Photos from the train ride to London

Days 4, 5 & 6

I have had a hectic few days!
On Saturday I caught the train down to London and met up with my friend Ben, who is originally from WA but now lives in Paris. I arrived and Kings Cross station and he asked me to meet him at Paddington station. This required navigation of the dreaded London Underground, but once the Oyster card system had been explained to me I found Paddington alright. Ben and I had lunch, pizza and pasta, in a small Italian restaurant surrounded by many other small Italian restaurants near the entrance to the Paddington underground. We then walked to Hyde Park, and walked around most of Hyde Park. We visited Buckingham Palace and St James Gardens in front of the palace. We then set off to Trafalgar Square, which took a lot of navigating as most of the streets and parks were sectioned off in preparation for the Olympic torch arriving there in a few week's time. Eventually we reached Trafalgar Square, and were most surprised to discover that that particular day was the London gay pride parade. This made for some fascinating viewing, and we were squashed along with the crowd until we found ourselves in the West End. There we stumbled upon M & Ms World. Now, I may just be a total sucker for targeted marketing, but I loves M & Ms, and this place was incredible. I bought a few over-priced presents for friends and family, but the props and statues were worth going in themselves: four floors of M & Ms awesomeness!
After the joy that was M & Ms World we rested up in a nearby Starbucks (I also love Starbucks :D), then Ben bought a last-minute standing ticket for Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre for that night. We then caught the underground to Embankment, which is right on the river Thames. We wandered along the river and in some beautiful gardens around the Savoy Hotel. Then we crossed the Thames on a footbridge and stumbled upon the Festival of the World, which is all a part of the impending Olympics, and at that time consisted of an open-air Welsh choir and an entire crowd singing hymns. We then had dinner at Giraffe cafe (I also love Giraffe cafe :D), which went much longer than expected and Ben had to rush off to his show. I then braved the underground on my own back to Kings Cross and caught a train back to Cambridge, not getting into my room until 11pm, although it was barely dark then.
And that was what I did on Saturday! By the end of the day my feet very sore and quite blistered, but it was completely worth it. It was lovely to catch up with Bent too, and we had a wonderful time tripping around London!

Day Three - Rainy day in Cambridge

It rained last night, a lot! The news this morning warned of possible flooding due to torrential rain across Northern England. Fortunately it didn't actually flood here today, but it might tomorrow!
I've noticed that it stays light here until quite late:

I took these two photos from my window at 7:30 last night - yes: 7:30pm!

And this one is from 9:00 last night:

Fortunately I'm still quite jet-lagged so sleeping isn't too difficult even though it's so light.

Today I went into the city centre again, mostly I shopped; I did enough sight-seeing yesterday to last me a while!
For lunch I had a traditional Cornish pasty:

Inside were a few chunks of beef, lots of potatoe, and some onion and turnip, all deliciously baked in a thick pastry crust, mmmm :D
So if you're ever in Cambridge, I suggest you visit this place:

This shop faces into Market Square, which has a general market (food stalls, fruit and veg stalls, clothing, souvenirs, paintings, jewellery etc) from Monday to Saturday, then on Sunday they have stalls with more arts and crafts stuff.

Great St Mary's church is in the background here

I also went to Cath Kidston :D (the white building), Poll appreciates Cath Kidston ;)

Tomorrow I will be exploring inner London with my friend Ben who is a fellow former-Northcliffean and now lives in Paris :)

Day Two - In and around Cambridge city centre

I slept for fourteen hours last night. When I woke up I felt like I could sleep even longer, but I made myself get up and have breakfast downstairs, which consisted of a croissant, a cup of tea, a large cup of orange juice, porridge with yoghurt, and some fruit. Half way through I realised I didn't have dinner the night before, oops!
I braved public transport on Milton Rd to get into the city where I immediately walked past a Starbucks and had to go in.

For those of you unlucky enough to be Starbucks virgins: it's like a really really good version of Dome, but way more awesome :P
I had a tall special hot chocolate with cream on top :D

Starbucks is awesome :)
But enough about Starbucks.

After Starbucks I found myself on St Andrew's Rd, which is a main road in the centre of Cambridge. I walked around the city centre, had a look in some clothes shops, bought some fudge.

Yes, this is one slice of fudge, minus a bite that I had in the shop :D it tastes amazing, this one is plain vanilla.

I walked past St Catharine's College, where I will be staying from Sunday.

Looks gorgeous, can't wait to stay there :)
I had lunch at Giraffe cafe - I ate at their cafe near the London Eye in 2006 when my auntie first brought me to Europe. It's an incredible cafe; if their food were a genre it would be World! Hot dogs, enchiladas, burgers, coconut encrusted shrimp, nachos, fruit smoothies, hot fudge brownies with home made ice cream, heaps of different cocktails - yet another awesome brand that we don't have in Australia.

My delicious hot dog with chow chow onions, slaw and chips :D


Other photos from around Cambridge:

Everyone cycles here - the cyclists are fearless and hardly ever get run over :S

University of Cambridge Press book shop :D

Cardboard cut-outs of the Queen, and Prince William and Cate outside the Cambridge tourist centre, in case you want a photo with them :P

A huge medieval door.

Another huge medieval door with scary barbed wire over it.

My room at the Arbury Lodge:

Cute things on Arbury Rd

Cute signs, houses etc on Arbury Rd

The guest house that I'm staying at, very nice place :-)

From the plane

Photos from the day I set off, plus some on the planes on the journey here.

Flight no. 1 to Singapore - this is at Perth airport.

Flight no. 2 to Heathrow, London - this is somewhere over the Ukraine before dawn.

Breakfast on an airplane - ten points if you can guess what all items on the tray are :P

Dawn has broken - somewhere over Poland or Germany. At one point I could see lightning flashing inside the clouds below us.