So here I am sitting in the Eurostar lounge waiting for the train to Paris.  This is the end of our 8 ½ days in London,  which has been a great start to our holiday.  Josh has recovered from jet lag, both he and Luke are looking more European and all of our bags are slightly heavier.

The main highlights of the trip – everything was memorable, so to make sure I remember them all, here was our itinerary.

Day 1 – exploring Greenwich and settling in.  Walked through the Greenwich market, and university in the morning beform heading up Greenwich park to the observatory on what was an unseasonably warm afternoon, lots of people were out catching some Vitamin D after a cold winter.  The observatory is where they set Greenwich Mean Time from and where the zero is set for longitude.  

Day 2 – I have blogged about this already. A highlight for me was finding Chiltern St and Long Tall Sally, exploring the back streets of Northern London. 

Day 3 – also blogged about this Camden market

Day 4 - my birthday – a great day

Day 5 – took a ferry up the Thames to Westminster.  I really enjoyed exploring London from this river that just oozes history and signs of its former life as a major transport artery and lifeline for London.  It still is a working river, however, the many warehouses and abandoned power stations/cargo buildings stand idle, are revamped into apartments or if lucky, into amazing new spaces such as the Tate Modern. 

We sailed right past Big Ben as it struck 12 noon, a surprisingly haunting experience that gave me goose bumps.  We alighted right under Big Ben and walked to the south side of the river and found a warm and delightful Italian restaurant for lunch.  From here we meandered along the southbank walkway to the Tate Modern where we spent a good 3 hours before walking  across the  Thames again along the Millenium bridge which is also known by locals as the wobbly bridge because two days after it was opened by the Queen it was closed and the city spent millions more on ‘stopping it from wobbling’.  Now on the East side of the river we walked straight into St Pauls and went inside.  This was the only church we went into in London and it was magnificent. 

  Our day finished finding a cosy little pub just around the corner called the old Watling, and it was the pub that Christopher Wren worked from designing St Pauls, what a find, it was so cosy we stayed for dinner.

Day 6 – Harry Potter!  Yes we got tickets before we left to visit the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden about  1 ½ hours from London via coach.  This tour has only been opened 3 days.  It is fantastic, better than I thought it might be, you walk in the great hall and along Diagon Alley, see so many of the amazing set,  props and costumes that were actually used in the filming.  Well worth visiting.  Frank spotted Russell Crowe on our way out, apparently he brushed right past me with his son in tow alas my very mild star spotting superpower escaped me so he was spared a conversation with Kerrie-Anne from Blackburn.  Watch out for Josh's blog.

Day 7 - street art tour - a great alternative walking tour of London's East End - see Luke's blog.

Day 8 - Richmond and Petersham Nurseries Cafe . (Written by Frank from here on) ... The day started with a panic when we realised our lunch booking was for the day before. It's not easy to get a booking in the first place and with new chef Greg Malouf having taken it over we we're seriously worried that we might not get in again. Kerrie's atempts at getting another booking paid off though and so we got ourselves ready, left the boys behind for a day to themselves and headed off. The trip out was over ground on the national line so we got to see Putney and other suburbs. Once in Richmond we walked along the Thames to the turn off to Petersham (about 30 minutes) and searched for any signs of a Nursery. Evenyually down a thin winding laneway we came upon the entrance and found the tea rooms down the back. It was just as we'd hoped. Dirt floors, staff in gum boots or blundstones, gourgeous old tables scattered throughout the green house. We had a fantastic lunch and got to meet Greg Malouf who was ten days into his stint after Sky Gingal resigned. His family hadn't yet moved and he was still coming to terms with the new surrounds. You could tell he felt he had some work to do but as far as we were concerned that was one of the best lunches we'd ever had. It was stillSky's menu but Greg was certainly having an influence. The Parsnip mash with Rabbit and Chorizohas left me craving it for days. Check out the photo's.

And - once agina we finished the day at the Kings Arms for a few pints, some cards and an early dinner somewhere in Greenwich.

Here's some street art by Tigger. A kings crown of modern day commodoties.