From Amsterdam to London

We arrived in Amsterdam Friday morning at 6am. Some of us had a good sleep with the aid of sleeping tablets. We also had Economy+ seats - an extra 20cm near our knees BONUS and we were all comfortable.

Anyway, it was such a relief to be in Amsterdam - with people who spoke a language we could understand. Dad especially felt at home and enjoyed speaking Dutch - saying hello to all :) We managed to get some tickets on easy Jet - hopefully our travel insurance people behave and refund some of our travels costs. the lady who helped us - even gave dad a fast boarding privilege that saved us wasting time standing in line to get rid of our luggage. We were done in no time - getting envious looks from other travellers.

So next Dad looked for a place to have a bite to eat and we enjoyed English breakfast and crossaints. Yum! The waitress fast tracked our order so we could board on time.
Then we were off to easyJet, take off at 9.15 and arrived 5 minutes later at 9:20 - local time though :) It was actually a 45min-1hr flight :)

At Gatwick airport, we took a taxi to Dulwich. The apartment was ok - a bit musty, smelly and old but hey, this is London. :) Across the road there was a small supermarket so Dad and Mum quickly bought some provisions.

After a quick lunch, we walked down to the bustop on Lordship Lane - caught bus 176 to Tottenham Court Road (after almost every stop there was an automated voice reading it out so we got it drummed into us well now (: )and at the underground station 'Elephant and Castle' we took the underground to Euston station and then the overland train to Watford Junction.

Back in Australia we had booked a tour for 3.30 at... HARRY POTTER WARNER BROS STUDIO! This was to see how a film (movies) are made and developed from start to finish. The studio was set up to show how the Harry Potter movies had been made.

A shuttle bus took us from Watford Junction to the studio. There we were dumbfounded at the incredible amount of work and detail undertaken in making these movies. Totally astounding! But then of course, this movie was at worldwide hit. We spent several hours exploring the studio. By the end, we were tired and ready to leave.

We took the underground from Euston Elephant and Castle to do some shoppings at a shop called Tesco. There was a man who was walking around with a lollypop sign "Can I help you?" He was jolly and fun - and when he heard we came from Australia, he asked what we thought of our PM. Then he told us Julia Gillard was out and Rudd was in! Wow! We didn't even know and even now it hasn't been confirmed for us here.
Anyway, we completed our shoppings and moved on - took the bus back to Overhill Road - staggered up the hill :) and warmed up the pizzas we'd just bought..
After eating, we fell into bed for a first - uninterrupted, decent sleep since we left Australia....