Day 26: Tuesday 22 April 2014

Today is my last day in London, I catch the train for Bath tomorrow morning.  As I haven't been into the centre of London yet I decide that will be the starting point for today's adventures.

So, after my complimentary continental breakfast I am off to the station, catch my train on the circle line and change to the Piccadilly line at South Kensington and disembark at Piccadilly Circus.  The statue of Eros is in the middle of Piccadilly Circus and there are many brightly illuminated billboards all around, maybe trying to match Times Square.  It also an incredibly busy traffic intersection with red double decker buses and London cabs whizzing through.  Unfortunately the statue of Eros was covered in scaffolding, obviously having some renovation work being done to it.

A short walk took me from Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square with Nelson's column dominating the square.  After walking around and taking some photos I realized that there was hardly any pigeons there.  Last time I was at Trafalgar Square the pigeons were in plague proportions.  I found out a little later what was going on when I came across the hawk man.  This man was standing near his van with a magnificent Harris Hawk on his arm, this is what they use to keep the pigeons away, and I tell you now, it is working. He also had an owl which he put on his arm.  Each time I tried to take a photo of the owl it spun its head 180 degrees so it was looking away from me, good trick though.  And Leanne, the man told me that he flies the hawks a "bit heavy" so they don't actually catch the pigeons, just scare them away.


Harris's Hawke - Trafalgar Square

Owl - Trafalgar Square

Another short walk down Whitehall, past the Horse Guards and Horse Guards parade with the mounted troopers on their horses on sentry go.  Further on past the cenotaph where the English hold their remembrance day ceremonies and on to Parliament House.  I seem to be doing lots of short walks today but covering a fair bit of territory anyway.  Crossed the river here and walked down past the London Eye and then back across the river and walked through St James park which bought me to Buckingham Palace.

Horse Guards

After standing outside Buckingham Palace with all the other tourists I continued my walk along 'rotten row' to Hyde Park corner where the Australian memorial to TGW and WW2 is. 

All in all I thought this is enough walking for today and being the middle of the afternoon was approaching time for a drink.  So I caught the train back to Kensington High Street and made my way to The Goat for a couple of pints of London Pride.  On the way back to the hotel I called into the station, handed my Oyster card back in, got my $5 deposit and the balance of the funds on the card refunded to me.  It really does work remarkably well!

The blog was prepared late this afternoon in the hotel bar whilst I consumed a couple of pints of cider.  I made a bit of a mistake last night when I was at a pub for dinner when I decided I would have a pint of scrumpy cider.  It was warm, flat, cloudy and had a faintly dishwater taste about it, took me a while to struggle through a pint I tell you now.

I decided to dine in again at one of the hotel restaurants and had salt and pepper ribs and chicken with black bean sauce.  Accompanied by a glass of Proseco (not sure if that is the correct spelling, but it was that Italian pretend champagne, still very nice all the same) and a glass of New Zealand white wine.

If any of the guys at the Shrine are reading this, good luck for Anzac Day, looks like it is going to be a busy one.