London

Our first European city together! Despite the cold weather, the sun has been out and we are having a great time in London. For Juz, this has been his first time seeing a red double decker bus, old-fash

ioned taxis, the places on the Monopoly board and all the main sites. For Jessie, it’s been great to come back and actually enjoy London (last time she was here it rained all day and didn’t go down as the most fond of memories!).
Some of the more enjoyable moments have been walking through London’s beautifully 

maintained parks, seeing a squirrel, visiting all the main attractions (Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Mayfair, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge), taking in the nightlife characterised by very talented buskers and markets, and even finding the equivalent of Borders Bookstore and warming up on a hot chocolate while flicking through the pages of a travel guide for free! Dinner on our  

second evening was also a highlight after discovering a quaint little underground restaurant.

Yet we have also s

een the other side to London, which included arriving at the train station and being informed of delays because someone was ‘under the train’, witnessing shop lifting first hand (conjuring images of ‘Oliver’), the immense socioeconomic gap between the wealth of Mayfair and the homeless man walking down the street, and learning that stabbings are well and truly on the rise here. No doubt these stark realities will continue to face us as we travel through other areas of Europe.

From here on, we are meeting up with Steve Kehayas for dinner tonight and then fly to Paris in the morning. On Saturday we’ll catch the train to Nice before travelling through France, Switzerland and Germany by hire car.

Until next time…