It seems like it's been a long time coming, but today we set off on a 25-day trip to Europe. We got to the airport around midday to ensure that we had plenty of time to check in and relax in the lounge before our scheduled departure at 3:15 pm.
The flight from Perth to London took just over 17 hours and we arrived in London this morning at the rather unseemly time of 5:10 am.
This morning we were up early to make sure we were organised for our visit to Buckingham Palace.
Without any fixed agenda today, we got off to a more leisurely start to the day. We got downstairs just before 10:00 am and enjoyed a very relaxed breakfast. After breakfast we headed off to Constitution Hill to watch the Queen's Horse Guard go by. We continued our walk down The Mall, down Northumberland Avenue, and along the Thames to the Tower Of London, where we had reserved tickets for the Gunpowder Plot experience.
We slept well last night and got down to breakfast around 9:00 am. The breakfast menu is fantastic and has an array of tempting selections to start the day.
We had another leisurely start today, getting down to breakfast around 9 am. Over a lovely breakfast, we planned what we would do today. Since we had tickets for the ABBA Voyage concert in the afternoon, we decided to grab a cab from the hotel and head to the Columbia Road Flower Market in Bethnal Green (which was in the general direction of the concert venue).
This morning we woke to the sound of the alarm clock, at the rather unsociable time of 6:30 am.
Today we celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary, in Versailles. We were roused according to the way Marie-Antoinette liked to welcome the morning.
We skipped the royal wake-up this morning, opting to wake up naturally! We got down to breakfast a little before 9 am.
Today we had a nice sleep-in and didn't get down to breakfast until after 10 am. We had a lovely breakfast of pastries, breads, avocado, and French toast. It was around midday when we finished breakfast.
We got off to a pretty slow start today. We got down to breakfast around 10:30 am. We decided to sit in the courtyard for breakfast this morning, which was very nice. We headed back to the room after breakfast to get ready to go out.
Today we slept in and didn't make it down to breakfast. We have eaten so much food on this trip that we decided it wouldn't be the worst idea to miss one opulent breakfast! We decided today that we'd head to Porte de Clignancourt to visit the most famous flea market in Paris.
Well, today was just one of those days when things don't work out as planned. We were up very early (around 5:00 am!) so we could have a leisurely breakfast and pack before leaving for the airport to fly to Dublin.
After the adventures of yesterday, we were hoping for an incident-free day today! We were up very early to get out of the hotel and into the Heathrow terminal to catch our rescheduled flight to Dublin.
We were up early this morning, even though our flight to Iceland today was not until 12:15 pm.
We had not long been back in our room last night and were just heading off to sleep, when we got a call from the hotel staff to tell us that the Northern Lights were on display.
This morning we planned to be up early since we had a big drive ahead of us today. But we didn't get to breakfast until about 10:00 am, so the idea of an early departure went out the window pretty quickly.
We slept pretty well last night. We got downstairs around 10:00 am and enjoyed a nice breakfast while we considered how we might spend the day. We left the hotel around 11:00 am and headed out into Reykjavik.
It turns out that downtown Reykjavik gets pretty rowdy on a Friday night! So we didn't get as much sleep as we had hoped for and were a little sketchy as we got underway for the day. We checked out of the hotel just before 6:00 am.
We slept well last night. We were up at 6:00 am to get ourselves organised to head off to Marylebone Station to catch an early morning train to Oxford.
After a big day yesterday in Oxford, and quite a few early mornings over the last week or so, it was nice to have a sleep-in today.
This morning we had a sleep-in and a pretty slow start. It may be that we are at that part of a trip where things all start to catch up a bit.
We slept soundly last night and, as a result of the very impressive black-out blinds in our hotel room, were surprised by how late it was when we finally got up.
After a good night's sleep, we got down to breakfast a bit after 10:00 am. Over a nice breakfast we discussed whether we should stay the extra night in London (courtesy of Qantas cancelling our flight today) at 45 Park Lane or whether we should move to a different hotel.
The bed at The Langham last night was very comfortable. The only problem was that we weren't in it as long as we would have liked to have been! We had a taxi booked for a 7:30 am departure from the hotel, so we had to be up early to pack (for the final time!), have breakfast, and check out.