A Visit to London

On Friday night after getting home from work I hurriedly packed a weekend bag for three and we headed for the train station - our destination - London. We arrived in the car park with no change for the parking meter - this is becoming a habit! We then tried to pay for the car park by phone - no luck there!

We rushed to the ticket office - it wasn't manned!

We headed for the ticket machine -  it only allowed you to buy day return tickets!

We got on the train without any tickets - naughty, naughty - hang on, wait a minute, before we're accused of a crime - we went looking for one of the guards, the train then started moving and for a moment we thought crikey how do we get out of this one! Luckily, we found a guard and were able to purchase the necessary  tickets. We then had to sort out the car - After many attempts we were finally able to get hold of the car park ticket office and pay for the parking!

We were exhausted and we were only fifteen minutes into our journey!

We arrived at Waterloo Station and  though the hotel we were staying at wasn't too far away we behaved very decadently indeed and got into a taxi for the short journey. We were staying at a Marriott hotel - County Hall, which was formerly the home to the Greater London Council when Ken Livingstone (Red Ken) ruled supreme!

We had never stayed there before. It was very central to our needs and  proved to be a good base for our short stay. From our hotel room we could see the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.

On Saturday morning after a yummy but unhealthy fried breakfast we decided to have a wander.

We came across this lovely pooch - the furry one not the one in the doggy suit!

We crossed over Westminster Bridge.

We saw Big Ben.

We saw the Houses of Parliament.

We even saw a mime artist! We saw quite a lot of them - more on that in a later post!

Another photo of Big Ben.

Our Daughter outside a red telephone box. Other than in London or  big towns and cities these red boxes seem to have now disappeared from our streets and yet as I was growing up there seemed to be one on every busy street corner.

We headed for the Victoria Embankment and followed a circular route back towards Big Ben taking in Whitehall, The Cenotaph and Parliament Square - more on that tomorrow.

Until next time.

June.