Day 2: Hit the Ground Running

After a long, long, long, trip we touched down at Heathrow Airport at 6.10am....a full day ahead of us before we could sleep. Luckily our Air BnB host let us know we could have an early check-in, so we arrived at our 1st home at 9am, a gorgeous old 17th Century manor type house which use to belong to Wilkie Collins - author of The Woman in White - and a good friend of Charles Dickens. 4 quick showers later, we set out to explore Hyde Park and Kensington Palace, as they were just around the corner - I am sad to report that both could have benefited from a few hours of me and my mower! We found Harrods and went in for a look...and came out again very quickly with a delicious, but expensive bread stick. We jumped on the Hop on/Hop off bus to do a 3 hr lap of the tourist sites, but hopped off at the 2nd stop to have a pint (or 2) of beer - and Matt made a friend! Hopped back on the bus, but hopped back off to find a loo (due to the beer). We found a loo - in a pub - and had another pint, before Matt and I hopped back on to finish the circuit. After successfully working out the Tube system, we arrived home and hopped into bed - a full 48hrs after we woke in Mount Rankin to begin our trip.Read more