Finally! The long awaited first Blog! Have to say first sorry for taking so long to get this up - it has been on our list of things to do for a while (almost a week in fact) but just have not quite been up to doing it! But here it is, the first few days...

Well from the start we have been full-steam ahead doing the touristy thing and checking out many of the big and popular sites. This has been well mixed in with some more relaxed times (forced upon us as we attempted to get over jet-lag). It does help alot that were we are staying, (very near Paddington station if you are looking on a map) is in prime location for accessing the city of London (it is also only 500m from Hyde Park, which is prett specky).

We have done the rounds of a fair few of the museums around the place (especially the free ones) and there are a fair few pictures of them in the photo part. In the first few days we checked out the Victoria and Albert Museum (pretty cool - really nice courtyard), the Museum of Natural History (awesome Dinosaur exhibition - inspired us to watch Jurassic Park) and also the Albert Hall itself. Although we couldn't go into the theatre itself, we had a look around the gift shop and booking place. We also saw a sign for "Free Friday Concert"... we went to it and it was pretty crap - wasn't in the Hall at all, just in the Cafe. The Cafe was all osh-posh looking, but we had a laugh when their coffee bean was "Starbucks International", they served their "Soup of the Day" in a Starbucks Mug, and they brought out Kettle chips on the plate with the fancy sandwiches they served!! lol (have seen other museums but won't go into that in this particular blog)

On a more fun (and probably interesting side - for the girls anyway), we had the change to walk around Portabello (Notting Hill - near where the movie was filmed) and Camden Markets. Portabello (name may be spelt wrong) is apparently the biggests antique market in the world - and I wouldn't be surprised it was massive. We spent a good few hours wondering up and down it (and didn't get it all done). Eli reckons they were "Super-cute" (you should see some of the terrace houses - in the photos somewhere), and was "thoroughly disappointed not to see Hugh Grant wondering around". I can't say I was too surprised but there you go :P. Ironically, it was the boy not the girl who made more purchases - buying a tacky bottle opener with the handle being a telephone box, and also a babar "antique" print (and to go back to that old arguement of how Babars name is spelt, everyone in England says "Barbar" (Eli remarks- oh thats bulls***, everyone does not say "Barbar"- just the few people tom's heard talking about it). Eli bought a "Mind-The-Gap" bag for a bargain too. We also got absolutely bucketed on by rain, and only had a relatively small umbrella, however, we won't complain as I hear you guys have been getting drilled by rain recently!

At Camden we were pretty cruisy too, Tom bought a hat (no way!), and Eli tempted many sales assistances with the line "I need to have a little think about it" or "I'll remember it and come back" - one guy responded "How well do you remember me?" - my guess would be not very well, as we didn't go back there again. There was also a huge Gothic store there with an amazing range of black clothing and 7inch boots (black of course). This was also situated next to the sexy/naughtly lingerie store, which also stocked "mould it yourself penis's" and an inflatable fat lady - lol, needless to say we spent heaps of time there.... joking!

Anyway, that is probably enough for a first blog! We have thus far been having a great time, and I reckon there will be another "catch up blog" similar to this one covering out London Experience.

Hope you are all well,

Love T&E

Tower of London - Eli banging head on a glass door

National Gallery

Crappy Concert at Albert Hall

Markets