Weekend Shopping in London, Day One

Today, Andrea put me in charge of packing - we're going somewhere!!!

After I'd done that, we got some mail delivered!!!  This is a big package.....

They're Darren Shan books!!!  We'd already read the first three of the series, and recently bought the last three in the series from a charity shop, and these are the books in the middle!!!

We got the whole series to read!  Yippee!!!

Then I finished up the packing and we were ready to go!!!

So off we trotted up the road...!

And arrived at the train station!

Excellent - we got a window seat!!!

After we got underway, we had sandwiches for lunch.  Andrea got vanilla coke by mistake and we don't really like it.

I really like this view!

Aha, that's Battersea Power Station - we're nearly in London!!!  Get the bags!!

Yup, we're over the Thames!!!

When we got off the train, we went to the bus stop..... We're getting the C10 today.

We left a weathergram on the bus!!

On the bus, we went back over the Thames and we saw something funny on the building!  Can you see?!

It looks like the front of a boat coming out of the building!!

After a long bus ride, we got off here......

We're staying at the Thamesside Youth Hostel at Rotherhithe!  We've been here before!

We got a key to room 309 which is on the 3rd floor.  There were two top bunks left so first, we decided to take this one.  (We changed our mind later because the other one was easier to climb into.... this one had a weird ladder thing and me and Andrea only have short legs.)

That's our view from the window!

After we'd dumped our bags, we decided to go for a walk.  We left a bookcrossing book on the table outside the hostel!!!

Oh wow..... I remember this view!!  It's a little overcast at the moment - apparently it had been raining earlier on.  We missed that though!

We're on holiday!!

Oh, now I remember that statue!!!

IT'S THE TRAIN AT THE MUSEUM!!!!!  I get to drive the train again!!!

I love being a train driver!!!

We left a bookcrossing book there too!!!

We went into the Brunel Museum (we got in free with our Art Pass card!) and had a look round!!  They had a knitted wreath display on in the little cafe and this one has animals on it!!!

And this one had mudlarking finds on it!!!  How fun!

We bought a book from the gift shop, and then had another little walk.....

That's the engine house, which is where the museum is now.

I like it here.....

We saw some pink dogroses later on.....

And left another bookcrossing book on a bench by the duck pond!!

They've even got a little Dutch bridge here too!

And here we are back at the hostel!!

We used the the "facilities" and left them a weathergram on the door!

Then we swapped beds in our room!!!  We made a new friend too!!!

We're having this bunkbed now!!!

By now we were getting hungry so we decided to go for dinner.  We saw this on the way!!!

And we found a lovely rose on the way too!!!

And we came here, a little restaurant called "Simplicity" near the Brunel Museum!

It was a little bit odd though.  They had two huge chalk boards with the menu written on them, and no printed menus that you normally get.  So whenever another table got seated, they'd have to manhandle the chalk board across a limited accessibility room and prop it on a chair for people to read.  No idea what would happen if they were packed to the rafters....... and I think the waitress was new as well.... she got very flustered and easily distracted!!  Anyway, we got a glass of wine in, so that's the important bit!!!

And then we got our main course - bubble and squeak on spinach on veggies with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce on top.  We completely forgive the huge chalkboards!!  This was YUMTASTIC!!!!  We sent back an empty plate - I'd even licked it clean so they didn't have to wash it!!!  

(I'm very good like that, you know)

For pudding, we had a Chocolate Mousse cake with fruity Compote and Chantilly Cream.  Schlurpilicious!!!

We were so stuffed after that, we needed a walk along the Thames..... I really like that restaurant!!!

Here we are back at the hostel......

I'm pooped.... what a fun day!!