We went to London!!!

  Yesterday morning, me and Andrea got up REALLY early when it was still dark!!!

We got a bus into town..... the Christmas lights look so much prettier when it's dark!!

 Oh wow!!!  Look at them!!!

 Then, we got on a big coach!!  We're going somewhere!!!!

About an hour later, we got to somewhere called 'Burbs!  Andrea said it was just outside London!

 Then, a little later on, we arrived in London!  We even got here 15 minutes earlier than expected!!!

We walked up the road to the train station, and had to get a bus.

 We got the number 38.  This bus stops right outside the Royal Academy opposite Fortnum and Mason's shop, which is very handy if we ever want to go see an exhibition there!!

 But yesterday we didn't - we got off at Piccadilly Circus!!  I've never been here before!!!

Then we walked down to Leicester Square and along towards Covent Garden.  We went in here but couldn't find what we wanted.....

 So then we got a 24 bus.....

 That took us to Tottenham Court Road Station!  We walked down the road a bit - and then saw Tas Restaurant!!  We've eaten there, it's yummy!!

And then we went to the British Museum!!!  Andrea said there was a Manga exhibition there!!!

 It turned out to be a really small exhibition and not really what we expected, so we were a little bit disappointed.  But, in the gift shop, we found the Manga book that the exhibition was about, so Andrea decided to get it!!!  It's all about this Professor here, and his adventures in London!!!

 Then we went down the road to Andrea's favourite art shop!!!

  They had a funny tree in the window!!!

 Then we went back to Tas for lunch!!!  We had taboulleh (yummy!!) and hot bread with a cheesey dip (more yummy!!!)

 and then we had lamb shish with couscous (more yummy again!) and a big glass of pommegranite juice which was FAB!!

 Then we got the 73 bus......

I really like riding London buses!!!

 We got off a Hyde Park Corner because Andrea spotted something.  We walked under the "Underpass" and saw lots of pretty tile pictures!!

 In Hyde Park they had a Winter Wonderland amusement thingy..... but it cost lots of money to go in so we didn't.

 Then we got a 16 bus which took us behind Buckingham Palace.

 And back to Victoria Station!!!

 Then we walked back to the Coach Station......

 And got the coach home!!

 JAFFA CAKES!!!!  Andrea remembered the Jaffa Cakes!!!

 I love these!!!

 Here we are in Sussex now...... you can tell because it's all green!!!

Here we are back home!!!

 We then got a bus back to where we live....

 And saw more Christmassy lights!!

Here's the Manga book we bought!!!  It's Professor Munakata's British Museum adventure!!

 And it's written and drawn by Hoshino Yukinobu.  Apparently he's one of the best Manga writer/artists around.   This book has a bunch of other stuff in it as well as the Manga story, including an interview with Hoshino Yukinobu.

We started reading this last night, and it's a really good story!!!

(Ed's note: this book costs £14.99 and if anyone's interested in getting a copy, I'd suggest looking at the museum website at http://www.britishmuseum.org/ - I think that has a "shop" section)

 We got some postcards too!!

at the art shop, we got these things - there's a hole in the metal end which you can put your pencil stubs into (when they're down to the last couple of inches!) and then you push the circular band up which tightens it.  So, you can finish using up all your pencils!!  Andrea says it might work with soft pastels too.

and we found two more of these as well!!!

What a fun day!