We arrived in London and checked into our hotel, which was only 100 metres from Piccadilly Circus in one direction and Trafalgar Square in the other. A perfect location right in the middle of West End theatre district and a short walk to Buckingham Palace.

We wasted no time getting out amongst it. After two months of Italian food and wine it was a welcome relief to go to a place where the pub scene is so prevalent. We found a pub called the Admiralty right across the road from Trafalgar Square and had a pie with mash and a pint.

The next day we did a self-guided walking tour around London. We walked to Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Unfortunately Big Ben was entirely covered in scaffolding. He's under repair and will be for the next two years. We felt lucky that we had been to London twice before and seen him in his glory. If not, we would have been very depressed!

During our travels we have noticed a new trait amongst the world's travellers. It seems that the latest trend is to stand in a variety of unnatural poses in front of a monument or landmark to have your picture taken. Some of the poses are very amusing, although the people doing them usually don't think they are. They're quite serious about it! I decided to re-enact some of these poses for prosperity. Samples are included in the photos attached to this blog entry. Some of our favourites are: The Spin - where you spin around in a circle, usually fluffing your dress out at the same time and your photo is taken during said spin; The Running Man - where you pretend to walk or run and freeze in mid stride for your photo; and Solemnity - favoured mostly by men who stand in front of a monument and couldn't crack a smile if their life depended on it, as if to say "I'm at the Tower Bridge, but I'm not happy about it!"

We walked past the London Eye and down the Thames river to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, stopping off at St Paul's cathedral along the way. We then took the train to Knightsbridge to go to Harrods. Lidia was keen on pea and ham soup for lunch, which we'd had there on a previous trip, but unfortunately they didn't have it on the menu any more. So we ordered a Thai soup instead. It was hugely expensive, especially since our exchange rate means that everything costs almost double for us. We asked for some bread to have with our soup and it cost us $13.00 extra!

That night we went to see Hamilton on West End. We allowed plenty of time to get to the theatre and jumped into a London Cab to go there. There was a huge traffic jam in London and after sitting in it for 10 minutes, the cabbie suggested we should make a run for it. So we paid the driver and started running the 2 kilometres to the theatre. Our shoes were not made for running and we made it to the theatre with 2 minutes to spare, sweat pouring off us. At intermission my achilles were so sore that I felt like a 90 year old hobbling to the toilet.

Lidia didn't want to book tickets for Hamilton because she didn't think she would like an entire show of rap music and American history. At the end of the show she was the first one on her feet for a standing ovation. The show was incredible. So inventive and entertaining. We both loved it. In fact after seeing four shows in London, it was easily our favourite.

The next morning we woke up both very sore from our run to the theatre the previous evening. My achilles were so sore I could hardly walk and Lidia had shin splints. How old are we? Fortunately after walking 10 kilometres around London that day our muscles loosened up somewhat and we recovered quickly. In the morning we did a self-guided walking tour around Soho and Covent Gardens. This took us through Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Covent Gardens. This is a colourful part of London, with plenty of buskers and street performers, cool cafes, bars, restaurants and pubs.

We grabbed a fresh salad at Pret-a-manger, a franchise fresh food chain that seems to be on every corner of London and then walked to the Playhouse Theatre to see the matinee of Fiddler on the Roof. The set was fantastic. It felt like you were in Anatevka, with the whole theatre decorated like an old Russian town. We sat down before the show and Lidia had her legs crossed and her foot resting against the chair in front. A man came to sit in front of her and folded his seat down. The seat flipped up and caught Lidia's foot in it on the way, dragging it through the gap just as the guy sat down. He sat directly on her foot and crushed it in the back of his seat. I turned around to see Lidia pushing him rather forcefully on the back until he stood up and released her foot.

The show itself was great. There were some very strong performances, although we both thought the Tevye could have been better.

That night we went out for Indian food and then to see the Tina Turner musical. We both enjoyed it but felt that it was a little like a cookie-cutter show rather than a creative, original production.

The next day we went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and then wandered around three of London's famous parks, St James, Green Park and Hyde Park. We then went for a traditional high tea (actually referred to as cream tea here) in Soho. We then went for a walk around Covent Gardens again before settling in a pub called The White Swan for a pint. After this we went to meet Madi's friend Ceri and her family for a meal. Ceri had brought her entire family and husband Alex down to London from Chippenham just to meet us. It was a two hour drive so we felt privileged that they made the trip for us. Ceri's brother Ash, mother Shelley and father John were all lovely and we had a great night. John tried to educate me on how to pronounce words like "scone" and "Pall Mall", although I think that he was actually pronouncing them incorrectly, not me.

After dinner we all went back to The White Swan for a pint and quite a few laughs. John tried to convince me to drink warm cider and Alex tried to turn me to warm ale. Neither did much for me so I stuck to cold lager. I did learn a lot about English drinking habits though. Apparently the beer we drink is lager and served cold from the hydraulic tap. The beer they like is called ale and is served at room temperature from a hand-pumped tap. Either way, it's gross. Ale was originally drunk here because the water wasn't safe to drink. It wasn't drunk for enjoyment and still shouldn't be. The rest of the world discovered proper beer. Apparently the Brits never moved on. We rang Madi who was lying in bed and looked like she'd been dragged through a bush backwards. The family left at midnight for their two hour drive back home.

The next day was Saturday and so was quiet in London, which is mostly a business district. We started the day off by taking the train out to Portobello Road. This famous road hosts a massive street market that goes for kilometres. There are street performers everywhere and just about everything you can think of can be bought there. We spent a couple of hours exploring and then took the train back to old London. We joined a walking pub tour of the central London area which was great. The tour guide was actually from Geelong and had been living in London for 13 years. He took us to half a dozen pubs and told us the history of the area and each establishment we visited. We saw pubs that were frequented by Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Winston Churchill, etc. Some of these pubs had been around for 500 years.

That night we went to see our fourth show, Come From Away. This show is about a small island off the coast of America where 7,000 people landed after the 911 terror attack. The show was absolutely brilliant and the cast very talented, each of them mastering 4 or 5 different accents.

The next day we went for a small bus tour of the Cotswalds. These ancient villages are untouched by time and lucky enough to survive the World War Two bombings when Hitler tried to wipe out all historic places in England. The quaint little cottages set amongst the green hills are simply gorgeous. We enjoyed a cream tea in a traditional tea house and then went to a tiny village called Bibury. We were walking down a path when an American lady started walking down a grassy hill to our right. She was wearing high cork shoes and suddenly slipped. She accidentally tossed her phone away and then one of her shoes fell off and she started running and slipping down the hill trying to get her balance. Lidia laughed so hard she was literally crying.

On the way back to London we stopped for a couple of hours at Oxford. This is a beautiful, historical town and we loved exploring it. We went to an ancient pub called Turner's Tavern where a sign on the wall explains that our ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who studied at Oxford, still holds the record for the fastest skull of a yard glass of beer. So proud!

We got back to London quite late to find half of the hundreds of flags lining The Mall replaced by American flags. Apparently Donald Trump is visiting. We are getting out of London just in time! We went for a last pub meal and pint in Covent Gardens and toasted this amazing, eclectic, entertaining, multi-cultural, historical city.