DAY 1: LONDON

SO much to do, so little time.

After arriving virtually right on schedule at 7am at Gatwick Airport, we transferred to our hotel near Paddington Station and, feeling surprisingly un-jetlagged, we decided to make the most of our first morning and head to the 11.30am Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

The time-honoured tradition lures thousands to vantage points outside the palace gates, around the fountain and up the radiating roads.
Getting there was easier said than done, though. As non-train travellers generally, we spent the first half-hour wandering around aimlessly in Paddington Station, trying to work out how to buy a return day pass and where the Underground access was for the yellow Circle Line trains.
In the end, we did what all lost-soul travellers do in England ... we joined a queue and begged the rail assistant for mercy.

Now we can advise that if here for just a few days, an off-peak daily Travelcard for zones 1 and 2 will do the trick. It's valid from 9.30am Monday to Friday and all day on weekends, and covers the tubes, buses and most train services.
London is your Oyster Card: buy this if staying more than a few days and the Tube system will get you anywhere you want to go.

Once the Monpoly board of train stations became clear, we were right as rain. And for once in London, rain was not part of the forecast. A pleasant stroll over the bridge and through St James's Park and we were at Buckingham Palace.
For the next two hours in the hot sun without sunglasses or the hat we'd forgotten in our haste, we jostled with the multitudes, changed our mind where to stand, cursed those cramping our photographic space, longed to have changed out of the high-heeled ankle boots I'd worn on the plane, and watched a short, plump "Bobby" bark out orders every few minutes to barrier-jumpers to stay back.

Still, the precision, pomp and pageantry the Brits do so well was a nice introduction to London.

As suckers for punishment, we stayed on track for sightseeing with a quick trip to Westminister Station to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament before check-in time and our first pint of beer at nearby Dickens Tavern, reputed to be the longest pub in London.

But the best five pounds I spent (the first five pounds I spent) was for tickets to a performance at Bankside's Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre is an authentic 1997 rebuild of the original theatre where many Shakespearean plays were first performed in Elizabethan times.

I bought the cheap tickets months ago online to the standing section "moshpit" in front of the stage. As "groundlings", we had to queue first for the rush to secure the best view in front of those on  the long-sold-out bench seats on three levels, then stand for nearly two-and-a-half hours on a concrete lower-gallery floor and pray for clear skies in the open-roofed, recreated  theatre in the round.

But the magnificent production of Macbeth, our position only metres from the stage right in front of the action and the polished performances from the likes of Scottish actor Billy Boyd ("Pippin" in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptations) and English TV and stage heartthrob Joseph Millson in the lead role came together to create the highlight of our day.

Lessons learnt: Remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint ... as my tired feet, aching legs, sore shoulder from a heavy handbag and mushy brain can now attest.

Squirrel count: 3