It was time to drive back into London to round off our British Isles circuit. We drove to our Belgravia accommodation to drop off luggage, crawling through the inner-city streets at a snail’s pace. London drivers know they are not getting anywhere quickly so are generally polite, share the road and just chill in non-moving queues. We dropped the car back in Brixton, returning to the royal parks to see the amazing transformation of the gardens as Spring has returned. We visited Australia House to do our civic obligation and voted in the Federal Election. Supposedly the queues have been crazy, and the control barriers to help with queuing seemed to confirm this. We, on the other hand, just walked into the glorious foyer (the filming location for Gringott’s Wizarding Bank in the Harry Potter series), filled out our forms and did our democratic duty. A search for a pub with a sunny beer garden turned into a Fleet Street stroll and then a route march back to The Banker, overlooking the Thames at Cannon Street.

Next stop was Salisbury with a detour via Stonehenge. We took a chance and swung by Stonehenge as we had tickets for the next day. Success! We were allowed to change the day and time and through we went. Bit of a grumble … tickets are not cheap and you still have to pay for carparking! Anyway, we wandered around the site, listening to the very informative audio guide. English Heritage has put a lot of thought into how they manage the flow of tourists. As the photos show, you get to experience the stones (in places) without too many people cluttering the view. The weather was overcast and threatening, which may account for the reduced numbers. The carpark was not very full and has been built to cater for a huge number of visitors.