London; Southbank & Balham

On Wednesday we went up to London with Vala & Malcolm; Beryl drove us down to Redhill station where we met up with Vala & Malcolm and we set off from Redhill on the 10:07am train to London Bridge. Once in London strolled along the Southbank past Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market, The Golden Hind, Clink Street, The Globe Theatre, Bankside, The Millenium Bridge, the Golden Jubilee Bridge, The London Eye, Wells Street Graffiti tunnel and then over Westminster Bridge. In between this long hike we had lunch at Studio 6 in Gabriel's Wharf and visited the Walking in my Mind exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. We all commented as we left the gallery that we were pleased we had our own minds as the minds of the artists in the exhibition were all a little disturbed! In fact I asked one of the attendants whether the exhibits were giving her nightmares.

Here is a link to an album of our photos, just click on the photo below and that will take you to the album;

2009-08-19 London with Vala & Malcolm

Now we were on our way to have dinner with Ben & Charlie, we had arranged to meet them in the Bedford pub in Balham at 6:45pm, so we thought that we would get ahead of the rush hour and get to Balham early and just relax in the pub with a few drinks to wait for them, little did we know what was in store for us!

The Jubilee line from Westminster to London Bridge was uneventful, but when we got onto the Northern line platform at London Bridge for the tube to Balham the large crowd on the platform told us that something was not right! A defective train was slowly making its way south towards the sidings at Kennington and holding up everything behind it. We eventually got onto a train, but sat at the London Bridge platform for about 10 minutes before we left and then only got as far as the next station, Borough, before we repeated the process again.

By now the train was packed and it was HOT and going nowhere! So we decided to take a break in our journey and went above ground to find either an alternate route or a pub; well guess which one we did; The Trinity pub was right next to Borough station so that's where we went and enjoyed a couple of drinks as we waited for the mess underground to sort itself out.

We resumed our journey to Balham at 6pm and by now the problems had been resolved and we arrived at the Bedford at 6:45pm and when Ben & Charlie arrived had a quick drink with them before walking down the road to an Indian restaurant where we had the Indian equivalent of Tapas. Had a great meal and a great time catching up with Ben & Charlie.

After the meal back to Balham station, but this time for an overground journey back to Reigate via Clapham Junction and then Redhill station, where Vala & Malcolm gave us a ride back to Beryl's.

A quiet day planned for Thursday!!!