Well - it's the start of day three and we're off to the Camden Market later this morning. A day of alternative fashion for the fashion conscious ... i.e. Kerrie and the boys.

Yesterday was a day to get our bearings and see the major landmarks. It was fun at times but we definitely learnt something about how to enjoy and not enjoy our time here. The bus tour was generally unsatisfying. We enjoyed some nice moments on the upper level in the open but most of the time the tour seemed to rush past anything interesting and linger outside shopping presincts that to my eye looked much the same as they do anywhere else in the world. It did it's job though and we know we need to go back and see Covent Gardens, Charingcross and the Fleet Street area in more detail.

The train ride into town was a great way to see Londoners going about there lives. London itself is an impressively devloped place. It's serves up it's beauty in a presecion of parks, palaces, statues and museums. The river and the street scapes are amazing and you get a sense of history unlike anything we're used to in Australia. The part I like best though is that it's a busy, functioning city.

We hated Oxford Street. It was nothing like what we had imagined but we headed off the beaten path and found the back streets full of surprises. The Wallace Collection is a private art collection that had us boys entertained with it's collection of medieval armour and renaissance art. Kerrie found her shop for tall people (I kid you not) and made some purchases. We had a curry and a beer and made our way up to Marlybone Road for the ride back through town and across the river to the Tower. The Tower of London was eye opening and the graffiti from the sixteenth century a memory to keep (more than the Crown Jewels which they still guard here). Not a nice place but important to see and full of lessons.

Near the Tower we saw a remnant of the old wall and it was around there that you got a sense of how old this place is. The other place that happens is when you look at the river.

The photo's are of Kerrie playing with the phone near Westminster (we couldn't resist), Luke thinking he could sneak off the Horse Parade grounds with out being noticed (the Horse Parade being a spectacle neither of the boys could see any sense in),  Josh and Luke looking at Big Ben and lastly, that fantastic view from London Bridge towards the East.

The day ended with take away Thai, a few pints and a nice Italian white back at the flat. The debrief was awesome. We all fell asleep at about 9pm .... dead to the world.

Cheers

Frank