LONDON

2014 had been a great year for travel, Spain, Germany, Malta, USA, Slovenia, Holland, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Italy, Austria and Slovakia. I’d set out and done nearly all of what I’d planned to do at the start of the year.

I needed 1 more weekend away between November and christmas even if it was just down London. It was a grim time of the year anyway and to make things a lot worse the dog was steadily getting worse. In addition to this I had a few problems with booking the transport, it would have cost more to go by train than it would have done to fly to Italy. In the end I settled with the bus.

It was a case of finish work then catch the bus to Leicester, unfortunately it didn’t turn up, the good news was I had left an hour to catch the national express so dad gave me a lift instead. I stayed 2 nights at Travel Joy Hostel in Pimlico where I had stayed last year.

It was nearly 9pm by the time I’d checked in so I didn’t go any further than the pub downstairs. I got talking to someone from Belgium who was in my dorm room and watched the live music they had on but was in bed before midnight.

I was a lot better organised than on previous trips and had a list of where I was going to go during the day. First stop was the Emirates cable car which at around 4 pounds was a bargain for London, the view might be better in a few years as the area seemed to be one big construction site.

That was the only outdoor thing I had planned thinking the weather might be awful but it was mild and clear blue sky most of the day. I still kept to my plan and the next stop was the docklands museum which turned out to be a good choice. After a couple of hours I went straight to the museum of London which again was a good choice and turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought.

Both were free entry which makes a refreshing change for London and made it one of the cheapest days I could possible have had. I did have a couple of places left to visit on my list and had enough time in the afternoon to do at least one of them but chosen to save them for a future visit.

I was shattered when I got back and slept for around an hour, the second night was fairly similar to the first. Got talking to a few other travellers and seen a bit more live music, hardly party central but at the same time enough to be social. Stayed out until midnight this time………..

Not a bad weekend overall, headed home just after midday after a restful morning.