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See the Photo Albums for this trip:
The last weekend!See the Photo Albums for this trip:
Friday October 6
Had breakfast about 7:30, ready to go before 9 so we got a cab with our luggage. There's a taxi stand at the hotel for convenience. We waited a bit but then saw that people were boarding the train over to the far left platform so we did too, before the rush. We are in the "quiet" car, no cellphones so that made for a peaceful ride. The train filled up a lot at Carlisle. I sat across the table from Carole until the rightful owners of the seats got on later but before then we had a bit of a dust up with a woman who wanted to sit where I would be sitting later. Though we explained that that seat was mine and I would be needing it when the seat I was currently occupying would be taken by the reserved owners, she was very snippy and huffy with us. There were actually a number of available unreserved seats in this car so we wondered what her problem was? Was that her "usual" seat or something?Eventually the train was pretty full. The scenery was pleasant some of the time especially through the Lake district but mostly uninspiring. We had a chuckle at one point when a rather large burly gent came through the car announcing he was on the way to the pub and returned later brandishing a tall can of Tetley's bitter and exclaiming about the high price of it! I commented about "Railway Robbery" which he heard and laughed about and the comments he was making, "I wouldn't mind so much but I hate tea!" (Tetley's is also a brand of tea) had us all in stitches!
We arrived in Euston on time and managed with our bags, to drag them down the street to the Thistle Euston, formerly the Kennedy Hotel, just a couple of blocks from the station. The hotel seems better decorated than when I was here four years ago and the rooms are very nice. We paid for an executive twin because it was on a special offer for the weekend, and judging from the prices posted, even cheaper than a normal single room. I think we paid 106 pounds a night. Couldn't see what made it "executive" at first, as, other than the new wallpaper, it seemed just like when Denise and I stayed there last time but we discovered a real ironing board and iron, a make up mirror in the bathroom and Oohh! There's a speaker in the bathroom with a volume control so you can hear the television ! LOL!
Aye, Dorothy I dinna think we're in Scotland anymore! We have been transported from what now feels like the relative tranquility of Scotland, even Glasgow or Edinburgh, to the noise, crowds and smells of London! We decided to go out and see if we could get tickets for Mamma Mia at the Prince Edward Theatre for tomorrow. Took the tube to Tottenham Court Road and fought our way through crowded sidewalks with the traffic streaming by. Outside chance, we should have tried when we first arrived but we didn't get around to it and sure enough, sold out. We were told we could queue up for returns in the morning at 9:30. We'll see.
We walked through SoHo and Chinatown to Picadilly Circus, down along a back part of Regent street and down to Waterloo Place where there is a high column, with a statue of the Duke of York on top (Second son of George III) There are a number of memorial statues in the square here that leads down, by way of a stair case to the Mall, just before Admiralty Arch and Carleton House which, if I'm not mistaken, was the residence of Edward Prince of Wales before he became King Edward VIII. We doubled back to Trafalgar square, under gray skies (did I really have to say that or did you already guess?) We went past St. Martin's in the Field where the remnants of a churchyard market in behind was closing down and into the warren of little streets leading into Covent Garden.
We're getting hungry now so why not complete the assault on the senses? We went into an American restaurant, T.G.I.Fridays for what reason, I have no idea! It had loud music, many people with the noise of talking and silverware echoing and bouncy and cheerful wait staff. Shockingly high prices for what it was but again, tired and hungry we stayed put and caused a bit of confusion by ordering garlic bread with cheese as our starter and a side dish as our main meal. They kept trying to bring it before we were done with the bread but they got it right eventually. Woe to those who try to eat out of the prescribed order of things! Bonus, though, the bathroom was on the same floor!! NO stairs!
After that, we wandered around Covent Garden where most of the shops were closed but we browsed in the few that were open and sussed out a few we thought we might come back to tomorrow. For a place with few shops open, the area was crowded with seas of people heading to restaurants, pubs and bars and though they were everywhere, along the streets and sidewalks, things kept moving and everyone seemed in good spirits. We found ourselves by the tube stop for a line that would land directly at Euston with no changes and returned to the hotel around 8. Planned to make a few phone calls but the pay phones were busy. We haven't decided if we're going to queue for tickets tomorrow or if not, maybe we'll go to a movie.
Saturday October 7
Welcome back to London. After mostly sunny weather in Scotland this last week, it is raining. Hard. Forecast for all day and it did most of the morning and afternoon. Shit.We decided against queuing for tickets for Mamma Mia in the rain. We thought we'd go to the National Portrait Gallery. It's a Victorian building just behind the National Gallery but the building inside is a bit confusing at times, between new bits and old bits and trying to get from one floor to the other. One lift only goes to the first floor and if you try to go to the ground and aren't disabled, there's a guard outside the lift making you go back up and down the staircase or a different lift. I don't know. It was all very confusing and frustrating.
There is no entrance fee. We started at the top at the oldest portraits, the Tudor era!!! My favourites, naturally! There was a group of about 10 little kids, about ages 6-8 with a teacher who was telling them about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and discussing the portraits and the symbolism found in them. Those children were pretty sharp! A couple of portraits that I had hoped would be there weren't and probably weren't part of that collection. I just thought they would be. (the full length of Henry at age about 50 in all his finery and the one of Elizabeth painted to celebrate the victory over the Spanish Armada). We did the top floor through the Tudors, Stuarts, Civil War, Restoration and up to George IV and Regency periods. Then we had a bit of lunch in the basement café and watched the rain on the "skylight" thought it was actually below street level. WE could see people walk by on the street above us. Feet rested, we went on to the Victorians where photos started to creep in. All the Oscar Wilde portraits were either sketches or photos. I didn't know as many of these faces though of course Dickens, Bronte sisters and some of the politicians I had. There was a long narrow gallery of photos from the 60's forward but we skipped the Royal Family gallery, a bit of an anticlimax really.
As it was raining still, we had already given up the idea of a show but a movie wasn't a bad idea. Over to Leicester Square where the big (expensive) cineplex's were and we found one playing the new British film, Billy Elliot. Highly recommended, we really liked
it. It was interesting that the theatre we saw it in was way underground with several long staircases leading down to it rather than on the same level you entered on. Yes there were other movie theatres in London that would have been cheaper (we paid £8.50!) but it still cost less than a theatre show and what the heck, we are on holiday after all! The movie is about a boy of 11 in Durham who decides he wants to be a ballet dancer much against the wishes of his working class miner father and older brother. It had you laughing and crying back to back. The theatre was rather warm though, filled with people and no air conditioning.
Still raining after the show, but easing up to a spit now. We headed back to Covent Garden to shop and again throngs of people coming in and out of the square though there weren't that many in the shops. There was also a craft market in one courtyard so I browsed there while Carole went to the china seconds shop. I bought a few small water colour prints, and we decided to eat there in an open air café. Well, it's still under a roof of the market but open to the courtyard. We had potato skins with tomato sauce, cheese and bacon and tea and sat and chatted and people watched. I really like this area of London, it's very lively!
Back in the hot and muggy underground to the hotel now. Made a few phone calls, one to the lady I was supposed to meet in Stoke but it hadn't worked out. She had just got in the door from 4 or 5 days in Amsterdam! I had forgotten she had told me she was going there a few days after we were supposed to meet. I also caught up with Barb and left a message for Dave and Nikki and spoke to Philip up in Liverpool for a bit. Don't know what we're doing tomorrow. We need to have a look around Euston to find the location of the airbus stop for Monday morning though and maybe we will go on the London Eye if the weather clears up. Yeah. Right. We are getting weary of living out of a suitcase and walking and climbing stairs. I think a month or nearly, is a bit too long for it. Not too bad if you were staying in just a couple of places but changing locations so much over the course of this holiday is a bit much. Probably the three weeks would have been ok but as I said before, circumstances put that out the window.
Sunday October 8
We had a slow start this morning and slept in a bit. We had breakfast about 9:30. Oh yes, the breakfast comes with the room, a tray of tea and juice and a mix of rolls and sweet rolls served in out room every day. We got on the way about 10 and determined the location of the airbus stop and the times. I think we'll catch the 9:16 a.m. in case there is a lot of traffic. It'll take a good hour and we are supposed to check in at 11 for a 1 p.m. flight.
The weather looks promising so we took the tube to Waterloo station to see about the London Eye. Yes, there are actually blue patches and hundreds and hundreds of people in line for tickets and for the ride. Guess we'll pass. We decide to walk along the south bank of the Thames, the "Millenium Mile" to Southwark. It's not all that pretty along the river really, rather industrial, with lots of tour boats and barges. There doesn't seem to be any pleasure craft on the river which is odd really. There's a lot of money in London, a lot of upscale condos but no private sailboats! We came across a second hand book sale and browsed the tables there. We found Gabriel's Wharf which is a little square of shops but being Sunday, most of them are closed. The square is littered with wooden sculptures that little ones could sit on and rock! A little farther in a rather sorry looking little garden, a man, who saw our cameras, told us about the free public viewing deck on the Oxo tower which was just there. We went up there for an 8th floor view over the City of London and the river and walked a bit farther. Neither of us are into modern art so we skipped the new Tate Modern on the Southbank, built into a massive old power plant.
We reached the new Globe theatre but Carole who isn't really into Shakespeare wasn't interested and I didn't want to leave her waiting for an hour or more while I went though it so we just browsed in the shop at the visitor center and had lunch in the café there. We decided instead to go to the Tower of London as we were pretty close. We walked a bit farther, where there is a replica of the Golden Hinde, Sir Walter Raleigh's ship that he sailed around the world in and let me tell you, seeing that small boat doesn't instill you with the confidence that you'd return home on a voyage like that with next to no navigational aids. (Before the discovery of longitude, remember!) Behind that was Southwark Cathedral, mostly under scaffolding. The south bank was historically a very unsavory part of London but at least the waterfront is all spiffed up now with shops, galleries, the Tate Modern and a new millenium footbridge linking the Tate with St. Paul's which opened and then shut quite quickly as it was discovered that it swayed alarmingly in the wind.
We took the tube from London Bridge stop to the Tower. Traffic outside of the relative peaceful hour or two walk along the waterfront seemed very intrusive. There was a
longish queue for tickets to the Tower and it was probably the most expensive attraction we've paid for, 11 pounds per adult but the line moved fairly quickly. We didn't bother joining the several hundred deep crowd waiting to be guided around the grounds by a Beefeater, or Yeoman Warder, though if he and his followers were nearby we would stop and listen to his exaggerated tales of blood and guts! WE did notice that he was stopping people from videotaping his stories so we wondered if it was because there was a video for sale in the shops. I forgot to look.
We just followed our noses. First stop was the old medieval palace where there were a few reconstructed rooms from the 13th century, Edward I era. The throne room was most impressive and in the King's Hall which might have been used for dining, there were also a man and woman dressed in period costume. We went into a few of the towers and along parts of the walls and went to see Traitor's Gate and through the queues to see the crown jewels, set in a new exhibition. There are videos on the walls of the jewels and the coronation of the current monarchy while you wait in the lines which move steadily, and then in the jewel room, there are now moving conveyor belts along either side of the cases that you stand on. You can get back on again if you want to go through again or just have a look from a few yards away on the main floor. It keeps the crowds moving rather than them standing there and looking even though they were supposed to keep moving. All the other gold and silver pieces are in separate cases and you can look at your leisure at those.
We wandered the grounds, made friends with the ravens (who could pick a fight with a small dog and probably win!) and went into the Royal Chapel, St. Peter ad Vincula where the poor beheaded queens of Henry VIII are buried beneath the altar (among others, Duchess of Rochford, Jane Seymour) No photos allowed inside the chapel though. We didn't have the energy to climb anymore stairs so we didn't go into the big White Tower, the original fortress in the center of the compound where there is an armory display and maybe we missed the best bit but there is certainly enough still that we didn’t see to warrant going back again sometime. There are actually quite a few of the towers along the walls open to the public with things to see inside. A quick browse in the crowded gift shop, a few photos of Tower Bridge and we're back to the underground for a very slow and painful trip back on the Circle line. Lots of delays so it was almost a 20 minute wait and by then the train was packed. The train went so slow between the first few stops, including a few unscheduled stops in the tunnels that it felt more like it was being pedalled! Made it back finally and trudged down the road.
I am absolutely staggered that my feet only hurt a little today. I should feel like I'm going to be crippled for life about now! I was yesterday with not nearly as much walking and standing. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and it was quite good actually. Passing another Thistle hotel elsewhere in London we saw the same restaurant name on their signs so it must be the same in all the Thistles in London. It's vastly different from when we stayed here before and a vast improvement in ambiance and food. Home tomorrow. Not looking forward to the trip but very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.
This has been such a great trip even if it was a bit over long. The independent stuff, the ping week and the tour were all a good mix. I'm glad the tour was short, given all the other things we've done. It was so great to meet up with the online friends and we all feel like we've reached a new level in our friendship, meeting in person. It seems to have bonded us in some way, I know that might sound odd but it seems to have affected us that way, those of us that have been chatting online for years and finally met in person and spent time together. Now weeks later, every time I see photos from the week, I still wish I was back so several of us are planning to go back next year though we might not all be there at the same time. It was great to catch up with Dave and Nicky again and I'm disappointed I didn't get to meet Janet but next time! Weather certainly could have been better but at least it was nice for the tour. All in all a successful trip!
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