Rob and I really really enjoyed the All Black tour to Europe. While we didn’t go to see any of the games, we watched every single one on TV. It was great to be able to watch the games at night over a beer instead of watching the trinations at breakfast over a juice.

Our favourite game was the All Blacks vs England coz we went down to London and caught up with a bunch of mates to watch it. We stayed with a couple of our Aussie mates, Stew and Amanda.  Thanks guys! You’re stars!

We watched the game in a Walkabout pub which was packed to the brim mostly with Kiwis and some optimistic English too. But of course, it was an All Black win. The pub went wild! A spectacular afternoon surrounding by New Zealand accents. 🙂

And we got to catchup with some long lost friends, like Dave Ellery, from Compsci university days. After the game, we saw more friends! This is the core Compsci crowd representing that night: Charlie, Eugene, Andrew, and Dave. We had many drinks and a yummy Thai dinner. Was a pretty fantastic night. So great to see you all!

And of course there was more of the Aussie mates as well:

Nighttime trees in Leicester Square.

London is a massive city, and we’ve got a lot to explore of it. We’re backed onto the Thames here, but from the south.

A park next to parliament buildings. beautiful autumn colours.

We had our first wander past Downing Street, which we hadn’t seen before.

There were so many people crowded around the gates, it certainly made the security a requirement. The guards were armed! Like armed seriously! Pretty weird to see at our level of the world. Oh, and down the road there were the royal horses barracks! We were pretty pleased with the walk.

We of course managed to get a little Christmas shopping done too on another wander the next day. 🙂

But then it was time to go home again. Our hosts made us *waffles* with strawberries for breakfast. Thanks so much guys!

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to catchup with us. Was great to see so many friendly faces!

We’re definitely looking forward to coming down for Christmas.

PS It’s -2 degrees this morning in Cambridge. I’ve got all my layers on. I need to buy warmer layers!!