Day 2.

I woke up with pretty sore legs. I am not used to walking this much. In SA, we don’t have a walking culture. I potter around the house in the morning, walk down the stairs and into my driveway. I get into my car, drive to my destination. Park. Walk a little into my meeting, a coffee shop, or the office, where I sit. The most walking I’m getting day to day, is if I go to a shopping centre. I’m obviously discounting exercise, but in our day-to-day lives, we walk so little. It’s actually really bad. So the London life of walking was another culture shock.

Luckily, we got walking fit quite fast!

After a quick breakfast, we hit the tube again and came out at Westminster. As soon as we walked out of the Tube station, Big Ben was there to greet us in all his majestic glory. It actually took my breath away, because I just wasn’t expecting to see that as I walked into the sunshine.

It felt surreal to be there. I kept waiting for James Bond to come whizzing down the Thames in a speed boat.

We took a walk all the way along Westminster Bridge and then along South Bank taking in the sunshine, the people, the boats on the Thames and the different sights.I also asked to take a photo with the Bobbies (no shame here) and they were so friendly. I was about to put my arms around them, but then they stood upright and held their vests. This is why I love dresses with pockets – it made it far less awkward.The London Eye is massive. We didn’t go on it, the queue was ridiculous, but it was pretty special to see it from an ants view. 

We walked up a bit of an appetite and headed off to Borough Market. It was amazing. It’s like Cape Town’s Biscuit Mill on steroids.

Colourful mushrooms…

Ross devoured this pulled pork and crackling sourdough roll.

Sweet potato chips with mayo…

The Borough Market is an absolute must! Go hungry.We were there when the Rio Olympics were on and throughout London they had public areas with big screens for people to watch and support Team Great Britain and be entertained by Rio dancers.We grabbed something to drink and sat down on the grassy embankment enjoying the sunny weather and the majestic view of Tower Bridge. I still can’t get over how lucky we were with the weather.

After a relax on the lawn, our good friend Rhodri met up with us. Rhodri and Sox whizzed off to Madison, a party on a rooftop that overlooks St. Pauls Cathedral, where Sox would be DJing. 

Ross, Tandi and I were going to join the party a little later, but we first wanted to explore a bit more and since we were right there by the Cathedral, we walked around it.

After a walk around St. Pauls, we walked across the road to where Madison’s was…

When Ross, Tandi and I arrived, there was a long queue of all these people dressed to the nines. Beautiful dresses, sky high heels and lots of make-up. As we had been tourists the full day, we were in sneakers and cotton dresses – not quite the look for a rooftop party. Also, I’ve learned to stop listening to my husband when he tells me what the dress code is: His dress code for everything is: “It’s casual babe!”

Ha!

The lady with an earpiece at the bottom of the lift, looked us up and down and didn’t want to let us in with sneakers on. I then said something, that as soon as it was out my mouth, I cringed: “I’m with the DJ”

“Sure you are, love!”

“No, really… The DJ is my husband…”

“I’m sure he is, sweetie.” Not believing me one bit. Sweetie. I find it so condescending.

It was funny though, when she came back to us, she looked a little defeated and sighed: “Come with me…” She led us passed the long queue of manicures, make-up and models, and up we went to the rooftop.

We drank rosé while admiring the view. We danced and I loved seeing people come up to Sox and give him compliment after compliment. Sox played a mix of music and threw in a lot of South African music too, like Goldfish, Crazy White Boy and so on. I especially loved it when people came up to ask him what the SA songs were because they were loving them. After a good night, we head off to Byron’s for burgers. I was so hungry I actually didn’t take any photos of the burgers, but they were good.

Tired and happy, we returned home on the Tube, fell into bed and slept like the dead rejuvenating for the next day’s adventure.