End of journey and back to London and time for friends.

Last day of tour, departing Plymouth onto London. Our first stop was to be Stonehenge, then onto London to conclude our trip.

At Stonehenge, this is the new tourist building which houses the museum, gift shop, canteen and WC, I am proud to say that this building was designed by an Australian.

Another monument of our bucket list.

Another windy rainy day, I could get used to this weather!........not!

We arrived back into London at 1430hrs, time to farewell newly made friends, check into our hotel and get ready to meet our friend, Allan who we met 2 years ago on our South Aamerica trip.  Exactly 2 years to the day we were drinking together in Mendoza, Argentinia.

We also had the pleasure to meet Jill, Allan's wonderful partner, what a wonderful evening eating, drinking and falling into the same banter that connected us in the beginning.

We had dinner at The Mall Tavern then moved onto The Churchill Arm, what a fantastic bar, this bar had gone to a lot of trouble decorating up for VE Day, 70 years anniversary. A typical English pub so crowded but packed with charm.

This ended our catch up with friends, the next day saw us travel by train to Chester to spend a few days with our fiends Joana and Allan in Penycae.

On our arrival into Chester, we were greeted by Jo and Allan, how wonderful to see them again,,our last catch up was 2013. Jo and Allan very kindly drove me to patchfinders a patchwork shop in Cheadle Hulme

      After my fabric fix we then drove to Penycae to their house, "Broolyn House" an early 1800's farm house.

After greeting all the animals we had a well deserved cup tea. Jo purchased some clotted cream and I made scones so that we may have cream tea. An enjoyable afternoon was spent catching up, I was sure there were no pauses in our chatter.

 The next day we were out and about, went to Chirkirk to a trash and treasure market and boy was I let loose amongst the goods, might need a shipping container.

Such fun, I picked  up quite a few little items. DH was having a conniption about excess luggage and no room in our suit cases. I am proud to announce that we were under the 23 kilos allowed for our flight to Madrid.

But I did promise that I would not buy anything else until we got to Madrid.

How to pack a number of visits and sightseeing into a day, well we did that, thanks to Jo and Allan.

Llangollen and river, such a beautiful spot

We all had lunch in the pub near the river, some kayakers were out and about. Wales bought out the sunshine for us.

Local craft store in Llangollen 

How lucky was I to stumble upon a local arts and crafts store, just love the painted caravan

After lunch we drove to Pontaysylite aqueduct, only 20 mins from Brooklyn House, what a hidden treasure, friends from Australia have actually hired these canal boats, how lucky were they.

Nice sculpture, made out of bricks and tiles etc.

A very tall stonework bridge, which the canal and aqueducts travel over, not sure how high it is, but it is a long way down.

Monday, saw us bid farewell to Jo and Allan back to London for a bit more culture and to visit the V & A museum in South Kensington.

A very enjoyable 5 hours, disappointed to find out that the quilts and textiles have been moved to Blythe's House and unable to visit, as it is only by appointment and no openings today. Oh well heaps to drool over without quilts.

Replica of David

Gorgeous icons

An intricate sewing box

Pieces of fabric, tapestry that I would love to get my hands on.

Intricately carved wood, made into a wash basin note the tap.

After our visit to the V & A we went into Camdentown to see if it had changed since the fire a few years ago. We last visited Camden in 2006 and as far as we were concerned, everything looks the same.

Decorated shops in Camden

Quite a busy area.

Camden Lock

Some fancy footwear, no thanks.

This concludes our London sightseeing, meeting a friend from Australia tonight, for tapas then off to Madrid tomorrow. More to follow with our Spain adventure.