Day 26 - Transit to Rwanda

A 4am taxi ride to Heathrow was the start of a very long day's travel. Rwanda is a bit tricky to get to as only a small number of airlines fly there.We flew with Brussels Airlines (Rwanda is a former Belgian colony) but it meant we had to transit through Brussels. We had two things against us. The hour & a half flight from London on the Avro RJ85 (above) was delayed & the airport in Brussels is a mess with the terminal splintered and connected only by bus. We even had to get on a bus from the first aircrat to the terminal. It was a major (and sometimes confusing) scramble but we made it onto the A330 (apologies for the blurred photo below) bound for Africa. The airline attendants are really nice and the service good on Brussels Airlines, but there's no entertainment system in the head rest in front of you. The scenery was clouds over Europe & Egypt & the Sudan were a featureless brown desert from the air. The long flight was very, very long. It was 9.30pm local time when we touched down in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.We were met at the airport by our personal guide, Robert (below). He was recommended by one of Kerri's work friends who had been over there with a medical team. Robert takes the team on safaris every year when they visit. One of the big problems with travelling in Africa is knowing who to trust. Robert is definitely one of those people. http://rwandaadventuresafaris.com/
Robert dropped us at the hotel and organised to pick us up in the morning.
The Africa Adventure was about to begin!

Day 25 - London Sights

The last day in England started with a tour of St Pauls Cathedral. It's an impressive structure but nowhere near as interesting as Notre Dame & they don't let you take photos inside! We did the self guided tour around the main floor. We climbed the many stairs to the whispering galley inside the bottom of the dome. From there we exited to the outside where we had an unobstructed view of the city (above). After admiring the view, we climbed the stairwell inside the skin of the dome to the top spire. It wasn't any better than where we'd just come from, but we had to say we'd done it. We also descended all the way to the crypt to check out all the famous dead people before exiting through the gift shop...???
From St Paul's we made our way to Buckingham Palace. After all, you just have to include the palace in a trip to London.The palace is guarded by both the police (below) & the army (above).

We walked along Constitution Hill (above) beside the palace all the way to Wellington Arch where the New Zealand & Australian war memorials are.

The Australian War Memorial is quite clever. They have every town in Australia written on the wall with some brighter so they spell out the places where the Australians have fought over the years.

As a joke I said to Kerri "I'll bet you can't find Mullumbimby" figuring that she'd never find it amongst so many towns. Almost immediately she said, "Found it!". Sure enough, there is was. Couldn't believe it!

We walked along the edge of Hyde Park for a little way. The squirrels were all busy stocking up for the winter.We arrived at The Serpentine (below) which is the big lake that dominates the park.

As for St James's Park, there's no shortage of birdlife.

We had to leave the park (passing the Albert memorial above) because Kerri & Julie had an appointment to have high tea at the Kensington Hotel.I would leave them for the rest of the afternoon opting instead to spend the time in the science museum & the Natual history Museum.

The Science museum has some very old & some very famous machines including Puffing Billy (below) which is the very first commercial locomotive. And it isn't just a replica.

Each area in its 4 floors has a different theme from plane to cars to space vehicles. There is a whole floor dedicated to water craft.

Next door is the Natuaral History Museum (entrance below). I was slightly creped out by this. I've become accustomed to visiting modern zoos with the animals not only alive, but in quite natural surroundings. Having not been to a museum for many years, I'd forgotten that stuffed animals are somewhat disturbing.There were some very cool dinosaur fossils including a large number of oceanic reptiles found on the English coastline. The second entrance was decorated for an exhibition (below). I'm not sure what it was about, but it looked the part. The dinosaur section had some lifelike animatronics including the two raptors (above) and a scary looking T-rex (below).

We all met back at the hotel at Earl's Court and had dinner at a pub around the corner. We said our final good-byes to Julie and spent the late evening trying to do our laundry so we'd have something to wear in Africa.