ye olde london town

We are currently wooshing through the French countryside aboard the Eurostar towards Paris. Steeply pitched roofs, green pastures and sunny skies abound, the general old-school quaintness disrupted by occasional farms of wind turbines. But that's all we know about France so far, London has been home for the last week, you know wha' I mean?

We were struck by three things getting onto the Tube after arriving at London airport: one, the destination for the train departing Heathrow is Cockfosters, only the British would do that with a straight face; two, the Tube map is huge – London is huge; and three, reading station names on the Tube map is reading a Monpoly board. Having said that, it's important and sad to note that the good places like Parklane and Mayfair aren't on the Tube map :(

First morning, in a slight British Airways induced haze we spent at Camden. We saw real punks, they were cool, and maybe a little bit lame. You decide.

Then we headed to Borough markets – foodie heaven! Cheese, olives, bread and lots of other fantastic food groups were everywhere. Beth got a little over-excited.

We bought of fine foods and headed to the Thames, it was buzzing with tourists (mostly British ones - it was a long weekend). Bottom right is a bottle of Italian champagne called Prosecco which was a fair whack better than the ol' Jacobs Creek. And yes, if you were wondering, the Thames is a muddy shithole. Beachwatch advice - there is likely to be pollution at all Thames swimming sites today.

Went to an underground bar in what seemed to be some kind of bunker. It was totally cool. Props to Kate for leading us here.

Brick Lane is awesome. Some of Beth's fave galleries like the unimaginatively named Brick Lane Gallery as well as Stolen Space are here. Other highlights were some kind of famous bagel (bagel like no other!) and BBQ duck wrap. Oh, so good. It was kind of like a Sydney designer market except stuff was better and cheaper.

Kate and Ash led us round several corners and we ended up at a graffiti tunnel. If you know of and can imagine USyd graffiti tunnel but much much larger and without lame university political advertising then you're on the right path. Elks represent in the first photo, Beth and Ash in the second, Kate and Ash in the last.

After much seeing of the sights we retired to one of Kate's local pubs with her friends in West Hampstead. They are a great bunch of people. By this time it was late, like 7ish - it doesn't get dark until 9ish. It's the perfect socialising weather.

Next day was the Tower of London, not a tower as advertised but an entire castle. The last picture below is the building which holds the crown jewels, the 'most secure place in Britain.' Wha eva. In it lies the the two largest diamonds in the world - the Star of Africa and the Star of Africa II. Once again we note that naming conventions in Britain lack imagination. In this case, because the diamonds is worth somewhere around 300 million pounds, the Brits could realistically call it whatever they wanted not feel the need to justify it to anyone.

Most famously though the Tower of London is where Henry VIII killed many of his wives, friends and family. Lucky them, eh?

Finally we ended up the British Museum where so much plundered history rests. The Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles are two of the more controversial aretfacts that Egypt and Greece are respectively demanding to be returned. Australia recently had a win with the Museum returning Aboriginal ashes to Tasmania, but as for the Rosetta Stone we think that it will be a cold day in hell before it returns home...

As for pictures: James with Joseph Banks and Beth loving of Hercules.

Finally, who could visit England without stopping to flip the bird wave at our supreme leader, the Queen.

So, with big thanks to Kate for being a super awesome (and strong) tour guide, Ash for being a so generous and welcoming, and the Queen for being so old, we bid you farewell. Who knows what surprises Paris will bring...

James and Beth. X.