MEMORIES OF OUR 2008 OVERSEAS TRIP TO THE UK, ICELAND & PARIS

Day 1 Our Emirates flight left Brisbane airport at 8.05pm on Monday 23rd June. Because it was a week day and we would be travelling to the airport in peak hour, we decided that it would be easiest for everyone if we just took the airtrain. It worked out really well as we left the car at the train station so that Sally could have a way of getting home in the afternoon and we gave ourselves plenty of time without having to worry about traffic. When we were getting off the train at the International Terminal, there were two ladies in the carriage who were obviously going to the domestic terminal. As we were getting off they asked us if we were going anywhere ‘exotic’. When we told them we were going to Iceland they just about fell off their seats! I think it was then that I realised that we were really going somewhere really different – very cool! After we checked our luggage in at the airport, we had a good old wander around. Airports – especially international ones – are great when you are the ones travelling (horrible when you are just there to say goodbye to someone else). We gravitated into the duty free shop to buy our two bottles of alcohol each (although three of them were for the kids, as well as a bottle of raspberry vodka for me). We also bought a really nice little Olympus digital camera for John (which as it turned out was a bit of a pain for me because suddenly there were all these photos of me appearing in our holiday snaps. Previously as the primary photo taker I was always able to actually take the photo rather than being in them but now I had no choice!). While we were in the duty free shop we got a phone call from Therese and Pat wishing us a good holiday which was really special. It made us realise how much we were going to miss our family and friends but also would make it easier to return home at the end of our journey. Before we knew it we were on the plane and heading off to London via Singapore and Dubai – a very long and exhausting trip. Not so bad though when you are heading TO a place, as the excitement of what is ahead keeps you fired up (sucks on the way home though).

Day 2 Having gained a day on the way here we are now back in London – our favourite city in the whole world!!! This time we opted to stay at the Ibis Euston. We stayed here before back in 1995 and it is still pretty much the same. But it’s clean and just around the corner from the Euston train station and about 10 minutes walk to St Pancras Station where we needed to go when we caught the Eurostar to Paris towards the end of our holiday. We didn’t get to our hotel until nearly 3pm so we spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around Euston and crashed reasonably early that night so that we would be wide awake and raring to go the next morning.

Day 3 What an awesome day we had today. On Sally’s recommendation we took a tube train to Camden station and went to the Camden Markets. They are absolutely fantastic – even John enjoyed them so they must have been good. We didn’t buy a huge amount of stuff but we did buy Sally a Camden track top and London t-shirt and John spent quite a lot of time choosing just the right caps for Rob, Pat and Brian. And of course he bought another one for himself – a grey felt Kangool cap which made him look rather dashing. All that was missing was an MG sports car and a long flowing scarf! After lunch we wandered down to the Camden Lock where we booked ourselves on to a canal boat ride. It only cost us £8.50 for a ride which lasted over two hours and took us all the way along Regent’s Canal and down to Little Venice, before turning back and returning the same way back to Camden.  

That night we were so tired that we went to Harry Ramsden’s Fish and Chip Shop (where can be purchased the most delicious beer battered fish complete with chips and mushy peas) inside Euston Station and took a takeaway back to the hotel. After scoffing our first class meal, we had a shower and crashed! 

Day 4 Another awesome day! This time we really played tourists. Having done extensive research on the internet before our trip, I booked us on an Evan Evans tour to Leeds Castle, Canterbury and Dover. One small glitch at the beginning of the day was that we were to be picked up at our hotel but as it turned out we were actually supposed to get to the bus terminal at Victoria Station to catch the bus. We only found this bit of information out about 25 minutes before we were supposed to be at the bus station but, with the help of a great London cabbie and not a lot of traffic, we did make it.  

First stop was Leeds Castle which was really beautiful. The inside of the house was very lovely but the gardens were the most spectacular. I was just sorry we didn’t have more time to wander around. We didn’t get a chance to go into the maze or to the bird aviary before we had to be back on the bus for our next destination…Canterbury.

 

We had actually been to Canterbury before but we hadn’t spent much time there. This time we spent the majority of our time in and around the Cathedral, made especially interesting after talking to one of the resident guides. He would have been well into his 70s and was an absolute font of knowledge. He seemed quite taken with us and we chatted for well over half an hour, with him telling us the story of Thomas Beckett and then he actually took us down into the crypt which is not usually open to the public. It was really quite spooky and it had this ghostly feel about it. He also showed us the place where he thinks the actual bones of Thomas Beckett could be buried. We felt quite privileged to be taken down here and we thanked our new friend very much at the end of our ‘private’ tour. 

 The last place to stop on our day tour was the port of Dover. Again, we had been there before and was where we caught the ferry over to Calais in 1995. The ferries are still running and the white cliffs are quite impressive. We only spent about half an hour there and that was enough really. 

Day 5 The day we went on our cruise! We were quite excited about this as it was the first time we had ever been on a cruise and the thought of going to Iceland and all of the out of the way islands made us feel a bit like explorers! 

We found our way to the Victoria coach terminal without a problem and lined up with all of our fellow passengers ready to be loaded onto one of the coaches bound for Tilbury where the “Marco Polo” was berthed. Thank the Lord we were able to get on the coach was all I could say, as up until the Thursday before we left on our tour there was no place for us and we were going to have to make our own way there. But…thanks to our intrepid Flight Centre person Kerri-Ann she was able to get us on a coach both before and after our cruise. It was a very rainy day in London and Tilbury ended up being about an hour away so it was very nice to be able to just sit on the coach and chill out and let the driver wend his way through all the traffic and pouring rain. 

 The “Marco Polo” was a lot bigger than we expected and our cabin (#308) was on the sixth deck (the same one as the restaurant). It was very comfortable and great to be able to unpack and settle in rather than having to live out of suitcases. We didn’t spend too long in our cabin after unpacking as we wanted to explore the ship and then make our way to the front deck when we set sail – which we did. Most of the passengers on the ship turned out to be pommies and a large percentage were quite a lot older than us, but we didn’t care as we were here for the adventure and not to party or socialise. It was really exciting to sail down the Thames and we stayed there until we got out into the open ocean. And besides, there were bars on board which offered a large variety of drinks which needed to be sampled. The cocktails were on my ‘hit list’ – they were really inexpensive and I vowed to make my way down to the bottom of the list by the time we got to the end of our cruise! Our dinner in the restaurant that night was ‘casual dress’. We were allocated a four seat booth next to the window and this was to be our permanent table for dinner for the duration of the cruise – and thank goodness for that. We were paired up with the most delightful couple, Steve and Mona (who fortunately were our age) and we had a lot of great meals together. Many nights we were the last to leave the restaurant we were having so much fun talking and laughing.

Day 6 Our first full day at sea. Of course the novelty hadn’t yet worn off so we had a great old time wandering about the ship, going to the library, sitting in the Captain’s Lounge and having a drink, meeting new people (Carol and Alan were a lovely English couple we met, from Nottingham), watching movies, eating (you could go to either the restaurant for lunch where you could be at a table with anyone – sometimes that was quite enjoyable and other times it was TERRIBLE as there were some awful whingers and/or snobs on the ship which made for a VERY long and indigestible lunch!...or you could go to the buffet which in the end we did pretty much every day as we tried to get a table for two, preferably out on the open deck). John loved going out and just sitting on the deck – especially at night after dinner as he was often the only one (I went to the nice warm cabin and looked out the porthole). John didn’t mind the cold and as we got closer to Iceland it was REALLY cold at night. But during the day we both enjoyed sitting out on deck reading, chatting, or just looking. 

Day 7 We were so excited about our first port of call that we set the alarm nice and early so that we could get up and dressed and head out on to the deck as the ship made its way to the dock. Words cannot describe how magical it was to sail amongst the Orkney Islands as we made our way towards Kirkwall (the capital) where we were anchoring for the day. We grabbed a coffee and stood by the railing of the ship as we passed remote green islands dotted with farm houses, lighthouses, sheep and even the occasional castle.  

After docking it was time for us to set foot on dry land. We booked a shore excursion to Skara Brae and Skaill House. The day was cool and sunny and everything was so incredibly green and beautiful…the lush rolling hills, fields of wildflowers, old farmhouses etc etc We both loved it and agreed that we would like to come back one day, but this time stay for a couple of weeks, hire a car and just explore – but definitely not in winter! We left the Orkneys at 6pm and by 7.30pm the sea was choppy. By the early hours of the morning I knew we were in trouble! Moderate seas had been predicted but these seas were ROUGH… VERY ROUGH!!!

Day 8 I fronted up for breakfast but was feeling a little queasy and by late morning that was it. I headed back down to the cabin and spent the rest of the day in bed. Fortunately I wasn’t physically sick as I had purchased some motion sickness wrist bands before I left and they definitely ended up doing their job as this was the only time I was actually unwell during the whole of the trip. But my God it was rough! The seas were terrifying and the waves were breaking up against the windows while we were having tea (I was feeling OK by then). Straight after tea I went back to the cabin and John went up on deck for over an hour – naturally he didn’t get sea sick at all. I went to bed that night praying for calm seas the next day. 

Day 9 After yesterday’s ordeal I woke up feeling good and when I looked out the porthole we were sailing in amongst the Westmann Islands – we had reached ICELAND!!! We quickly got dressed and headed up to the outside deck and we remained there for nearly two hours where we took in the sights around us…snowcapped mountains, tremendously rugged cliffs rising out of the sea, waves crashing against rocks, hundreds of sea birds flying around the rocks and nesting in the caves and peaks. It was hard to believe we were actually in Iceland – John and Sue Byrne from Petrie!!! Our excursion was due to depart at 10am so we had to make our way to deck 5 to get loaded on to the ‘tenders’ (they are actually the ship’s lifeboats) for the two mile journey to Heimaey (prounounced HAY mah ay). I can honestly say that I have never been more terrified in my life. The water was very rough and the little boat we were packed into with about 150 of our fellow passengers was pitched and tossed something fierce. I was so relieved to reach the shore but the return journey was never far from my mind the whole day (as it turned out it was even rougher than the morning’s crossing and I kept my head buried in John’s lap the whole way back as well as maiming his hand in the process!). The island itself was rugged and beautiful. It was dominated by the remains of the volcanic eruption that occurred back in 1973. We also got to see our first puffins. There were hundreds of them gathered on one of the cliff tops. When we finally returned to the ship I treated myself to a BBC Cocktail in the “Captains Lounge” to calm my shattered nerves. 

Day 10 Reyjavik!! Because our shore excursion wasn’t booked until after lunch, we decided to chill out on the deck and enjoy our beautiful surroundings… After lunch we boarded a bus for our 6½ hour Golden Circle tour, which as expected was amazing. We saw lava fields, craters, huge mountains, hot springs and the breathtaking Gullfoss Waterfall. When we arrived at the waterfall we literally gasped at the absolute magnificence of it. Some of the people on our tour who had been to Niagara Falls reckoned it was more spectacular. We got back to the ship in time to have a drink before tea. The ship sailed at midnight and we stayed up to watch it all. The sunset was stunning – even though it wasn’t until 11.30pm! And then no sooner had the sun set than it started to rise again – at midnight!

Day 11 Grundafjordur (still on the left hand side of the island of Iceland but heading further up towards Greenland). This morning was an early start as the Marco Polo berthed at 7am and our shore excursion to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula left at 8am. The stunning beauty of Iceland still continued to amaze – this time we marvelled at lava beaches and waterfalls cascading down high mountains. We got to walk along high cliffs overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean and abundant with birdlife. The drive back to the ship was along a very high mountain road with sweeping views of the Ocean and beaches below…

 

The ship set sail soon after we returned at lunchtime – this time circumnavigating Iceland and bound for Akureyi (prounounced AK U air ay).

Day 12 The shore excursion we booked on Akuyeyi was one I had really been looking forward to – “Whales and Waterfalls” – and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The tour took all day, with the morning’s highlight being a visit to Godafoss Waterfall – another spectacular scene. We had lunch at the whale watching town of Husavik and then it was time to board one of the beautiful old restored fishing boats for the two mile trip down Skajafandi Bay to look for whales. I don’t think I will ever forget the atmosphere of sailing in the bay, with these huge snowcapped mountains on both sides of us, with the mist rising off the water and the grey skies and sea. It was as if we were in another dimension…  

We sailed passed Puffin Island, and if ever we worried that we wouldn’t see a puffin, that was forever resolved – there were hundreds upon hundreds of them! They were so funny…when the boat got near to where they were floating on the water they tried to take off. But their little bodies were too fat and their little wings flapped like mad but they only managed to bump their way across the water. Some of them gave up and instead ducked down under the water for cover! Very cute. We sailed out for what seemed like an eternity and, suddenly, thar she blows! It was a humpback whale. The camera was working overtime – it was just the most amazing sight. Yes I know we could have gone off the Queensland coast to see whales, but nothing could compare to this setting and the fact that we were actually in Iceland looking at whales!  

We stayed with the whale for quite some time and it was getting on to around 4pm before we headed back to the whale watching centre. By then the wind had picked up and the clouds had darkened and it started, not to rain, but to sleet! Both of us to this day say that it was without doubt the coldest we have ever been in our lives. Even the hot chocolate and warm cinnamon buns that were handed around to everyone didn’t make a scrap of difference. When we got back and on to the bus it was about a 30 minute drive to get back to the ship and still I was freezing – teeth chattering, hands and feet totally numb. The only thing that finally thawed me out was a hot shower and several layers of clothing. Despite nearly dying of frostbite, it was still worth it. 

Day 13 Another full day in a very foggy North Atlantic Ocean. All day long the ship’s horn was periodically blowing and I occasionally glanced out to make sure that another larger vessel wasn’t bearing down upon us. I imagined a search and rescue mission in the middle of a vast ocean where we would be floating in the freezing cold waters waiting to be winched to safety by a hovering helicopter. Fortunately that didn’t happen and we spent a pretty undramatic day reading, watching movies, snoozing and chatting with some of our fellow passengers. 

Day 14 Today we arrived in Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. This turned out to be a particular favourite of John and mine and we made plans to one day return and spend a week enjoying fishing and exploring the beautiful countryside. We went on a really terrific shore excursion to the village of Saksun. We passed through rolling green hills and crystal blue water, bubbling brooks, salmon farms, lovely little farm houses with grass on their roofs, cascading waterfalls and fields of wildflowers. It was truly one of the most picturesque places I have ever seen.  

  The Marco Polo sailed away from the Faroes at 5pm bound for the Shetland Islands. Little did we know what was in store…we hadn’t sailed very far when the ship started to rock and roll. If we thought that our earlier rough night was rough, by comparison that was actually balmy. It was frightening! At dinner that night, on the sixth deck, the waves were actually crashing up against the windows. So I did the only sensible thing – I closed the curtains so I could at least finish my dinner! We decided to go to the cabaret after dinner with Steve and Mona, and the seas, if anything, only got worse. The poor performers – they were tossed from one end of the stage to the other. At one point, a whole shelf of glasses from the bar at the back of the Marco Polo Lounge (where the cabaret was being held) went crashing to the ground. Trying to walk back to our cabin was an epic adventure and all lined up along the guard rails outside of each row of cabins were sick bag after sick bag (in the morning there were very few left!). Although I was scared, and didn’t end up getting too much sleep because I spent most of the night trying to stop falling out of bed – and fearing that we were all going to sink – I wasn’t seasick. Naturally John snored all night, blissfully unaware of our impending doom.

Day 15 By the time we reached the Shetland Islands the sea had calmed and we were happy to have survived the night. Sadly though the Captain announced that it was too dangerous to get us to shore on the tenders, so we wouldn’t be able to go on to the Shetland Islands. We were very disappointed as that was one place that John had always wanted to go – maybe another time (by air!). We did sail around the Shetlands and it looked very beautiful, but we sailed on to our destination – Tilbury, back in London. There was one unexpected highlight to the day though. The Coastguard air-sea rescue were doing manoeuvres and picked the Marco Polo to be the ‘practice’. The deck was cleared of passengers (but we all ogled from the windows behind the deck) and they lowered a sailor on to the deck, he got off and shook the captain’s hand, then they winched him back up again and flew off (sounds pretty boring but it was pretty cool really).

Day 16 Another day at sea but there were two highlights. The first was a get-together of all the Aussies on board (about 20 of us) in the afternoon on the back deck. We hadn’t even laid eyes on some of these people before, but they turned out to be a pretty nice lot. It was also quite exciting to see all of the oil and gas rigs dotted about the North Sea

. The second highlight was dinner at night. Because it was our last night on the ship, there was a special dessert parade of all the waiters, which was followed by all of the chefs and kitchen staff being introduced to the passengers. The MC also rattled off all of the food that was consumed over the past 14 days, and it was phenomenal! I reckon there must have also been a lot of waste, mainly due to the many greedy passengers who piled too much food on to their plates and then found out they couldn’t eat it all. It was also our opportunity to say a special thank you to our favourite waiter, Sergui who hailed from Romania. He was so lovely – he never forgot our cabin number or what wine we liked. And he had this little utensil that he used to clear our table of crumbs after we had eaten our bread rolls – just a nice extra touch that made us feel special. So on the last night we were able to give him an envelope with some money in it (just for him). Because gratuities are included in the fare, passengers are not required to tip any staff, but Sergui was special and we wanted him to know how much we appreciated him.

We also left an envelope for our cabin steward. We didn’t see her very much, but our cabin was always lovely and clean and there were always fresh towels. The best thing was when we returned from dinner each night our beds were turned down and the lights were dimmed. Definitely worth a tip! 

Day 17 This morning the ship docked back at Tilbury and we had to wait around until we were called to board our bus back to Victoria Station. We had a lot of goodbyes to say, the most special ones being to Steve and Mona and to Carol and Alan. We went back to the Ibis Euston and it was lunchtime before we were settled into our room. We had emails to read and to send and lunch to get and for the rest of the afternoon we just blurbed around getting aready for our trip the next day to Paris. 

Day 18 We were up at the crack of dawn this morning for the 15 minute walk to St Pancras station and our Eurostar train trip to Paris. We grabbed a coffee and muffin at the station while we were waiting for the boarding call and at 6.30 we went up the travelator to the platform where our train was waiting. What a ride!!! At times the train reached speeds of up to 300 kms per hour and the countryside just whooshed by. The English tunnel travel time only lasted about 20 minutes and for the rest of the two odd hours we enjoyed both the English and the French countrysides. 

 Around 10.30am Paris time we pulled into the Gard du Nord train station. After making a pit stop, we gravitated over to the information booth where we purchased two two-day tickets on the open top bus tour. This is absolutely THE best way to see Paris as there are four different routes which take in all of the main sites. And I don’t think that there were any that we missed in our two-day flying visit! The weather was warm and sunny and the tourists were plentiful. Fortunately we had been to Paris before so some of the more popular attractions we were happy to just drive by and take photos rather than lining up for hours to get in. I fell in love with Paris all over again. It has this amazing ‘feel’ about it that you just can’t describe. The history, the beautiful buildings, the parks, the Seine, all the lovely little sidewalk cafes, and the magnificent Eiffel Tower. What a place! Not to mention the romantic French language – only romantic when spoken by a true French person of course. And then you have the likes of my darling John who decided that just about every English word could be made French by adding a ‘le’ or a ‘la’ in front of it! I got pretty ‘la sick’ of it! We did have a bit of a drama trying to find our hotel and it was nearly 5pm by the time we did locate it. We weren’t expecting much – and that’s exactly what we got. Still, the guy on the hotel desk was lovely, the bathroom and toilet were clean and the bed, well the bed was a different story. The mattress was VERY soft and we spent a good deal of our night rolling into the middle and trying to claw our way back to our respective sides. If we were feeling romantic it might have been OK but we were buggered and just wanted to sleep! That night we had our first experience on the Metro. It was very similar to the good old London Tube and we had very little trouble finding our way to the Rue de Rivoli for our “Paris Illuminations” tour which consisted of a lovely cruise along the Seine and then a bus tour back to the Rue de Rivoli passing all of the lit-up buildings. But of course it was the Eiffel Tower that stole the show. Every hour the millions of lights all over it sparkle, but this month to honour the fact that France was heading up the EEC conference the lights were BLUE.

Day 19 After our exhausting and full-on day yesterday, we decided to attack today at a little more leisurely pace. We had a bit of a sleep in and then a lovely continental breakfast (provided as part of our hotel package) of fruit, coffee, croissants, little baguettes with cream cheese, ham and preserves. Very nice – very French. We wandered around the district that our hotel was located in and took heaps of photos of Boulangeries, Fromageries, Cafes and Pattiseries, people moving out of their top floor apartments, and just taking in life in Paris.  

We walked all the way down to the Seine and then along the embankment (stopping periodically to browse the waterfront shops and to simply catch our breath and rest our poor tired legs!). At lunchtime we decided to dine in a French restaurant overlooking the Seine. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Paris – the crepes were divine, the Choc au Lait was thick and creamy, the wine cold and the waiter – ooh la la!!! One last L’Opentop bus ride took us back to the Gard du Nord in the late afternoon for our Eurostar ride back to London. We got back to the Ibis Euston around 8.30pm and were glad to have a nice comfortable night’s sleep!

Day 20 A nice l-o-n-g sleep in was in store for us this morning after a hectic time in Paris. But not for too long as there were places to go and things to do. We decided to take another one of Sally’s suggestions and visit the Burough Markets. We took a tube train to London Bridge Station and walked the short distance to the markets. What an amazing experience it turned out to be. There was every sort of food imaginable and we spent hours wandering around eating samples of everything on offer. After that, we didn’t need lunch! But we did fancy a pint of London ale…so we left the markets and wandered around to the nearest pub where we plonked ourselves down to enjoy our drinks and observe the passing parade. In the late afternoon we booked ourselves on a Jack the Ripper Sinister Tour (again upon Sally’s advice). It started off with a short cruise on the Thames and then we boarded a bus which took us to London’s East End to Whitechapel, the centre of all of Jack the Ripper murders. The guide was excellent – he was a marvellous storyteller and painted a very gruesome picture of what Jack the Ripper did to his victims and also posed some interesting theories on his identity. We also stopped at the spot where Sir William Wallace was hung, drawn and quartered. Even though this occurred in 1305, our guide told us that there has not been a day since when there hasn’t been fresh flowers left here. Apparently on St Valentine’s Day there are heaps of them, but as someone in our tour group did point out – if he looked like Mel Gibson there was no wonder!

This tour was another highlight of our time in London. Thanks again to Sally.

Day 21 Today we went on a full day tour to Bath, Lacock and Stonehenge. Although we had been to Bath before, it was a pleasure to go back as it is such a beautiful place. We spent a delightful couple of hours wandering through the streets and appreciating the architecture, we paid a visit to the Jane Austin Centre (John waited outside – he reckoned he has had enough of Mr Darcy), we wandered down to the canal and lock and of course we walked around inside the Roman Baths – fascinating. Our next stop was in Lacock, where “Pride and Prejudice” was filmed. It was like we walked back into the 1800’s and I kept looking for Mr Darcy around every corner! I could pick a lot of the places in the film and was quite excited about watching it again when I got home. The last place we visited on our day tour was Stonehenge…again. We went there in 1995 and again last year, but this time it was different. Very different. We arrived just as the sun was setting and the gates had been closed to the public. Our group was split into two separate groups. Ours was the second group, so for the first half hour we wandered around the perimeter of Stonehenge and took in the sweeping views of the Salisbury Plains. But for the next half hour we got to walk in amongst the stones and actually touch them. Although we didn’t experience any strange ‘vibes’ it was still quite surreal to be amongst this prehistoric monument and we felt very privileged to be a part of it.

Day 22 Thanks to my pre-trip research, today went like clockwork. John had asked for this day to indulge his passion for war history. He had already been to the London Imperial War Memorial a couple of times, but he had heard about the Duxford Imperial War Memorial in Cambridge and was dead keen to go. So we caught a train from Kings Cross Station (where on the way we spotted Platform 9¾ from all of the Harry Potter books – I got quite excited but John had no idea what it was all about) which took us non-stop to Cambridge. The train ride was so smooth and we arrived in Cambridge forty minutes later. We then caught a bus straight to the door of the War Museum. I was prepared for a very long and very boring day, but it turned out to be quite good. There were five massive aircraft hangers full of every sort of war plane imaginable, all of which had been lovingly restored to their former glory. But the best part was that it had an air strip with planes taking off and landing all day long. At one point the “Liberty Bell” started up her engines, taxied down the runway and actually took off! It was headed to Coventry and after that back to the USA. It was quite exciting really. But the best part of the day for me was seeing the actual ridgy didge “Memphis Belle” (sadly Harry Connick Jnr wasn’t in the cockpit, but one can’t have everything). We spent a full day here and didn’t arrive back in London until quite late. As it was our last night in London, we just had to have our ‘last meal’ of Harry Ramsden’s fish, chips and mushy peas. Better than dinner at the Ritz! 

Day 23 Our last day in London and we spent the day travelling on the open top buses so that we could have one last look around our favourite city. Our plane left Heathrow airport at 8.30pm and it took us 25 very long and tiring hours to get home to Brisbane. What an amazing adventure we had!!