They drive on the left and walk on the right…..mostly.

Interesting.

And just a tad frustrating.

Of course it’s our diverse global communities which should be celebrated.

Anyway……Hop on hop off.

I firmly believe if you only have a few days in an interesting city a Hop On Hop Off bus is the way to go. You get your bearings, you see the sights, you get an audio guide, you decide which ones are worthy of your attention.

For $40.50 GDP per person that’s what we did.

Did you know there are 300 languages spoken in London? That’s a little tidbit from our audio ‘guide’.

Of course, I am getting ahead of myself.

First things first.

Starbucks for coffee, 120m from our hotel.

Of course.

Coffee and a London mug. I had decided when we were in North Dakota that I should collect one from each place we went. Well not each place, the way we are going we would have far too many.

And I say that with much gratitude – I didn’t travel o.s. until I was 46.

Starbucks mugs to be fair, aren’t the prettiest. They do hold a lot of coffee and a big bowl of soup. Not at the same time.

London was on the collection list.

After the mandatory caffeine hit we picked up an Uber and headed to Battersea to see where MoD’s daughter lived.

Battersea is a lovely place, in a really great location, although MoD’s daughter maintains she is in the ‘hood’. Which in some ways is sort of right. Like many places here, there is a whole mix of old, new, good and bad. She lives in a high rise. One side has nice homes and parks. The other side? Well you probably wouldn’t walk there by yourself at night.

The flat itself is on the 14th floor with a spectacular view of the city and big windows streaming in the sun.

Yes it was sunny today!

London has a pretty accurate reputation of being grey and the last time I was here it certainly was very grey.

Today of course was sunny so we headed off for a walk to Battersea Park.

On the way stopping for more coffee and a pastry at an apparent fave.

We wandered across the bridge to the Chelsea side, because it’s a prettier walk, then back across another bridge to Battersea Park.

Battersea Park is a 200 acre green space on the south bank of The Thames. Pronounced Tems. Does my head in. I pronounce like it is spelt. Usually.

We then headed over to Victoria Station to pick up the bus.

It will be no surprise to you, my loyal readers that I took some photos from the bus.

After a while we thought we might hop off around the Royal Albert Hall. I had been spouting on about how special it was. Walking around it MoD exclaimed that it was no bigger than the Christchurch Town Hall. Of course you were joking MoD…..

Being hungry we headed inside to check out the cafe and see if a tour might be in order.

It was. And well worth it.

A bit of history here folks.

In 1851 the Prince Consort, Prince Albert, organised a Great Exhibition which ended with a surplus of $150,000 GDP. Given there was cash to spare, he then proposed to open some permanent facilities for the benefit of the public to be called the Central Hall of Arts & Sciences. In 1861 Prince Albert died without seeing his ideas materialised. A memorial was proposed for Hyde Park, which is opposite. Prince Albert’s wife Queen Victoria spent all of the money on that memorial, including a LOT of gold in the build.

When they finally had the ceremony to lay the foundation stone for The Central Hall of Arts & Sciences, without warning Queen Victoria declared it The Royal Albert Hall of Arts & Sciences. From then it’s been known as The Royal Albert Hall.

Meant to look like a Roman amphitheatre, RAH has 80,000 terracotta bricks and 6 million red bricks.

Seats 5272 with 500 seated in the arena.

That space in the middle is the arena.

Standing room in the arena is 900, so it then seats 6000 including 500 on the top level.

They often set tables on the top level for special dinners.

Under the stage the basement has 4.5 floors, a lift in the floor of the arena removes all the music equipment post a concert.

The organ is the second largest organ in the world with 9990 pipes, and a pipe known as the Jupiter is the smallest being smaller than a drinking straw. There is one note which actually makes the building vibrate.

Because there are 319 events a year, with about 250 artists who need to pack in and pack out, plus practice, the resident organist can only practice between 1-2am. The only time the building is virtually empty.

I call that night shift.

They have all sorts of shows including tennis, boxing or wrestling matches, the ballet, concerts and putting on the biggest cinema in the UK. A screen comes down over the organ and stage.

There are privately owned boxes which originally were sold for two year’s wages. They are owned for 999.9 years but can be sold for whatever price the owner wants to sell them for. In January a box sold for $3m GDP with a remaining 847 years left on ownership.

Any changes to the seat owner rules has to go through Parliament as it is legislated.

The King of course has a box which is actually off centre to the stage. There is a crown above it making it easily recognisable. Originally the jewel in the crown would light up to tell the Conductor the Queen had arrived and he could start. Of course now it’s the King and they have far more sophisticated equipment to alert the conductor.

When the King uses the box his staff decorate it with chairs from the Palace. The chairs come from his private rooms. When he isn’t using the box his staff can use it for 5 pounds.

Of course the King has his own private entrance. It’s the only door which isn’t named.

We had a squiz at his private rooms – the Royal Retiring Rooms – where the King entertains special guests.

Everything in the room is owned by Buckingham Palace.

What’s unusual about this picture of Queen Elizabeth II is that it has actually been signed by her in 1971 to mark RAH’s 100 year anniversary.

Back to the hall, 100 Tonnes of equipment can hang off the dome. RAH was designed by engineers and when it opened there was a 6 second delay in the sound. In 1968 a solution was found with 85 mushrooms installed. Some mushrooms deflect, some diffuse, some are hollow. From experience I can tell you they work magnificently.

Last time I was at RAH I was lucky enough to listen to a choir practising. The acoustics were amazing. Today they were doing a sound check which only gave an indication of acoustics and the volume in the hall.

The mushrooms are cleaned annually and of course, given the diverse range of activities in the hall they find all sorts of things; from streamers to tennis balls.

Eric Clapton has played 217 times and Cirque Du Soleil has the longest tenancy at two months each year.

You may have noticed I am going on a lot about RAH. I absolutely love that place. Bucket list attending a show there.

After that it was back on the bus to see more of London.

Yes more pictures.

Our ‘guide’ told us about the Great Smog of London. In 1952 there were five days of smog, caused by weather and hampered by all the chimneys in the area. About 4000 people died because of that, prompting changes to regulations and The Clean Air Act 1956.

According to our ‘guide’, St. Mary’s Hospital is the home of Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin. According to our ‘guide’.

Already a big day, we took the bus over to Kensington Gardens to find Buckingham Palace. MoD’s daughter had been and found it a little underwhelming. Which of course it is, unless you are lucky enough to see the Changing of the Guard. We didn’t this time but something had been on, potentially that, as The Mall was completely closed off and we were able to walk straight up the street to the Palace.

Then it was a walk through Green Park and over to the West End for an early dinner before our show.

We chose Sophie’s SoHo, turns out the preferred eating venue for the Prince of Wales Theatre. You get 5% off. I saw the email after the bill was paid. 😢

After that it was off to the theatre to see The Book of Mormon.

Which I knew was naughty and politically incorrect.

Sorry. Not sorry. I absolutely loved it.

If you have a broad mind it is highly recommended.

When we came out it was raining and there were people everywhere. The London brolley was getting a good work out. We didn’t have one.

They love to hang cool things in the central city streets in London and being Ramadan it was quite the treat.

After a long and huge day it was time to say goodbye to MoD’s daughter, hail a London black cab and head back to the hotel.

We get up at 4.45am to start the trek back to Aus.

I have to say this has been a truly fabulous holiday, loved every minute, but I will be happy to be back in Melbourne and then ultimately back to Chch.

Goodnight folks.

Sleep well.