Is that a plane? Yes they are back!

What a strange week! The skies over London were clear for 2 reasons, no planes and no clouds! This made for a odd feeling of calm except for the poor folk trying to get home to their own countries and Brits trying to get back here. Then as suddenly as they went, the planes returned tho' the sun stayed for a few more days and it put everyone in a much better mood and happier times for plane spotters!

The big event this week was the London Marathon when over 36,000 people bravely struggled through 26.2 miles through the packed streets of London. The weather was kind being much cooler than expected. I was at a cheering station working for the charity Water Aid and saw some brilliant sights and some heroic battles with pain. Here are a few snaps to give the atmosphere and show how much people love to dress up even if it makes it more difficult!

I was expecting some clients to arrive from America to go on one of my It's Your London tours. (This is my own company which offers tailor made tours of London). They made it here despite the ash clouds and we had a great couple of sunny mornings, one based around the Tower of London and the other around Westminster. We saw: monuments (Tower), river views (from Thames boat and south bank walk), bridges (Tower and Wobbly), parks (St James), museums (Cabinet War Rooms), churches (Westminster Abbey), shops (Silver Vaults), pubs (Olde Cheshire Cheese and Chandos); and, loads loads more. We walked for miles and hopefully they had a fun packed time here. They were lovely people and I wish them a great time in France too. A couple of photos on the way attached - the flowers are St James's Park.

As I only take guests to places I've checked out I dropped into the Jewel Tower in case they wanted to visit it as part of our tour. This is an amazing place as it is one of the 2 parts of the old Westminster Palace destroyed by fire in 1834 (the other was the Great Hall in the current Parliament building). The Jewel Tower dates from 1365 and now houses an interesting exhibition about the history of Parliament. Here's a photo of the little known wonderful Tower.

Eating out this week has been quieter but we did have a trip to Assaha Village near Paddington. This is new Lebanese restaurant I went to with some neighbours who are also fans of this cuisine. We enjoyed the food and after the initial surprise of finding they didn't serve alcohol, we had lovely juices. As usual, we went for a range of starters and, as usual we over ordered but it gave us a great choice with the hummus, the salads and spicy sausages coming out winners.

Just off out for lunch so look out for more reviews next week.

Bye for now,

Sue

http://www.itsyourlondon.co.uk/