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.