Good day out to London

A punctual start and traffic free journey saw the shoppers being dropped off at The Westfield Centre at 10.35am with the rest of us reaching the RAF Museum at 11.20am. With so much to see it was a quick loo stop and into the hangers. The collection housed in the RAF Museum was amazing. B27's, Mustangs, Spitfires, Helicopters, Jets, war history, all presented in huge hangars and in a way you can get up to close. The information with each exhibit was detailed without being excessive. The aircraft display's go from world war 1 right up to the present day, including the Euro fighter Typhoon. The sheer scale/number of aircraft on display was amazing and there were a number of aircraft present that most people would not have seen before including German & American planes from WW2 – our three hours went far too quickly then it was back on the coach to the Westfield centre for our tours of the BBC. Traffic was just a little heavier but we made it with 10 minutes to spare.

We met up with the shoppers and to my amazement after 5 hours in the huge shopping complex no-one was laden down with parcels!

With no time to rest our weary legs, split in two groups, we were off on our BBC tour with two very informative and amusing guides though both obviously very sad that the building would be closing at the end of the week. The tour gave us a behind-the-scenes look at retired sets such as those of Blue Peter and Match of The Day (sat on the couch that had accommodated Gary Lineker and David Beckham) We visited Studio 8 (it only costs £35,000.00 a day to hire!) which has seen many household productions including The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top Gear, Fawlty Towers and The Good Life. One of us had a go at reporting the weather, two tried reading the news and another three played that very old game ‘Spot The Tune’. All in all a good 90 minutes at this iconic TV studio, home of so many of the nations favourite programmes over the years and full of nostalgia and stories.

A good driver and an easy journey completed a tiring but enjoyable day.

Chris