Apart from seeing
friends, the main purpose of this trip or rather the reason for making it
now, was to do a recce for an impending trip to London. The aim to suss out
what is and is not doable access wise in London. To figure out
distances between places the group want to visit.
We started
the day with some lovely warm Croissants provided by our lovely host,
then it was down the road to the Three Bridges train station to catch
the train to London. We purchased our tickets and then hopped on the
9:36 which got us into London around 10:20. London Victoria station was
packed with queues at every ticket point. We must have been here for a
good 20minutes to top up an Oyster card. It was then down to the tube.
Certainly an experience for Cornish folk! From Victoria we went one stop
to Green Park before changing tubes (isn't that just fun with all those
stairs and escalators!) onto the Piccadilly line 2 stops to Leicester
Square. Thank goodness we had the lovely Laura who is a whizz at reading
tube maps etc. Upon exiting the tube station at Leicester square we
decided it was time for a beverage and spotted a Patisserie Valerie -
where we were very good a resisted cakes, just a hot chocolate each.
The
IMAX cinema and M&M world were both on the groups list of possible
things to do and so that is where we headed next. Premier square Or
Cinema land.
M&M
World it turns out doesn't open until 12noon on a Sunday and so we took
a walk down to Trafalgar Square to see the Lions etc. admiring the
architecture along the way - there are some beautiful buildings in
London. Interesting street artists including a levitating Yoda.
Whilst
here we decided to make the most of it and have a look in the National
Gallery - heading straight for the Constable, Turner and Van Gogh
paintings on level 2. The other half also pointed out that this was the
gallery Q met Bond, same leather seats and Bond commented that it was a "b****y big ship".
From
here we headed back to M&M world - after all it would be rude not
to! The smell of M&M's as you walk through the door is quite
something, 4 floors of M&M themed products from personalised
M&Ms (colour and wording or logo of your choice) to hoodies,
stationary, PJ's, mugs etc. it was endless. The bit I was interested in
though was the displays or M&M characters in famous poses/or as
famous people.
Above: Totally awesome lift. Loving the periodic table of M&M's above.
Well we are in London after all. We had done a quick Google the night before to search for comic book shops - its London there had to be a selection. We found that there was in fact a Forbidden planet on Shaftesbury Avenue, which as it happens is between M&M world and Oxford Street (another place on the groups visit list). After a good ol browse of Forbidden Planet, which made the other half very happy (not least because he found the books he has been searching for for some time now), we headed across the street to an Italian restaurant - Wildwood Kitchen. Good food and not too terrible prices for London, I had a delicious Lasagne whilst the others plumped for burgers.
After our sit down at lunch time we headed to Oxford Street, I couldn't believe how busy it was for a Sunday!! You were swept along with the crowd and people were tussling for space in shops. We paid visits to: Hamleys, Lush (I'd seen the construction of their Oxford Street 'flagstore' on a TV documentary and was intrigued to experience it for myself) and I think that's about it tbh - it was just far to busy for us! We jumped on the tube at Oxford Circus and made a swift exit to Victoria Station. Here we sat for a drink and Krispy Kreme doughnut before catching the next train back to Crawley. I have to say it was exhausting!!
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