LONDON
Days 2 and 3
In the morning of our second day we leisurely wandered over to the British Airways London Eye, a gigantic Ferris wheel (below) on the banks of the Thames. The ride was fantastic! The huge carriages are fully enclosed by glass walls and the whole thing moves so slowly that you don't really have the impression to be moving until you see the views. And the views are great! London sprawls before you in all directions. We thoroughly recommend taking a turn.
After the ride we decided to see what the Change of Guard at Buckingham Palace was like. We walked down this road, 'The Mall', bedecked with Union Jacks (and I thought the French were patriotic! They are nothing compared to the Londoners). This is looking towards Buckingham Palace.
When we arrived before the palace the guards had just entered so if there was a procession we missed it. They didn't do much while we were there, two of them wandered around the compound marching while the band played. This day they started with 'How deep is your love' but John told me that the previous day it had been music to James Bond. Half of the guard were in red and the newer arrivals were in black, a bit like a black army uniform and totally different to the red one. I have no idea what happened to the black uniformed guys because we got bored and left (they really weren't doing anything except providing a free concert) and when we passed again later in the afternoon the guards were again wearing red. Close up in the guard boxes before the palace, there is one guard on each side of the entrance (I always had the impression that they guarded the compound from the outside but no they stand right next to the palace which is a good 30-50 metres away), these red guards look like toy soldiers.
Since Troll's sister wanted a plastic Harrods' bag and his mum some 'real tea' we decided to hit two birds with the one stone. Dressed in 'holiday' clothes for walking we casually entered the store. The first thing that came to mind was that the general inside appearance recalled Paris' Les Galleries Lafayette (a similar type of store) and the fact that there seemed to be more tourists than locals shopping there. For those of you in Oz, the best I can do to describe it is to think of a David Jones but a bit classier. There is a memorial to Princess Di and Dodi which is the only thing in the store that you are allowed to photograph but since I have selective reading skills, below is a picture of a part of the Egyptian Staircase (lower ground floor/food court level). After carefully selecting the tea (it's in a nice souvenir Harrods box too) we left and went and had lunch in Hyde Park.
The side of Harrods facing Brompton Road and one of the store's corners (right). I think I missed the one that was famous (or at least used in the post cards). 'Harrods' is vertically written here but I think it must only really be visible by night.
After lunch and a wander through Hyde Park, we caught the underground to Baker Street and made our way to number 221B and the Sherlock Holmes museum (below). The blue plaque reads '221b Sherlock Holmes consulting detective'.
The museum is made up to on first floor to look like Sherlock Holmes bedroom and lounge and you can have you your photo taken with either him or Dr Watson. Below is the great detective with the good doctor :)
The second and third floors are devoted to various scenes and weapons from the books. There is even a folder of letters (yes people write to Mr Holmes). My favourite was the one from Inland Revenue (the tax office and on their letterhead) looking for Mr Holmes current address! All up it's an interesting visit.
We'd assumed that the 'Sherlock Holmes pub' (below) was also on or near Baker Street but when we made enquires we found that it was actually at Charing Cross! We didn't go there immediately but decided to check out their fish and chips which turned out to be pretty good!
Inside it is crammed with Sherlock memorabilia and while we didn't eat in the restaurant upstairs, we heard that there is a replica of Sherlock's lounge room there.
Anyway, after our visit to the museum we caught the underground to the 'Little Venice' area. It's supposedly the 'most romantic part of London' but is really a glamorous name for a lake at the intersection of the Grand Union and Regents canals so it was a little disappointing.
The Little Venice
The Grand Union Canal.
The parts of the canals, especially Regent's Canal, nearest to Little Venice are however very pretty and after a stroll around the lake we decided to follow Regent's Canal.
The picture below turned out to be the prettiest part of this canal, there were only a few boats in one or two other areas, and so when we arrived near Regent's Park we crossed over and wandered there a bit instead. 
This pretty winged lion thing is somewhere in Regent's Park.
Eventually we found an underground station and went back to Kensington Gardens (the other half of Hyde Park) to see the statue of Peter Pan which we'd seen marked on one of our maps. Here he actually looks like a boy and not a pointy eared pixie.
After all this is when we had dinner in the Sherlock Holmes pub, a brief walk in Soho's Chinatown and then bed.
The following day found us in a rent-a-car touring the South-East's Wiltshire and only returning to London in the evening after.
Arriving back in London again for our last night in England, we took a moonlit stroll along the banks of the Thames. It was very pretty with the monuments like Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament glowing golden in the night's black velvet. We walked all the way to the Tower Bridge (which happens to be the only one of my night time shot attempts to have actually worked) before making our way back to the hotel near Westminster. It would have been very romantic except that it was so cold!
For our last day in London we pottered around in St James Park, the Soho and Trafalgar Square before sitting by the banks of the Thames listening to street buskers and waiting to catch the Eurostar back home.
