Friday June 26 2009

(scroll down for 2 earlier entries)

We arrived at Heathrow at 06:15, only to discover that Rox’s luggage had not arrived with us!

After dropping the luggage that had arrived off at the hotel (check-in was only at 2pm, so we couldn’t get into our room immediately) we headed off to Piccadilly Circus, to validate our tickets to Madame Tussauds, which I had bought beforehand on the internet.

Madame Tussauds was very crowded, but we shoved our way through and took the obligatory photos of course!

We thoroughly enjoyed the Spirit of London at Tussauds. It’s something like the "Ghost ride" I remember from fun fairs in my childhood, only this one takes you on a journey through London’s history. Fun!

We had lunch in a pub up the road from our hotel. I love English cider and was very keen to have my first cider of the holiday, it didn’t disappoint! Rox forgot her camera when we left the pub, fortunately the friendly barman came racing after us to return it. We then headed back to our hotel, to check-in. We had hoped that by now Rox’s luggage would have arrived, but still no luggage! We jumped in the shower (at last!) and Rox had to borrow underwear and clothing from Paula and me, poor girl! We then hopped on the tube to Kensington High Street and hit Marks & Spencer, to shop for some clothes for Rox. As soon as that was taken care of we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before dinner.

We met Lisa, Trev and their girls at the Rainforest Café at Piccadilly Circus. It was so nice to catch up with them. We’ll be seeing them again for a few days after our tour. After supper, as we were heading back to the tube we saw crowds gathering to watch “Thriller” and laying flowers etc down in memory of Michael Jackson. Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!