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Da Vinci, shopping and Christmas!

OK you two - we're going out to do some Important Shopping, so try not to wreck the house any more than it already is...

Right - waiting at the bus stop huh??

Oh!  We got a National Express Coach!!!  Where are we going then?!

This is Poole Valley in Brighton - we're not getting off here are we??  No?

Oh good!!  We left a bookcrossing book in the seat pocket thing..... wonder if someone will find it

We made a video going past the Royal Pavilion!

We left a floppy disc tied to the seat handle..... it looks pretty there!

Still whizzing through the countryside though...... wonder where we're going?

OH!! Jaffa caykes!  Excellent!  We love those!

We let String Beanie have the first nibble......

And then I had some too!

Ooo, it's getting rather fuggy outside.....

It's so fuggy we can't see anything!!!!!!

Ah, now - I think we're in the suburbs of London!!!

It's the Stockwell roundabout!!!!

And we're going over the Thames!!!  We're in London!!!

And here we are arriving at the Coach Station!  Brilliant!!

Now then - the exit's this way.....

.....and then it's up here.....

And this is the bus stop we need to wait at!!!

We got on a number 11 bus today and we gave them a CD!!

Now there's an interesting building!

That's the side of the Supreme Court!!  It's on the other side of Parliament Square opposite Big Ben!!

There's the HorseGuards!!!  HALLO!!!

And we got off here!!!

We're at Trafalgar Square!!!  What's happening over there though!

OH!  It's a Christmas Market!!!  Have we come to do Very Important Shopping then?

That's a brilliant view isn't it?!

Chocolate??!!  Right, we're stopping here.  Bye.

Ah, yes, Andrea has all the money and knows how to get home.  Best stick with her..... lots of wols here!

Oh pretty!!!

More pretty!!!

We did a bit of Very Important Shopping (we'll show you later!) and then went into the National Gallery to see an expedition!

We got in half price to see a little show about a painting called Verging on the rocks.  Sounds rather exciting!!  Hope we don't fall off though.....

The first room explained that they think the painting was "set" in the Italian Alps.  Those are big mountains in Italy.  This room had lots of boxes with backwards writing on the back "wall" and then mirrors on the side "walls" of the boxes so that you could look in the mirrors and read the writing!!!  Da Vinci did lots of backwards writing - they think he was left handed or something.  

It was a lot of fun looking in all the mirrors to see what was written!!!

The second room was all about the chapel the painting was put in, and how the chapel was laid out.  There were lots of architechtural pictures projected onto the floor with different pictures!!

It was a bit strange but fun too!!

The room after this one was about conversation of the painting and had lots of different desks with pigments and white spirits and stuff.  We didn't take any pictures in there but it was brilliant to see what they were using!!

And this is the final room which has the painting in it!  It's a mockup of the chapel where the painting was originally hung so the bits around the painting are "faked" but the painting here is real.  There's an earlier version of this in the Louvre in Paris, and then there's this later version here.

After that, we did some shopping in the gift shop (show you later!) and then used the facilities!

Left them a CD!

Then we went off to lunch!  See that boat on the roof there?!?!?!

That's on top of the Kazakhstani embassy!!!! I've never been to Kazakhstan..... wonder what there is there?

That's a lovely rooftop isn't it?

Wonder what it's like to live in a room up there.....

Then we went up Hay Market.  Is that like a Christmas Market?

We found a Christmas tree!!

OH!!  BYRON'S   Hurrah!  Let's eat here!

First we got a fizzy drink!

And then a burger and fries!  YUM!!!

After lunch, we went for another walk and found another art deco building!!!  Never spotted that one before!!!

That's amazing!

And they got decorations up too!

Oh!!  Watch for the cat!

There's another pretty building!

Then we carried on up here....

to Piccadilly Circus!

Oh wow!!

Oh this is fun!

OOOoooo!

Oh look at this window display!!!

They're making hampers!

It's Fortnum & Mason!!!  We're doing more Very Important Shopping!!!

Oh how exciting!!

OOOOOOoooooo!

After we did our shopping, we came back out to see the other window displays!  This one has mice making the tops for mince pies!!  We're good at that, you know.... and taste testing them....

Oh, there's another mouse!

And they're filling up bottles of fizzy wine!!

with a bubble-ometer!!!

And cracker testing!!!

Then when we crossed the road, we saw that the whole building looked like an advent calendar!  Isn't that brilliant!!!

We also spotted a very ornate grate.   Fancy huh?

After that, we went window shopping in Burlington Arcade!

OOOOOoooooooo!!

There's a little Harrods shop here!!!  With a Harrods bear in the window!!

Oh wow, would you look at that!!

Oh wow....!

OOOOOooooo!

Oh wow!!!

Coo!

And we met another bear too!!!

And more mice!!!

We found a Lalique shop!!!

They got mice!!!

We went back over the road again to look in the other arcade.

This used to be the Maille mustard shop but they do posh facial stuff now.

Very expensive posh facial stuff.

Oh wow, that's pretty!

OH!!  Cthulu!!

Oh wow what fun!

And rabbits in suits??!

And that's the same arcade from the other end!!!

Fairy lights!!!

More fairy lights!!!

Coo!!  I love window shopping at Christmas time!!

Then we went back up to the main road again..... and saw peacock feather lights down another side street!

Then we decided to get a bus somewhere.......

So we got on a number 38 and gave them a CD!

Here we are going past Piccadilly Circus again!

And we got off here at Chinatown!!

There's a fire station here, and they've got their own dragon!!!!

After that we had a mooch around...

....and found the dragon gate.....

And then got another bus somewhere else!!

This one's a number 19 bus!  They got a floppy disc!!

And we just watched the world go by!!!

....with lots of sparkly bits!!!

We got off here, the other side of Constitution Hill.

And found another Christmas tree!

Oh wow!!!!

Then we went up Park Lane and found The Queen!!

A bit further up we found this sculpture

And that's the Dorchester Hotel!!  Proper posh in there!!

We had a look at some of the cars outside.  Rolls Royce.....

Posh sports car.....

And that black one's called Bentley.

Next door is a seriously gothic building - we think that's a bank!

And then onto another bus stop!

Where to next, Jeeves?

We got off here.

And went round the corner to check out some more Christmas decorations!!!

And then we went over towards the train station because it's nearly home time and we're getting a bit pooped!!!!

First though, we went to some nearby parks and left some CDs for people to find!

We put one on a tree too!!!

And the last one went there!!!

And then it was down the road a bit further.....

To the coach station!!!!

More lights down there too!!!

Quick use of the facilities and they got a floppy disc!!

Our coach was delayed by 30 minutes because the driver had to take a 30 minute break by law otherwise he'd be too tired to drive and might crash the coach or something.  But we were first on and got a window seat!!!

AND we got cheese for a pick nick dinner!!!

We're off!!!  What a brilliant day out!!

We did make a video of crossing the Thames but it was too big to fit on here.

We didn't see too many Christmas lights on the way so we just fell asleep instead.

Oh!  We're on the outskirts of Brighton now!  Nearly home!

Here's the coach station - but we're getting off the next stop!

Here we are!  We just cross the road and we're home!!!

That's a Christmas present for someone but we can't show you because it's a surprise!!

And this is a Lucky Dip bag we got at the Christmas Market!  Let's open it!!!

Oh wow!!!

That's a fidgetty springer that whizzes round and round!!!

And a little badge with a cow on it and it says "Moo-dy".  OH HAHA!!  Moody Cow!

I get it!!!

We got a yellow bracelet that says "power"!!

And an I love London pencil!!!

And a pair of lace gloves that go all the way up to Andrea's armpits!!!!

And a fuzzy Russian hat thing with ears and a fuzzy chin warmer!!! 

Oh what fun!!!!! 

This is a pop up book of Da Vinci's inventions we got at the National Gallery!

We've not looked at it properly but we think it'll be heaps of fun!

And we got a big postcard of the expedition too!

Then we got some chocolate chestnuts from a shop in Piccadilly!

These are proper nommy!!!

At Fortnums we got lemon bis kwits and minty chocolates for Andrea's Dad's Chrimbo present...

And two of these chocolate gingers are for Andrea's Mum's Chrimbo present.  The other two, Andrea's Mum asked us to get because she wants to give one to somebody else as a birthday prezzie and the other one to Andrea's auntie as a Christmas prezzie.

And then we got two different coffees for us lot!!!

WHAT?  You snuck in some macarons???!!!!  WOW!!!

*GASP* Chocolate covered macarons!!!!

OH WOW!!!

Oh we're so lucky!!!