Airkix Indoor Skydiving

Happy Birthday Sam! We’re going to Airkix today and are pumped. We’re a little unsure how this is going to work, but Indoor Skydiving sounds really cool. We left the house around 10am to be there for our 12:30pm jump. The complex in Xscape also had indoor skiing, bowling, movie cinema, an aquatic centre and shopping. You could stay there a couple of full days to experience it all.

We were invited into the Airkix waiting area and we sat watching live footage of groups in the box flying. It looked really awesome. Our instructor greeted us and took us and a couple of families into a smaller room where we watched a video explaining the hand signals and positions. There were 13 people in our group flying today. Our instructor then came in and repeated the hand signs and parts of video about posture. He told us that today we are not floating, but flying, and that flying or falling low to the ground would be up to us physically working our body and holding in a ‘U’ shape to allow the air to flow around our bodies. He strictly said we were NOT doing tricks, but only flying. His lecture was a little long winded and a little patronising, but necessary I guess. We were able to practice the position on a bench in the room. We really weren’t expecting it to be a physical workout but here goes...

Dylan was a little unsure if he wanted to go, but we were all suited up and he could decide once we were in the tunnel. In our sexy blue suits with trendy goggles and our helmets we followed our instructor up stairs to the tunnel. The previous group were still having their go in the hexagonal room. It seemed that some of them were flying really well, and others were struggling to stay off the ground. Their instructor assisted others and held onto them and spun them around to go higher. It looked like so much fun and he was really energetic. At the end of the group’s turn their instructor told them to stand near the glass then waved to them walked into the hexagonal room with the air blasting and shot straight up like superman. He was so fast. He performed heaps of tricks flying up and down. At one stage he was in the air, head upside down and skimming the inside walls like he was skate boarding on them. Up and down he flew doing tricks like a springboard diver. He came down once and was propelled out the door and smacked into the wall then quickly pushed himself back into the room and was up in the air again. It was very inspirational for all of us as he made flying and the tricks seem very easy. He hi-fived his group and they left.

After their performance, we were really, really pumped and couldn’t wait to be assisted by our instructor to fly high. So into the outer room we walked and sat on the bench as our instructor reminded us of the hand signals, especially “straight legs, bent legs” and “get me out”. Joseph volunteered to go first and we were both surprised and impressed. You little thrill seeker, you. The fans fired up under the grid in the wind tunnel and our hearts were pumping. The fans were very loud and it was recommended we use ear plugs but we chose not to, the noise is part of the experience. You couldn’t help but have a huge grin on your face, although little Dyl didn’t seem very comfortable.

As we looked on, Joseph grabbed hold of the doorway and jumped in and our instructor caught him. It looked difficult for him at first but he found the position then was free flying. It looked simple enough. 1 minute 30 seconds for two goes each. Dan you’re up!

Dan threw himself into the wind tunnel and nearly hit the ground straight away, it wasn’t as easy as Brosef made it look. It was actually quite difficult and at times scary. That’s right, Dan get’s a little scared from time to time. It didn’t help when he started to float to the top and not know how to get down and then suddenly nose dive to the ground. At one stage he thought the instructor pulled him towards the exit. It was so funny for the rest of us to see Dan pulling himself out of the door, and the instructor pulling him back in. Dan still had another 45 seconds to go. Inside, Dan cried. Eventually it was over.

As Dan exited the doorway, for real this time, Ev had evaluated that it seemed safe and that the worst thing of falling to the grid was not that big of a risk, so here goes. Not normally a risk taker, Ev was up and jumped. Oh My God!! It was weird how much resistance you had against your body. Like a high-pressure hose all over you. That’s a lot of force supporting you. The first thing to do was stabilise without the instructor, cause photos with him always holding you would be like needing training wheels the whole time. It was really hard making the ‘U’ shape because it did require physical strength in your back and getting your hands above your head and legs bent in the right way then holding it all was difficult. The instructor made the peace sign in front of Ev’s face to tell her to straighten her legs. In her head Ev thought that was the bend sign and he kept insisting the peace sign. Okay, okay, straight... Once she found the position, free flying was a breeze and she could relax. Most of the time the instructor had Ev facing the other room where the speed controller/photographer was. Smile!!

Ev wanted to turn, so she did and almost hit the grid. It was really hard turning without falling because one wrong move of an arm down or leg flapping and you’d lose resistance and fall. Facing the group was a fluke because you would turn then go backwards and kick the back wall then push off and almost face plant into the wall ahead. Ev was so happy she was in the air that she was waving half the time because it was such an awesome feeling. Time went very quickly ‘5 seconds to go. Find the door and don’t exit like Dan!! Few! No problems.’

Dylan had decided he didn’t want to have a go so he waited with Dan while Sam had her turn. You’re up now... Happy Birthday!! Like Dan, Sam seemed to struggle a lot of the time, going high then suddenly dipping. She said it was very hard to find the position to fly straight. There was one photo, that we won’t post, that had Sam’s mouth puffed and cheeks puffed out. It was really funny. Sorry Sam, but it was. At least she didn’t freak out like Dan...Wuss!! The rest of the group members had their turn then we each had one more go.

It seemed more difficult for all of us the second time then Ev and Joseph had an extra turn because Dylan didn’t have a go. Dan said at one stage Ev was flying high then floated down like a leaf towards the grid. Once we had all finished our instructor said he hoped we had a good time and showed us out the door. A bit of an anti-climax considering we’d seen the previous instructor’s show. We were also supposed to get signed certificates saying we’d flown, but our Instructor didn’t have them for us. Feeling a little cheated we exited the flying room and headed downstairs to take off our blue suits and ordered our photo codes to download over the internet later.

We had lunch in the Xscape complex. Cheers Sam! We agreed that Ev and Joseph definitely would do it again, but Dan and Sam really didn’t dig the experience. It’s probably the only thrill seeking activity that Ev has loved more than Dan. It would have been better if our instructor flew with us and the certificates would be good to have. Oh well. Sam and the boys told us more about their Orlando holiday and Sam suggested that we go to Disneyland in Paris rather than Disneyworld in Orlando as there are other theme parks we can see there. As it is, we’ll probably run out of time in Orlando. We’ll see how we go in Paris, but it’s definitely a good idea. It was only 1:30pm so we went back home for a bit then headed out to Salcey Forest where we were meeting up with another of Sam’s friends and her kids.


Salcey Forest
The Forest was really beautiful and a very family oriented place with play equipment and lots of walking/riding tracks to take. We all walked up to the platform in the tree tops. It was a great view. We had ice-creams back down at the cafe and watched the kids play on the swing set. Before too long there were younger kids screaming at each other and crying because they’d been hit...you know the usual things that put you off having children yourself. It was such a pleasant atmosphere...... We’re still a couple years away from having children.

Salcey Forest

On our way home we admired the beautiful country side and hung on for dear life as Sam comfortably drove through the narrow winding highway. Sam told us about the lock canals and we were curious to see them in action. Luckily there were boats going through. We’d never seen them being used before. We helped open and close some of the heavy wooden lock gates to allow the canals to fill so the boats could move up and down stream.

Canal Locks

Joseph and Ev helping to open a lock.

Dylan showing us up by doing it on his own.

Dan needed some help closing it.

We continued back home and quickly freshened up to go to dinner at The Swan, the pub where Sam works. It was a lovely traditional English pub with a very friendly atmosphere. Some of Sam’s friends were already there, including a couple from the other pub yesterday. Now this pub is no ordinary pub. It’s been rated as one of the best Pubs in England and not just because Sam works there. Needless to say, dinner tasted delicious. Ev had pork ribs and mash and the meat was literally falling off the bone. Dan had Lasagne. Already completely full from dinner we couldn’t leave without having dessert from here. Ev had Bread and Butter Pudding with custard and Dan had Ice cream. We stayed for a final Birthday drink for Sam with one of the girls in the restaurant. Back home Ev skyped her parents and Dan played the Wii with the boys while Sam found the Airkix photos online and we all later watched the DVD together. We all looked like pros, especially Dan.

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Liverpool to Milton Keynes

It was another early start this morning as we woke at around 7am and had another full English breakfast (never tire of these). Our train was leaving at 9:15am and scheduled to arrived at Milton Keynes at 11:45am. Thankfully we changed our departure time from 5:30am, what were we thinking?? After checking out we got a cab at around 8am. The cabbie was very friendly and showed us a few sights of Liverpool. He took us to the Hillsborough Disaster Memorial dedicated to the 96 Liverpool fans who where tragically crushed to death in 1989 due to overcrowding at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield. It’s unbelievable it happened 21 years ago. Dan remembers it like it was yesterday. It’s good know clubs all around the country still honour the memories of those unfortunate people.

Hillsborough Disaster Memorial

The cabbie then drove us past Liverpool’s cross town rival, Everton’s home ground of Goodison Park, but thankfully the nasty smell in the air was removed by another drive by past the good guys home ground of Anfield. Liverpool actually surprised us both, it is a very pretty city and we would both definitely like to come back and stay longer (and watch another game). If we do come back we’d try and make it coincide with Beatles festival that was playing at the time.

We arrived at Lime Street station at 8:30am and boarded our first train to Manchester. It was a very quick ride that took 40 minutes. After arriving at Manchester Station we got on the 10:15am to Milton Keynes. Having reserved seats you would assume that you would have enough room to store luggage if need be, not the case on this train, we ended up taking about half of the overhead bay by literally stuffing our bags in, but at least we were on the home stretch to Sam’s place.

During the 1hr 30 min train to Milton Keynes we caught up on the blog and had a very comfortable journey. Arriving at 11:45am we pried our luggage out of storage and headed toward the entrance where Sam hopefully was waiting. Dan had received a text about 10 minutes before getting to Milton Keynes from Sam that she had just left Olney. We had no idea where Olney was (Oh and it’s pronounce Oh-nee). Fortunately we only had to wait 5 minutes before Sam spotted us and greeted us with a big hug. It was great to see her, also good to see a familiar face. We crammed our luggage and ourselves into Sam’s Volkswagen Polo and began the 10 minute journey to Olney.

Sam had arranged for all of us to meet up with some friends of hers at the local club. Dan’s young cousins, Joseph (Brosef) aged 12 and Dylan (Dilbot) aged 10 where with their Dad for the weekend and would meet us at the club, also. The car pulled up to Sam’s house at around midday and we grabbed our belongings and relaxed for a while. Dan rang his brother Paul while Ev and Sam had some tea.

At 1pm Sam drove us to the Carlton Club to meet up with some friends of hers. They seemed really nice but we probably didn’t have enough time to really get to know them. Not long after we got to the club, Joseph and Dylan were dropped off by their Dad, Andrew. We hadn’t seen them since Christmas (8 months ago) but were amazed at how much they had both grown. Joseph gave us both a hug and Dylan gave Dan a crazy handshake, those crazy kids.

At 3pm the 5 of us squeezed back into the car and headed back to Sam’s place. We finally got some much needed washing done. Ev was exhausted and went to bed shortly after and slept almost two hours, while Dan played Guitar Hero with the boys on the Wii and had a few drinks with Sam. After Dan got his hide handed to him on a platter on nearly every game imaginable by Dylan and Joseph, it was time to enlist some help when Ev finally made an appearance downstairs after her beauty sleep. The boys created Mii characters on the Wii and after entering his specifics, Dan’s character was listed as obese and his Mii reflected that fact. ‘Ouch my ego’ . Ev’s character said she’d gained 3kg since our wedding. We need some alone time with Wii fit it would seem. Maybe the New York walking tours will get our little fatty bumba Wii characters in shape.

Sam started up the barbeque for dinner while we watched the Simpsons (4 episodes in a row is reason enough to move to England). Sausages, steak, chicken drumsticks, salad and bread rolls were on the menu from Sam's birthday party the night before. It was absolutely beautiful and once again we over ate. After completely stuffing our faces it was time for bed as we had a massive day at Airkix tomorrow.

Night y’all.

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Liverpool Game

6am was our rising time today so we could quickly pack and enjoy a good hearty breakfast downstairs in the nice quiet restaurant. (We’re starting to feel the kilo’s stack on from breakfast alone. Damn pants). We checked out then got a cab to Paddington Station, which we thought was a train station, but it turned out to be a bus station. Our cabbie wasn’t very talkative and just pointed and grunted when we pulled up at our destination. He was lovely. The bus left at 8am and we were due to get in around 1:20pm. The game starts at 3pm and we were a bit concerned we would be really stretched for time. The bus stopped off for a break about 2 hours in. It rained for most of the way but it was great to see the scenery without the stress of driving the whole way. We got to Liverpool at 1pm and got a cab straight to the hotel. We had trouble understanding the scouse accent of the cab driver but managed to have a good chat with him.


Unfortunately the hotel was about 15kms from the centre of Liverpool which was really in the middle of nowhere. We got to the hotel at around 1:45pm and quickly checked in. The cab driver was good enough to turn the meter off and waited for us to take us to the game. We gave him a generous tip when we got to Anfield at about 2pm and were surprised that we had made such great time. Dan was getting excited now as we passed the vendors with all of the Liverpool merchandise. Dan decided he wanted a jersey, because 6 already weren’t enough. We went to the only ATM machine in the area but it was out of money. Oh well, we ended up getting a scarf commemorating the day plus a Game Day programme.

We weren’t really sure what to expect with our tickets because we received an email from our travel agent, Karen, about a week before hand that our tickets had been upgraded for free. We went to our gate and the usher led us to a large dining hall. We had no idea what was going on and the concierge asked for our name but it was not on the list. He gave us passes to get in though and sat us with a table in an adjacent room. We were seated with another couple from Liverpool and the waiter took our order for drinks. Still confused and not sure if we had to pay or what, Ev ordered coffee and Dan water. We thought we were going to be shown to our seats but this was weird, the waitress directed us toward the buffet table and told to help ourselves. The food was amazing, we both had fish, potatoes and meatloaf.

There were 2 free Game Day guides to go with the one we bought for 7 pounds earlier, go figure. The couple across from us told us it was all complimentary with our ticket (High five Karen). The time was 2:50pm and Ev took her time while Dan was getting edgy, he didn’t want to miss a thing. Eventually Ev relented and was ready to leave after much pleading from Dan. As we walked up the stairs to our seats in the Centenary Stand, the hair on our necks stood up as the ground was now in full view. Our seats were amazing in the second tier up on the sideline, midway between the halfway line and the goal. The atmosphere was incredible and Dan was finally realising a lifelong dream seeing Liverpool play at Anfield.

The crowd warmed up with a few songs as the players made their final preparations. When the players walked out onto the pitch the crowd and Dan sung along to the official Liverpool anthem, ‘You’ll Never Walk alone’. He had goose bumps and for the first time actually felt a real connection to the team and town.

The referee blew his whistle as the game kicked off. Dan was glad to be able to see Stephen Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Jamie Carragher play in person. The game itself was fairly dour but the atmosphere was electric as the crowd rode every tackle and every whistle. At half time we went to get some drinks. The line was long but Dan waited for about 20 minutes to hopefully get a beer and Ev a coke. Dan didn’t get served until the 2nd half had started just as they stopped serving alcohol. We got coke instead.

In the 2nd half Torres managed to score the only goal of the game in the 68th minute with a wonderful strike and the crowd was in frenzy. Ev snapped at just the right moment. 

The winning and only Goal

We had been to some wonderful sporting events but the noise and passion that emanated from the 30,000 people at Anfield today was like nothing Dan had experienced before, maybe because it meant more, not sure. Either way the boys had won. Liverpool 1 - West Brom 0.

After the game we went back to the Centenary Lounge for complimentary tea and dessert. The couple we had lunch with were there again and we chatted to them about the game and our honeymoon. They had travelled themselves a fair bit and told us about Orlando. They also wanted to know more about Australia as they are planning a trip. Dessert was beautiful. We had little tarts and cake. We ended up leaving at around 5:30pm and grabbed a cab back to the hotel and stopped into the liquor store on the way. The cab driver told us about a Beatles festival in the city that was on at the time. It had bands from all over the world and locally paying tribute to the Beatles but unfortunately our hotel was too far out of town and we didn’t have a car, plus a cab cost around 20 pounds, 1 way to get in. It would’ve been good but we decided to go back to the hotel instead.

There was no ATM at the hotel so for some strange reason we got a cab to go and get money but also ice for drinks. We were able to get some money but no ice. Back at the hotel we went to the bar to ask where else we could get ice from. The barman pointed us in the direction of a free ice machine in the hotel. Far out, that cab ride was a waste of time. We went back upstairs ready to write more of the blog but had a few drinks instead and ended up watching ‘White Chicks’ and ‘Panic Room’ before crashing for the night. Tomorrow we board a train to Milton Keynes to stay with Sam and the boys. Can’t wait!

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Madame Tussaud & Phantom

We had a late breakfast at about 9am so went to level 1 again as we thought we were short on time. Once again it was beautiful, bacon, eggs, sausage, black pudding, hash browns, baked beans, cereal and fruit. We went back upstairs and packed our bags, checked out then checked back in to another room from the extra night we booked, then took our bags to the storage room because our room wasn’t ready yet. We eventually got to the bus stop at about 11:30am and bought tickets for Madame Tussaud’s wax museum from one of the bus company staff. We had a 2 for 1 voucher but were told we could only use it at the box office. He also told us that the wait to buy these voucher tickets was about 2 hours. We thought better of it and just bought the ‘fast pass’ tickets from him instead at full price. The bus was already packed and we had painful thought about how crowded everything would be today. It took about 45 minutes to get to Madame Tussaud’s because the bus had to make stops at each of the tourist locations. In hindsight we should’ve just taken the Underground but we did get 48 hour pass, so we may as well use it.

When we got off the bus we knew we had made the right decision to buy tickets before hand. There were 2 massive lines. The line to buy tickets did indeed look like it would take 2 hours. We thought we could walk straight in with our pass but one of the staff told us to join the other queue, which was about 50 metres long. We had to wait about 10-15 minutes to get inside but at least it wasn’t 2 hours. We finally got in at 12:30pm and once inside we purchased a souvenir booklet and were led to an elevator with a group of people that took us to the lower level. The doors opened and the place was a absolutely jammed packed. When we first walked in we honestly couldn’t tell real from wax model at the A-List Hollywood party set. Only the clothing made the models stand out as they were mostly very well dressed.

The first celebrity we saw was Morgan Freeman, the likeness was amazing. Dan got a photo with ‘him’ after fighting his way through the hordes of onlookers. Ev got a photo with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.

Dan with Freeman

Ev & Tom. He's very short

We know it’s the whole point, but the models look amazingly lifelike. Only a couple failed to look exactly like their fleshy counterparts, eg Mel Gibson, Brad Pitt and John Travolta. The rest were bore an uncanny and eerie resemblance. We really had to push our way through to get a photo with each wax celebrity as you literally could not move freely throughout the museum. There were so many people that it got a little uncomfortable toward the end.

The first area was made up of movie and rock stars like the ones we saw earlier but also, Leonardo Di Caprio, Helen Mirren and Christina Aguilera.

The beautiful Audrey

We passed through an Andy Warhol exhibit before we got to the Hollywood area. There were great models of Robert Downey Jr, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and many more. This area was by far the most crowded and was also the stage where we started to get a little annoyed.

We quickly left the Hollywood area but realised Dan had dropped Ev’s jacket in the crowded room, which had our Phantom of the Opera and bus tickets in. Thanks Baby! Thankfully someone had handed it in to one of the staff. The sporting heroes section was next. The likes of Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar, Lewis Hamilton were on show. Dan got a photo with Shane Warne, Brian Lara and Liverpool champion, Steven Gerrard.

There was also an interactive football game where you had to try and score a penalty goal. Dan had a go and almost threw his knee out. The glory days are over Dan. We passed through an area of famous inventors, scientists, artists and important figures in history like Stephen Hawking and Einstein. Ev had some photos with some of the Royal Family including Princess Di, Prince Harry and William.

The next area had famous musicians like The Beatles, Micheal Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, Kylie Minogue.

Ev's trophy was better!

It was 1:30pm and we were pretty worn and ready to go. We quickly walked through the famous World Figures area, ie President Obama, Pope John Paul II, Hitler etc and walked through what was a representation of the dungeons and murderous side of London during the 1800’s. It was pretty cool. Following this we boarded a mini Black Taxi rollercoaster ride which took us through the history of London starting from the time of Queen Victoria through to present day. We were about to leave when Dan noticed the Marvel Comics 4D animation show. We paid an extra 5 pounds each to watch it. We grabbed some 3D glasses and walked up a ramp that led to a waiting area that had wax models of Nick Fury, Spiderman, The Hulk and Ironman. Finally the movie was about to start and everyone filed into the cinema. It was like an IMAX theatre dome where the screen took up the entire wall and roof. It was a really cool movie that went for about 20 minutes. The chairs vibrated and wind and a light mist were sprayed from the chairs in front to simulate speed and water splashing. It was good fun. This was an awesome half day activity.

We got back on the tour bus as it passed and spend another 30 minutes getting back to the hotel. It was enjoyable though as we got to see the sights of London once again. We stopped into a pub-like restaurant and had some lovely lunch and had a chance to just sit and talk about our trip so far. We noticed the post office through the window and headed there after lunch to ask when they close. They told us 6:30pm. It was 4:30pm so we went back the hotel and officially checked into our new room. It was the same as the previous room except this one had a double bed instead of 2 singles. *Wink, wink..Nudge, nudge..Say no more, say no more...* We played cards and then took a quick nap but overslept. We quickly got ready but didn’t leave the hotel until 6:20pm. We got to the post office just before 6:30pm but still had to box everything up. We weren’t quick enough and were incredibly pissed off because we were 1 minute late and they wouldn’t help us. Now we will have to carry the bloody thing around to Sam’s place because tomorrow is Sunday and the post office is closed Monday for the Bank Holiday. The parcel is really heavy, about 10kg (yes we’ve bought a lot so far but you can’t travel and not buy things, well not us anyway). We left the parcel with the storage clerk and took a taxi to Her Majesty’s Theatre.



Phantom of the Opera

We thought we were going to be late for our 7:30pm show but the cab driver was surprisingly quick as he took a bunch of back streets and avoided the traffic to get us there at 7pm. Before the show we bought a souvenir book and ordered drinks for intermission. We took our seats near the back and didn’t realise they were so high up. It didn’t really matter as once the music started, we were mesmerised...

Cue The Phantom Music: do Dooooooooooo, Do, do, da, da, da, da, duh duuuuuuh. Dun, duuuuuuun, da daaaaaah. (wow that was fun!)

Ev in the theatre @ Phantom. If you can't see, she's very happy.

A life-long dream came true for Ev tonight. She had chills as the dramatic Introduction played and fell in love all over again when ‘All I Ask of You’ was performed. The show was fantastic and we both really enjoyed ourselves. It was everything Ev hoped it would be. Even Dan enjoyed it (soft as).

We got a cab back to the hotel at around 10:30pm and packed our gear in preparation for our trip to Liverpool tomorrow morning. Sleep is good.

Love me?... That’s all I ask...of you. Such a beautiful song. Night.

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London Tour & Sherlock's Home

This morning we decided to have breakfast on level 1 instead of the restaurant on the ground floor. It was very crowded as you’d expect but quicker as the buffet food was already prepared. We had another full English breakfast and it was again really good. It filled us up for over half the day. Our day bag was packed so we walked down the street with our umbrella just in case and boarded the city tour bus and upgraded to a 48 hour pass as we don’t think we’ll see everything we want to today. The double decker red bus was really fun.

London City Tour on the Red Bus

London city is huge and there are way too many sights to see all at once, especially as we wanted to get off and stop at some places. We passed places like Notting Hill, an apartment building where some of the Beatles used to live, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, the church where Oscar Wilde got married, 10 Downing Street, it was pretty amazing to see all of these famous places. On the way to our first stop the audio guide we were listening to was telling us about the blocked windows on some of the buildings. Back in the 18th and 19th century the government used to impose a window tax. Basically this meant that if your house had 10 or more windows you had to pay this tax. People got around this by boarding or bricking up the window to avoid paying the tax. This is where the term ‘daylight robbery’ originated. This concludes today’s lesson. 



Our first stop was 221b Baker St, the fictional home of Arthur Conan Doyle’s world famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. We grabbed our tickets from the Sherlock Holmes museum next door and waited in line. One of the staff were dressed in a Police Bobby’s uniform outside collecting tickets. As we walked up the stairs, the creaky floorboards led up to the sitting room where ‘Dr Watson’ was waiting for us with Holmes’ and Watson’s original belongs: books (passport, tea sets, furniture including his sitting chair and even a chemical set was displayed. Of course, there was also his original hat, pipe and magnifying glass on display. Dan posed for a picture and signed the autograph book. Each room had a recreation of different scenes from various Sherlock Holmes books using plaster models. It would be safe to say that Dan enjoyed it more than Ev.


After the tour we went to the museum gift shop next door. Dan bought a graphic novel of ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ and we bought a couple more magnets.

His House

“Elementary my dear Watson” Sherlock Holmes never said that. I did! Boom!

The old 'Gun in the book' trick

Watson & Holmes and some chick, probably his mum.

Next we were on to Trafalgar Square and rested for a while. We took some photos of the square itself and took photos of the four lion statues guarding Nelson’s Column, so named to commemorate the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  In the distance we could see Big Ben so Ev pinched it like it was a lego block.

We walked down the cobbled streets to the Convent Garden which was full of street performers, market stalls and other stores selling English Tea and clothing. One of Ev’s friends suggested we check out Ella’s Bakehouse, which we did and she does make very good cupcakes! Down in the open food court we heard a String Quartet play and it set for a lovely scene. We had a quick walk through the entrance of the Royal Opera House then went back out to the streets towards Leicester Square. On the way, stalls selling half price tickets for musicals caught our eye and we bought some for the Phantom of the Opera. Ev has always wanted to see it. We carried on towards Leicester Square and enjoyed the gardens. Heading towards the bus we passed more street vendors (that didn’t hassle us) and the common red phone box.

Our next sight we saw was Westminster Abbey and the decadent golden Big Ben clock up close. They say that Ben’s minute hand is so heavy that it takes a whole hour to rotate. J Lame.

Subway Sandwich whispers to guy on right: “Eat me”. Guy on right abruptly replies: “Yo Brother!, You watch what you say next to them peanuts. You ain’t da only fast food ‘round here.”

Anyhoo, the Parliament Buildings and London Eye were overlooking the River Thames and we drove around it from the back, followed by St. Paul’s Cathedral which looked spectacular with its pillars and gold statues decorating the place of worship.

We driving over the Tower Bridge and saw the detail in the towers and along the walls. It was a great view of the river.

We jumped off... at this the bus stope and walked to the Tower of London. It was getting late so we only had just over an hour to see the sights but we really only wanted to see the Crown Jewels so headed there first. On the way we read boards displaying the history of the western wing of the castle collapsing in 1240 and in 1841 the entire castle burnt down from a fire in the gun workshop. The Crown Jewels were magnificent. Unfortunately no photos, but we bought the book. We also saw the 7 Black Ravens and the Armour Room in the White Tower.

We boarded the bus and decided that we needed to get some clothes for Phantom of the Opera tomorrow night and thought Harrod’s would be a good place. It was good, but very expensive so we walked to The Gap. Dan finally had a pair of jeans and Ev bought a nice dress. Now we’re ready for a night on the town. Believing we weren’t too far away from the hotel we started walking but after 10 minutes our tired feet from a full day of walking had caught up. We hailed a cab and drove a further 15 minutes. The map was very deceiving. We arrived home at 8:30pm. Room service was in order. Dan had a Pepperoni Pizza, and Ev had chicken nuggets and chips. Both were very nice. This hotel has been very good.



Dan had a few drinks and watched Tomorrow Never Dies again and Jaws 2 and Ev fell asleep straight away.
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