An Exhaustipating Day out!!

Today we got up ridiculously early for a Sunday......

.....Because we're getting a Coach somewhere!!!  Cocoa's never been by coach!

After a few minutes, it arrived and we got a window seat!!  We were so excited we forgot to take a picture of the CD we left tied to the seat in front!!!!

WHERE ARE WE GOING????!!!

This is Poole Valley in Brighton..... but we're not getting off here....!

We went past the Royal Pavillion....

And out of town!! 

A bit later, we had Panno Shoko LAH for breakfast!!!

It was yummy! (See?  Told you we hung up a CD!)

Then we arrived at Gatwick South terminal.  But we didn't get off.

We had some Jaffa Caykes instead!!!  I had to tell Cocoa Beanie that it's tradition to have Jaffa Caykes when we're riding the coach!  He's never had these before.....

Go on - have a nibble......

These are proper nommy!!

We're off again!

Where to next, Jeeves?

Heathrow Central Bus Station!!!  But we didn't get off here either.

We stopped here and let some more people of the coach.

And we're off!!!

We're going through Hammersmith now..... we spotted a fancy mosaic at the top of that building!  Can you see?!

OH hang on!!!  I recognise this bit!!!

It's the Natural History Museum!!!  When we passed the Exhibition Road junction, where were sqwads of people lining up the road waiting to get in!!!

That's the V&A museum!!!

We arrived at the Victoria Coach Station!  We used the facilities and left them a CD and then washed our paws forever.

And then made our way outside for today's escapade!!  What are we doing?

First of all we went up the road to the train station.  But we're not getting a train.

We're getting a bus from the other side of the station!!!!!

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!!  It's the number 36!!!

We gave them a CD as well!!!

And we got off here, at the bottom of Park Lane by Hyde Park!

We're getting another bus now.....

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!!  It's the 148!!!!

We gave them a CD as well!

And we're off..... it's quite posh round here eh?!

Oooo they're making a new building!

That's a bit swish, eh?!

And we got off here..... Holland Park is down there apparently!

But we're going to get ANOTHER bus!!!!!

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!  It's the number 31!!!!  (but we're not going to Camden Town.....)

They got a CD as well!!

Wonder where we're going?

 

We got off here at White City!!  On the right there is the White City bus garage.

Ooo look, there's an underground train going past!  Except it's not underground here.....

Guess the station's over there somewhere.  Apparently the BBC TV centre used to be over this way somewhere but I'm not sure where....

There was a big shopping centre by the bus garage so we thought we'd find an eatery there for an early lunch since we were getting peckish.  We left a poppy on this bush first!  We had a good look round but couldn't find anything so we decided to move on.....

..... and got a C1 bus back into town!!!

They got a CD as well!!!  Unfortunately at the next bus stop, a young chap got on the bus with a toddler and pram, and the toddler was having an absolute screaming hee-bee-gee-bees meltdown from hell tantrum so we got off the stop after.

....here....

And got the next C1 that came along!

We gave this bus a floppy disc!!

Where are we going now??

Oh!!  We got off here at the Design Museum!  We're at High Street Kensington now, and that's the other end of Holland Park on the other side of the Museum!!!  Oh wow!!

Oh, those are funny!!!

We're going to eat here!!!  Cocoa Beanie's never had a Gordon Ramsay burger!!!

First of all we got a drink.  It's thirsty work, all this gadding about!

Oooooo!!!!  Yuummmmm!  We're STARVING!!!

BHAJI burger?!!?!  This is a bhaji burger?!!  These are YUM!!!  Like proper seriously yum!

After a cracking lunch, we popped next door to the art shop.  (we'll show you later!!)

We like contagious creativity!!!

On the way back to the bus stop, we left another floppy disc on this bush!

And spotted a funky post box too!

Then we waited at the bus stop.....

For another C1 bus!!!

This one got a floppy disc!

And we're off!!  We spotted this murial on the way.

Coo, it's getting a bit posh down here....!

Hang on!  That's the Natural History Museum again!!!

And the V&A!!!

And then we got off here at Horrids!!!  We haven't been here forever!!!  Well, Cocoa hasn't been here at all yet....!

Of course, we went straight into the chocolate room!!  "Oi!  That's MY job!!!" shouted Cocoa.  (we nearly got escorted out because of that!!)

"Ah yes, brings back memories, this does..."

Coo.... the tiles here are gorgeous!

Marmalade?!!  We did a spot of shopping (we'll show you later) and then got out because it was crazy mad busy in here.

And then went back to the bus stop over the road.

Some attention seeking ego trip went past in a noisy sports car.

And we got ANOTHER C1 bus!!!

This bus got a CD.  Gotta love a bit of bling!!

Ooo that's a fancy building!

And then we got off at the very last stop, over the road from Victoria Train Station!!!

We had loads of time to spare before our coach journey home so we went back to the original bus stop we started off at, so we can get some more bus bingo numbers!!

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!!  Number 16!!!

We gave them a CD!

Oh, there's our favourite sculpture!!

We got off at Marble Arch..... just past it actually.

And found another sculpture!!  Bit of an odd one, that is.....

Right, now we've got to follow that bus over there.

There's Marble Arch!!  We need to get to the bus stop just down the road from there.....

And we got another number 16!!!!

We're going back down Park Lane now.....

They got a floppy disc!!

There's that weird horse head statue!!

And we're back at Victoria station!!!

We still had time to spare, so we got the 507 to Waterloo!!!

We gave them a floppy disc!!

And we're off.....!!

We're crossing the Thames!!!

And we got off at the last stop, Waterloo Station!!!

That's a fun sign, huh?!!

See that weirdly shaped glass building in the distance?  That's near the Tate Modern and Blackfriars Station!

Then we got another 507 back to Victoria!

We gave them a floppy disc too!!!  This one got claimed on our other blog before we even got home!!!

Ooo - those columns have been painted!!

There's that weird sculpture again!!

Oooooo....... that's an interesting roof!!!

We're back at Lambeth Palace again here....

And then we came back over the Thames!

We came here last week!!  There was a Corgi here!!!

And then we got off at the last stop!  Almost time to go back to the Coach station!

But first we got some sarnies to eat for dinner....

And then left this poppy here.....

And another floppy disc here....

And a floppy disc on this bike!!

Then we walked back to the coach station to get our coach home!

Oh what a fun day out!!!

First we used the facilities, left a floppy disc and then washed our paws carefully.

Then we went to gate number 9 to get our coach.

We got another window seat, hurrah!!

We remembered to take a picture this time!!!

Yum!  We're hungry!

And we're off!!!  The coach to Brighton used to go through Pimlico and Vauxhall before Covid happened but not any more.  I think there's a bit of a shortage of drivers now (like a shortage of HGV drivers and airport staff) and so they've combined some of the routes.  It used to be a Brighton to Gatwick to Victoria route and then Brighton to Gatwick to Heathrow (aka the airport run).  But now it's Brighton, Gatwick, Heathrow, Victoria and the coach comes up through Hammersmith and Chelsea instead.

We got more jaffa caykes!! Huzzah!!

Oh these are nommy!

We're going alongside the Thames now!

Ooo that's a pretty bridge!!

They've got houseboats down here!!!

There's a brewery!!!  TELL BOB!!

Where are we going now?

Oh!  We're back at Heathrow again!!  This is the central bus station!

And then we stopped at terminal 5.....

We saw a plane taking off!!  You can't really make it out in the photo though.....

And then we headed off again!

It's very pretty round here.

Although the crops are very yellow/brown.

We're at Gatwick North Terminal now.  Our driver got caught up in a plane passengers' mishap here.... a Portuguese traveller had got the bus down to the airport, but had taken somebody else's case off the coach.  Didn't realise it until she got to check-in and then rushed back to the coach bay to try and arrange to get her own bags back.  Plonker.

Then we stopped at the south terminal.....

And then we headed off back to Brighton!

What a lovely evening....!

And here we are coming into Brighton!!

Stopped off at Poole Valley coach station.....

We went past the sealife centre and Brighton Pier

That's the remains of the West Pier there.....

Very ghostly.....

And we got dropped off here!!!

We don't have to go far to get home either!!

So - we got a pad of paper from the art shop.

And a jar of marmalade from Horrids!!  We can have marmalade sandwiches now, like the Queen did for her Jubilee!!