From London!

We arrived back in London last night. Our last three days of the tour were really good. Our full day in Lauterbrunnen, we all got up and went to breakfast. Then Laura and Steph went back to bed:-) Hey, the itinerary did say "Lazy Lauterbrunnen";-) I went over to the campground reception and bought postcards. I even wrote and mailed then that morning, so some of you should get them soon. Then I posted a blog:-) Later, Laura and I walked into town to see what we could see: mostly closed shops. It's a pretty sleepy place here and most shops close in the afternoon. We got caught in a rain shower in town, so we walked quickly back... without lunch. While it poured outside, I made my 'add hot water' food for lunch and we ate. Not extravagant, but filling. Dinner that night was fondue; chicken stroganoff and rosti; and ice cream.

We spent the evening repacking and crashed about 10 or so. The next day we were off again quite early for the long drive to Paris. We arrived in Paris fairly late, but the campsite had been booked so they 'farmed us out' to a hotel closer to town. No complaints here. We knew that a long time ago, but didn't realize what a good thing it was until we'd been in other campgrounds:-) The drive to Calais was uneventful, as was the ferry crossing this time... good thing. Another 3 hours on a ferry was not something I wanted to happen. We arrived at the Royal National in London about 5.30pm. We unloaded all our stuff, then I went to inquire if anyone had turned in my hat. No luck. Oh well. It's not so sunny in the UK;-) We said our goodbyes and took a taxi to our new hotel. It's quite near Victoria station, only a few blocks walk, but the lift doesn't go directly to our room... we take it one floor up then still have a flight of stairs, but after the Contiki tour we're pretty used to no lift anyway. The room is very small, but has a double and a twin bed, cupboards, a TV, a fan, and an ensuite with a (important to Laura) bathtub. We were all very tired after the other tour, so we didn't really plan to do anything last night. In fact, it seemed that Steph was coming down with the cold/flu that was going around on tour, so she pretty much collapsed into bed and we let her sleep. She woke up later to shower, but pretty much went straight back to bed. I took the ensuite opportunity to wash some much needed laundry and my hair. It feels good to be clean:-) Laura and I decided before bed that we wouldn't try to wake up for breakfast here. It goes until 9.30 but we figured that with Steph sick, the last thing we needed to do was not get enough sleep and catch it too.

This morning we all pretty much slept in. I woke up at 8, but went back to sleep. I really missed being able to do that and Steph needed the sleep anyway. We all got up about 11 and left the hotel about 1pm. Not an extrememly productive day for us so far, but Steph still isn't feeling great. We walked to Vauxhall Bridge Road to see where we need to catch our next tour, then up to Victoria Station. We ate in the food court up top. Nothing spectacular: KFC for Laura and I and a McD's milkshake for Steph (cold protein+carbs :-) ). The station is odd. It's all undercover, but all the shops have anti-bird spikes on top. Then we went downstairs to check out the left luggage service... and discovered that there are indeed pigeons in the station. Guess the spikes aren't so odd after all. The size limit on the next leg of our trip is 15kg, so we will need to check some of our stuff. It'll be about 23BPs to store a bag for the duration of our first tour, but we don't really have much option. We'll check it at Victoria station, then pick it up on our way to Gatwick, where we will check it again to pick up on the way home. It won't be cheap, but we haven't been willing to never shop:-) The Internet cafe is across the street from the Station, so we've popped over here to get in touch. When we're done, we may take a Big Bus Tour of the city, or if Steph is spent we may head back to the hotel, at least for a bit, and maybe do some bigger washing at the nearby laundrette. Perhaps not an exciting day in London for some, but when you've been going what feels like a mile a minute for most of two weeks, doing not much really feels good, especially as we're launching into two more tours shortly. Anyway, that's about it for now. It is nice to read your comments, so feel free to add some on the blog. They don't need to really relate to anything in the post either:-) I have also been checking my email when I log on, so feel free to send me a note. It would be nice to find something other than spam in my inbox;-)