Our first night in London

Sorry been a bit slow with the updates. Had a very busy few days so forgive me if I play catch up a bit.

For those that I haven't told already, we arrived in London safe, sound but weary, so weary. The original plan, such that it was, was to catch the train or the tube into Central London and find out hostel. A quick chat to the old duck at the ticket counter and she advised us we'd be better catching the bus cos it was more direct. So back we trundled the way we had come and found the bus station. Bless the old bird at the ticket self service who helped me figure out where we needed to go for a grand old price of 10 pound for the two of us to get to Victoria Station, compared to the 17 pound express tube a scrawny chick in the aiport tried to sell us.

After a short wait for the bus, during which time we read the daily telegraph and the weirdest letters to the editor I have read - take that R Kitching and Judith Law. They were all about squirrels and the best way to deter them from your home ... anyway.

On the bus we hopped for our ride into London. Took about 40mins and then once there a quick scan of the map and a guess in the right direction and we walked up the road and within three mins found our hostel.

But things only got better. When we checked in we got told we had been upgraded to an aprtment, two streets away from the hostel, but only streets from Buckingham Palace. When we opened the door to our "apartment" we found it not only had two bedrooms, but a kitchen and washing facilities as well. The street it was on looked like something out of Mary Poppins. It was amazing! After two days of travelling, I was finally able to take a shower and it was the best shower I have ever had in my entire life. Period.

After we washed up a bit and emailed home to let everyone know we were ok with the free broadband in the room as well, we hit the streets of London to seek out Buckingham Palace - just cos we could.

By this time it was about 7pm local time though the sky was still so light it felt like mid afternoon. This caught us unexpectedly and before we knew it it was 10pm and we had lost all hope of an early and desperately needed night's sleep.

But back to the palace. We got there just in time to see the last changing of the guard for the evening. We took all the usual happy snaps, which I will post at some stage, and hang out a bit on Queen Victoria's monument.

It was nice just to be out and about and walking around. So we finally headed back to our amazing apartment for our first night's sleep in more than 48 hours.