The travels of Tim and Megan: Tour guides

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning, Tim took Dianne on another sweeping tour of London's attractions. First we walked along Islington's Upper Street, a lively street packed full of bars, cafes and shops. We checked out a few of the shops, but Dianne is sure to be back for a better look during her stay. We walked all the way down to Angel, where we caught the tube to London Bridge. There was a threat of rain all day but it never came to much, so we had a very enjoyable walk along the south bank of the Thames down to Tower Bridge.

After crossing Tower Bridge, we did a lap of the Tower of London - Dianne was very impressed - and then caught the tube along to Westminster, where we had a sandwich for lunch before hitting the Abbey. We wandered leisurely around Westminster Abbey for over two hours and we both thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The audio guide is a must-have; extremely informative and entertaining. Although Tim had already done a tour of the Abbey not long after landing in London (see earlier blog entry from May 2007), it was just as spectacular the second time and is definitely one of his favourite London attractions!

After leaving the Abbey, we walked along Victoria Street (in Tim and Megan's old neighbourhood) and stopped for a milkshake at Garfunkel's, which was ka pai! Then it was back on the tube and back into the rat race, as we returned to Regent Street to check out some more of the shops that we had missed on Sunday due to the weather packing in on us! We fought our way down Regent Street, stopping in at several shops, our favourite being Hamley's (the enormous 6-storey toy store), right to the end of the street, which took us to Piccadilly Circus (which Dianne found to be much more pleasant when it wasn't pouring with rain!).

Friday

After returning to work for Wednesday and Thursday, Tim took Friday off and took Dianne out to Windsor. We had to get up and going early, as it can take a while getting out to Windsor and back, and we needed to catch the Eurostar to Paris at 5.30pm on Friday evening. It was a big day for trains - we had 12 train rides in 9 hours!!!

We eventually made it to London Paddington station (via three tube rides) and then caught the train to Windsor (with a change at Slough). Slough was looking as lovely as ever... We arrived in Windsor around 10am and went straight to the castle. Once again, the audio guide was crucial - very informative. The tour was magnificent. Tim had also done this before (see blog entry from January 2008), but it was well worth doing it again, as there is so much to see and take in. We also got to tour St George's Chapel, which is within the castle grounds. Megan and Tim had not been able to see this during their first visit. Dianne had a great time and thought Windsor Castle ran Westminster Abbey close as her number 1 attraction.

We then had a pub lunch at The King and Castle pub, across the road from Windsor Castle, and had time for a quick look around some of the shops in the pretty village of Windsor. Then it was time for more trains back to London.