A super busy day today, in lovely sunshine for the first part of the day before some dreary clouds rolled in during the afternoon. Sister #1 had booked us tickets to go on a tour of Lords, so we took the tube part of the way then walked the last little bit as the tube we needed to take us closer was closed. We came across some lovely buildings and were saying that this must be a nice part of town to live in....then we walked past a bin, for knives!! I will attach a picture but it was a bin to place your knife - if you were carrying one. We should have one at Colonnades :) It would be full within a week.
The tour of Lords started at 11am so we had a look around the museum which had some interesting bibs 'n' bobs, including the "original" little urn for the ashes, which is really a perfume bottle! There is a very interesting story attached to this and no, it has nothing to do with burning bails!
The tour went for an hour and a half and we got shown around the Pavilion, members section, the players changerooms (home side and visitors), then out into the stands and up into the media centre. The grounds team were busy preparing the ground for the upcoming New Zealand vs England test. In our group, we had a big contingent of Aussies, a few Brits and some Indians. No Kiwis, though. I am not a cricket fan (too many summers of having dad hogging the TV to watch cricket, when mum and I wanted to watch other things!) but I do recommend a tour as it was very interesting and not many people can say they've been to Lords!
After this finished, we decided to go to Madame Tussauds so we walked there as the weather was nice. I know that the first time I came to London with sisters #1 & 4, #4 wanted to visit, maybe we should have done so. I was looking forward to going but I think it was one of the worst places I have visited. Yes, I knew it was going to be busy, especially on a Sunday, with nice weather, and the crowds were huge, but I think this place needs to re- think its policies on crowd control, safety and management. It was VERY crowded inside and hot and stuffy. We had to shuffle along in lines with people pushing in, taking lots of photos when they didn't wait until it was their turn and it became very claustrophobic. The staff were not very pleasant either. For a major attraction, I would rank this last. The only bit that was good was the black cab ride through the history of London which involved sitting in a little black cab, like on a roller coaster and being "driven" around London. It was a clever way to present a history of London. We opted out from the new Star Wars exhibit as it was so crowded and nothing was happening, nobody was moving, so we left.
Rating out of 5 stars - 1. :(
Feeling frazzled, we stopped to have a bite to eat and a drink, before making our way to Queensgate tube to meet Laura and Christian, who had arrived in London that afternoon, for their 7 week honeymoon. We decided to have some tea at a cafe and enjoyed a long chat. It was lovely to see them and hear about their plans, which sound amazing, as they travel around some parts of Europe.
We said our farewells and headed back to the apartment. I have organised my suitcase again and stuffed as much as I can in my backpack so my suitcase isn't so heavy, but it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference!
Tomorrow it's back to Paddington and saying farewell to the walkers as they embark on their Cotswolds adventures and I head over to Devon.
