Whitechapel

The home of Austin Powers. And a few other historically significant events. 5 nights is nowhere near enough to touch upon ALL the amazing wow that London has to offer. And unfortunately the first few days we all had a bit of mild sore throats which made us less-than-enthusiastic tourists. But we are all good now! We've ticked a lot of boxes: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (which is sadly covered up for restoration), Westminster, Downing Street, Picadilly Circus, British Museum, Coventry Gardens.... We have been enjoying cups of tea, street performers, souvenir browsing, and general people watching. Buz caught up with his old mate, Johann, who lives in London now. The city is absolutely incredible.

MONDAY:
Tomorrow we take the chunnel to Paris, so we have worn out the boys with sightseeing galore- starting off with Tower of London- except the lines were so incredibly long we decided to walk around the perimeter instead. The Crown Jewels are overrated anyway! Crossed over the Tower Bridge and got vertigo watching people sitting on the edge to pose for photos. We walked along the Thames to Blackfriars Bridge, stopping in at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre & also for a bit of 'culture' at the Tate Modern, which included (among its prized displays): a blank white canvas, egg carton structure with strings attached, a painting of a canvas entirely in black, another of 'soil mounted on canvas,' a gallery of large canvases with a single square painted on each with a comment that this particular artist will only paint 'on themes of the human condition: terror, ecstasy, doom, etc'. I wondered what emotion squares represented. And also thought perhaps I ought to submit a few works! It’s easy to criticise, but truly it seemed to be a case of the emperors new clothes. So we had fun renaming each work: spilled coffee, bad vindaloo meal, etc.

Our English accents are getting pretty good!Read more