Today has been all about my passions in life being Sports and Music. One activity planned and the other by chance!
Started the day as normal - breakfast at the hotel - before heading off to catch the No 23 bus towards Marble Arch before catching the No 274 to Lords Cricket Ground! For the benefit of my American family and Friends, Lords is the "Field of Dreams" for any Aussie boy dreaming of playing cricket against England. We spent about 3 hours on a tour of the ground and museum while a game between Middlesex and Lancashire played out in the background. Along with Ruth and I were about 6 Aussies, 7 or 8 Indians and 2 New Zealanders - needless to say the tour guide (English) copped a lot of verbal whenever the word "ashes" came up or when standing next to the real urn!! After the tour we bought a few souvenirs before realising how close to Abbey Road studios we were. This meant we had to go to the pedestrian crossing made famous by the Beatles on the cover of the Abbey Road Album. The picture on the blog today is of Ruth doing the walk on my behalf! I did get a go of walking across too but a bloke with a walking stick sort of spoils the romance of the occasion haha. Still it has long been a bucket list item to do both things so it was a privilege to do them together.
After all that excitement it was back to Notting Hill for a very late Italian lunch - pasta, breads and Red Wine. And if that wasn't enough excitement for the day - we did all our laundry to finish it off!!
Tomorrow is our last full day in London before heading off to Scotland on Tuesday. We plan to go to Plaistow tomorrow to have a look at some World War 1 church bells that have the names of 197 men from Plaistow who lost their lives during that war. My Great Uncle, William James Ward has his name on one of the bells. I'm sure this will be a great experience if not emotional as I follow my Heritage through my mums side in the area that she, her sister and brother were born and raised. Following that we will have a last look around the city before preparing for the drive north! Yes that's right - I'm driving for the next 7 days so look out UK!!
We really are having a great time even in 10 degree arctic weather - the sun is expected to show itself sometime later this month!