Sunday 19th July The flight on our Airbus A380 was delayed by about half an hour and finally left Singapore at 00.30am. The A380 is the biggest and most efficient plane in the Singapore Airlines fleet and has two decks which holds 471 passengers.

Had supper and the plane was dimmed down and most went to sleep or tried to.

London seems to be a lot further away than it was previously as the 14 hour flight really took it's toll on us this time round. Hard to get comfortable and although we both slept didn't feel rested.

Went into a holding pattern over London and landed about 20 minutes late. Almost took another 20 minutes to taxi the plane to the gate. Got through immigration at Heathrow very quickly even though the chap grilled us on how long we were going to be over here and wanted to know if we had friends and family here and whether we had accommodation booked. Would loved to have shown him our itinerary!!

Getting our bags was a very long business but we were kept amused by the automated carousel which only fired a bag out from someplace down below when there was a gap to take that bag. Most bags stopped at the top of the ramp from down below waiting for a gap in the bags before it was thrust out onto the round a bout.

We caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington station which took about 12 minutes. We walked up from the station and walked our bags to our Hotel in Gloucester Street which took all of 10 minutes. We knew that our room wouldn't be available before we got to the hotel because at this stage it was only 8.30am. Jannie filled in all the forms and we stowed our luggage and went for a coffee (average) and then walked down to Hyde Park where there was a running race being held for women and aided breast cancer. Most women had pink tops and we have never seen so many runners. We saw several bibs in the 14000s and the number 10 bib. We followed along and walked into Kensington Gardens and decided to go and have a look at Kensington Palace. I think Jannie was hoping to see the new princess!

Eventually we walked back along Bayswater Road looking at all of the artists displaying their wares. Decided to stop off at the Swan Pub for a beer. We were hot and overdressed and the beer was very welcome.

We went back to the hotel and finally got to our room for a shower and a rest.

It will be dinner someplace close and early to bed tonight.