London, 3 April 2012

Up early and down to the local laundrette (£3. 60 for the washer and £1 for fifteen minutes in the dryer). Just as a point of comparison for prices, next to the laundrette is a sandwich bar where for £2.20 one can buy a very generous bacon sandwich and cup of tea.  That is about three dollars and fifty cents in Australian money. In the area around Paddington station it is possible to get five business shirts washed and ironed for £6 ($10).  If it was this cheap in Hobart we would never wash and iron our shirts at home.

We then headed off to Virginia's old haunts in the legal precinct. We took the number 23 bus from Paddington to St Pauls, a wonderful trip through the major sights of London.

St Paul's

After wandering around St Pauls churchyard now clear of the tent city we went to Café Rouge for coffee.  This is a French café just across from the cathedral.  There seem to be a lot of French people either visiting or living in London and, in fact, a newspaper recently suggested that London had the second or third highest French population after Paris.

Café Rouge

After coffee we walked down Ludgate hill past the Old Bailey into Fleet Street now sadly devoid of all the newspapers that used to enliven the area.

The Old Bailey

Continuing our walk we soon sighted the Punch Tavern with its swinging sign redolent of the Punch and Judy shows which are still a feature of many of the seaside resorts. There was also a wonderful old sweets shop and many other interesting shops and side streets.

The Punch Tavern Sign

Hardy's Sweet Shop

On past the Royal Courts of Justice and the  wonderful lanes of the Middle and Inner Temple (one of the Inns of Court). Many of these lanes and the buildings in them date from the 17th Century.

Middle Temple Lane

Date by Archway, Inner Temple Lane

Later in the afternoon, we went to a local pub called the Gyngleboy for a drink.  The Gyngleboy is a type of old-fashioned beer mug, lined with black leather and decorated with jingling bells. Supposedly it was used to judge the alcohol intake of drinkers. Whilst sipping from the vessel if the bells rattled it was a sign of an unsteady hand and therefore the possibility of having had one too many. The pub is quite upmarket, and has excellent food.  Soup and a gourmet sandwich cost £7 ($11). God bless the current exchange rate - at least for those of us travelling overseas.