A Big Adventure

Well yesterday, we did some very sudden packing up..... because we're going on an adventure!!  Andrea had booked a hotel a while ago thinking we were going to meet up with some friends, but then the Queen died and we thought London would be full up but then found another way of getting there - so we're going!!!

So we all raced up the road.....

...to the bus stop......

...and ended up at Poole Valley Coach station.  We'd normally get the bus outside our house but we had a triathlon race thing on the coast road and it's closed to traffice.  So we had to get here for 7:50 in the morning - we had ten minutes to spare!!

Then this coach arrived..... but he's not leaving until 10 am!  Our coach was late.... we were still waiting at 8 a.m...... and still waiting at 8:10 a.m.......

And then our coach arrived!!!  Hurray!!!  We're going on an adventure!!!

We got settled into our seat.

And tied a CD to the hand-hold bit!

We went past the Royal Pavillion!

We got Jaffa caykes!!!! HURRAAAYYY!!!

nomnomnom.....

nomnomnom.....

First stop was Gatwick South but we didn't get off.

Then it was Gatwick North. We didn't get off here either.

Wait.....what???  We got off at Heathrow Terminal 5??  But but but.....we're not getting a plane somewhere are we???!

Stand 7?  What's at Stand 7?

The 490 bus to Richmond??  We're getting a bus to Richmond??  From Heathrow Airport???!

OH WOW!!!  I didn't know we could do that!!!!

Next stop was terminal four.....

We tied a floppy disc here too!

And then we spent quite a bit of time driving round Heathrow.....

.....before we ended up driving through London.

We're crossing the Thames!!!

And we got off the bus here!!!  We're on holiday in Richmond!!!

AND THEN we found some guerilla knitting!!!  Somebody yarnbombed a post box topper!!!

Oh that's just brilliant!!!

There's a bird sitting in a nest on the top and what looks like an icecream.

There's mushrooms and ladybugs and a stripy house...

And a hedgamahoggins!!

and flowers and a slice of watermelon...

Those red things might be strawberries.  Oh what fun!!!

And then we walked a bit further up the road and came to a hotel.

We're staying here!!!

We got room 204!  And we've got a bed each!!!

Andrea can sleep on the floor, she'll be fine.

We got a view as well!!

Then we decided to go out because we were starving hungry.

We came here to Pizza Express!!

We got a fizzy drink.....

And a pizza with the middle bit missing and a salad instead!!!  This was nommy!!

After we stuffed our faces, we went back to the bus stop we'd got off at earlier.

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!!  We got the number 65 bus!!

We gave them a floppy disc too.

And we're off!!

And we got off here!!!  This is the best-est cayke shop in ALL of Richmond! And it's not far from the Kew Gardens main entrance!

They had a funny van parked in front!!

After we bought lots of cayke  (we'll show you later) we went back to this bus stop.....

....and got another 65 back to the hotel!

They got a floppy disc too.

We had to sit right at the back because it was bonkers busy!!!!

We stopped off back at the hotel.....

And left the caykes here so they didn't get squished.

And THEN we went out again for some proper adventuring!!!

We went to the bus station round the corner.....

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!  We got the number 33!

Wonder where this goes....?

First, we crossed over the Thames!

They got a floppy disc too!

They booted us off the bus here, at the stop before the end of route.

So we crossed the road and got another 33 going the other way!!

They got a floppy disc too!!

That's Strawberry Hill House over there.  It's a museum now, lived in by Horace Walpole who wrote the first ever gothic novel back in 1700 and something!! It's interesting in there!!

It's very residential round here....

We're crossing the Thames again!!

There's an art deco building that we just missed there!  We'll have to go back to photograph it!

OOOO!!!  There's another art deco place we almost missed!!!

That might be another one just up there.....!

Oh wow!!!  They got a lion in their front garden!!

Oh wow!!!  There's some funky buildings down this way!!!

And an interesting shop!!

That looks like a junk/pseudo antique shop!!

For some weird reason we got booted off before the end of route, but there was another 33 just behind so we got that instead.  

But eventually, we crossed the road to get the bus back the other way!!

From this bus stop here!!

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!  OK, so we've already done that for the 33.....!!

They got a floppy disc too!

Oooo.... those entrance pillars look like they have art deco type toppings..... wonder if that's another art deco building?

Lichfield Court, that's the place!!!

And we got off when we arrived back at Richmond Bus Station!

There's a Thai restaurant there with elephants!

Cute, huh?!!

We left another CD on a railing....

And a bookcrossing book too!

And then back to the hotel room for a cuppa tea!!

Later on we got starving hungry so we decided to eat at this place next door to the hotel.

It's a Persian restaurant.

First they brought olives and dips.  We scoffed all the olives straight away, we were that hungry!!! The white one we think is mayonnaise and the red one is hot pepper "steam out of your ears blow your head off" sorce.  We didn't use any of that one......!

We got a glass of wine in.  Hic....

And we got this!  It's rice (some saffron rice) and then chicken and lamb steak skewers, grilled, with grilled veg and salad.  This was EPIC!!  Oh let's come here again!!

That was FAB!!!  And we only had to stagger over the road to get back to the hotel!!!

And we had a cayke for pudding!!!

....we're exhaustipated.........!!!