London ......at last!

I'm writing this perched on a bar stool in a typical English pub which just happens to be the ground floor of the old building where we are living on the 4th floor. After a day of earning many points in the 'Perfect Tourist Awards' we are having a drink and pub meal before staggering up the four narrow flights of stairs to our room. But I am getting ahead of myself......

For future reference -Airbnb - Borough Market/London Bridge/Shard Greater London - the host is Mario

Air travel is a never ending source of surprises and our trip to London was no exception. We should have known that things may not go so well when most of the computers at check-in were down. And then there was a 3 hour delay at Kuala Lumpur which meant we flew out at the equivalent of 5.15am Melbourne time with no chance of sleeping. I'm sure there is an interior design firm which specialises in creating chairs for the airports of the world that make it impossible to sleep at all! To compensate us we were given a sandwich and bottle of water as we boarded. The final indignity was that we discovered, just as we boarded the plane. that we were seated on opposite sides of the plane and in completely different rows! It's a mystery! But I am waiting to see how the flight home goes before writing one of my 'famous' letters of complaint: (I can imagine my girls cringing at the thought!).

With not a moment to waste, and despite a lack of sleep we set off to begin a flurry of sightseeing.

Firstly a train trip to Kings Cross to deposit the luggage for a few hours.

After admiring the new impressive ceiling and resisting having a photo taken at Platform 9 3/4 we found a cute bakery for a STRONG cup of coffee.

Feeling somewhat revived we checked out St Pancras Station and were surprised to see an enormous statue of a farewell kiss.It commemorates the many farewell kisses that occurred over many decades as members of the military farewelled their families at St Pancras. beautiful workmanship and poignant scenes depicting many aspects of war around the base. Ewan was very amused to see one of them included a woman looking at a mobile phone as she hugged her soldier. Obviously designed to commemorate both modern and previous wars!

St Pancras is a beautifully ornate building

 For our sightseeing experience of the day we deiced to wander around the British Museum for a few hours, which hardly does justice to the size of the place. We managed to see most of the' must-sees' but we barely touched the surface of the extensive collections. The Egyptian display was stunning: the Rosetta Stone, statues of Gods and creatures and of course, the mummies , were enthralling. Although it's important to remember that many of these antiquities were not exactly acquired with permission from the country from which they originated. The large number removed from the Parthenon must surely mean there is nothing left! 

We finally ran out of steam and headed back to pickup our luggage and locate the AirBnB accommodation we had booked in Borough, on the south side of the river. It was easy to find and in a great location: across the road from the Borough market which is a very upmarket food market. After empanadas from an Argentinian stall we collapsed into bed very early!

your exhausted correspondent

Dianne