We came to London!

We've got a long weekend this weekend, with a bank holiday tomorrow so today (Sunday) we got up early because we're going somewhere!

First off, we headed up to the bus stop -

And got to the train station - 

And our train was ready and waiting for us when we got here!  Excellent!

And we're off!!  And we've got glorious weather today too!

We went past Millwall Football stadium...

And got off here at London Bridge

First we used the facilities and left a CD on the door.....

.....and then headed down to the Jubilee line.

We got off here and changed to the Central line.....

And got off here!!!

We had a long walk up the road and we came to the shamanic drumming event!!!  We worked with the spirit of the bear today (Bob would be proper happy!!) and the Bear is a Master Healer.  So is Lavender, the plant.

After a long day, it was home time, so we walked down the road

....back to the underground station!

And came back to Canada Water underground!!

And we got off - we're staying over because tomorrow's a bank holiday and we don't HAVE to get home today!

So we went to the bus stop

And got on the 381 bus!!

They got a CD as well!

And then we got off at Smith Close

Because we're staying here at the Youth Hostel!!

We got a room all the way up on the 4th floor!  And it's all to ourselves!

It's a nice view here too.....

That's over to the left of the building, so we can't see the Shard from here....... that's on the other side of the building!

We got a bunk bed in the room and we're using the bottom bunk because it's easier to get into!!

Then we went off to stretch our legs for a bit.  The tide is starting to go out, but there's not much space to go beachcombing on, so we just looked.

It's pretty here.

Oooo there's a funky manhole cover!

After a while, we headedback to the hostel for a rest but then came out again later because we were getting hungry

And left another CD here!

And walked past this old warehouse.

And left another CD here!!

(Ed's note: this one's already been claimed!)

That's the Brunel museum there.

Wait a minute!!!  We tried booking a table for here for tonight and they said they'd be closed...... so why is their A-board out saying they're open??

Here's Simplicity - their lights are on...... what's going on?

Huh - the "closed" sign is on the door - what are those other notices??

THEY'VE SOLD UP!!!!!  Lawrence (current owner) has passed the keys on to new people!!!!  He's not going to be here any more!!!!!  Oh bummer....... but suddenly, whilst we were reading the notice, Lawrence suddenly came up to the door, unlocked it, and said come on in - you're having dinner here.  OMG!!!  He opened up just for us!!!  Straight away, he sat us down and said right, what are you having then.....

Well he got us a glass of wine and some water ...... he explained that his other restaurant in Birmingham isn't doing too well (staffing issues) and because he's here in London 5 days a week he can only get to Birmingham 2 days a week which isn't enough to sort the problems out.  So after some hard thinking, he's having to pass on Simplicity to new owners so he can concentrate on the Birmingham one.

Which makes sense but we're going to miss him - we've been coming here since 2011.  That's a long time!!

(He's closed for the next couple of weeks to clean out the kitchens, we think)

He made us the seabream with pea rissotto and tomatoes on top with grated parmesan which was yummy.  This was our birthday meal this year!!

For pudding we had the apple crumble with cream which was proper yummy!!

Lawrence asked if he'd see us again before he finished....... and because we haven't tried his Sunday Roast dinner yet (and we've been meaning to for ages!!) we said we'd visit again on his last day, 21st September, specially for the Sunday Roast.  

It isn't going to be the same without him..... I mean, we know Simplicity will still be here, but it won't be the same without Lawrence....  But there's trains to Birmingham and there's bound to be a hotel there, surely?!!

Then we headed back to the hostel again and left a floppy disc here.

And the tide's finally gone out so we did a bit of beachcombing after all!!

We saw some interesting stuff too!

including a broken spade!!!!!

We threw back the oyster shells that we found last time.

And then picked up some more sea glass (or Thames glass rather!) and more oyster shells.

Gosh we like it here

It's pretty.

Back over the Red Bridge....

And back at the hostel!!

Oh what a lovely evening it's been!

Here's our stash of shells and glass!

Well, time for bed now.....

'night!!!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz