London calling

Before leaving France, we needed to get the required vaccinations for girls against tapeworm so that we could enter UK. After a quick search, we found an English-speaking vet nearby and got at the same day the vaccinations, stamps and signatures. After waiting the required 24h, we were good to go and booked us a ferry for the following day. The online booking system does not allow pets in a sidecar, however if you call, they still do the booking (they know about this issue and we do not seemed to be the first with this problem).

Interesting way to fix a bike

The paper formalities were no problem at all neither at the check-in in France nor customs in England. London welcomed us with small occassional showers. Finding a (low-budget) flat (we wanted with own kitchen) proofed to be rather complicated. First we needed to send an inquiry by email (together with paying for the accommodation in full in advance) and then wait for the answer from the landlord or the rental agent. We got refused by several places due to our dogs. In the end, what you get might be quite different from what you wanted and this process also takes a long time and requires internet and thus it felt like a bit of hassling. Our so called studio  was located in Harlesden. It was so tiny, that we could barely move in there and so we decided to take the dogs with on our sightseeing through the city

Parking was only for residents or max. 4h by paying, so we took initiative :D

We found a good parking spot for our bikes - nobody cared about them except for one person ...

Images from the neighbourhood

London seems to have a trash problem

I wonder in which neighborhood we were ... anyway nothing happened to the bikes.

One thing seemed for sure, if you want to get attention in London - take Ulpu with, especially when she has her cute outfit on :D Just to test the British humour, I started to ask people for 1GBP if they wanted to take a picture of Ulpu. Wow, some people were even willing to pay, of course I did not take any money. The fun was enough for me.

We walked around some of the usual sightseeing places, did some small shopping at Lush (they have vegan cosmetics) and went to explore Whole Foods market, where we had lunch. We walked towards Hyde park and saw by chance the premier of Sandra Bullock's and Melissa McCarthy's new movie "The heat" - unfortunately I missed Sandra by a few minutes :( - pity, would have been cool to see one of my favourite actors live.

Premiere of the movie "The Heat"

And Skippy said: " Oh, the Big Ben is not big at all"

St. James Park - walking the dogs

Suddenly I felt an itch at my arms and head and I thought "oh no, I must have eaten something I am allergic to (no idea what it would be)". I told Skippy and since it got so bad, we went to pharmacy to get some medicine. After a while it did the job and since everybody was tired we decided to call it a first day and go back to our dungeon.

Tired Ulpu and Skippy after a long day in London downtown

What a discrimination!!!

Cool bench in a park nearby our dungeon.

More playing in another park

It was time to plan the next legs, so Skippy used her "Pinky-finger" method :)

We also visited Vx - Headquarters of the "Secret vegan society" - a well assorted shop, where we got some snacks. 

At the last evening we went to the Lexi cinema to see "Behind The Candelabra" with Michael Douglas. It was our first movie since we left Finland! Lexi proofed to be a cute cinema, where "100% of The Lexi’s profits go towards improving the quality of life for the people of Lynedoch Village in Stellenbosch, South Africa".  

Skippy found the movie excellent, it was well acted, well written and had great music. I found the make-up amazing.

Next morning we were off towards Scotland.

~ Wolfi