London and Italy, 1996

My friend Denise and I decided to take a tour of Italy with a stopover in London in October 1996.  To prepare for it we decided that we wanted to be able to speak a little of the language if only to be able to order from a menu or ask the price of something in a shop. The Italian Cultural Center in Halifax offers courses in beginners and intermediate Italian so we took the course they offered in  Italian (for beginners).  You know what it's like, preparing for a trip; making lists, reading books, discussing endlessly all the things we wanted to do and see.  Learning Italian really added to our anticipation!  So here we are, three weeks later and 10 pounds lighter from all the walking and climbing!  I have been to London in 1993 so had a bit of a feel for the lay of the land and how to use the tube and buses at least.   We had a fabulous time!

What follows is a travelogue I wrote on my return. There are some pictures that i took and links scattered through and the travelogue is broken up into several pages so it won't be so long at one go. I hope you enjoy it!

London

Day 1

We flew to London, arriving on October 9 and spent the first 4 days there before flying to Venice to join a two week  escorted bus tour of Italy. Two weeks on a bus tour beginning in Venice and ending in Florence.  Stops in Urbino, Gubbio, Assisi, Sorrento, Capri, Pompei, Rome, Orvieto, San Gimignano, Lucca,  Siena and Pisa.  We saw and did SO much and climbed SO many hills and staircases that by the end we were hitting information overload and looking to come home to our own beds and familiar surroundings. The flight to London was fine though we didn't really sleep and much to my surprise, we breezed through customs at Heathrow in the morning! There was hardly anyone in the waiting area, unlike the last time I flew in, arriving on a Monday morning with about 6 other jumbo jets full of tourists in the middle of August!  Our hotel in London was the Kennedy, a tourist class hotel a block from Euston Station.  We got our transfers from Heathrow included in our package but I had hoped we would be on a regular bus.  Instead we were crowded into a mini-van and slogged our way through very heavy traffic.  We happened to be the last drop-off so it took almost three hours to get from the airport, through the traffic and about 4 other stops before we finally arrived.  Checked in and took our bags to our room down several long hallways.  We were so exhausted that we had to take a little nap before heading out even though you aren't supposed to do that.

We decided to find the theatre first and get our tickets for Friday night.  We had decided to see Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi theatre on the Strand and got our tickets at the box office for 30 UKP, second row balcony.  We found a little cafe on a side street off the Strand and had a late lunch of soup and a sandwich which was made with homemade bread and looked the size of a doorstop!  However it was really filling and we ended up skipping dinner as a result.

We then wandered down the Strand to Trafalgar Square to have a look around, take some pictures and then off towards the Palace.  We detoured around St. James Palace and had a sit down in St. James park before having a view of 'Buck House' itself.  No changing of the guard since it was about 5 p.m.  We then headed through Westminster with a mind to see the Abbey.  We lucked out here since they only allow taking pictures once a week after 6 pm on Wednesdays and Wednesday it was!  There is usually an admission but we didn't have to pay, don't know why except the main part of the church, the nave, was closed because of rehearsals for an event the next day.  We got to see the back of the Abbey where all the Royal Chapels and monuments are,  Henry VII Chapel, The Confessor's chapel, Poet's Corner and the Coronation chair among others.  The stained glass windows in the Royal Air Force chapel were stunning and I was really excited to see Elizabeth I's tomb and some of the other Tudors that were there, since that is my favourite period in British History!!! I hadn't seen that part of the Abbey when I was there before and it is exquisite!

Day 2

The next day, Thursday, we took a bus tour of London where you can get on and off at a number stops along the route.  This was fine by me since although, as I already mentioned,  I had been to London before, I had only wandered on my own and not seen all the highlights so a formal tour was definitely in order.  We got off near Piccadilly and explored the area around Leicester Square and down Piccadilly to have a quick view of some of the architecture including Burlington House which is now the Royal Academy of Arts.  We also discovered a little outdoor market in the courtyard of St. James church which is one of the only Christopher Wren churches outside the City of London area.  We had lunch in a little self serve on Piccadilly, picked up the next tour bus to go by and travelled to  St. Paul's Cathedral for another stop.

I had seen the cathedral before but not very thoroughly because I was somewhat under the weather due to serious jet lag and this time I had it in my mind to climb the dome.  Which we did!  I had to stop a number of times on the way up and we rested at the Whispering Gallery and outside balcony at the base of the dome .  The passageway to the first outside balcony was very narrow with steep stone steps and it felt almost like a tunnel! The next leg to the top of the dome was steeper on  spiral staircases made of wrought iron - it felt like stepping on air!  The balcony at the top of the dome is very narrow with a waist high railing and two people have to pass sideways but the view is incredible.  Coming down on the open-work cast-iron spiral staircases was a bit tricky because the steps are narrow and if you do look down to see where you are going, you really look DOWN.  It's unnerving!  There's something like 560 steps up and 530 steps on the descent (approximately).  Our legs were shaking by the time we got to the bottom but I'm glad I did it!  St. Paul's Cathedral is really beautiful with it's elaborate canopy over the altar, the painted ceilings and dome and the graceful beauty of the building.  The crypts didn't interest us all that much but we browsed a little in the gift shop, also in the basement.  I remember a few tables of books upstairs near the entrance but they weren't there this time so the gift shop must be a new addition.

Back on the bus to finish the tour.  We got stuck in evening rush hour traffic coming out of the City near Fleet Street and the railway stations and it was a bit chilly in the shade of the skyscrapers (we were determined to sit on the open top of the tour bus).  The tour ended back at Victoria Station.  We took the tube back to Euston, picked up some sandwiches in a shop there and took them back to the hotel to have for our supper.   The water in the hotel was pretty hard so the tea that we made in our room seemed to have a bit of a 'skin' on top and leave nasty stains in the cups but it sure went down well that night!

Day 3

On Friday we spent the morning in the British Museum including the Egyptian rooms where we saw the mummies, the Greek antiquities, the Rosetta Stone, some very delicate china and some fascinating clocks.   Those were the things that impressed me the most!  So many treasures accumulated over the years that are really quite fascinating although it makes you think that they should be back in their country of origin where they belong. 

We had our lunch at an old pub across from the museum and  walked through a part of Holborn to a tube station.  Holborn seemed very busy at mid-day with lots of students, business workers, shops and traffic! Our tube ride to Harrod's was extremely crowded and warm but we emerged onto Brompton Road unscathed.  I was scouting for a wool wrap that I had seen in Scotland on my last visit and surely could find one in London.  I knew there was a Scottish store near Harrods but we couldn't find it.  Turns out we didn't walk far enough in the right direction!  We did rest our aching feet in Harrod's and had a pot of tea in one of the cafes, feeling very elegant.  And did you know the bathrooms cost a pound in Harrod's, they being 'luxury' bathrooms'  NO way was I paying a pound to pee!!!!  That's $2.25 Canadian just because there's an attendant to hand you a towel!

We had our dinner in the hotel restaurant.  Nothing to write home about except one dish we thought we might order, (but I forget what it was now) the waiter strenuously insisted that it wasn't very good at all!  Dinner itself proved to be adequate but not fabulous but we didn't have the time to try to find a restaurant because we were on our way to the theatre to see Sunset Boulevard.  The Adelphi Theatre has been restored to the Art Deco period and was quite nice.  Our seats were second row balcony so the view was pretty good. Jill Martin was playing Nora Desmond that week and though we had not heard of her, she was great.  She had a very strong singing voice.  We really enjoyed the singing and sets and of course, we had a tub of ice cream at intermission as tradition dictates.  We decided to take the tube back to the hotel and realized there's a WHOLE different clientele at night than in the daytime!!!  Our hotel was very close to the tube station at the other end so we got along just fine by keeping our heads down and minding our own business but I suppose in retrospect we should have waited longer for a cab!

Day 4

We took the train out on Saturday to meet my internet pal Dave and his girlfriend Nicky.  I was excited and a little nervous too but they were so nice and down to earth and had such a nice day organized for us!  We drove to Kent to a very old inn called the Bell and had a delicious lunch there and then proceeded to Leeds Castle nearby.  We explored the Castle, the gardens, (that's Culpepper Gardens in the photo on the right), the aviary, the green houses, saw the maze but didn't attempt it and on the way back went in to the dog collar museum!  Yes, really!  Just a small collection of antique dog collars of all shapes and sizes.  You wouldn't believe what they put on some dogs!  The weather today was overcast and a little cool.  We did get showered on just a little.  The grounds of the castle are so nice and green and well kept up and there are black swans swimming in the lake/pond/moat around the castle too!  Back to the city for about 6 pm and we went to a pub on Gloucester Road and met up with some friends of Dave and Nicky's.  They were joining us for a meal at a nearby Tex-Mex restaurant.  It turned out to be quite crowded so we couldn't all sit together but we enjoyed ourselves and our company immensely and finally returned to the hotel at about 10:30.

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