A Day Out in London!!

Today Andrea said we weren't going to work.  Because she'd been off work sick for a long time, she still had one day annual vacation time to use up by - well, today!!!  So we had the day off work and did something else entirely different!!!!  (well sort of - we didn't go to work!!)

All a bit last minute, but that's what made it fun!!

First we went up to the bus stop.....

And got off at Brighton Station!!!  We had to wait a bit longer than normal for the train because the one we wanted got cancelled.  That's OK - we're not in a rush today!

And then we got the train and found a seat!!

And we're off!!!  Andrea was really boring and read a book most of the way.  Actually, she read it out loud to me, and it's a really good story!!!

Here we are at Blackfriars Station!!  We're getting off the next stop though.....

First we made use of the facilities and left a bookcrossing book hanging on the door!

 And then we came out at Ludgate Hill - that's St Paul's Cathedral up there!!!

 But we're getting the bus the other way!!!

 We left them a weathergram too!!!

 The bus terminated at Aldwych so we had to walk a little bit further on.....

 Past Somerset House - they didn't have an expedition on that we wanted to see today.

 And we met a piggie on the way!!!

 He's a Gloucestershire Saddleback pig.  They have him chained up because he's been known to run up the road into the Royal Courts of Justice and start throwing sausages at the Judges. 

 We came past the Savoy Hotel that looks like the front of a Rolls Royce car.

 And ended up at Trafalgar Square!!!  There's an expedition on at the National Gallery!!!!

 It's all about Delacroix and the rise of modernism and we got in half price on our Art Pass!!!

This was a brilliant expedition too - Delacroix was from 1790 something up until 1860 something so just before the Impressionist period.  This show had lots of his paintings next to other artists' paintings who had learnt stuff from how Delacroix painted - there were lots of Impressionist work there like Van Gogh and Gauguin and Signac and Monet and some later post Impressionist artists like Cezanne and Odilon Redon (he was a bit strange) and ending up with Matisse and Kandinsky who was a bit bonkers!!!  But it was great fun and I think I'll try and take Andrea to it again!!

 By now, we were both getting rumbly tummies because we were starving hungry so after shopping in the little gift shop, we went to lunch.

 Andrea said she knew EXACTLY where to go!!!

 We walked past this pretty entrance.....

 .....until we got back to Aldwych again and then we spotted Covent Garden up the road!!

 So we went into the market......

 And came here!!!!!  Although this looks like a tiny littol shop, there's a staircase on the right hand side (inside) that most people seem to think is for staff only.

It isn't.

 It goes to the first floor tea room!!!!!  We've never been to this bit before!

 First we got a bottle of fizzy water.  Andrea burped but she did it quietly.

 Luckily everyone else there was outside on the terrace!!!

 We had Emmenthal cheese Crock Monshor wiv a salad in the middol.  It was YUMTASTIC!!!!!

 AND on the way out WE GOT A TAKE AWAY PUDDING!!!!!!!!!  HUZZAH!

 By now, Andrea's left ear was getting a bit sore (she has tinnitus in that ear and just got over an ear infection in that ear as well) so we decided to come home.

 So - back at the bus stop.....

 And we saw a black double decker bus go by!!!  It was for The Ghost Bus Tours.com and they go to Drowning Street and Deathnal Green and Ladbroke Grave!!  (for non-Europeans, that's Downing Street where the Prime Minister works, Bethnal Green in the east end of London and Ladbroke Grove!!!)

 When our bus came along, we tied another weathergram on it!!!

 And went past the Royal Courts of Justice.....

 ....and spotted this little entrance that used to have pretty tiles on it!  Shame they've fallen off......

 And then we got off at Ludgate Hill.....

 And whizzed into the train station!

 There was another train in a few minutes!  Excellent!!

 We tied a weathergram on here too!!!

 And we set off through London!!!!  Unfortunately this was quite a noisy train, so we ended up changing seats about three times before we found somewhere quiet!!

 But we did it!!!

 And got home in one piece and no major ear ache, which is good!!  AND there was a bus waiting for us when we came out of the station!!!

 And then we got off at our stop, and came home!

 Here's our shopping!!  We got the expedition book because it was brilliant!

 Looks like a good book too!

 Those are the greeting cards!  The white one is Boo Lee Vard de Clichy in Paris - we've been there!  Not in the snow though.

 And these are the postcards we got....

 And those are the macarons.  

And that's pudding!!

What a fun day out!!