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My holiday

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    My holiday

    Yep, took a short break:

    Day 1.
    Up early to drive to Calais and then get the ferry over to Dover. Nice weather all the way. Found the hotel easily enough, on Lillie Road just along from West Brompton tube station. Outside the congestion zone and a decent price (with car park) for pretty much central London. Walked down to Earls Court Road for a meal and went into a place called Masala Zone which weren't too bad.

    Day 2.
    Up early and down to the tube to get a 3 day anytime travel pass. Got the tuve to Westminster and took a boat trip down to Tower Bridge. I know London pretty well having driven, walked and ridden around it over 35 years but have never seen it from the river. The guide was quite informative and funny and a very enjoyable trip was had. Didn't bother with the Tower as the queue was huge so walked up to Monument to have a look and then onto St. Pauls. From there we caught a bus to Bloomsbury and spent a pleasant afternoon in the British Museum. In the evening went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen which I had been to before so knew the set-up. Had the Habenero Burger. The only downside was they had the air conditioning on pretty high so was a bit drafty. Friendly service though. Back at the hotel we tried the bar but wasn't too good (full of Italian kids playing pool loudly.)

    Day 3.
    Up early and the bus to Regents Park. Strolled through the park and visited the zoo and saw the lion cubs. Pretty full and I thought a bit expensive. Got some good photos of the Meerkats though. No elephants or bears and the gorillas were pretty comatose. Went down into the shopping area and did a spot of bunny hopping and then a couple of beers in Soho. Down to the Kings Roda for a few Frappes in the sun afterwards. Only wanted something cheap and cheerful for the evening so went to O'Neills where a few beers and watching the footie helped unwind.

    Day 4.
    Up early and got the bus up to South Kensington and visited the Wallace and Gromit Inventors exhibition at the Science Museum followed by the Dan Dare British Technology exhibition. Afterwards we strolled over the road to have a leisurely afternoon in the Victoria and Albert as I wanted to have a look at some the 20th century exhibits there. Really fancied an Indian so went to one I had seen just off the Earls Court Road. A real bag of tulip, should have walked out immediately but we braved it.

    Day 5.
    Up really early and the long drive back but still nice weather. Stopped off at Sainsburys in Ashford and filled up the car with stuff.

    Plus:
    Excellent weather, even got sunburnt in Regents Park (admittedly it was 8 degrees hotter in Darmstadt though)
    Prices were pretty good for most things. Hotel was reasonable, food was good, booze was good and shopping was good
    Most people were pretty friendly
    Getting buses instead of the tube was great fun even though we ended up in the wrong place a lot of the time
    Loads of tottie although most seemed to be tourists

    Minus:
    London Zoo was a bit expensive and letdown
    Fags well expensive, lucky I bought 200 with me
    Unfriendly and expensive crap Indian restaurant
    How many shop assistants does Selfridges need? We walked in and out after 10 minutes of being harassed by them
    The amount of Police (and those not-quite-police) and CCTV is unbelievable

    A not too bad short break.
    Brexit is having a wee in the middle of the room at a house party because nobody is talking to you, and then complaining about the smell.

    #2
    Given up on curry now. Everything I've had recently has been cooked to death and has been swimming in ghee. Mind you, where I live they are still the sorts of places used to catering for the local rugby team after pub closing time. So not exactly haute cuisine.

    Comment


      #3
      excellent summary darmy.

      how early is early?

      can we have now a summary of your previous holiday?

      Comment


        #4
        Early is around 8:00.

        Didn't arf do a lot of walking though. Got my missus that walking game for her DS so we were both walking with the little pedometers all the time. One day I managed over 18,000 steps which is more than 6 times my daily average (for Sundays its about 90 times my average.)

        Can't remember my previous holiday but I believe it enjoyed copius amounts of Croatian booze.
        Brexit is having a wee in the middle of the room at a house party because nobody is talking to you, and then complaining about the smell.

        Comment


          #5
          call that early? bah!

          me too - croatia was hot 'n dusty 'n full of germans and the booze came in very big bottles. we were near pula.

          Comment


            #6
            London is great for a holiday - wouldn't like to live there though.

            Comment

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