TUESDAY 2nd JUNE

Well, for once the forecasters got it totally right and we awoke to howling winds, rain and 10 degrees! It got no better all day and our drive along the coast turned sour! We paused in Hastings for lunch, with the wind so strong it was blowing foam off the ocean right up into the town!
Suffice to say we didn't see much at all, so we gave up and headed north through more farm land until we stopped just short of Canterbury.
Tomorrow we will have a look at the famous Cathedral and then cross the Thames and head north a bit - probably to Cambridge!

WEDNESDAY 3rd JUNE

Drove into Canterbury and as usual paid the hefty parking fee to stop near the Cathedral. Walked the narrow cobbled streets for a bit, but the area was quite grotty and full of school children on excursions! There was a £10 fee to enter the Cathedral and after seeing dozens of others in Europe we gave it a miss and headed east to Ramsgate, through some lovely rolling country until we reached the ocean again. The day was fine and warm thank goodness and we stopped for a coffee and then drove on through Margate and then headed towards London on the freeway to get to the Dartford Crossing which is the only crossing of the Thames east of London. We had to stop and phone the authorities to "buy" a pass because the hire car has no transponder, but it was only $4.80 and after a long drawn out telephone conversation with a foreign accented lady I finally got the necessary pass! Thank God for Skype, as the 10 minute call only cost me 42¢!
We then joined the traffic jam that is the M25, drove under the Thames and then headed further east to Southend-on-Sea, arriving mid afternoon.
There was a nice long promenade and a pier, along with all the usual amusement centres, and we found a lovely new Premier Inn right on the waterfront where we sat in the car park and booked rooms online to get the special rate (our pounds are getting rather light on - the conversion from Oz dollars is very poor) and then checked into nice seaview rooms!
We took a walk along the waterfront noticing that the tide was heading out rapidly and by the time we found a nice pub in the Main Street the ocean was way out in the distance, leaving a variety of fishing boats high and dry!
Later we had dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel! The ribs were sensational!


THURSDAY 4th JUNE

Packed up and left Southend and ventured a way north to Chelmsford for a look before deciding to hit the road to London! We had to have the car returned to the Hertz depot in Marble Arch at 3pm and knowing the state of the traffic around London we made sure we had plenty of time up our sleeves! And just as well - the 70 odd kilometre drive took us 2.5 hours! It was Den's turn to drive and he copped a bad one, with bumper to bumper traffic the whole last hour! Very stressful indeed!
We arrived at the depot without mishap and after finalising the paperwork we squashed the 4 of us into a London Cab and took 30 minutes to drive 4kms to our hotel in Cromwell Road, Kensington! Sheesh! And the people in Perth whinge about the "traffic" at home - they have no bloody idea what traffic is!
Our rooms at the NH Kensington were ready and very nice too, and we unpacked some things then the girls hit a very convenient laundromat about 200 metres away and washed up all the very well worn clothes!
Enjoyed a couple of drinks along Earls Court road later, wincing at the prices, and then had some dinner.
So here we are in London - haven't got a lot planned but will wind down from the hustle and bustle of the trip before we head home!