Day 2 February 28th London

We slept well and got up a little later than usual - probably an effect of our stressful end to yesterday's journey. 

By the time we had our ample breakfast we felt much better and ready for another day although the weather did not look too promising.  It was steady rain and so we decided to the Victoria shopping mall to buy some last minute holiday shopping requirements.  We 

Westminster Cathedral

did this, had a coffee at Costa 

Christine at 85 Ashley Gardens

and returned to the hotel

to deposit the goods and get our full waterproof gear.  We then had a brief walk finding Westminster Cathedral and 85 Ashley Gardens which was Christine's initial nursing home when she started training.  It now looks as if it is a smart office for a local company.  A bit of nostalgia which filled up the latter part of the morning. 

 

We had arranged to meet niece Roz for lunch at Victoria station.  We admired the smart clock outside the station as we returned. We duly met Roz and because of the inclement weather we decided to eat at one of the many restaurants within the confines of the concourse.  We chose Prezzos and all had an acceptable meal.  We chatted and updated each other on our different situations including hearing about Roz's recent visit to sister Jenny and Connor in Durham.  We spent just over two hours together and look forward to meeting again sometime soon.



Victoria station clock

It had almost stopped raining by

Buckingham Palace

 this time

and so Christine and I decided to go for a walk to view some of the famous local sites. We walked down the road to Buckingham Palace then past St James Park down the Mall to Trafalgar Square.  All very grey and not quite raining.  We continued down Whitehall  to

Parliament Square and then down Victoria Street to the hotel.  No demonstrations or other large activities were taking place.  

St James Park

When we arrived back we had

Nelson on his column

 a cup of tea and discussed the evening eating arrangements.

 

 

We decided to get some sandwiches (having had a large breakfast and a good lunch) and stay in.

Whitehall guard

 We duly did this and are now planning to watch an old episode of Vera which is showing tonight on ITV.

 

 

 

Day 1 February 27th St Martin’s to London Victoria

The first day of what we hope to be an enjoyable holiday to Norway. It is largely a repeat of the holiday we had in May 2009 when we did the Hurtigruten cruise up and down the coast of Norway.  We always promised ourselves we would try and do it again and we tried last year but were too late to do what we wanted but this year we booked early with the hope of seeing more snow and the Northern Lights if we are lucky. We shall see but everything crossed!



taking off from St Mary's

When we woke up it was dry but a 

the east end of St Mary's

quite fresh northerly wind was blowing.  We breakfasted, final packed, said goodbye to Button the cat and Mandy gave us a lift to Higher Town quay. The Spirit of St Agnes was slightly late but we were on St Mary’s quay in time to catch a taxi to the airport.  Our 1020 flight in a Twin Otter was on time and we were quickly down to Penzance station in time for our 1215 to Paddington.  We were relieved that all this had gone to plan because travelling from Scilly has been problematical over the last month or so.  The train left on time and we relaxed on the 5½ hour journey. 

Wolf Rock lighthouse this morning

Having a load of luggage we 

the Otter at Lands End

decided to travel 1st class and it was far more relaxing with plenty of room and good service - a good decision.  We arrived at Paddington roughly to time but then had a traumatic journey from there to Victoria on the underground.  It was in rush hour and with all the luggage we were looking for lifts at every opportunity and it all proved too much going against the flow at times - we vowed never again and a taxi will get our custom on our return journey.

We are staying in the Premier Inn at Victoria for two nights and we have now settled in, have eaten and will probably have an early night after the stressful last section of our journey.  However we do feel blessed that there were no major disruptions or complications with our plans.