FRIDAY 5th JUNE

Had a nice sleep in this morning before we bought an "Oyster Card" to use on the London Metro, and then Mumsie and I headed to Westminster Abbey for her to finally get a tour of the Cathedral! She missed out in 2012, but this time the queue for tickets was only a dozen or so and I left her alone to enjoy her dream!
Later when she had finished the tour we wandered along the Thames until we reached the Walkabout Hotel where we met up with the Austins and watched Friday night footy at lunch time!
When the footy finished we walked up to the West End and bought tickets to see the Beatles show "Let it Be" tomorrow afternoon.
Then it was back to our hotel for a rest!
Later we had a couple of drinks at one of the local pubs and then had dinner at Zizzi, an Italian restaurant we enjoyed back in 2012.
When we got back to the room I booked a tour of Wimbledon for Mumsie and I on Sunday! Looking forward to that!

SATURDAY 6th JUNE

After breakfast Den and Suze headed off for a look at Putney and the Thames while Mumsie and I walked about 3kms down Cromwell Road to Harrods for a look. Once again the bloody plane trees and their pollen caused us both to sneeze countless times - arriving at the huge shop that is Harrods with red eyes and running noses!
We wandered the shop for a while, getting knocked over by wealthy Asians and those from the Middle East, who were all spending furiously!
With not many pounds left on the Qantas Cash Card, Mumsie and I came out without a purchase and caught the bus back to our hotel to get changed for our West End Show!
Caught the train to Leicester Square and had a pre show drink at a bar just by the theatre and then we found our seats in the very old theatre (built in 1889) and enjoyed an absolute ripper of a concert! "Let it Be" was a series of songs from all the eras of the Beatles - they must have played 30 songs at least! All the blasts from the past! It was fabulous - all the old fossils up in the aisles rockin! We had a ball! They did 3 encores and then sadly it was all over and we found a place for a really nice dinner, then caught the train back to Earls Court - still broad daylight with sunset at 9.15pm, and had a nightcap at a little pub in one of the backstreets!
Weird health laws in England - there was a bloody dog sitting up on one of the bar stools! OMG!

SUNDAY 7th JUNE

After a nice leisurely breakfast at a local cafe, we caught the Metro down to Southfields and walked a couple of kilometres to the All England Tennis and Croquet Centre! After a quick look Den and Suze headed for Hampton Gardens and we got our tickets for the tour.
The tour was one of the best tours I have ever done - led by our guide, a very Pommy Nick Morrison, we were taken all over the huge complex, visiting the outside courts, No 1 court, the media centre, Orotangi Hill, the Members dining deck and finally Centre Court!
Some of the facts and figures that Nick gave us were incredible :
The club has only 500 Members
The waiting list is huge
If you are invited to join you are on a 2 year trial
You can buy a debenture for £50,000 and get 2 seats - after 5 years the Club refunds you £2,000 and they keep the rest and your time is up!!!!!!!!!
All members must wear white clothes when using the courts
The Club makes a profit of £34,000,000 each Wimbledon tournament mainly from the TV rights, they keep 10% and the rest goes to lawn tennis clubs all over England.
Centre Court and No 1 Court are only used for the Wimbledon tournament - not used for anything else!
The final score of the Men's Singles Final stays on the Centre Court scoreboard for the entire year!
54,000 Slazenger tennis balls are used at Wimbledon
Many are sold with autographs, some in boxes of 6, the rest are recycled!
Each year the main courts are ripped up and relaid
Every square metre is sown with over 75,000 seeds of a special rye grass
There are kilometres of roads and tunnels under the complex - service vehicles are not allowed above ground!
I could go on forever, truly it was a morning to remember - the tour lasted over 90 minutes and when it was over we spent a lengthy time in the great museum, enjoying a great audio guided tour. It was fantastic value for $45 each!
Finally we retired to the cafe and had strawberries and cream for lunch! A bloody awesome morning!
On the way back to Earls Court we diverted a little so Mumsie could visit the Queen - well Buckingham Palace anyway - where we crossed Green Park and the thousands of Poms lying on the grass enjoying the sunshine (mostly getting sunburnt) - to get to the Palace where Mumsie got her photos and then we headed (both sneezing fit to kill AGAIN) back to our hotel.

MONDAY 8th JUNE

Today we caught the Metro northeast to Stratford and the site of the 2012 Olympic Games! We emerged from the Underground in a huge Westfield shopping centre - obviously built for all the Games visitors - and browsed awhile through the very expensive and exclusive stores before walking over to the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.
Unfortunately for us the Stadium is undergoing conversion to a permanent soccer ground which be the home ground of West Ham United, and was closed to visitors! We had a look at the Aquatic Centre and wandered a bit looking at the extensive building works going on around the area before catching the new Docklands Light Rail south to the edge of the Thames and another Games project - the Emirates Sky Rail - which is a cable car ride over the Thames to Greenwich Village. The views from the cable car right over the area to the Thames Flood Barrier were great.
Once again when we exited the cable car we were in a new precinct - built around the O2 Arena - which has a transport hub, about 20 hectares of natural parklands and many new residential buildings.
O2 Arena (named by a telecommunications company) is a bit like Perth Arena, only 500 times better, with headlining acts like Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac and many others, and has a huge cinema complex and about 50 bars and restaurants under the main roof! A very impressive place and one we can only hope has some influence on the new Perth Stadium.
We caught a river taxi back to Embankment Pier, enjoying the completely different view of London, and then got our District Line train straight back to Earls Court where we cashed in our Oyster Cards - such great value - and headed back to the hotel for a shower and freshen up before our farewell dinner!
Today we saw some of the "new" London, which was very interesting and a tribute to the passion that London Lord Mayor Boris Johnston has for this city! It sure made one helluva change from all the old stuff we have seen to date!
So that's our tour just about over - been so good - but we are really looking forward to seeing family and friends again and to stop living out of a bloody suitcase and settle again into our lovely home!

TUESDAY 9th JUNE

Lazy start to our day with brekky at the same cafe - the expat Aussie owner even has a secret stash of Vegemite which we gladly made use of - before getting our things packed up and getting a transfer to Heathrow Terminal 4 for the flight home.
Had plenty of time to browse the hideously expensive Duty Free shops before having a farewell drink and then boarding our one year old Qatar Airbus A380 for a 6 hour flight to Doha!
The 6 hours passed quickly enough, with excellent service and meals from the Qatar staff - and with a new aeroplane the seats were pretty good and we had beaut big entertainment screens and even some free WiFi - I took great pleasure in messaging Jase from the skies over Europe!
Once in transit at Doha, we walked a while to loosen the leg muscles and before we knew it boarding was called and then we were seated in our pretty old Boeing 777-300 waiting to take off! Luckily the plane was only half full and after getting the OK from our hostie, Mumsie and I nabbed 3 exit row seats between us and were able to spread out a bit! I did request an upgrade to the very empty Business Class but was politely turned down! But the extra leg room of the exit row of seats was much appreciated and made the flight much more bearable! Mumsie slept for about 6 hours of the 11 hour flight.
We arrived in Perth on time, collected our bags and duty free and were soon embracing Katie, Jase and a widely excited Layla, who didn't stop talking the entire way back to Hammond Park!
 
Well, England has been a little disappointing for us this time around - our exchange rate makes most purchases quite expensive, and although food was on a par with OZ, the parking prices, drinks and tours really hit us hard and we had only a few pounds left this arvo when we left!
All of London seemed to be a little dirtier and less likeable than 2012 and we really have no desire to ever go back, although 3 months ago we definitely would have done so - maybe it was the 5 weeks of prior touring that tainted our view!
Despite that, it was a great trip - thoroughly loved the first Trafalgar tour - and we saw some awesome scenery and places! The Ferrari Drive and the tour of Wimbledon were definitely my highlights, as well as the stay in Riva Del Garda, but it was all great and has certainly fulfilled my wanderlust for quite some time!