The two traveling rats waited
until all passengers left the plane. After they made sure all the passengers
were gone, they left the airplane as well and stepped onto British grounds. The
sun had come up so they had to be extra careful. By now the airport was packed.
People were running around with luggage, some with fancy looking briefcases and
some with their children. Some people were sitting in chairs waiting for their
airplane to arrive and some of them were arguing about where the other had put
the passports (whatever they were).

They quickly hid behind a large
abandoned suitcase and looked around to where the nearest exit was. The nearest
exit was like 20 feet away from where they were hiding, so it was a long run to
get out of this place safely. There was a sudden noise that came from
everywhere. Loud voices echoed through the terminal and all the passengers
stopped and listened to where the noise came from. Justin and Wendy realized
there was an important message told and they took the opportunity to escape to
the outside. As far as they could tell they weren't seen by anyone. ‘Gosh, we
were lucky!' Justin said, still catching his breath.

A moment later, the two traveling
rats were outside in the sunshine. ‘So, what do we do now? Oh, wait... you
mentioned a bus in your story. I suppose we should take one of those?' Justin
asked and Wendy nodded. She looked around. There were many bus on the platform,
but Wendy suddenly started to smile. ‘Look! We'll take that one.' She pointed
at a bus without a roof. On the side of the bus the words ‘London Site-Seeing
Tours' written. ‘You'll have a professional tour guide, Justin... and I can sit
back and relax.' She gave him a wink.

‘We can climb in front of the
window in the front of the bus. People won't notice us because there's a
cardboard advertisement behind it. It'll provide us enough space and safety.
Let's get on the bus now, it'll probably leave soon.' She added and they both
made a dash towards the site-seeing bus. Within a few minutes they climbed
between the cardboard advertisement and the window and they had a beautiful
overview.

This was the beginning point of
the bus, so it was still rather empty except for two Japanese tourists. They
had huge camera's around their necks and wore funny hats.

‘Welcome ladies and gentlemen to
London's best site-seeing tour.'

‘Don't believe him, they always
say they are the best in town.' Wendy whispered to Justin. The voice continued.
‘We'll be leaving Heathrow Airport in a few minutes. The site-seeing tour will
guide you through London and will bring you to the most interesting places of
London's history. The journey will take you to beautiful Hide Park
through the streets of  Kensington. ‘Hide
Park...'  Wendy thought, ‘that's where the
orphanage is...' Of course you are able to leave the bus there to take a romantic
walk through Hide Park and it's beautiful ‘Lake Serpentine',
the lake that runs in this park. You could also visit Kensington Gardens, once
home to our late Princess Diana, who died in a tragic car-accident the 31st of
August 1997.'

‘What!? Did Lady Di get killed? Oh
my.' Wendy said in shock. She hadn't known anything about that! That moment the
bus started to move and the journey through London begun.

‘Well, enough about our first
stop, you'd have to see it for yourself... Our tour will continue with a drive on
Piccadilly Road. On your right hand you'll be able to see Buckingham Palace,
where Queen Elisabeth lives but we won't be stopping here, you can do that some
other day. Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, I'll give you a sign when you have
to grab those camera's.. hahaha, well our next stop will be at Piccadilly Circus. You are able to spend loads of money
in Oxford Street, London's most famous shopping center. And for all of you who
want to keep the this holiday cheap we'll continue our tour on Oxford Street
through Holborn to St. Paul's Cathedral, the most impressive cathedral in
Europe. This will be our third stop dear people. Please don't miss the
opportunity to climb up to the Whispering Gallery, of where people believe it's
haunted by medieval ghosts, and learn more about London's history by a tour
given by a professional guide. For those who want to remain seated we'll
continue our journey to the London Bridge. We'll pause on this bridge for a
brief moment because there's a beautiful view to the Tower Bridge. This short
break will give you an opportunity to take pictures. Then we'll go all the way
to the other side of the water and through Duke Street and Tooley Street we
head for The Tower Bridge. As we drive across the most famous bridge of London
we can take a final look across the river Thames. At the end of the bridge we'll
have our fourth stop: The Tower of London. Diamond lovers won't be able to skip
this one, for all the Queen's Crown Jewels are kept here. The Tower is said to
be haunted as well by prisoners who died a lonely death. If you're not
interested in Jewelry then the tour continues over the Tower Bridge back to the
route over Cornhill Leadenhall Street back to New Oxford Street. You'll be able
to get off the bus whenever we have a stop. Of course we'll tell you when and
where. We hope you'll enjoy this trip and your stay in beautiful London.' Then
the voice started repeating the entire thing in a different language, a
language both Justin and Wendy didn't understand.

‘So... where do we get off the bus?'
Justin asked.

‘I'll tell you when we get there,
just enjoy the view, alright?' Wendy said but she wasn't at all enjoying the
view. She wasn't at all looking forward to her talk to Mrs. Jones and she
wanted to postpone it as long as possible. She looked at Justin who was indeed
enjoying the tour. He had a smile on his face and the wind softly went through
his fur. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining brightly and there was
hardly any wind at all. Wendy wondered what would happen if she had this talk
to Mrs. Jones. Would it change the weather? Would this beautiful day change
into a day full of thunder and lighting, rain and coldness? She could hardly
believe that. She tried to relax and not to think about it, at least not now...

‘Wow! What's that!?' Justin
pointed at a huge colored building full of advertisement messages. ‘Oh, that's
Piccadilly Circus, and there's Oxford Street,' she said, hardly paying
attention to what was happening around her. ‘Oh yeah the place to spend ‘loads
of money'' Justin smiled but his smile disappeared when he saw Wendy's serious
face. She was staring right ahead of her without seeing. ‘Wendy, are you
alright?' Justin asked.

‘Oh, I'm sorry... yes, I'm okay, I
guess I'm just a bit tired, that's all.'

‘Tired? You've slept far into the
day in that airplane! Something else is on your mind, isn't there?' Justin
asked but he already knew the answer to that question.

‘I'm just not really looking
forward to meeting Mrs. Jones after all these years. She really hated me and
that was likewise. I just, gosh I guess I'm just not ready for it.'

‘Look, we can also go there
tomorrow. I'm a little tired myself and we should find a shelter for tonight. I
bet London is really pretty at night, perhaps we could spend a little time in
Hide Park.' Justin said. ‘Hide
Park? Why Hide Park?'
Wendy wondered.

‘Well, because our
tour-guide-friend just said it was the most romantic place in London.' Justin
said with a small blush on his cheeks. Wendy blushed heavily and gave Justin a
naughty smile. ‘Well, okay, we could go there tonight... but remember... We are to
sleep in separate beds, you know.' Wendy looked at Justin as casually as she
could and could clearly see his blush spreading to his ears. She couldn't help
laughing and she gave him a soft, teasing push. ‘Ah, just kidding, Justin.'
Justin now also started laughing, and gave her a push back.

She was finally able to relax a
bit. She sat back and she enjoyed the oh-so familiar view. outside. It was like
she never left London in the first place. Although she had a terrible childhood
she had always loved this city. She couldn't leave without seeing Big Ben.
Unfortunately the site-seeing bus didn't pass there, but there were more
site-seeing busses in town, so all she had to do is take another bus. Or taking
the underground of course! That would be a lot easier. She had traveled by the
underground before. Heck, she'd run away more than once. She'd explore the
surroundings. She knew the city, she knew everything. She loved Big Ben and she
loved the Docklands, where it was always nice and quiet. The Docklands were the
place to think things over. She'd take Justin there, too... But not today. He'd
probably forget all the (for him) strange names of buildings, so traveling by
another site-seeing bus would confuse him. They had passed Piccadilly Circus so
the first stop was over. A few new people came on board. Wendy checked it the
Japanese people were still there. They were, and they were taking pictures of
every building in the area. Wendy smiled a bit. Perhaps they learned the entire
tour-of-London-book by heart. She'd seen busses full of Japanese people before.
It was rather strange that these people were traveling by themselves. They were
a little bit like Wendy and Justin. Alone, just the two of them, away from
their colony like they left theirs temporarily.

The second stop was St. Paul's
Cathedral. Justin really enjoyed the City of London. He looked around him and
asked a lot of questions and Wendy knew most of the answers. She enjoyed the
look on his face and his big bright eyes. He looked like a little boy in a
candy-shop. St. Paul's Cathedral was one of Wendy's most favorite buildings,
although she never had the chance to visit it. She knew the stories about the
ghosts who lived in the chapel and was fascinated by them. She didn't want to
admit it, but for some reason she was too chicken to visit St. Paul's. The
Cathedral which was destroyed in 1666 was completely restored now. 1666 was the
year of the Great Fire. A fire that started in a bakery and destroyed a big
part of the city. Wendy was glad she didn't live in that time, although the
circumstances of life in the orphanage were rather like a dungeon in medieval
times as well. She shook those thoughts out of her head quickly. Justin stared
at the cathedral. ‘Wow, that's beautiful! I'd love to go in there and take a
good look around. Perhaps we can find a few ghosts!'

‘Forget it Justin, there's no way
we can have a peak around without anybody seeing us. A chapel doesn't have any
corners to hide in, you know.'

‘Yeah, I guess you're right, but
I'd really, really want to go in there and take a look.' Wendy had to admit she
wanted to go in as well. This was probably the last time she was in London, so
she wanted to see everything before going back home. Home!? Did she think
‘HOME', this was the first time she thought of the Rosebush as ‘home'...

‘Well, perhaps we could go there
at night some time.' Wendy said rather casually. ‘Yeah! That's a great idea!
Let's go there tomorrow night!' Justin said with a huge grin on his face.

Wendy turned to him rather
immediate. ‘We can't do that!'

‘Why not? Nobody will see us.
Well, except perhaps for some ghosts, but they won't tell.' Justin said with a
growing smile.

‘We'll see,' Wendy said, but she
said it without a lot of enthusiasm. She knew Justin would never give up if he
really wanted something. She actually wanted to go as well, besides, what could
go wrong, Justin will be there.

The bus went on and on until they
finally reached the third stop: The London Bridge. Wendy always got the creeps
when she thought about the London Bridge. Mrs. Jones told the children that it
was the bridge of prisoner heads. When a prisoner was sentenced to death a
long, long time ago, they'd chop of his head and put it on a stick which was
attached to the London Bridge. This to make sure they'd scare other criminals
off, away from London. A few moments later they arrived at the London Bridge.
Wendy told Justin the story she had heard from Mrs. Jones about the heads and
Justin just couldn't resist making jokes about it. He told Wendy he thought it
was a perfect way to keep unwanted guests away from the Rosebush as well. He
said he'd ask the Council about taking his idea along in a next meeting. This
was typically Justin. Wendy laughed at his jokes especially because he was able
to tell them with his most serious face on. Justin also grinned and suddenly
put his arm around her. At first she didn't know how to react but later she
relaxed a bit and moved a bit closer to him. He also moved a bit closer to her
and they both enjoyed the silence.

The stop was short and all the
passengers moved back into their seats. When everybody was back in their seats
the bus drove on to the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge is one of London's most
beautiful bridges. Like the name reveals, the Tower Bridge
can be recognized by the two huge towers on each side of the bridge who are
held by a blue construction of steal. The bus brought the passengers to The
Tower of London where the final stop was made. ‘We'll go all the way back to
Hide Park, it's getting late and we should also find something to eat.' Wendy
said.

The bus finally drove on to Hide
Park. Justin and Wendy prepared to get off the bus. They walked down the stairs
into the section where people could have the indoor-site-seeing-tour. Luckily
that part was completely empty. All passengers (well at least those who were
still on the bus) were upstairs where the sun was shining. The bus stopped at
Hide park and the doors opened. Justin and Wendy got out without any problems.
There they were, in the biggest park in London, Hide Park. It was getting
rather foggy and there was a grim atmosphere, an atmosphere which kind of
belonged to London. Justin was surprised about the sudden change of weather but
Wendy told him this was rather normal. England is known for it's unstable
weather and loads of rainfall besides, it's late August already. Most humans
already left the park because it was dinner time. Some humans had decided to
have dinner in the park; they brought along their meals. Justin was hungry as
well. Seeing the humans eat didn't make that feeling any less. ‘Come on Wendy,
let's find something to eat.' Justin took Wendy by her hand and pulled her onto
the open field. Suddenly they heard a loud scream. ‘Aaaah! John! Look it's a
RAT! There's two of them!'

They didn't notice a group of
humans picnicking right where Wendy and Justin were headed. It was too late,
they were noticed. There were four of them, a big lady and a big gentleman, and
two children, a boy and a girl. The lady saw the two rats first. She jumped up
and pulled one of the children, the girl, firmly against her body in total
terror.

‘John! We can't stay here! Let's
go, let's GO!! We can't put the children's lives in jeopardy!' The lady shouted
and by now she had also pulled the little boy up and held him close to her as well.
Wendy and Justin were both nailed to the ground. ‘John, can we go now, please...
I want to go, NOW!' The small girl nodded so firmly that, for some moments,
Wendy feared her head would fall off.

‘Ok, let's go some place else
then, dear, but those rats won't harm anyone, really they won't, they are even
more afraid of us than... well at least I am.' The husband ‘John' answered.

‘JOHN! They are RATS, they spread
deceases!! Everybody knows that!'

So after some struggle and
arguing, they left... in a hurry. They left in such hurry that they forgot to
take most of the food with them. Justin and Wendy were still in shock. ‘Wow,
that was close. We'd better get out of here before they come back for all that
food.' Wendy said.

‘Those humans won't come back.
Besides... humans don't eat food from the ground especially not when the same
rats who scared the hell out of them walked on that same ground! Wendy, look!
We've got more food than we can eat!'

Wendy looked at the big amount of
food. There was bread, cheese, fruit and chocolate.

‘I guess you're right... well it
would be a total waste if we abandoned the food... so... let's take it to a safe
place and let's celebrate that we had a safe flight and a nice day.' Wendy said
with a smile on her face. She was happy and for a moment she had even forgotten
for where they actually came for.

They weren't able to eat
everything, but that was no surprise. It was simply far too much. Today had
been wonderful but exhausting and after a meal like that, exhaustion hit the
two rats like a bomb. They made a bed, just one, under the bushes and curled up
to sleep, closely together.