London

Aw gee, I just know I'm going to get int trouble here, but I am not such a great fan of London. There, I've said it. Get over it.

London is very busy. There's heaps of traffic and even more people (Steph and I call them 'peeps'. They are EVERYWHERE! It's scary.

Youse are probs wondering what is happening with The Ramblers. Why, for example, are they in Europe AGAIN??!! Well may youse arks!

We are here because Europe is here, that's why. See? Simple.

We brought Gammar this time. Dear Jude's (DJ's) mum, Margaret; known in this blog as Gammar, who has cousin, Judith (known as Jum) who lives in Kingston-Upon-Thames with her husband (known as Sam). There you have it. Gammar has spent most of the time at Jummy and Sam's, but came with us to France for a few days.

Dear Jude and Steph spent a day getting Steph's stuff ready for her English egress in a few weeks' time, while Gammar and I headed for The Tower of London. Here was an example of just how wring one can be about London if one leaps to uninformed assessments of London as a city of enjoyment. We, in fact, enjoyed quite a wonderful day.

We resolved early on to go by bus. The Number 9, in fact, from Hammersmith to Aldwich. What fun that was! Up on the top level of the bus, ready to pounce on the two front seats when they became vacant, we rolled on through the traffic, spotting all the crazy highlights that one hears about internationally: Picadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Latchford Barracks, Hyde Park Corner, where all the theaters are, the Albert Hall and some other really authentic London POI. Change on to the Number 15 and thence on to The Tower.

Not so many peeps today, as the weather was a bit on the cloudy/cold side and it was Thursday.

We took the tour with the Beefeater, whose speel WAS interesting, but was word-for-word identical with the other Beefeater guides we overheard later on. INTERESTING NONETHELESS! We saw ravens an jewells and the spot where Anne Boellyn had her head whisked off wth the French sword. Yikers! The experience was quite evocative, but it was a mite difficult to absorb oneself in the multitudinous epochs which Spanish the life of this grand old edifice. A few hours of gawping dies not do it any justice at all. The best perspective (and the most practicable) is to see ot in the light of 2011: Gammar, The Tower and me. The three of us in one place at one time. It will never happen again! It was great!

Having spent most our time on the bus getting there, it was now time to hurtle back to Steph's joint in Hammersmith to meet up with the sorters and packers and to have some dinns. We went on the Tube. We dined at one of Steph's locals over near the river (Thames) and right beneath the flightpath to/from Heathrow, Gammar having high-tailed it back to Kingston. We (Steph, DJ and Groombles were orf to Istanbul, Byzantium and Constantiople. But that, me coin bloggees, will be the subject of a later blog.

See youse!

Groombles