Before Paris, there was London

Paris and I only had time for a brief hello before we hightailed it over to Gare du Nord to get the Eurostar across to London for the weekend.  I had thought that there would be an opportunity for a little bit of a nap, but it turns out that catching up on Donna's adventures and eavesdropping on the conversation of the two men next to us (one of whom works as a camera operator on Merlin and Dr Who) was far more interesting.  In less than two and a half hours, you are in London.  Tower Hill, here we come.  Our hotel was right next to Tower Bridge and with the support of a London bobby (who refused to say 'Right son, you're nicked') we made our way there.

It doesn't scream London much more than the Tower, the Thames and Tower Bridge.  25 years since I had been in London and it felt good to be back.

We managed to be in town for the Thames Festival - street stalls and music and free food.  Fair trade bananas from Columbia anyone? (Actually, it felt odd to eat a non Australian banana.  Tasted much the same though.)

One of the things I love most about London is the old and new piled on top of each other - illustrated by this kind of cool photo of an old building reflected in the windows of a new one.

Anyway, after a bit of strolling, babysitting and hairdressing, we returned to Donna's friend's flat overlooking the Thames and drank a bottle of Bollinger.

Another thing ticked off my list of things I've never done before.  Then we frocked up for a 1930s party on a boat on the Thames. Note that at this point I had slept for something like three hours in the past 30.  Cruising up the Thames watching illuminated London slide by was wonderful - an almost full moon sitting in the middle of the London Eye, lit by lots of colours - but after a while I couldn't tell the difference between when it was the boat swaying and me swaying.  The hotel bed felt very good... until a rude awakening at 5am when the fire alarms went off and we were all evacuated onto a rainy London street.  It's interesting what decisions you make about what is important to take with you at a time like that.  My list, in order of importance was:
1. Underwear
2. Passport
3. Wallet
4. Phone
5. Shoes.

Stay tuned for what happened next...