London: late August

We have just spent the weekend in London to say good-bye to Lucy and hello to Mary (Andy's sister) and her husband Dick.
We arrived, via a coach, early on Sunday afternoon and found our apartment (about 5 mins walk on the south of the Tower Bridge - which was convenient because Mary and Dick were just on North side of the Tower Bridge. We were wondering what are we going to do for 2 and a half days because we thought we had done London pretty thoroughly -but we managed to keep ourselves very busy and saw lots of new "things".
Sunday afternoon, after Lucy met us, we went to Notting Hill carnival - a massive street party organised for the Caribbean residents. It was very colourful, loud and extremely busy. Back in London we caught up with Mary and Dick and had dinner at an English pub. It was great to see Mary and Dick, seasoned travellers like us, forget how exciting it is when you see London for the first time!
Monday was a slow start and we were trying to find something "new" to do, so we caught the Tube to Regent's Park and walked through to Primrose Hill - which has a great view of the London skyline. From Primrose Hill we walked along the Grand Union (Regent's) Canal into Camden. The Camden market was in full swing and we had lunch there and did lots of browsing of the goods. Checkout the pics - some very interesting people. Unsure what to do next, we went back to Notting Hill and the carnival to us seemed twice as packed. On Sunday we saw parades of Steel Drum bands but Monday was the parade of the girls (and guys) all dressed up like the carnival in Rio. The music was so loud that my chest was throbbing when you walked past one of the trucks carrying the music gear. It was a fantastic sight.
Monday we caught up with dinner with Mary and Dick again - we had Indian - traditional English food - curry! A lovely meal, but then we had to say good-bye to Lucy - she caught a 9:00 am plane back to Australia and also to Mary and Dick.
Tuesday took us to Harrods (again!) but then to the Victoria and Albert museum (a mix of Art and Design), Kensington Gardens, Royal Albert Hall, Prince Albert memorial, Kensington Palace and the Science museum before we had to catch the bus back to Cardiff.
I went to school today (Wednesday) and it has rained solidly all day and more is predicted tonight!! :(
Cheers for now - check out the photos and I've also put a link to Mary & Dick's blog!
GO PIES!!!!