Beanie's Big Adventure Part One

Andrea had a couple of days off work this week and we decided to drag her out of the house for a while!!!

First stop, bus stop.  Which one are we getting??

We got this one and left them a floppy disc!!

And ended up at the train station!!  Huzzah!

Right ho.  Window seat on a train.....

And they got a CD!

And we're off!!!

....love this part of the trip.......

Oooo - we're coming into London!!!

Is that...... is it.....

I think is it......!

It's the Shard!!!

Aha!!!  Coming into Blackfriars Station!!!  But we didn't get off there....

We got off here, at St Pancras!!!

There's a new neon sign by the big clock!  We think it says "I want to spend time with you"..... 

First of all we used the facilities and left a Floppy Disc on the door!

And then came out onto the Euston Road!

We crossed over and figured out which bus to get.

Bus Bingo alert!  We got the number 205!!!

They got a jazzed up CD!!

We got off here.  That's Madame Tussauds over there!!!  Oh - we're not going there?

We're going down here!!!  Can you make out that street sign?  It says Baker Street!!!

That's an interesting looking tower down there......

It's that building!!!  Quite imposing isn't it?  We think that would be a good entry for Sandy's Art Deco contest.

He'll recognise that building over there!!!!

We're trying to find somewhere called Hanover Terrace to leave a bookcrossing book.  It's supposed to be down here somewhere.....

We spotted a special bench for the emergency services for all the hard work they've done during Covid.

OOOOooo!  That's a statue outside an Indian restaurant!!

And there's another one!!!

We left a CD on this railing!

And we couldn't find Hanover Terrace so we left the bookcrossing book here instead.  When we went to the bus stop to get another bus, we saw a lady look at carefully and then walk off with it!!!

Bus bingo alert!!!  We got the number 113!!!

They got a floppy disc!!!

(Ed's note: this one's been claimed already on my found art blog!!!)

Wonder where we're going now.....

We got off at Marble Arch!  That's the Marble Arch Mound over there - we saw it partially built last summer.

And it was an unmitigated disaster!!!  Was supposed to cost £3million, ended up costing £6million.  Advertised as having panoramic views over London but forgot to add the views would be obliterated by the trees in Hyde Park over summer.  Tickets started at about £8 or 9, then reduced to about £4 and then ended up being free entry.  Latest news, they're dismantling it now, but apparently there's some kind of pressure group asking to keep it as London's worst tourist attraction.

Anyway, we left another book here in Hyde Park!

It's a very big park, is Hyde park

We left another jazzed up CD on another railing!

And then we crossed back over the road to the bus stop.  What next Jeeves?

Bus bingo alert!!!  Bus number 74!!

They got a floppy disc too!!

We're going down Park Lane now - that's more of Hyde Park over there!

And we got off here!!!  Do you recognise it??!

We left the last of today's bookcrossing books on a bench outside...

And yup - that's the V&A Museum!!

Then we crossed over the road.....

And walked past here.....

....to another bus stop!!!!

Bus Bingo alert!  It's the number 360!!!

They got a CD tied on the hand rail.

When we got off, we crossed the road over to this bus stop.......

Bingo Alert!!! We got the C10!!!

They got another floppy disc.....

And we're off...!!

And got off here!!!!!

And we got this bus!  Number 390!!!

They got a CD!

And going back through central London again!

There's Marble Arch Mound again!!!

Diversions???

We're going past Oxford Circus now!

And we got off here!!!

And we're staying the night here too!!!  We had a bit of a scare at check in though - apparently we have to present a photo ID otherwise they don't have to honour the booking and Andrea didn't have photo ID on her!!!  But the lady looked up Andrea's youth hostel membership and asked a security question which we all answered correctly, and they said just this once they'd bend the rule a bit and let us stay!!!

And they upgraded us to a room with an en-suite bathroom on the fourth floor!!!

We got room 405 which had two bunkbeds in which we had all to ourselves!!!  It was bit odd not sharing a room with a bunch of strangers but then with this Covid thing still around, it's the best thing really. After we'd dropped our bags off, we decided we were really hungry with all that gadding about.

So we went to check out an Indian restaurant called Yatri.

And we got a beer!!!!  HURRAH!!

We ended up choosing a Karalian Fish Curry.....

....with steamed basmati rice and a garlic naan bread.

And here it all is!!!

We've never had this type of curry before..... and we really liked it!  It's spicy hot but not overly "steam-out-of-your-ears" hot which is good (we don't like that level of spicy hot!).  Wouldn't want anything spicy hotter than this though - but it was very tasty.  It's coconut based apparently and we ate loads of it.  The staff there are lovely too - wouldn't mind going back there again either.

Then we went back to the hostel - how can somebody NOT LIKE BEANS???!  I'm a really nice mouse!!

We got rubber stamps in our passports too, proper youth hostel rubber stamp!!!

And then decided to have an early night because we're completely pooped!!!!

zzzzzzzzzzzzz..............