55. London and South West UK

Back to London to stay at Daniel and Ellen's place while they do a doggy sit in Sevenoaks. Getting off the train at a main city train station is like getting off a plane at an airport. It was a bit of a culture shock after a few weeks in the countryside as the stream of people coming through the station was unrelenting. Having said that, I only have admiration for the train system especially the underground network. No matter where you are in London, you only have a 5 minute maximum wait period for a train.

Again, it was good to catch up with our boy and his girl once thay returned to London. 

His long working hours make it a challenge to spend as much time as we'd like with him but them's the breaks.

There were two things I wanted to do while we spent time here before our next sit. One, I wanted to go to the 'War of the Worlds' immersive experience and two, The British Museum.

The 'War of the Worlds' show was an adaptation from Jeff Wayne's musical based on the H.G Wells story and it was brilliant. It was an immersive show which meant  you were participating in it as you were led from room to room by live actors acting their parts out brilliantly. There were special visual and sound effects as well as many scenes using virtual reality headsets which took you through the story via a boat, balloon and spaceship rides, as well as direct contact with the aliens themselves. I would gladly do it again and so would Max!

The props in 'The Spirit of Man' bar where we waited for our turn.

The musical was written in the late 70's explaining the demographic of attendees. 

Next it was the British Museum which I must say is world class. We didn't have anywhere near enough time to see everything so I focused on the Ancient Egyptian exhibition. 

Seeing mummies up close was a first for me.

I did have to smile at the mummified cats and other animals. I just hope they were dead before the mummification procedure.

I learned about the significance of the Rosetta Stone when in high school. The Stone is a broken part of a bigger stone slab. It has a message carved into it, written in three types of writing. It was an important clue that helped experts learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs.

And don't forget the Crystal Skull! There are disputes as to whether they originate in South America or whether they were machined much later in Germany. I might have to ask Indiana Jones!

Max's cousin Wendy lives in Bournemouth which is in the south west of the UK.  We met up with Wendy in the Waterloo Arms pub in Lyndhurst, a beautiful village near Southampton. These guys hadn't seen each other for over 50 years. 

Other sights in Lyndhurst

A Classic 1960's Bedford Van

And of course, every village has a Ferrari showroom...

We also caught up with Paul who Max got to know when we were selling organic produce at the Kawana market on the Sunshine Coast. He moved to the UK a few years ago and stayed in touch. We met up with him at a local park where the local 'Stand In The Park' community were meeting. They were a lovely bunch of like minded souls. We also met Pam Gregory who is a well known astrologer.

Next stop... Cardiff, Wales where we will be doing a 3 week cat sit and we'll meet up with another one of Max's cousins.