It was beginning to look at lot like Christmas in the UK when we finally returned. Obviously Christmas means winter time over there and this signalled our last few weeks in Europe and the UK.
There was no way we were waiting around to see how cold it gets there, no offence! Plus, I was beginning to think about spending precious budget money on some nice winter clothes; my north face jacket and one remaining glove just were not cutting it in the London fashion stakes.
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| My Beefeater tour of the London Tower |
We spent a lot of quality time in London with Tom and Fausta, touring the city in the day while they were at work and having lovely dinners together in their warm Muswell Hill apartment at night. They put up with us: living rent-free in their spare room, doing our washing every other week, forcing them to watch horrible 3D movies starring Sandra Bullock and leaving our bags while we visited other places.
Most importantly, they allowed us to use their wifi to download precious and much anticipated Survivor episodes.
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| Brad´s birthday movie, Gravity 3D (Fausta slept the whole way through it) |
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| The baby bump! |
While Brad was waiting for his Brazilian Visa (damn Australian passport always holding us back AND costing us an arm and a leg. Thanks again for being British, daaaad!) we made the trip to the Roman Baths in Bath - they were spectacular.
To be honest, I really felt like going for a dip myself it was that bloody cold! The place has been kept in perfect condition and you can really imagine what it would have been like all those years ago. Plus, they have a lady dressed in traditional Roman get-up wandering around, so you know it´s authentic.
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| Roman Baths, ready to take a dip |
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| The tea rooms in Bath, totally worth getting drenched and lost for... |
Congratulations London underground, you are the lucky winner of: ´Brad and Kath´s award for best public transport network visited on the trip (and definitely better than anywhere in Australia)´. You also win the prize for ´the most expensive public transport used´ and the ´most times a card top-up was required´. Seriously, it was amazingly easy to get around London. I am sure the fact that it was all finally in English had absolutely nothing to do it with it...
We tried to visit all the big names. To name a few: Big Ben, the London Tower (which pretty much used up our whole daily budget at 21 pounds each, West End to see Matilda (another budget killer), Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. The highlights were the Beefeater tour of the London Tower and seeing Matilda at the West End.
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| So much excitement |
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| London Bridge |
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| Big Ben |
Just when we thought the city couldn't get any prettier, the Christmas lights were turned on. It was magical, I couldn't get enough. A winter Christmas is something very different from our Aussie Christmas.
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| Beautiful Christmas on Oxford Street, London |
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| Christmas window displays, London |
By the time we arrived in Scotland, we were so tired of moving around that we decided to only visit Edinburgh and Glasgow. The temperature ranged from about 0-7 degrees while we were there and we had to force ourselves to leave the comfort of our warm accommodation.
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| Edinburgh - a post overnight bus hike. Talk about enthusiasm! |
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| The Queen´s room on the Royal Yacht, Edinburgh |
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| The Scotch Whiskey Distillery, Edinburgh |
In Edinburgh we visited the Royal Yacht Britannia, the Whiskey Distillery, Arthur´s Seat and the newly opened Christmas Markets. The Royal Yacht was really interesting, seeing how the Queen decorated everything to her own taste - we even saw into her room!
Her and the Duke both had separate rooms and offices, with phones connecting each so they never had to walk the 2 metres to speak face to face if they didn't want to. How fabulous. We really enjoyed the hearty winter foods and mulled wine/cider (the mulled beer not really worth writing home about).
Thank goodness we were only there for a week or we may have come back with some extra padding (Tom and Fausta's scales were a bit out of whack, right?!).
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| In the sailor´s bar, on board the Royal Yacht |
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| Edinburgh Christmas Markets, opening night!!! |
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| Arthur´s Seat, Edinburgh |
In Glasgow we were lucky enough to stay with a young Scottish couple who showed us around the city. We visited the oldest pub, the university and the Christmas markets. It was great, but bloody freezing!
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| Freezing in Glasgow |
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| Christmas in Glasgow! |
We spent our last night in London at a lovely Italian restaurant with Tom and Fausta. You know it's going to be good Italian when Fausta recommends it. We enjoyed some wine and great food (mozzarella flown in from Italy, if you don´t mind) and then tried to take some flattering photos together with the self-timer on the camera.
This proved very difficult, as you´ll see. We were very sad to say goodbye to Tom and Fausta, but are very happy to know that we will see them again in Perth soon for a very special wedding.
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| The best one we got, and it´s fuzzy...I mean really. Brad is wondering why we spent all of his frequent flyer points on the camera. |
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