Where to begin? It’s been a whirlwind of a week … our first week in the land of Big Ben, the Tower of London, The Royal Family, Winston Churchill and the best theatre district this side of New York City, just to name a few. We won’t see or do it all but we will give it our best shot.
We arrived in London and proceeded to wait in VERY LONG line to get through immigration … to the tune of 2 HOURS! And it isn’t as if the line was at a standstill … it was moving … at a pretty good clip, I might add, but London Heathrow is a very large and busy airport. In 2016, 75.7 MILLION passengers came through its terminals. And the average daily passenger count in 2017 was over 200,000 people, most flying in from foreign countries. So, lots of people. The next adventure was getting out of Heathrow and finding our VRBO flat. I certainly didn’t plan it this way, not knowing London at all, but it turned out that our little flat was quite close to the local train station. Once we got on the correct train and paid our tickets, it was a quick and sparsley, populated ride to the little Hamlet of West Ealing where we hopped off and within two minutes found ourselves outside our little flat. And when I say little, I do mean it. Though cozy and clean, outfitted with a small kitchen and an even smaller bath, it was almost too tight for the three of us to comfortably maneuver. Meals were eaten on the beds because there wasn’t enough room to comfortably use the table. Reece had to sleep on the pull-out couch, which was fine, but that subtracted from the potential seating area. Luckily we didn’t spend too much time in the flat other than to sleep and shower. It had some other drawbacks … it was located in old, brick house … a side-by-side, also known as a duplex or, in my neck of the woods, a zero-lot line. At three stories, the owners, I believe, lived on the first floor. They converted the 2nd floor into two studio apartment flats and there was a third flat on the 3rd floor. The entire time we were there, we only saw a woman, whom I assumed to be the wife, Carmen, and the household cat. I never did catch the cat’s name though it was quite friendly.
Our first night we were hungry so we went in search of food and settled on Bill’s. It was rustic and artisanal and it was warm on what turned out to be a cold, frigid but sunny day in London town. Reece ordered the gnocchi … something she has always wanted to try. Keith and I shared the Mezze Plate … Bill’s version of the Spanish tapas, I think. I thought it was tasty. Keith was not impressed.
Day Two: Friday
This started with a rough night due to jet lag. We didn’t take a nap, as was advised, but we DID go to bed a little earlier than normal (but not THAT much) and yet, I still found myself wide awake at 1 a.m. London time. Don’t worry. I finally fell back to sleep about 3:30 a.m. and had a nice lie in until about 8:30. It took us a bit to get up and moving but we made it to breakfast that started with a lovely cappuccino. I can’t remember the name of the place but it served a traditional English breakfast, to Keith’s delight, complete with blood pudding, though to be honest the blood pudding did NOT delight him so much. Reece had a lovely omelet with cheese, potato and spinach. I chose the Egg’s Benedict … something I always wanted to try but never had. I wasn’t impressed but I am sure that had more to do with the dish than with the restaurant. We tried to figure out the London train system which Reece got a handle on fairly quickly, and we set out to explore. We did purchase a 7-day Oyster card. Don’t ask me why they call it that. Reece suggested that the Oyster card open up the world of travel to you … hence the phrase ‘the world is your oyster’ and that is as good an explanation as anything so we’ll go with that. The Oyster card allowed us free reign on the London mass transit system including the train, the tube and the bus. Once we got into London proper for the day, we actually hopped on one of the buses and rode it around, sitting up top for the advantageous view.
The British Museum
Museums of this magnitude aren’t given the justice they deserve by the simple folk like myself. I would personally need a couple of weeks of full-time visits to explore all the nooks and crannies of a building like this and learn all that it has to offer. I guess that is my excuse to visit London again. We gave it our best shot however, and stayed until after dark, making our way back to West Ealing in the frigid weather. Of course, we had to stop and have a bit of tourist fun.
Day Three: Saturday
We stayed pretty close to “home” on Saturday, the 8th, opting for pastries and coffee at the Costa Coffee (they are everywhere … England’s, or maybe Europe’s, version of Starbucks) and then to check out the local Farmer’s Market. Reece and Keith tried some of the local fare … apple bacon burger anyone? We found the library and Reece signed up for a library card so she could do some studying. At this point she still had to take her World History final and thought the library would be a nice change of scenery. The library membership which allowed internet access, proved to be a lifesaver the day before we departed London, but more on that later. We had a lovely and delicious dinner at the Haru Sushi and Ramen House where Keith declared that the tempura was the best he’d ever had.
Day Four: Sunday
We made our way back into London after a pretty rough night. We still hadn’t been able to shake the jet lag and now all of us were waking at some point in the middle of the night and lying in bed for a few hours before succumbing to sleep again. We got a late start but we made it to The Tower of London and while we only had a couple of hours, it was worth every penny. We received an amazing and educational tour from our very own Beef Eater, otherwise known at as Yeomen Warder of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, who regaled us with tales of blood and gore. All Warder’s are retired from the Armed Forces of Commonwealth and served at least 22 years. They must also hold Long Service and Good Conduct medal.
National Youth Orchestra concert at the Barbican Centre. The London NYO is made up of musicians ranging from 13-19 and gain their position through an audition process every fall. They performed The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by composer Paul Dukas and the one act Hungarian opera by Bartok entitled Bluebeard’s Castle. Reece was envious of the musicians … playing with a group like that is one of her dreams … and she probably would have enjoyed the entire production even more had she not been having trouble staying awake. A fact true for Keith and myself, as well. People! Jet lag is NO joke!
Day Five: Monday
Lack of sleep the night before allowed for a VERY good night of sleep (the Advil PM helped) on this night, all of us sleeping through the night and well into the next morning. Had we kicked the jet lag? Only time would tell. But we made the most of our 5th day in London by again navigating the trains, the tube and the buses and making our way into London proper. On this day, it was a visit to Trafalgar Square, where the old woman fed the birds in Mary Poppins, and the National Gallery. How amazing to be able to see, in person, the masterpieces by such artists as Van Gogh, Matisse and my personal favorite, Monet. Again, we didn’t do the museum justice with our short visit but we made the most of our time there.After the gallery we found an Italian coffee shop and bakery, something other than Costa Coffee and had a late tea … mostly to avoid rush hour on the tube.
Day Six: Tuesday
By now we are getting pretty comfortable with London’s mass transit system. Train? Easy. Bus? Easy. Tube? Getting infinitely easier! We made our way to Buckingham Palace braving our second day (we thought the first day was a fluke) of true London weather … gray, misty, drizzly … but nothing these Juneau-ites can’t handle. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the HRH Queen Elizabeth nor Princes William or Harry, but it was pretty amazing to stand in front of that enormous and beautiful castle in the middle of London. Especially when you consider it is a city home to 8.79 MILLION people!
We decided to make our way to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Churchill’s War Rooms. It was a lovely walk through St. James Park.
Big Ben is in this neck of the woods and when I discovered that (after we had left), I couldn’t believe that we had missed it! However, I felt better when we learned that it was actually covered in scaffolding as it was having some much needed maintenance work being done … for the next 4 years! Another reason for a return trip to London. We had a traditional English lunch at a traditional English pub. Reece is a risk taker when it comes to food and chose the chicken, leek and prosciutto pie with mash and peas. And a Ginger beer … which isn’t beer at all but similar to ginger ale … heavy on the ginger.
Next and final stop of the day was the Victoria and Albert museum … or the V & A as the locals like to refer to it. This was my favorite because of it’s eclectic mix of objects … everything from fashion, to sculpture to jewelry to furniture. No pictures but if you ever get the chance to visit London … don’t miss it.
Day Seven: Tuesday
Our final day was highly productive and enjoyable! I had been preparing for our departure to Spain and we had tickets on Ryanair. Let me tell you something about Ryanair … read the fine print! You can check in for flights several days prior to departure. Trying to get our boarding passes electronically sent to our phones proved to be impossible so paper passes would have to suffice. Make sure to print your passes and have them with you … the pleasure of having airline staff at Ryanair do it for you at the airport is a cool 15 pounds EACH! What the what?!? On this day, I got up and got ready earlier than we had been and I trekked to the library that we had just visited that weekend. It was a blessing that we had “joined” the West Ealing library and now had internet access where I could print our boarding passes for a cool 45 pence. Those of you who aren’t familiar with the monetary system … a pound is like our dollar (but a pound is currently worth over 1.3 for ever dollar so 45 pounds is about $62.00) and a pence is like our cents. So for 1/100th of the cost, I subverted the Ryanair mission of selling cheap tickets while charging you for EVERY LITTLE THING from that point forward. More on this Ryanair practice a little later. I was also able to purchase a new French press for the one that got broken (I seriously have NO idea how this happened. We used it twice, it was fine. The next time I went to use it, several cracks in it) in our little rented flat … on sale from 10 pounds to 6.66 pounds. By the time I returned to the flat, Keith and Reece were dressed and having breakfast. We left soon after that to make down to Picadilly Circus from which we walked to Leicester (pronounces Les-ter) Square … THE place to purchase low-cost, same day tickets for shows. We weren’t too particular except that our show of choice had to meet three criteria: 1. It had to be matinee. We didn’t want to risk falling asleep and though the jet lag seemed to be over by this point, there was no way of knowing how we would feel. Plus it was another gray and drizzly day, so a day in wasn’t a hardship. 2. It had to be a musical … what’s the point of seeing anything else. Though we did hear The Play About a Bank Robbery was “pee your pants” funny so that could have been an option. 3. It had to be British. This was Keith’s one piece of criteria and one we could all get behind. These criteria narrowed down the choice to that day’s production of Kinky Boots, a musical written by Cyndi Lauper about a shoe factory. But before that, we had some time to kill and Keith’s choice was to visit the Science Museum. Located near the V & A, we found it easily. We were now experts of the tube and check it out we did. My favorite part was the “Who Am I?” exhibit that addressed the human body, personality, and genes. There wasn’t much to photograph so here is a cool photo of retro cars. And a space capsule.
And now we had rush back to the Adelphi Theatre for the matinee performance of Kinky Boots. And it was a rush … we got off at the familiar Picadilly Circus station and had to navigate ourselves back to the theatre, making it to our seats only 10 minutes before curtain up.
Picadilly Circus
We had great seats in the Dress Circle (thanks to a recommendation from the couple standing ahead of us in line to purchase tickets to see Les Miserables for the 7th time!) 2nd row middle. The theatre was intimate and Keith had trouble with the short leg room. And although it wasn’t Reece’s first choice (she wanted to see Aladdin) she rolled with it. And at intermission, the big grin on her face told me we had chosen well. When she turned to me and said, “I am SO glad we chose this show. I LOVE it!”, I absolutely knew we had a winner.
After the show, we avoided the tube rush hour (it was 5:00 p.m.) and had an early dinner at The Gourmet Burger Kitchen. We were hungry as our rush to the theatre didn’t allow us any time to pick up a snack. Maybe it was the hunger talking when Keith proclaimed his burger and fries to be better than The Hot Bite. Our friends in Juneau know that this is quite the proclamation, indeed. Back to the flat before 7 allowed for some relaxation and packing. We had a 12:20 flight the next day out of Stansted Airport which meant a 2 hour train ride and fighting rush hour in the opposite direction. I had our boarding passes and what I thought was a definitive route for getting there but had yet to check it with a local schedule.
I hope we make it!
Cheers!
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