London

The trip from Munich to London was a relatively uneventful and a tad dull, with the train ride across Europe disappointingly offering little in the way of scenery. Of course, true to our past experience of German rail, we were running over 1.5 hours late.

When I realised this would screw up our Chunnel connection I went and found the conductor. With the opinions and searches by 3 conductors, an alternative journey was planned along with assurances not to worry. We had a few mildly complicated changes to make, changed direction, a longer stop somewhere and then somehow managed to arrive at the Eurostar counter 10 minutes before our planned departure. Yes - we could catch that same train but we would have to hurry. The required 30 min check in was waived, the bags search was brief, and the immigration guy just passed us through without even needing to view heathers departure tickets. 

We got seated, underway, and seemed to arrive in the UK in no time at all. 

Heather is so good at managing local transport, and at Kings Cross St Pancras station she purchased our London Oyster card, which would get us about the city for the next week at the lowest price, and directed us across the city underground. 

Our first stop was a rather horrid 16 bed mixed dorm room in a backpackers. YUCK! Not a great experience, dark, stuffy, pongie basement room with no fresh air, lots of noise, and people coming and going all night. Not a great experience to sell us to the idea of future back packing. But it was cheap, and the bunk bed was clean. And I could text heather from the bottom bunk when I got lonely!

We spent the next 3 days like moles underground, travelling across London to appointments with job recruiters. It was hard work, hot and tiring, and spending most of my day on the trains made me travel sick.  But we had gotten through the grunt work, and headed off to Brendon's next.

Dear Brendon met his Aunty and I at the station, and walked us to his flat 5 minutes away. It was so lovely to be with family, and he and Rosie looked after us and made us feel at home. Brendon took us out for a day in London, and we finally got a chance to surface and take a look at the city. 

While I had my camera in my bag and handy, I took very few pictures, as it now felt like work and we had lost the travel buzz, instead, holding off feelings of missing home and everyone and everything that is comfortable and familiar.