After breakfast we left Lacock and drove to Avebury, where we had a quick look at part of the huge circle of ancient stones surrounding the village. Unlike Stonehenge, we could walk up the stones and touch them – funny how this makes the connection with history more tangible. The megalithic stones stood in a field they shared with unimpressed sheep; an outer ditch was still visible as well.
That was our last site, and it was time to head back to London – just an hour and a quarter’s drive away. A bit of a boring drive along motorways, but easy. The GPS system – or should I say Emma – got us back to Heathrow without incident, and we cleared the car of all our stuff, fixed up the paperwork, got the shuttlebus to Heathrow and the Express into London. A tube trip and we were at Bayswater and found our hotel (Space Apart) in Kensington Garden Square pretty easily. Too early to check in though, so we left our bags, had some lunch at a café, and went to Oxford Street. The crowds were unbelievable – it’s school holidays and everyone seem to be out shopping.
Wandered HMV and bought a few DVDs, but it was very exhausting and I was flaking after a couple of hours. The weather was pretty mild, but of course London shops tend to be quite warm – and also the streets are so packed and stressful, and then you go into a shop like HMV and crap music is playing full bore and the stress level is jacked up another notch! I must admit I don’t understand why this is supposed to encourage you to stay in the shops.
After grabbing some sandwiches and wine from Tesco, we retumed to our room to watch some TV and relax. The room is very small but well designed and very functional, with a kitchen, washing machine/dryer, and microwave – very complete . £115 a night.
29th October
For some strange reason this day was never recorded in my diary, but we took a boat cruise down the Thames on a typical grey London day (“like living in a Tupperware container” an Englishman once described it to me) to enjoy a last look at some old London landmarks like London Bridge, The Tower, and St Pauls from the river. The boat trip ended at Greenwich, which I’d never visited, so we did the whole ‘standing on the Greenwich Mean Time line’ thing, and then walked to the nearby Maritime Museum, the highlight of which was Nelson’s jacket, complete with bullet hole. He was a surprisingly small man.
30th October
Carol and I, after a quick breakfast in a café, went our separate ways today to do a bit of shopping. I went out on the Northern line to Finchley to visit Leisure Games, a good games store where I bought a couple of games. I also grabbed a carry-on bag from a ship for £25. Then I travelled to Tottenham Court Station and staggered around the Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue area until I found the Orc’s Nest, another (very small) games store. Again, a mild day and it was surprising how warm and sweaty I got after a bit of walking around.
Next stop was Forbidden Planet, a fantastic graphic novel/comics/ book/action figure store, which was just amazing; huge and packed with geeky stuff. An overwhelming amount of cool stuff, but I bought a book for the flight. There’s only so much I can carry (and afford) unfortunately!
To Shepherds Bush station, where I met up with my friend P, picked up the stuff we’d left with him, and had lunch, a couple of beers and a good chat. Great to see him again, and he’ll be out in Sydney in December.
Back at the hotel about 3.30 pm to meet Carol, who had thankfully bought food for dinner. We did a bit of packing and started to get organised for the big trip home tomorrow.
Very strange to think we’ll be heading back to Australia tomorrow. I think for both of us the only thing we are really looking foward to at home is seeing our kittens!
