual hotel (expensive) prices on room service. Slept in to a rainy Brisbane morning.

Also appears to be the place some of the airlines use for staff.. That's it

Made it to Brisbane airport with no issues.. Thanks Greg and Yvonne who came and had a Coffee with us at Hamilton boy Brisbane is still growing. Anyway we are both changed into our travel clothes (comfort not style) although I do think I look quite fetching in my blue linen shirt and black slacks! (Ken is in a clean pair of tack suit bottoms). We also watched half the afl final with ck and drank cider.. Much in the holiday swing now! Phones are handed in along with the work passes and car keys!

Check in is still 30 minutes away.. Three hours till I learn if my gamble on Eva air worked or if it will be tin can travel for us!

Ok just lost my first post of this evening so here goes again!

First the hotel review, think apartments london bridge. The apartment is about ten minutes walk along lovely uneven streets, in the dark, we got a little lost but all good. The apartment is fairly small as to be expected but rather clever in design so feels fairly spacious. As you walk in the door the bed is to the side, and the bathroom is through a small door at the foot of the bed. Walking past the bed strait in from the door takes you past a little cupboard ( which was found to contain a half sized fridge freezer, not a bar fridge either!) then there is a two sweater table, lounge and bar kitchen. The kitchen contains dishwasher two burner stove top, lil mini stove and a full size washer dryer. The far end of the room is windows over looking the street, one of the windows opens all the way up and is letting in a lovely breeze. The bed is not the most comfortable but who was complaining last night!

So we woke up reasonably early this morning, and after sitting waiting for ken to wake fully I got ken moving with a very strong "I need coffee and food!"

Luckily by then the little Italian deli next door had opened, coffee sorted.

We then strolled alog looking for borough markets.. Never did find them but took lots of photos as we zig zagged back and forth between borough and london bridge. Eventually we stopped just outside London bridge station and had they traditional British full breakfast, eggs bacon sausage toast beans mushrooms and hash brown ( or chips we both had hash browns) I also had grilled tomato. The place had a great vibe, a mix of business men, tradies, hospital types (it's right next to guys hospital) and passer bus like us. The food wasn't anything special -typical English breakfast! - but the service was friendly with banter between the staff and regulars who came in, and the price was great. Not as good as the earlier coffees! £3.20 for two coffees!

After our fortifying breakfast we decided to keep wandering, and wandering and wandering.... Taking many photos on the way.. We eventually ended up at carnaby street after taking in south bank.. I'm sure ken will upload some photo 's soon.. We didn't do any real tourist things other than take photos and walk.. We considered London dungeon or the clink museum. Hence the smelly feet.

At 1700 we realised that the tube would be packed as we started to struggle amongst the sea of humanity filling the oxford street. After a costa coffee -it has a toilet!- we opted to start wandering back through soho, the west end, and national gallery back to Waterloo bridge. Then the wild ride began.

As dusk was falling we hired two bikes. London now has rental bikes everywhere and for two pound a day you can ride for 30 minutes.. Find another park and it doesn't cost you any more! So taking our lives in our hands we jumped on the bikes, they where fairly comfortable, had three gears and motion powered lights.

Riding along busy London roads we learnt the rules fast. 1 green zones like in Canberra mean you have right of way do not try and be nice to the cars. 2 stop at lights, go past all the stopped cars you have right of way, when going around busses you have right of way! Yes you have right of way...... Don't look behind you and go shit traffic everywhere, just pull our cause you have right of way! But.... Pedestrians will walk out in front of you.

And we made it to long lane and found two parks (you have to return the bikes to a free rank to not be charged).

Felt most unusual to be riding around London in near peak hour traffic - was about 1900 by this time mind you so maybe it just felt like peak hour and was really just normal London traffic?

Anyway was fun, it's now about 2030 and I need to head down to the local corner support/sainsasbury/ Marks and Sparks to find something for dinner.. Then bed time!

today we rode over tower bridge twice... it really did feel a bit insane out there with London traffic, but no one rides on the footpath!

We arrived at London Tower about 0930 and left after three.

Highlights for me
Merlin the raven taking a drink for the bubbler while the yeoman (beefeater) gave us a history of those who had been beheaded inside the gates. Mainly females but anne boyln requested her head be taken off with a sword, not a very British thing heads were taken by axe. anyway they compiled with her request and had to send for a excutioner from France. so the tradition was a bit different and he took her head off while she was still praying, normally the excutioners waited until the prisoner gave the signal. anyway she was still praying and he took her head - it was held up and her lips were still moving and her eyes looking about! opps...

Merlin the raven at this point was staring at a little four year old who was getting closer and closer to her (yes merlin was a girl).. I thought we might get some bloody action ourselves if the child tried to pat the raven.. the mother stepped in however. Makes me think i must have been like that - wanting to be friends with all the animals. attack dogs in rome why cann't i pat then, squirels are friends.. not potentially rabies carrying vermin! anyway Merlin was awesome and ken took lots of photos of her. there are currently 8 Tower ravens. 6 is the minimum number, they really dont like crows.

Anyway the yeoman tour was fantastic. i couldnt help but think of the goodies however.. why are beefeaters sick because they had no beef to eat. also amazing to think of the service requirements for each yeoman 22 years service, good behaviour award (which is 15 years of not getting caught playing up) and dedication to the monarch. interestingly the navy were not allowed to be beefeaters because until recently they swore allegiance to the admiralty not the queen. thats has now changed. also you can be a female beefeater!

we also did the white tower tour, saw half of a period play about the towers role as the mint. the armoury in the white tower was fantastic but as we were getting to the tour didn't look as much as we could.

crown jewels. amazing.. but then you kind of expect that.. what was even more impressive was way up on one of the walls in one of the towers was the skeletons of crowns which had the jewels removed as fashions or monarchs changed. the metal work was so intricate - so it was nearly more impressive than the actual crowns seeing the work that goes into them. we loved the over the top golden punch bowl complete with gold plated shell serving soon on a massive handle.. ha those royals know how to party.

continue

ok, where was I over the top oppulance (btw sorry for my spelling spell check not working and at six in the morning not to fussed!) to over the top batter... this was not a highlight.. so for lunch we took a punt on the cafe in the grounds. i had a baked potato with supposedly chickpea stew and sausage. however it was more kidney bean stew - still looking for the chickpeas) and the lady gave me a huge helping of lil baby sausages. so at the check out i got a very British look - apparently they count the sausages and are meant to serve two with each meal not the ten i'd been given. Meanwhile Ken ordered a very nice looking fish and chips with mushy peas.. well there was fish somewhere under the very nasty batter! but it took some finding- like the crowns it all looked golden and lovely..

At around 1500 we were getting very tired.. the first time we both felt the drag of time zones, so we rode back Tower Bridge grabbed a coffee from the local next door, who comiserated with us on the Sainsbury ground coffee we brought and then sold us some decent coffee beans. oh yes we are very addicted to our plunger coffee... we did buy a little cheap plunger.

a short nap latter and i still wasn't feeling rested but we figured we should get some dinner.. and took another walk to a very trendy areas everywhere was packed s we kept wandering and eventually found somewhere to sit down - Thai. hmmm interesting, deep fried everything, wasn't bad but wasnt good and was rather pricey for the quality. but hey we should have found an indian instead.

This morning we're off to Scotland and the threatening rain had arrived. So it will be a short cab ride to the underground then off to Eustance trundling our bags through peak hour but its only one line with no change so shouldn't be too bad.

oh and an update on the hotel room. 28 degrees is too hot for a hotel room - the A/c fan didn't seem to work we did try! so we ended up keeping the door window open all the time made it more noisy but bearable, also we brought coffee, yoghurt and fruit salad for breakfast but when we went looking no cutlery, so while reasonable if we were staying here any longer id be requesting a new room!

The weather had been unseasonably hot up in the late teens no jumper required most of the time and staying warm overnight, but there is a series of low pressure systems which might bring the rain and with that the temperatures down.

Glasgow is meant to be a bit soggy for the next couple days so more museums, shopping and catching up with people planed and less wandering the city.

Time to pack the bags and get moving again!

Time for some advice ...don't try and take the tube with big roll on bags at peak hour. Firstly, finding the disabled lift can be difficult, the taxi driver, it was raining, dropped us at the far end of the station. in the end to find the right disabled lift we walked further than we took the taxi. luckily the rain was more London drizzle, so we didn't get wet just frustrated and hot as we dragged out bags around.

Luckily we had left plenty of time to get to Eustance so our dismay when we hit the crowded platform was tempered by the fact that we had time to get across London. The first train left with no hope of us squeezing on as people pushed to get in to the already crowded carriage. We lined up on the yellow line like f1 racers, bags ready to go.Train arrives and I was off... got the bag on got me on and squished into a corner. Ken was right behind me. yet again the niceness of some people was displayed as the guy that had been behind Ken blocked the mad rush and allowed him to get on without any issue.

Next step getting out at the other end and finding the rail station from the underground. the crowd of people coming off the different trains and merging onto different concourses meant there was no hope of finding the lifts, however the escalators had reasonably large steps so pushing my bag in front I bravely managed it.

At the station we found the lounge which our tickets entitled us to and away from the crowds we had a relaxing free coffee and pastry. 40 minutes later we boarded the train found our comfy seats and settled in. 30 seconds after pulling out of the station, tea and coffee was offered, then our breakfast order was taken. Unlike the planes scrambled eggs these were freshly cooked and served with smoked salmon. Ken had a hearty English breakfast, more tea more coffee, juice. We'd just finished breakfast and the plates cleared away when the trolley came around again- with Lunch... not hot but sandwiches, rolls, crisps, chocolate (uglies these are awesome things!). I only had a Uglies as breakfast was enough for me. then as we settled in again the drink trolley came around. Our rather camp attendant simply filled up my glass with a white wine, not once but twice...

So my rating of a first class virgin ticket, (extra 10 pound) worth it.. nice quiet carriage, free food, nice attendants and free booze!

We didn't even explore the rest of the train no need!

will compare with switzerland and norway later.