"London VT Meet 21 January" a London Travel Page by TravellingSpirit

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The Sourbugger family

Tower of London - when I should have been sleeping

We were due to meet at the Tower at 9 am, so to be sure to be there on time I left Putney where I'd been staying at 7.30 am. It was really lovely walking across the Thames at that time of the morning to go catch the tube and definitely the best time to arrive at the Tower - not a queue in sight (maybe due to the fact that the ticket offices were still shut!).

After asking any group or couple of folks looking a bit lost if they were a VTer I finally found the growing group including Jenniflower, the Sourbugger family, VT eMom and Gerry, Hanoun, Beach Dog and Carmela71, Clive (St_Vincent), Keida, Hansi, Rob Dace and his wife(and I'll come back and add the other names that I know I've missed - oops). Most of us then went for a toddle around the Tower which was fun as I was last there when I was 11 years old. In honesty it wasn't as impressive as I remember when I was that age, but there's a fair bit to see all the same and I had the charming company of little Arann all the way around.

We then made our way to Covent Garden, which for those of you who've never been is a market place, with cafe's and eating places encircled by shops. There are usually several performance artists there and Saturday was no different to usual. As we past one of the cafes I could hear a recording of Carmen (can't remember the name of the peice but it's the one about love is like a bird, I think!. A lovely piece anyway). Then we realised it wasn't a recording and a woman with the most amazing voice was entertaining the diners. We got something to eat from Ponti's Piazza Cafe and then I sat there for the next SIX HOURS meeting more VTers. Ponti's was very good and I feel I owe them a tip at least after abusing their premises for so long - they never complained. Here I met KristaB, Fen, BradBrown, Alusru, Iris2002, GillianMcLaughlin (she in who's shadow I walk ;-)) among others, as well as getting to sit and chat more with Hansi and Beach Dog and Carmela71. It was a wonderful afternoon.

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Me with Hanoun, Stephanie and Iris2002

The Finale

The big meet up was held in Il Pomodorino Ristorante in Picadilly, which was fully booked out for VTers, all 80 plus of them. Unfortunately at this point I think both me and my camera were overwhelmed and got a bit shy so missed the opportunity to meet and chat to all of these lovely people. I did get to meet the beautiful Bernishand though. If I was overwhelmed (it was my first VT meet after all) then my camera was even moreso and any photos I got were past even being amusing! I think I have Monica (soon to be a VTer we hope) to thank for this photo.

The evening was a wonderful experience and end to a wonderful day. Thnaks so much to Jenniflower for organising it and to Keida for being such a great excuse.