Road Tripping around the U.K.

Londontown beckons. There's a Doctor Who exhibit and we've got tickets to see the hit musical, Wicked. The rest of the weekend is open for ideas. There will be a chance to meet up with old friends, as well. The weather proved pretty good, too. Absolutely brilliant on Saturday and quite good on Sunday, another first as I usually see London under grey skies. It's our last few days together and I've got a flight home on Monday.

Who's Wicked?

May 20

Up early, all packed and ready to go. We dropped off the car - there's a little scuff on one of the side mirrors but they didn't say anything so I guess it's ok. We had to go around the corner to a multi-story parking garage, up the lift to the train station. We had a cup of tea/coffee and found the platform for the train. Our car was the very first one but then it ended up being the very last one when we arrived at London Euston a couple of hours later! Things to do in Euston Station: Top up the Oyster cards, get a bus map, find a bank machine and then get a taxi to the hotel. We weren't able to get into our hotel room yet, as it's only about 1 p.m. (Melia White House) so we left the bags with the concierge. We had bought sandwiches for the train so we didn't have to worry about lunch.

We have timed entry tickets for the Doctor Who experience at the Olympia Two exhibition building, west of Hyde Park on Hammersmith Road. The time for our tickets wasn't until 3:30 but since we couldn't get into the hotel room, we decided to get the bus there and find somewhere to have a coffee while we wait. The bus ride seemed awfully long but then, it was a bit of a distance. I find I am preferring to take the bus these days as the tube stations have so many stairs that make it hard for me and they are always so hot and crowded. I'd rather take the extra time and be comfortable on the bus. We just allow extra time to get places in case of traffic.

So, we get to Hammersmith Road and find a cafe called Mirabelle. It was a nice little spot that had an Italian menu and the food we saw being served to others looked quite good. We just had a custard tart and a hot drink. We went over to the exhibition hall about 15 minutes early but were able to go right in as they weren't busy. In retrospect, maybe we could have got in even earlier but no matter....The Experience part was a 30 minute multimedia show, with video, and some special effects including being on a replica Tardis console set. It was very neat! Apparently, the whole exhibit will be moving to a permanent home in Cardiff eventually. Cardiff is where they mainly film the show.

After that, there are large rooms with lots of memorabilia to look at. We could take photos here and enjoyed seeing all the costumes, gadgets, monsters and posters. There was another Tardis set there, not the most current one but the next most recent one and there was also an older one from the 70s/early 80s. We're both big fans so this was right up our street!

After another sit down in the cafe, we headed out. We also have tickets to Wicked at the Victoria Apollo theatre. It was a few long blocks to find the right bus stop and we had to change at Hyde Park Corner but there was lots of time. First order of business was food and rather than wander too far from the area as the theatre was right there by Victoria station, bus terminal and tube entrance, we chose a pub right on that square, the Shakespeare. We were able to get seated in the dining area but there was a lot of noise from the pub section. Not a relaxing meal! The food was good, though and we could see the theatre out the window so wouldn't have far to go.

Wicked has been playing there for about 6 years. When you go in, the lobby is bathed in green light in keeping with the green theme. It's a sort of prequel to the Wizard of Oz, to do with the Emerald City and one of the two "witches", Elphaba, who is green. The story tells about the early friendship between the two women that became the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. They went to college together and ended up loving the same man, Fiero. The sets, props and costumes were wonderful and the actors were great. The story was fun and well acted though we didn't find the music and songs quite as catchy and memorable as expected. That was the only disappointment for us. I did find the second half a bit choppier than the first, too. It didn't seem to flow as well and felt more like a series of sketches.

We took another bus back to the hotel and finally got checked in properly after 11 p.m. We have an upgraded room which is nice and it has a huge extra wide king size bed. The room is a nice size and though the bathroom is small, it was impeccably clean and gleaming in black and chrome. We did notice a rattling or clattering in the walls and it turned out that we were right beside one of the elevators but we were so tired that we didn't even notice the noise after awhile.

A perfect day for the zoo

May 21

Slept ok, and woke early. I dozed until about 8 then got up and wrote in the travel journal for a bit and had my shower before waking Graham up. We want to find a cafe for breakfast as it wasn't included in our room rate, which was fairly good for the 4 star hotel. I'd booked it through the Air Canada hotel website. The desk clerk directed us to Warren Street nearby. It's just a couple of blocks and one street back from Euston Road and the cafe we chose seems to be run by one guy. It's got hot pink walls inside and a menu on the board behind the counter. They did a hot breakfast of two eggs, two rashers of bacon, toast (homemade bread, not standard grocery store sliced!), tea or coffee for only £3.50! Excellent deal! You could get various sides like beans or mushrooms for a small charge on top of that. The only down side was that he isn't open for Sundays.

Fortified, under sunny skies (!) we decided to go to the zoo. This weekend would prove to be a more expensive one in London than usual. Most of the attractions we went to and some of the places we ate were pricy! We'd prepaid for the Doctor Who and Wicked tickets but everything else was up front. The zoo charges 20 pounds per adult but you don't mind so much as it pays to keep the animals. We got off the bus at the right stop only by chance as two other passengers realized where we must be heading and told us when we stopped that we should get off there. It was still a bit of a hike around the road that circles the top of Regent Park where the zoo is.

Unfortunately, we seemed to often find cages and enclosures empty since the animals seemed to be hiding and sleeping in the shade! We did get to watch the gorillas and various monkeys. The meerkats were great, too! We saw various other animals and of course, the giraffes, but the big cats were sleepy gits! We both agreed that the Chester zoo was bigger and better and they have elephants where the London Zoo does not! (Though London has gorillas and I don't recall the Chester one having those or else we didn't see them since it was a rainy day and we didn't see everything).

To Market, To Market...

We took the bus into Camden after that. Camden on a Saturday is full out market day and is very crowded and busy. There's lots of places to eat and we found an American style diner on a side street that looked good. Indeed, it was, though it wasn't cheap. The meals and sandwiches didn't come with sides like salad or fries included so you paid more for that if you wanted it. That adds on to the already inflated prices so it turned out to be one of the more expensive meals we ate. The food was quite tasty, though, I have to admit that. Graham's burger was enormous! I had fajitas which were just spicy enough.

We went through massive large Camden Lock market first. It has some indoor stalls and outdoor ones around several different courtyards, some fronting on the canal. There are a lot of ethnic food kiosks too which would probably make for a cheaper lunch but with the crowds, I think i'd have found it more oppressive trying to find somewhere to actually eat what I bought. It's worth experimenting, though and maybe we'll do that another time. We browsed and windowshopped. Lots of places with vintage clothes and books, artisans showing prints, paintings and jewellry, stalls selling brightly coloured or dark leather clubbing wear. One shop had all sizes of chests carved out of wood. Really nice!

Down the road a little way was the Camden Stables market, which was established over 150 years ago. In here, behind a high wall on the street front, were more warrens and cubbyholes. The main courtyard had statues of horses all through it. All these markets suffered a bad fire a few years ago but they've certainly bounced back. This market had more food stalls and a larger common seating area. The stalls here were funkier and more alternative or ethnic oriented and were really intertesting. There are a few more markets in Camden, one along Inverness Street that has a number of fruit and veg stalls in addition to general merchandise and one on the main High Street that has a lot of various clothing stalls. I think there's one other smaller one too near the canal.

After all that wandering and walking, sun and fresh air, we were ready to pack it in. It seemed wrong to want to stay the evening in the hotel room on such a nice day but we were worn out. In retrospect, we had thought we'd be in Greenwich today and had we known it was going to be rescheduled, I might have booked the theatre for tonight so yesterday wouldn't have been so hectic. Because we'd had a big lunch, we thought we'd get some pre-made sandwiches, some cider and some snacks for the hotel, snug up and watch Doctor Who and regroup!

High in the sky

May 22

The cafe was closed today so we made a rash decision and ate a buffet breakfast at the hotel. For £23 each!!! Eeek! It's our own fault, we still could have walked away and found another cafe somewhere but you know, sometimes you just say F*&% it and take the easy way :)

We had thought there'd be a picnic yesterday afternoon in Greenwich so planned to go out early and see some of the museums first and wouldn't have to worry about rushing back for anything which is why I had booked Wicked for Friday night. The picnic got moved to Sunday but we'd already booked a pub meet with some people today at 12:30 for lunch. Luckily, the people we wanted to see at the picnic did come to the pub along with another good friend. We didn't go all the way out to Greenwich for the picnic after all, having eaten at the pub.

We had to be at the pub, the Lord Moon on the Mall on Whitehall near Trafalgar Square at 12:30 but had the rest of the morning to do something. Graham wanted to Fly the Eye, the London Eye, so we decided to go there. By bus. Probably should have gone by tube as there was quite a bottleneck at Parliament Square but we were stuck by then. We got to the Eye and assessed the queues. They weren't excessive but we worried they might have been long enough that it would have prevented us from getting back up Whitehall in time. I spotted a booth that said "Fast track" and noticed a much shorter queue at the Eye for that. Hmmm.... Let's investigate.

Fast Track tickets were available alone or with combinations of other attractions but they cost nearly 10 pounds more. I thought about it, waffled a bit, and Graham did really want to go on it though he'd have not complained if we didn't. It would have felt a bit of a waste of time, though, as we were already there now. Oh sod it again, let's do it. More extra expense but it's not going to be something we would do again and the day was pretty clear. Not quite a clear blue sky but the views would be good. We paid and got boarded within 5 - 10 minutes. It takes 30 minutes to do the circuit and we had great views up and down the Thames and across London in all directions. I've done this once before, about 10 years ago and though I probably won't do it again, it would be neat to see it at night with all the lights.

Time was short, We decided to take a taxi up Whitehall and again got caught up in that traffic on the other side of Westminster bridge. I hadn't thought we would have to go through that to get around and back up Whitehall but we did. However, we did get to the pub with a bit of time to look for a bank machine which we found just on the corner. Our friends arrived shortly and we had a lovely visit and a meal there later in the afternoon.

After they all had to leave, we thought we might walk across Trafalgar Square and have a browse through the National Gallery. Neither of us had been there in years and we both enjoy galleries and museums. The National Gallery, at least, was free! It's also enormous with lovely big rooms and high ceilings. The building is absolutely beautiful but there's so much to see that we didn't see it all before our feet gave way, as usual.

After a coffee stop, we went over to St. Martin's in the Field church but it was closed to tourists as there was a Sunday service on so we walked a bit and decided, in the end, to do what we did yesterday. We picked up some sandwiches and drinks in a Pret shop and walked again to find a bus stop that would have one that would get us back to the hotel. We had to walk over past Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and past Haymarket to get to it! It doesn't look like much on the map but when your feet hurt, every foot walked feels like a yard!

Our evening consisted of spending as much quality time together as possible. We won't see each other until September again. Thus is the life of a long distance relationship.

In the morning, we were up pretty early. I had booked a private car to the airport rather than an airport bus that picks up at various hotels which would have me up at stupid o'clock. That cost £55 which is still about the same or a bit less than a taxi ride but more than the shuttle or the train. By this point, I didn't really care about the cost and the car was clean and very comfortable. I got right to the terminal door rather than having to slog my bags through the underground tunnels from the train station. Some things are worth the extra money!

I had something to eat at the airport and G. returned to that little cafe for his breakfast before going to Euston station for the train. *sigh* holiday's over. Now we will start planning the next one!

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