Wow!

I'm back in London to spend time with my friends Suzie and Heather and I've loved being able to show off all the places I like to visit. We started at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It's a fascinating place and huge but lunch in the gorgeous restaurant revived us

Then we taxied over to Tate Modern for a quick look, St Pauls for a another quick look, and had a trip on the top deck of a double decker bus down The Strand, through Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly, along Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street, did a bit of shopping and had dinner. Exhausting.

The next day we hit the markets, first Portobello Road

Then (after another good lunch) right across the city to the SE and the Whitechapel art gallery, Brick Lane and Spitalfields Market

The next day we got the train to Windsor to see the castle. It was bitterly cold (we've even had a bit of snow) but Suzie and Heather went round the castle and seemed impressed. I've been round it before so did some poking around the town and huddling in warm places. I haven't got any photos as it was too cold to take my gloves off.

Next up was a train trip to Bath, less than 2 hours from London. We stayed in a local B & B and were very comfortable. Bath is a beautiful city and you can't help but love it. 

Bitterly cold (words du jour) at the Royal Crescent, Bath.

We looked through the Abbey and the Roman Baths, but unexpectedly found that Bath also has some great designer clothes and shoe shops. Some of us did a lot of shopping. Food was always on our minds and we went to Sally Lunn's original teashop and had half a cinnamon Sally Lunn each. 

 The last day we did a Mad Max bus tour to Avebury Circles, where we tried divining ley lines (it was too cold me to take my gloves off)

Heather likes the cold and explored a bit but Suzie and I quickly retreated to the local (haunted) bar (note that I am not the only one who keeps gloves on at all times)

Next stop was a look at one of the white horses carved into the hillsides in the region

 then a look around one of two Cotswold villages, Castle Coombe, where Warhorse (and lots of other films) was filmed, and where a number of celebrities including Nicolas Cage have houses. It is tiny and gorgeous

The last village was Lacock, where parts of the Harry Potter films were filmed, first Hogwarts

 and Harry's house

 Great Ploughman's lunches at The George Inn

Judi Dench's house in the TV series Cranford

 A beautiful tithe barn (1500s)

Then finally, Stonehenge! 

 Note the gloved finger over the lens

Back to London for three more nights. Day one: London galleries and shops. First the Saatchi Gallery in Kings Road, Chelsea

 They actually let us into The Ritz, in spite of us looking like bag ladies. We felt quite at home

and Harvey Nichols for an afternoon drink

a walk through Piccadilly Circus

a wander through Leicester Square to the National Portrait Gallery and a sit down in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, more walking along The Strand, through Covent Garden, some more shopping off Long Acre and dinner by the theatre where Suzie and Heather enjoyed Warhorse.
And for the last day (grit your teeth, you're nearly through it) we went to Oxford on the Oxford Tube, which is actually a bus. A lot of the colleges were closed as it was Saturday, but we got to go through  Exeter College and Trinity, which was all we could manage anyway, plus lots of looking at other things. Oxford is another beautiful place.

I'm now down in Cornwall recovering, preparing to meet up again for a final trip to Brighton on Sunday. I need a wee lie down.