Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital & Jack the Ripper Tour

Sorry folks, the last few days have been insanely busy and access to wifi has been limited but I will now bring you up to speed!

As team assistant it was my job to be navigator from Salsibury back south past London into the country to find Tiggywinkles - mostly on main roads but still scary! Tip: do not depend on the Google maps gps blue dot - it struggles to keep up with your car speed and you miss turn offs :) Never mind, we got there on time.

Tiggywinkles was a great industry visit but unfortunately we couldn't take any photos as it is a hospital. We saw hedgehogs, badgers, foxes, eagle owls, jays, rabbits, voles and so much more.......
All the native animals here are quite different to home and bring Beatrix Potter's pictures to life. The hedgehogs were so cute but very smelly! There are approx 350 in the hospital wards and they eat a mix of dog food and dry biscuits, so the smell is rather overpowering. Its very clean and their sucess rates in rahabilitaing them is very high. The nurses are very dedicated and have a fantastic job! Lots of cute souvenirs at Tiggywinkles.


After the visit, it was back to the minibus and power our way back into London as the bus needed to be returned by 5pm. We settled back into thesame  hotel that we stayed in when we landed - Royal National Hotel, Russell Square. Its huge, central and easy to get around London from this hotel.

Super cute taxi in the hotel carpark.

Our next move was to grab tea and get a bus to Trafalgar Square - what a beautiful impressive place. The buildings are impressive, the statues ornate and the square is the hub of London - all distances to London are measured to Trafalgar Square.

We then met our bus to start our tour. The Jack the Ripper tour was fun, mostly due to our guide! John was Scottish with a high sense of drama (possible actor?). He brought the Jack the Ripper story to life and showed us so many interesting nooks and cranies around the streets. The story is fascinating and more than a little creepy at 9pm in Whitechapel. Being the team assistant I had to stay at the rear of the group so we didn't lose anyone - not a very comfortable position!

 

My fabulous sister-in-law Miranda was waiting at the hotel when we returned. She's flown over from Switzerland to see me and help plan our day in London tomorrow. We had a good catch up and jumped on the net to tweak a few details for my itinery - unfortuneately there are works on some of the tube lines, so getting from A to B may not be straight forward!