Driving into London

Driving in one of the world's largest cities was always going to be exciting - but not for Mary [ace navigator]. Leaving London was easy - straight up the M1 going north - but coming back we were on the M4 which enters the city from the west, meaning we would have to drive through the heart of London to get to Russell Square. It was a slightly familiar route with Heathrow Airport, Kensington, past Harrods, Madame Tussauds, couple of laps around Kings Cross and St Pancras railways stations and to our hotel for the bag drop off, before returning the hire car. No problems.

The Camden Market was on our list - I wasn't sure about it but Mary said that is was recommended by Jemma Dacy - so it should be okay. This place is seriously weird - many alternate people, footpaths full of sellers, markets everywhere, things to see and do that you won't see in sleepy Hobart. Mary bought a hand made red poppy and a leather jacket - looks good.

We went to check on our EE mobile SIM card as time was running out and I wanted to check on the global roaming. Couldn't find a shop - so we changed to Vodafone ...£20 for unlimited SMS, 500 minutes of Voice and 6Gb of data and no problems with data roaming throughout Europe - more on that later.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day with the train and ferry rides. I decided to check on our leaving point from Kings Cross station - glad I did because we were leaving from Euston Station. Went for a walk to check on that and decided that we needed a taxi in the morning.

Met some Aussie's in the pub over dinner and swapped travel stories - nice to hear familiar voices and sense of humour. Our room in London was again very small - no room to put a suitcase on the floor anywhere and open it up !! But the room was very clean and comfortable and so we had a good nights rest ready for our long day tomorrow travelling to Ireland.

Cheers.Read more