Danuta says I've to do the blog for a change so these are George's thoughts.

Arrived at Perth Station at 23:30 on the 20th, the train arrived minutes later. Cabin very cramped so luggage was put into next door empty cabin by attendant. Rebuked by attendant for not asking for it to be put in proper place of guard's van. Holiday nearly off to a bad start when Danuta rolled over in her bunk and promptly fell off onto to the floor. Luckily only her posterior, elbow and pride suffered a little.

I got off to sleep fairly quickly as usual when travelling but Danuta was restless after her encounter with the floor. Didn't wake up until the attendant arrived with the tea and coffee.

Got off the train at Euston at 7:45. The station was already busy with loads of commuters. We couldn't face that every day thank goodness we are retired and don't live in London. We found a place to have breakfast and hung around there until about 10:30.

The taxi journey to Victoria Bus Station took about 45 minutes, loads of traffic, saw some sights on the way including passing the Royal Philatelic Society building (41 Devonshire Place). How appropriate for us. How people manage to get through the traffic everyday is unbelievable.

We boarded the bus for Tilbury at 12 noon. The journey took about 2 hours. We saw a few sights of London on the way (see pics).

Check in procedures very smooth and into cabin in less than 1/2 hour. Luggage already waiting for us. Cabin quite spacious at least until Danuta unpacks and leaves stuff all over the place.

When we went down to the dining room the head waiter recognised us (don't know if that was good or bad). We were shown to our table to find that someone was occupying our seats. They did not have their reservation card with them and obviously did not want to move because they must have known the other four beforehand. So we have a cosy table for two, nice, but it is a way of meeting people if you share a table with others. We have met lovely travel companions in this way over the years. (We hope that some of them are following this blog).