A London Experience

We were up again bright and early making the most of our London experience.. Del was a little bit worse for wear, but wasn't going to miss out.. Today Al was going to do some shopping with Sarah while Del and Bernie were going to HMS Belfast at London Bridge.. We printed off some two for one vouchers as we needed rail tickets to go with them and Bernie and Sarah had come up by train..

They left the girls and arrived at the Battleship at 11.30am with a lot of people on the river bank looking at the boat. We could see and hear Princess Anne giving a speech followed by David Cameron about the Anniversary of D Day..

We were then greeted with a flypast.. We rushed over to get our tickets at £15.50 and we got one of them free.

We thought we would only be there a couple of hours but we ended up staying four. As you can imagine, with royalty on board, everything was in tip top shape, in fact spotless.

The tour was fantastic and we even got to meet up with a few veterans who had sailed the wartime seas.

 We got diverted a few times because of security but managed to see all of the boat..

We then left there and tubed it to Covent Garden where we just had to have the hair of the dog..
So we used the Punch and Judy, the punch was in your wallet with the beer at £6.00 a pint and in plastic beakers. Oh well at least we had good views, and it was easy for the girls to find us!

We soon came out of there and moved over to TGI Fridays for a £4.00 pint of beer and then we went to Fire and Stone in Covent Garden for a half price meal on our taste card. Yep you enjoy it more when its cheaper.. and it was lovely!!

We had our desert over at Haagen Daz where we had three scoops, Mmmmm

We then made our way back to Derwent6 as Bernie and Sarah were going back home in the evening. We had a quick drink there before we said our goodbyes..

It has been lovely having them but our livers need a rest lol.. No! as you can see we had so much fun.. We sorted out Derwent6 and relaxed a bit before crashing into bed...

Theatre and Tanked up, (not a good Idea)

While Sarah was with us she wanted to take the opportunity to go and see a show, and as Bernie wasn't too keen it was a good chance for Al to go with her.. So we got up and set of early to the discount ticket booths in Leicester Square.. We stood in the queue for ten minutes and then thought we might just try the theatre first, as Al had an inkling that being a Monday they might have standby tickets. Well what a stroke of luck as some spare tickets had become available in the front row and were on sale for twenty five pounds, a fifty pound saving.. Overjoyed, Sarah and Al were happy and Del and Bernie had beer time (maybe not a good idea). We all then got the tube over to Camden Market and grabbed a bite to eat as soon as we could..

Mmmm African Curry, with banana chutney, you've got to try it.....delicious!

We then all walked round the market taking in all it's glory, the girls loved it, the boys feet were very sore and more beers were taken on board in the sunshine (not a good idea, but lovely) while the girls carried on..

They even went and had their feet sorted by fish.

We then went back to Leicester Square and more beers were drunk (great idea at the time), while we waited for friends Zoe and Greg to join us. It was lovely to see them, and as they were going to the show Godspell, we all decided to go for eats first.

We walked up to a place called Salsa and they got us a lovely table again, outside. Yes you've got it more drinks and Mojitos thrown in (not a good idea, but very lovely). We had a lovely meal and used our taste card to cut the cost in half, touch!
From there we all said our goodbyes and Zoe and Greg went to Godspell and Al and Sarah went to see the Bodyguard..

Del and Bernie had a few drinks, first at Charing Cross, then at Leicester Square and after another two pubs ended up in Soho (of course). But guess what, it wasn't a good idea because by the time the girls came out of the show Del was out of his tree.. First Al and Sarah had to find Del and Bernie then get them home to Derwent6, tricky when Del was seeing three routes to take home.

Some how they did and a quick burger was had on the way home, and brought up again by Del, and by the time he got inside Derwent6 he crashed on the bed..... Hmmmm sore head in the morning comes to mind......The next day we read in the Evening Standard that part of Camden Market had burnt down at 7.00pm that night causing £10.000 pounds worth of damage, OMG!..

Eats, Drinks and Ripping Yarns

Hmmm where do we start, this has been a very hectic last few days, which is why blogging has been difficult..
On the Sunday we all got up quite early, still recovering, and managed some breakfast out in the cratch.

We all then went out for a stroll in the fantastic sunshine to Little Venice so Bernie and Sarah could get their bearings..

We then hopped on a bus to Trafalgar Square so we could take in the sunshine and the views..

We then walked to the dead centre of London, Charing Cross and then on up to Leicester Square where we went to the pub Moon on the Water..

We had a lovely spot out in the sunshine and it was difficult to pull ourselves away..

We then went back to Paddington and had a lovely meal outside watching the boats at Zizzi's.

You thought we might have stopped there, but all a bit merry, we then got the tube to Tower Hill.

We had organised a Jack the Ripper tour, something we normally just don't do, and found our guide in the nick of time.. Ken works as a Beefeater at the Tower of London and knew everything there was to know about Jack the Ripper.

The tour took us down Whitechapel, Brick Lane and Petticoat lane and we've got to say we loved it. We learnt so much about London in 1888 and some of it is very clear to see, you just need to know where to look.. We very much recommend it..
We then found a Wetherspoons and rested our legs overlooking Tower Bridge in lights till we built up the energy to get the tube back to Derwent6.

Happy Birthday Al

To my Gorgeous Al..

Have very Happy 21st Birthday

Love Del  

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

(p.s. Love you more)

 

 

 

 

So we got up in the morning and Al opened her presents from Del and we put up all her cards.. We then went out for a walk to Oxford Street where Del brought her some new sunglasses.

We had some Lunch in St Christopher's Place and then made our way back to Derwent6 to meet David and Hannah at Paddington (Bear) Station.

We then went over to The Grand Union Pub to watch the football on the big screen.. We got a spot out in the sunshine and soon downed a few glasses of beer before Al opened her present, another charm for her bracelet .

It wasn't long before Terry and Ron turned up with more presents, and then Bernie and Sarah who were going to stay with us for a few days.

We all watched Arsenal win the FA Cup and the celebrations started, well except for David as Del had won a fiver off of him for Arsenal's win...

The cake arrived and after few more beers we made our way over to Hard Rock Café using our priority seating card to jump the queue. Here we were met by Maxine and Graham who had also travelled up from Kent, a lovely surprise.

As you can imaging we had good food, good music and a few more beers.. We said our goodbyes to them all and we got back to Derwent6 at 12.30am, and after a coffee and a bit of Birthday Cake we crashed out..



London Town

We left early again this morning and made our way into Little Venice, it was busy with boats and we took it nice and easy, so as not to wake the wildlife.

We got to the water point and there was a boat on the moorings so we waited for them to finish.

A boat came the other way so Del backed Derwent6 out of the way and instead of coming past us they pulled along side the boat getting water. A bit rude we thought! 

They then jumped on the boat they had just moored against and tied up to it on the bow knocking down their gas locker with a bang!. A bit more rude we thought.. They then took the piss by jumping on the boats roof and tying their centre rope to the moored boat and back on theirs....without saying a word!  Del was still holding Derwent6...  The last straw was when they then got out their Elsan and plonked it on the moored boats roof so that another member of the crew could slide it across and empty it..  Del moved Derwent6 forward..
"Have you guys got any Manners?" he shouted... "I moved to let you through and you have pushed in front of us, and you have clambered all over that guys boat with no respect what so ever" "Oh Sorry, we won't be long" was the reply from the girl on the tiller..  "Oh you have got some manners then" Del shouted back.. Wonder what would have happened if it was Derwent6 they were clambering over..lol

We filled with water once everyone had got out of the way and then made our way into the basin.

We met up with Doug and James on n.b Chance who had tipped us off that they were coming out today. Touch! 

We moored up and then were treated to coffee and a cake and a good catch up with Doug, James and their friend Olly...(Olly kindly took the photo!)

They had to leave at 11.30am so we said our goodbyes but not before handing back their knife which we still had from last year, we hope to catch up with them later..

We then decided to go into town and went to Oxford Street so Del could get Al's Birthday present for tomorrow, and we also brought her present from her Mum and Dad. Two lovely new beads for her Pandora bracelet.

We ended up in Carnaby Street where Al managed to get herself on the CNN News on a report about the World Cup..

We then made our way back to Derwent6 in the lovely sunshine..

Funny as it was, we had some McDonalds vouchers where we could get a full meal for £1.99 and they run out tomorrow, so we used them.. Now we are in London, do we go out tonight or not....
Well of course we did..

We ended up having a walk around to suss out the new places and ended up in a bar (of course) where we mixed in with a crowd on a firms leaving do.. Hmmm got back late!

Waterway to London

We were excited about moving into London so we set off early from Uxbridge. As we got to Cowley Peachy Lock we were met by a wide beam coming out of the lock, while Tom on the coal boat was waiting to go in..

The wide beam came out and had a bit of a tight fit under the bridge and we followed Tom on n.b. Ash in.

He pulled over waiting for a delivery and we cruised on to Bulls Bridge with no other boats around.

It was strange that we had the whole place to ourselves, the skies were busy though with these three going to Heathrow.

 The turn into the Regents Canal was straight forward and we still hadn't met any other boats.

Its a slow going stint with moored boats but who cares we've got all day.

We got to Northolt before we met someone and it was so pleasant in the lovely sunshine, waving to people on their lunch break..  We got to the North Circular Aqueduct and were pleased to be traveling on the cut and not on the roads.

We got to the moorings at Kensal Green and pulled over in a nice spot where we could get a good telly signal.

Worn out from the sun we chilled for the evening, though Del did get a London haircut before bed..