Yesterday was a nice and easy day. We chilled out around the house, venturing outside once to wander around the village, and then again later in the evening to head to the next village to be presented with a 1L stein to teach our mates back home about black moss with.

This morning we caught up with a great uncle of ours (grandmother's brother). He's recently broken his hand (and so was unable to see us any earlier) but caught a train in to Nuremburg station where we met him before catching ours from there to Frankfurt Airport. He was easy to spot at the station because of his forearm in plaster and his skin (dark olive) that each of that family have. He was shorter than expected, but also quite lively and good fun. We had no problem making conversatio nfor a couple of hours over coffee and it really set off our Germany stay to be able to spend time with him.


So today. Yes we made it to London just fine. The trains (but not the Underground) were running again except for Kings Cross Station, so were able to catch the Heathrow Express to Paddington and walk the few minutes to our hostel.
We tailed it back to a place we'd passed for pizza, garlic bread and beer for £5 and got even more for our money. The friendly owner gave us lots of great advice (starting with "you know you can walk to Picadilly from here"). He showed us through a guide of musicals that were playing and Lara and I decided to head in and see if we could pick up something at the (very) last minute. His final words were "You've got an umbrella?" so we ducked back to the hostel and grabbed our rain jackets, spending valudable minutes doing so.
Sure enough, only 10mins into our walk the rain started. About 10mins after that we were wondering if the "rain jackets" were part of a practical joke on the part of our uncle and aunt who lent them to us, because both of us were feeling quite wet under them. But still, we were on the path, hope fading but still burning.
We passed streets that were blocked off by police, and every time another 4 police bikes rode past with sirens blaring we chuckled to ourselves at the potential foolishness of the endeavour. And after it all most of the musical halls were closed, as were the ticket-selling outlets, and we were left tired and wet (though actually not very wet under the jackets) and 45mins walk from a bed.
But we are in London! I was kept quite buoyed by that, and Lara was too a little later when she saw some potentially good shops.

So tomorrow. Let's wait and see. It will proabably be that everything we want to see will be closed, which would be a disappointment. I could use another day of sleep, but not right now.

Free Internet Computers at Wake Up Hostel,
Paddington, London, England