Friday 1 August London

Before we were ready to leave, we had to race outside at 10:18 to view a partial eclipse of the sun. We then spent most of the morning checking phone numbers and addresses, and walking the streets to try to find a cheap hire car. It wasn't too long before we said, 'Let's just get Avis', but then we got lost at the bus stop trying to find their street. But in the end, we have organised to pick up a car on Sunday morning.
The next bus dropped us outside a computer shop, so we bought another portable hard drive, since the current one isn't working properly. Then we had lunch in the courtyard of the British Museum.
We have been there before, but this time concentrated on early British history, from pre-Roman to about 1000AD.


For the latter part, we joined a museum volunteer for his weekly explanation of post-Roman Britain


and the Sutton Hoo treasures, which interested us as we have been there.


When we got home, David worked with the new drive, and I went to the laundromat. What fun.



Thursday 31 July

I thought we would have a leisurely day, but we were out by 9:30. We caught a bus to Piccadilly Circus,


and walked from there to Leicester Square, the to St Martin's in Trafalgar Square for some more souvenir shopping. While in the vicinity, and since we are now expert art critics, we paid another visit to the National Gallery, and then it was lunchtime.
We'd been watching the buses going past, and decided we should go to Hamstead Heath. It was about a half hour ride, but we were rewarded with a nice walk through the park,


and some interesting views back over the city.


We came back as far as Camden Town, where we walked through the market area to take some photos of the Camden Lock on the Regent Canal.


What a crazy place that is!!


Tatooists, Goths and other weirdos, strange clothing on even stranger people, and a second hand shop selling a B-flat trumpet that leaks and plays in a peculiar pitch. If you want it for 20 quid it's probably still there.
We caught another bus back to Tottenham Court, wandered around a bit being lost and shopping, then came onto Kings Cross and home.
We are still having no luck in uploading photos. We have deleted everything that might be clogging up the computer, but still can't do it. But at least today we can send out emails, but the hostel charges one pound for 30mins of WIFI, so we'll try not to do it too much.



Wednesday 30 July

David is feeling better today.
We left Ieper at about 9:15, and drove on some fairly minor roads (the road I had planned to use was closed for roadworks, so I just took the most direct route) until we were nearly at Dunkerque, before we joined the motorway to Calais. We had to fill the car with petrol, so we went into town before heading to the port, giving back the keys, buying boat tickets, and boarding our channel ferry.



It was a quiet trip, quite hazy, so we didn't wee the white cliffs until more than half way across.



We landed, and waited for a bus, and went to Canterbury. We were there only for one hour, long enough to do some shopping at the cathedral shop, then back on the next bus and off to London.
We arrived at 'Elephant and Castle' tube station at about 17:45, then had a very squashed ride through the peak hour chaos to 'Kings Cross' station, from where we walked to the hostel. We reached our room at 18:55, having been told that the final load at the local laundromat had to be started by 19:00. So off we raced, and were finished there by about 19:40. We went back to the hostel, draped our room, then had to find a bank for some much needed cash. We ended up having Chinese take-away in a little local square at about 21:00. It was a nice cool place after a hot and very busy afternoon.