England 2016 – London

May 27

It seemed that all the best laid plans were coming to fruition!  I was completely packed, the animals were safely ensconced at the pet sitter’s place, and Pat had picked me up at my house at the appointed time.

The issue of weather was still looming, as storms gathered over Houston where I had a layover before leaving for the UK.  But, for now, things were rolling smoothly.  Sharon was supposed to meet me at the airport as her flight on American Airlines was leaving the same time mine did on United.

I had plenty of time, so I got a massage from Hector at “Knot Anymore” (which I do on most trips).  It just helps me to relax and gets the trip off to a nice start.

Having met Sharon, we got some breakfast at a local snack counter and waited for our airlines.  Unfortunately, Sharon’s was delayed and I worried that she wouldn’t get to London in time for our planned trip to Parliament.  But, off I flew on United toward Houston – on time and on schedule.

At Houston, I noticed the clouds gathering (not a good sign), but our flight boarded on time (which *was* a good sign).  And, with the boarding of everyone on the flight… we were ready to take off!

But, alas, such was not to be.  The thunderstorms hit and our aircraft was grounded until the lightning, thunder, and rain subsided.  With the jetway open, passengers were allowed to come and go as they pleased.  That meant that when a weather opening availed itself, we couldn’t leave as some passengers were not on the plane.  Four hours later, they told us our flight was canceled.

For the full story of what happened both going and coming back from the UK, see http://wanderingengland.blogspot.com/2016/06/surviving-ride.html. The gist of it is, I was five hours late getting to London and missed the Parliament tour and tea.

Sharon, in the meantime, had departed Austin late, but was able to leave from Dallas reasonably on time and was only a little late getting to the UK.  She was able to make the tea at Parliament (if not the tour). 

May 28

I landed at Heathrow around 1:30 pm GMT (you always land a day later than you took off from the U.S.). There was no real trouble getting through the lines at customs or immigration, so I headed down to the Underground to get my Oyster card and set out for the Tower of London near our hotel.  As the (underground) crow flies, our hotel was about an hourish from the airport with one change in between to the District/Central line.  I was able to get to my hotel by around 3:30, dropped my bags, and then rushed to the SIM card shop before they closed. 

It’s always longer than you think to get anywhere you want to go in London.  After being up 24 hours, I was doing the Zombie walk for about 30 minutes trying to locate the shop I’d been directed to.  However, they set me up with a new SIM, and I headed back to the hotel.

It was about that time that I realized I was super hungry, and I knew the nearby pub had awesome fish n chips.  I thought about showering first, but since the pub was on the way back, I just dropped in for a pear cider and a bite to eat.  And what a lovely bite it was too!

I went back to the hotel to shower and rest and Sharon came in to tell me of the lovely tea she’d had at Parliament!  We both crashed, pretty much, after that!

Tip: Hotels in England typically have the following ranges of rooms:

• Double (one double bed)
• Twin (two twin beds for two people to share a room)
• Family room (any number of beds to accommodate families)
• Single (usually one twin bed for one person in a room)

At our hotel, they only had doubles, but I found that if you asked for an “accessible” room, the room came with two beds.  You may have to try that if you are traveling with a partner.

Always ask for an “en-suite” (room with bathroom).  Typically, the bathrooms don’t have a tub – just a shower.

May 29 – Sunday

It seems that Sharon sleeps later than I do, but that was fine.  I got up and made my way to Petticoat Lane to just get the feel of London again.  I’d not been to this market, and it was only a few blocks from our hotel, so it was a great way to start the trip.  Turns out that Petticoat Lane is a clothing market.  Cheap clothing at that.  There were tons and tons of stalls with everything from handbags to saris.  It was quite a large market as well!  But, I didn’t have much time to explore as Sharon and I were supposed to get some breakfast at the hotel before striking out on our initial sightseeing foray!

Tip: The breakfast at the hotel wasn’t worth what we paid.  Get a full English from the Minories pub just outside your door.

The first stop was Piccadilly Circus and the Sports Direct shop to pick up cricket and rugby souvenirs for some of my friends.  Highly recommend this shop if that’s what you’re in the market for.  I wanted to go to Fortnum and Mason for some tea, but got turned around a bit.  We were both thirsty and stopped by a little café for something to drink.  It turned out to be a VERY POSH little café and we ordered what looked like a gold brick (but was actually a “Ferraro Rocher meringue”).  The lads sitting next to us had been eating one and we were intrigued.  In fact, it turns out that one of the guys was from Austin and this was his graduation trip after graduating from the University of Texas!

We were able to locate Fortnum and Mason and got the much awaited tea (I like their strawberry blend).  Sharon wanted to see Harrods, so we headed that direction (Harrods is always a zoo).  We weren’t there long before we left and tried to find the Harley shop to get my stepson a t-shirt.

It was at that point, the trail went cold.  We traveled by underground another 30 minutes or so and found out that the line was closed to where we wanted to end up.  With a heavy sigh, we turned around and went back to the hotel.

After dropping off our things, we rushed to get to the Sky Garden to make our appointment time.  We were a tad late, but that didn’t seem to be a problem (there is an hour window).  You get in line, hand the nice lady your admission voucher, then get in another line for a security check.  You are then whisked away to the 31st floor and an AMAZING view of London.  We would have enjoyed spending more time that day, but had plans for meeting some friends of mine.

Tip: Go to the Sky Garden rather than the London Eye for views of London… it’s FREE and the wait isn’t typically as long.

The plan that evening was to meet up with Rose Mary Griffith, a travel blogger I’d met online, and her “seester” Jackie.  They nearly called it off due to extreme exhaustion (they had both been in the UK a couple of weeks hiking and were about to leave for home the next day).  Luckily, they had just enough juice to have us up for wine and sweets at their hotel near Green Park. (By the way, they didn’t recommend the hotel.)

Jackie and Rose Mary

We had a wonderful visit before leaving these two lovely ladies for some dinner.  Rose Mary had recommended Henry’s café just down the road.  Off we went in search!  This is a great restaurant with wonderful food and some of the best service in London.  We really enjoyed our meal!

By this time, we were both travel weary, so we headed to our hotel for some rest.

May 30 – Monday

This was the day set aside for Sharon to do the hop on hop off bus and for me to just do “whatever”.  We made a date to meet at Covent Garden for some lunch at the Battersea Pie Company at around noon.  I made my way to Green Park because I wanted to buy souvenirs at the Queen’s Gallery shop.  On the way, I ran into about a billion marathon runners about to take off from Green Park!  I was overwhelmed by the number of people and felt very much like a salmon swimming upstream.

Finally, I got to the front of Buckingham Palace when, to my amazement, out of billions of London tourists, I ran into Sharon!  Talk about hilarious!  We both went to the Queen’s Gallery and got some lovely gifts.  Afterward, Sharon got back onto the hop on hop off bus and I headed to Piccadilly to see if I could find a Wimbledon shirt for mom.  Realizing that it was taking me much longer to get where I was going than I thought it would, I ended up just foregoing Piccadilly and heading straight to Covent Garden.  It was nearly noon and I was starving, so I got a bite to eat while waiting for Sharon.  She didn’t yet have a British SIM card so we couldn’t really keep in touch.  Our paths didn’t cross that time (I waited, but evidently she was 45 minutes late and I’d left by then).

Tip: The vegetarian pie at Battersea Pie Company was just awful.  Their sticky toffee pudding, however, is luscious!

I did some shopping in the markets in and around Covent Garden before heading back to the hotel.  It was wonderful just to have the afternoon to rest up as we were going to be at the Ritz for dinner that night!

I didn’t think Sharon was going to make it as she arrived very late from having traveled all the way to the RAF Museum in North London for souvenirs.  This is one of those things you really need to plan a day trip for, methinks, as it is quite a bit out of the way.

Anyway, we both dolled up and headed back to Green Park and the Ritz Hotel!  What a lovely evening that was.  We had champagne, and unpronounceable food (that was quite tasty!) as well as very attentive customer service by the staff.

It was a splendid way to end our time in London, for tomorrow… we set off for the wilds of Yorkshire!

Continued…