The first thing I noticed about London was that the cars were being driven on the left side of the road which was the first time we had seen that since leaving Adelaide. It felt strange.
The second thing I noticed was that Earl's Court was an area where there were plenty of Australians since several windows had Australian flags hanging in the breeze.
Our first target in London was the London Eye (also called the Millennium Wheel). It is like a gigantic ferris wheel except that when you are at the top it's higher - about 130m from the ground. We did it at night and saw Big Ben lit up nearby as well as the rest of the city as we went to the top. (I didn't really see Big Ben strike 10 but I thought it made a good headline.) Then we walked across the bridge and saw a man playing the bagpipes in the cold wearing a kilt. I gave him some money for his busking and then Daddy took a photo of me beside him.
On our second day, we visited the Tower of London which doesn't really look like a tower because it's not that tall. It is one of the Queen's palaces and we went on a tour with one of the yeoman warders - the guards. We heard all about the really gory deaths of nobles and royal family members, even queens. Henry VIII had his wife Anne Boleyn beheaded there. We were told a man from France did the job and was so good that her lips were still moving when he held up her head - gross.
Another good story was about the ravens that live in the tower grounds. There is a legend that the kingdom will fall if the six ravens ever leave the tower. They all have been given names and there are actually nine ravens at the tower - so the six plus three extra. I guess the queen is taking no chances. In fact, I counted 11 so I reckon she has the situation under control.
There were lots of cool buildings to look at on our tour of the tower and most of the buildings contained weapons, armour and lots of good stories. It was a fun morning.
In the afternoon we went into Oxford St to look at shops. That wasn't as much fun as the tower but I at least made sure I went to all the toy sections in the department stores.
The next day we went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. There were lots of people there and it was a bit of a crush outside the gates so I got on Daddy's shoulders and had the best view. We walked across to see Queen Victoria's memorial but we didn't stay for the whole changing of the guard because it started to rain and so we walked back to the tube stop.
On our final day, Mama decided she wanted to see Notting Hill - for those of you who don't know there was a movie called Notting Hill and Mama loves it and so did I when I was little. Anyway, we looked through the markets and then went for a walk to find a tube stop but instead we decided to catch a double decker red London bus. Daddy and I sat upstairs right at the front. We went to the Camden Markets and had a quick walk around before deciding to go back to our hotel and get ready for the journey home.
Not long to go.
Mac
MILKSHAKES
When we went to the Camden Markets we dropped into a little cafe and had the best milkshake. It was rich and creamy and cold and I rated it a six out of seven. The only bad thing about it was that it was just a little too thick.
On our last afternoon we went to a little cafe in Earl's Court that produced a creamy milkshake that was a little slack on the chocolate flavouring but otherwise was very good. I thought it worthy of five and a half.
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