Day 9 We woke up again a little late; it would seem England was having that effect on us. Today we had a plan however and that plan was to head to Madame Tussauds, the wax museum. This morning Joe was able to drop us at Bushy station, which allowed us to catch the faster train into London. This was quite a treat as he now drives a new JAG which was an experience in itself. The train arrived and off we went. Arriving at Baker Station, we walked up a seemingly endless flight of stairs to find ourselves emerged right in front of a Sherlock Holmes statue, obviously now a very big part of English History even though it is a fictional character. Now we only had to walk the 200 meters to Madame Tussauds. Madam Tussauds was quite an experience even just walking in the door. There were flashes from cameras going off everywhere, especially from the Chinese people that got photos with themselves and their favourite stars. The detail on the sculptures was immense they say that each sculpture takes three months to produce and we could see why. We had one quite amusing moment as Lyndsay was waiting for a photographer to take a photo; she seemed to be taking ages until Lyndsay noticed that the photographer was in fact a model herself. There were models of all the stars: David Beckham, Brad Pitt ,Jonny Depp, Kate Winslet and Marylyn Monroe to name but a few. Lyndsay even got to have her picture taken with the stars of twilight. Not the Jonas Brothers Gail. We are sure the girls at school are going to be very jealous. We then continued to another room filled with sports stars which was a highlight for Jono as he got to hit Lewis Hamilton in the face. Lyndsay got her photo with Husain Bolt and I was just happy to be there. After that we continued into another part of Madam Tussauds, the place is huge which had all the music stars from different eras ranging from the Beatles , Queen, Robbie Williams, Brittany Spears , Lady Gaga and Miley Cirus which Jono was most happy about. Again just to name a few. They are constantly changing their figurines to keep up with the times. Then onto the films and movie section with huge sculptures of a dinosaur from Jurassic Park, Shrek and ET where Jono got a great photo of himself flying the bicycle with ET in the basket and I got a photo with Steven Spielberg while a dinosaur foot was about to trod on me. After this was the biggest hype in the world the haunted Madam Tussauds tunnel which had a sign next to it saying if you have heart problems don’t dare enter and if you are pregnant don’t enter and so on. I think the anticipation was more frightening then the event itself. After this we went into a room which had a ride in a little London taxis that took you through London’s History. Jono got himself a nice photo of this for his coffee mug, where Lyndsay and I were not sure where the camera was so when the flash went I was picking my nose and Lyndsay sneezed, so needless to say we never bought the photo. Then onto the Marvel room where sculptures of all the Marvel characters were on display, they had the full sized hulk which stood about two stories high. They had Iron man, captain America, Spiderman and wolverine. This was a fun room as we got to interact with all the characters and prepare ourselves for a 4D experience. This involves all of your senses as well watching a 3D movie. Once we had all gathered outside the cinema we put on our silly looking 3D spectacles and got to watch the Marvel 4D movie about how the Marvel characters save the queen from aliens. This was well timed as we saw this movie on the 21st December 2012 where according to certain individuals the world was going to end by aliens invading Earth at 11:11 am. Hard to explain all the smoke, wind and water on your face and scale of the screen, this was one of the most enjoyable experiences we had done so far in London. Then it was all over, 4 hours of money well spent and off to the next adventure. The scale of things in London is just unthinkable compared to what we are accustomed to in South Africa. I began to realise things are just a lot bigger there than in South Africa, there just seemed to be more people and more money going around. We left Madam Tussauds feeling great, now time for a walk down Oxford and Regent Street to get some Christmas shopping done. We caught the tube and made our way to Oxford Street station. As we emerged we found the place a buzz with thousands of people everywhere and they too were all on their way to do their Christmas shopping. I wanted to see Hemleys, which is the biggest toy store in the world. This however was on Regent Street near Piccadilly Circus. We knew we were going in the right direction because of all the Hemleys bags we could see as we passed. But first we stopped on at the Ferrari store for Jono, possibly the biggest highlight for Jono was where he got to see a real life Ferrari F1 race car in full size. Lyndsay and I bought him his Christmas present there so I am sure it made it extra special. Then we arrived at a very packed Hemleys. London is very different in the way they do things. You don’t just walk in the store and try and find something, they physically sell it to you by having employees there constantly displaying the toys as you pass. So all over the place there are helicopters flying around and people throwing boomerangs and balloon Frisbees to name a few toys that whizz passed you. They all try to catch your attention and this was quite the experience. You can’t help but feel like a kid in this store. I even encounted the coolest toy I have ever seen which is a remote controlled car which drives on walls and ceilings. I could not understand how it worked but it was pretty amazing. After walking up 5 flights of stairs we came across the Harry Potter section which caught my eye this held my attention for quite some time as there were wands, brooms, uniforms and quilts, you name it was there. We also managed to purchase a princess book for Olivia to add to her giant princess chocolate coin as it was her birthday later that evening. At this stage we were all exhausted and in need of some food. So we made our way to Piccadilly Circus and found KFC as Jono had noticed in France that they still had the double crunch meal which was his favourite in South Africa but they stopped making it. Alas as was Jono’s luck they did not have that burger. They did however have this awesome baguette sized burger which went down a treat on the train back to Watford. As we arrived back to Watford it was time to leave, as we were going with Sandra and Joe to Olivia’s birthday party. Natalie had prepared an entire Christmas dinner for us which was amazing. Ham and pea soup for a starter, Turkey, Brussels, roasted tatties the whole shebang! The plate could definitely feed the masses. We were very lucky to be spending such a great evening with them. Celebrating Olivia’s 5th birthday and watching her excitement opening up all of her presents. Great time was had by all as we left at about 01:00 after a stunning chat and a few laughs. On the way home we got onto the subject of politics much to Jono’s dismay and it was really interesting to hear Joe’s thoughts on the matter. Then exhaustion crept upon us as we all turned in for the night.

Day 8

Day 8 We woke up the next day after a long lie in which was our first of the holiday. So we got out of bed about 09:00, it would seem Lyndsay, Jono and I were all in need of a little rest. So what was the plan. London of course but with London offering so many sights we needed to decided where to begin. Lyndsay really wanted to see the Tower of London as she was not given the chance to do this the last time she was in town. So off we went on our first real tube on our London adventure. Sandra was very kind and dropped us off at Bushy station which allowed us to catch the Overground to Euston station which allowed us to use the underground to reach our first destination to Tower Hill Station and up the stairs to street, possibly the most disorientating trip I have ever taken. But there we were now to get our tickets and check out the tower. While we were at the tourist ticket shop we were able to purchase our tickets to the Tower and Madam Tusauds. R1950 later for the three of us! As I nearly fell over, the lady at the till told me I should never look at the conversion rate. Jono agreed, easy for him to say he is rich on this holiday apparently. The Tower was something special to behold. We started off in the torture chamber; England in those days must have been a cruel and nasty place, with clergymen being tortured for apparent treason, with only one prisoner ever escaping. We continued toward the armory which was really quite stunning. We saw suits of armor from each English period ranging from the Tudor’s to the Winsor’s. Seeing the weapons that were used and getting to play with them put in that era. The length of the Jousting rods and seeing the size of each kings horse and their medieval swords and guns were something special. There were armor suits for children, Henry VIII who had two suits of armor which was pretty amusing as he got older he seemed to get substantially larger. Then we were on to view the crown jewels, and they were definitely something to view, The Cullinan diamond is enormous, with half of the diamond in a scepter and the other half in a the queens crown. Half the diamond is approximately 6 inches tall by 2 inches wide it really was enormous. A crown and scepter is made for every announced ruler so we were able to view a lot of sparkles and the different crowns through the ages. Later we walked around the Tower which offered a view of the Thames and the Chaud, (new office block made completely of glass and in the shape of a triangle) We then took a walk across Tower Bridge and then attempted to find Big Ben which, Lyndsay informed us was not in fact that big and that she had spent ages trying to find it in the past. So off we continued to walk and walk till eventually we opted to stop for some lunch. We found this really nice little coffee/sandwich shop in the middle of what seemed to be the London business district. Jono had a really nice looking Lasagna, Lyndsay had a cheese and ham Panini, and I had a turkey and beetroot sandwich, I did not realize a it had beetroot and as we all know I can’t stand the stuff. Somehow however, this sandwich was really good and I might actually contemplate making it for myself one day. We then decided just randomly walking around London was not going to get us to Westminster Abby so we found the closes tube station and caught a tube to Westminster station. Up one escalator and a flight of stairs looked up and we were right in front of Big Ben. It was dark by now as it was 16:30 , Thus Big Ben was lit up in a beautiful golden colour with green lighting at the top. It was a bit weird outside the station as there we a bunch of people dressed up in cow boy and clown suits and masks, some of them just had normal clothes on with random masks. I wasn’t quite sure what it was that they were doing but they freaked me out a bit as I could not see their faces. One of them blew a kiss at me as I walked past, this had me on full alert but we walked on and left them behind. We then wanted to take the walk to Buckingham Palace; our guide at this point was getting a bit confused as she was sending us in the wrong direction. I eventually cracked and asked someone for directions only after Lyndsay realized she was going in the wrong direction. We then noticed a garden which was filled with steel statues of famous people this was called Leavers square, we caught a piece of Africa as we noticed one of Nelson Mandela. Also Winston Churchill who looked surprisingly like Jono and there were other famous British Icons dating back a long time. We then continued our approximate 2km walk to Buckingham Palace. Finally after wondering the streets in London and seeing all their detailed buildings and statues scattered around, we found it. We took the walk down the Mall toward the palace and took some photos. The Queen was in as the union Jack was flying at full mast. She put her head out the window and waved to us as we stood there. No she didn’t just joking. Buckingham was possibly the least impressive building we had seen thus far compared to the Palace of Versailles in France but none the less was an enjoyable walk. We then walked admittedly by mistake around the whole palace walls and then to the closest tube station (which wasn’t so close) for the trip back to Watford. We walked under the road in pedestrian subways and dodging people as we found ourselves standing outside a Starbucks. This would be the 5th one we have gone into on our journey in search of an Eggnog Latte. Thankfully they had one. Once trying the Eggnog Latte and Jono and Lyndsay had a Hot chocolate, it was decided that Starbucks is grossly overrated. We caught the slow train back into Watford as this would allow us to arrive at Carpenders Park Station which meant that we only had to walk about 1km to Sandra and Joes. This was definitely the easiest option. So for 45minutes we sat on the train I read the paper and Lyndsay was engrossed by her book on the Ipad, Jono had a couple of ZZZ. We got in at about 20:00 after an abundantly full day. Sandra welcomed us to an exceptional dinner of oven Pizza, a wonderfully welcome meal after a day of walking the town flat. After chatting with Sandra and Joe till about 23:00, they seem to go to bed really late. We finally turned in for the night!