Goodbye Earls Court...

In the 1960s and 70s, they called Earls Court, 'Kangaroo Valley' due to the high numbers of young Aussies on working holidays, living there. I believe the area has changed a lot in those intervening years :-). It's been a very convenient base for DH and I for this first part of our holiday. 

Some views looking out of our hotel room window...

Each day we would walk up to the West Brompton station which was closer than the Earls Court Station...

Across the road from the West Brompton station is part of the Earls Court Exhibition Centre which is huge! 

A fading old sign for Brymay matches on one of the old buildings on Lillie Rd where our hotel is.

On our first night we had dinner at this quaint little pub..

Each morning we started the day with a big breakfast that was part of our package...the food was always beautiful! We wouldn't need to stop for lunch until mid afternoon! 

On my recent trip to Melbourne I posted photos of the bathroom that was so tiny that the toilet was inside the shower recess. As I seem to have a fetish for sharing bathroom photos here is the one in the Ibis Hotel, Earls Court...

The loo is not in the shower recess as the shower is over the bath...it's a bit of a challenge getting out of the shower with my short legs! :-)

And the most interesting thing about the bathroom is this...

You might ask, what are we supposed to be looking at? It's a speaker...and it's connected to the TV! I have never encountered that before! Lol

I still have a post to write about the museums etc that we visited here in London but in a short while we are picking up a hire car and heading off. First stop is Windsor. 

Arrival in London...

We arrived in London at around 4.35 am London time after a flight of just over 12 hours. We had had a stopover at Hong Kong Airport for 6 hours and when we had arrived in HK there were no details on the board about what gate we would board through for our next flight. So we hung around Gate 60 as it was near where we had gone through Security after our flight from Brisbane.

I must share with you the photo I took of the label of some bottled water that I bought in Hong Kong Airport...

What a load of codswallop ! Lo

Eventually we found out that we would be boarding throughGate 2! It was then we really realised how BIG Hong Kong Airport is! Lol

When we finally boarded we were very tired? I actually dozed and missed the take-off... After we were served supper on board, I went to sleep again. When I awoke I was sure that I had slept for hours and hours...can you imagine my disappointment when I discovered that there was still 8 hours of the flight  to go! 

Nevertheless the time passed and we were at last in London...the photo below shows the images on the screens we could see from the outside camera on the plane. I had been able to see images of nighttime London via this camera, as we came in over the Thames Estuary. The man sitting behind us was obviously a local and had pointed out landmarks such as old docks and Canary Docks etc. 

Then it was all the official stuff such as Customs and Immigration.

DH and I then caught the train to Earls Court and then another train to West Brompton which was actually closer to our Earls Court hotel. . We were so lucky when we arrived at our hotel, as we were allowed an early check in! I was sooooo grateful. 

So we had a rest and a shower and then it was back to the station...

We went to the Westfields in Shepherd's Bush as DH was going to collect his Westfield discount card and also to organise a mobile phone...

A lovely little coffee shop called Butlers where we stopped for a coffee...

Some of the shops in the huge Westfield...

Also just beside the complex we saw this! 

This icecream truck is outside Jamie Oliver's restaurant. 

Just inside Westfields we saw this shop...I first found branches of this clothing chain throughout the US when we were there in 2011...same window display. I'm pointing to a Singer model just like my mum's. 

After that we walked around the streets of Shepherd's Bush outside the big complex. There were lots of fabric shops that reminded me of the fabric shops in the Indian quarter of Singapore...lots of fancy fabrics.

Then we caught a bus to the city...

And look what shop I saw in a street running off Oxford St?? 

I was busy looking at 'stuff' and DH was busy taking photos!

I bought some precuts Liberty fabric...I just ignored the price tags...

As well as the fabric strip WOF pieces, I also bought some precut hexies and card template for the papers. The Plan is to perhaps work on this EPP project while we travel. 

Day 1 of our trip also included dinner at a small pub up the street from our hotel...all very quaint.