London, UK

April finally kicked in and Tracy and I set off on our little European holiday. The focus was to get to Paris for Tracy to run the marthon however the first stop was in th UK to catch up with her sister and family. We stayed in a town called Horsell which is about 30 mins out of London. Had a realy relaxing time there and it was great to chill out.There was a great second hand bookshop and I managed to smash a book per day while there.

From there I headed down to London. Made a bit of a mistake with the hotel. I was planning on staying in Shoreditch but the hotel I booked was more towards Bethenal Green. Not a big deal but this is probably not one of the nicer parts of London to be hanging around in at night. There was evidence of this on Monday afternoon when there was almost a full scale riot out the front of our hotel.

Had a great time wandering round all my old haunts. Went to the Truman Brewary for lunch then cruised around Spitalfields Markets. Wandered past the Lex Lounge and many emories of my year in London came back. The change in the area was amazing. Certainly a lot of the graffiti and street art which had covered the area back in 05/06 seemed to have gone. Shame as this really gave the area some character. Ended up in Hoxton Square having a sneaky beverage in the park while savouring the lovely weather. Caught up with Pinky (an old ABN mate) at Seven Bells and then went and had some food at B&M (Bangers and Mash).

The next day was full of more tourist action. We caught up with some of Tracy's friends, Tine and Neil in the city and then spent the afternoon cruising round. Went to all the usual places like Big Ben and the London Eye as well as Covent Garden. That evening it was back to Hoxton Square where I caught up with Lisa and her boyfriend. There were a few beverages to be had there and then it was over to what turned out to be the worst tapa's bar ever.We quickly polished that off then went down to this cool basement bar called QT for a nightcap or three.

Thursday morning it was off to Kings Cross-St Pancreas to catch the Eurostar to France. More on Paris in my next blog.