Leaving London

/

I awoke with the alarm at 6:45 a.m., and packed the rest of my belongings as Holly did the same.  We checked out of the hotel, and made our way via the tube to Victoria Station, where we bought tickets to Gatwick airport.  There's an express train to Gatwick, but you pay about three times as much for a ticket as you do on the non-express line, and we weren't in that much of a hurry.

On the train, I found myself getting a little motion sick, as I hadn't eaten any breakfast yet, and was faced opposite to the motion of the train, so I begged a motion sickness pill from Holly, which I swallowed with no water, but just a piece of chocolate and one of our few remaining granola bars from the US.

We eventually arrived at Gatwick, and checked in with Northwest before heading to an extremely crowded security checkpoint.  Despite the massive crowd of people, they moved us through pretty quickly, and we were on the other side of the gate in about 15 minutes, where we found a cafe to buy some breakfast.  We still had almost three hours left until the time of our departure, though there were several duty-free and tax-free shops to browse through while we waited.

The flights home were uneventful, and we arrived in Waterloo at about 6:15, where my co-worker Chris picked us up at the airport, and then dropped us off at home, where we promptly greeted our cats, then crashed into bed.

London: Day Five

/

Today is the last of our sight-seeing days in London, and Katrine offered to come along and help us make the most of it.  It's also the best weather we've seen in London, sunny and mild.  We met her at the Westminster tube stop at 10:00, then set out for Greenwich via the tube and the Dockyards Light Rail line.

Greenwich is on the outskirts of the London metropolitan area, and it's beautiful.  We walked through the Royal Naval College, which has beautiful old buildings, such as the chapel and the painted hall.  We visited both before climbing the hill to the Royal Naval Observatory, which is the location of the Prime Meridian, and is the timekeeping center of the world.

If you're really into naval navigation, astronomy, or timekeeping, then you'd find Greenwich fascinating.  I'm not quite that nerdy, so I found it merely interesting, though the breath of fresh air we got being out in the massive park surrounding the observatory was worth the trip alone.  Entrance into the observatory is free, which is the best price for attractions after you've been traveling for almost two weeks.  The only downside of the visit is that you have to walk up the rather steep hill that holds the Observatory.

On the way back down, Katrine got some nuts from an eccentric older woman who was feeding the squirrels in the park, and she attempted to do the same, with mixed results.  There was one squirrel who was very aggressive in his begging, and followed Holly for quite a distance before finding someone else to beg for food.

We then wandered until we found an Internet cafe, as I wanted to check in for our flights on the next day, it now being within the 24-hour period where you can do that.  I paid 50 pence for 20 minutes on the computer, and another 60 pence to get the 4 pages of boarding passes printed out.  Checking in early is key to getting the best seats on the flight, as I was able to move us into an exit row on the short Minneapolis to Waterloo flight, and into a 2-seat section on the trans-Atlantic flight, which is preferable to setting in the middle 4 seats of the plane where we were originally booked.

After accomplishing this minor mission, we went to a French cafe nearby that Katrine enjoys a great deal.  I had a French cider, and a small bite of the Creme Brulee that Holly ordered to go with her Coke.  Katrine suggested that we return to London to see the John Soane museum, which was quite interesting (and also free).

Soane was an amateur architect and a bit of an eccentric art collector, and his house is a maze that's absolutely filled to bursting with paintings and sculptures.  Many of the walls are actually doors, and can be opened up to reveal secondary layers of paintings underneath the outer layer.  It's very strange and wonderful at the same time.  I strongly suggest seeing it if you're in the area.

We then drug Katrine along on some souvenir shopping, as we hadn't done much along the way, and wanted to find a few things to take back for family at home.  There are numerous shops filled with everything you can imagine stamped "London", but most of it is crap, so finding something decent amongst all the junk is a bit of a challenge.

Katrine had to go pick up her friend Kira, who was arriving at Liverpool station from Denmark, but we made plans to meet for drinks at a pub later in the evening.  Holly and I returned to our hotel to rest a bit, then set out for the neighborhood we were going to meet Katrine in later to find something to eat.  We took the tube to the Sherlock Holmes-themed Baker Street Station, then wandered around for half an hour trying to find a pub that wasn't absolutely bursting with noisy football fans. 

We eventually succeeded in finding a pub called the Duke of York, which had an upstairs bar that was almost deserted, without even any music playing. I sent the location to Katrine via a test message on my phone, after Holly discovered that they weren't going to open the kitchen until 9:00 p.m.  I nursed a cider until Katrine and Kira showed up, followed soon by another Dane named Leon, though I'm probably spelling that wrong.  They hadn't eaten yet either, so when the kitchen opened at 9, we all ordered.  Leon and Kira had lasagna, Katrine and I each had an angus hamburger, and Holly had fish & chips.  I didn't try her fish, but the chips we had were probably the best I've eaten since leaving the US, nice and crispy.

We chatted over dinner, and had a very good time discussing differences between the US and Europe, as well as convincing Katrine to come visit us at some point.  I eventually drained another two pints of cider before we all said our goodbyes, and my sober wife helped me stumble my way back to the hotel via the tube, where I showered as she packed the bulk of our things, and then I quickly fell asleep.  

London: Day Four

/

Today was the day that Holly booked tickets for the Tower of London, only to discover afterwards that they were actually vouchers for vouchers for tickets.  So, we took the toob down to Victoria Station to find the Golden Tours office so that we could redeem our vouchers for another voucher that would let us in the Tower.

Going to Victoria station was useful though, as we have to catch the train to Gatwick airport there on Saturday morning.  We scouted out the ticket booths for our Saturday train, then headed to the tours office.

We were third in line, but it took us about 20 minutes to talk to the staff at Golden Tours, there were two couples ahead of us attempting to book tours with incomplete information.  Note to people standing in front of me in line: Decide how many of you are going to go on a tour before getting in line, or, be able to make that decision in under 5 minutes.

We eventually got our vouchers, and then walked north to Buckingham Palace in time to see the changing of the guard.  This is very touristy, and there are literally thousands of other tourists crowding the place attempting to see the same thing, so we just stayed clear of the crowds and watched from afar.

We then walked north through Green Park, and caught the tube to Oxford Circus, as we'd been invited to Katrine's flat for lunch.  We were a bit early, so we milled around in the Oxford Circus Niketown for a bit, then walked to her place, still arriving a half-hour early.

We waited on the steps outside her building, and she turned up in a few minutes, with her arms full of the groceries she was going to turn into lunch for us.  She made us some excellent pitas, with many options for filling them.  Chicken, tuna, corn, lettuce, peppers, cheese, and a choice of dressings were all available, and Holly and I each stuffed ourselves on two pitas, then topped it off with a piece of carrot cake.

We also met Katrine's flatmate Robin, who quickly left to take an exam in his developmental psychology course.

After giving our food a bit of time to digest, Holly and I left Katrine's flat and set out for the Tower of London.  The Tower is rather expensive to visit, but we felt that it was worth the expense, but just barely.  It's rather touristy, but we arrived at the end of the day, so most of the crowd had dispersed.  Plan on needing 2-3 hours to see the whole Tower, especially if you want to take one of the tours from the Yeoman Warders (also known as Beefeaters).  We admired the ravens that are kept on the Tower grounds, then hiked up and down through the medieval towers, viewing various places people were imprisoned or beheadded, as well as the Crown Jewels of England.  The jewels were impressive, and the size of some of them is staggering.

We finished touring everything just as the tower closed for the evening, and we decided to take a boat west on the Thames, as we hadn't yet cruised this river, and it was only a little over 2 pounds each to do so.

As Holly was getting out my Nikon digital camera to take my picture in front of Tower Bridge, it dropped from her hand onto the cobblestones, which evoked a muffled cry from me.  She's been using my old 3.2 megapixel Canon digicam for the last 2 years, and the 5.1 megapixel Nikon has been "mine".  The Canon started having issues in France, so I let Holly use the Nikon, while I used my camcorder for everything.

Holly quickly picked up the Nikon, and it powered on and worked fine, though the corner of the case bears a nasty dent that has caused the metal case to pop outwards from the camera.  The case appears to unscrew, however, so I think I'll be able to bend it enough back that it will be flush again, and it'll just have a battle scar from our European trip.  Breaking both of our cameras in one trip would have been very disappointing, and replacing a camera in Britain would have been pretty painful with the current exchange rate.

Satisfied that the Nikon remained fully functional, we then boarded a boat east to the Savoy pier, though we didn't see as much along the river as we did in Paris, as this wasn't a dedicated sight-seeing boat like the other one.

After catching the tube back to our hotel, we rested for a bit, while Holly tried to find the nearest Pizza Hut, as we were both hungry for some good pan pizza.  She eventually located one a few blocks west of us in the arab neighborhood, and we walked down there to get a pizza to bring back to our hotel.

While eating, we watched a program called "Embarassing Illnesses" which was rather funny, though disgusting at times.  Holly didn't really enjoy the full-frame shot of one patients hemorrhoids, or another man's impressive athlete's foot infection.  They can show quite a bit more nudity on TV in the UK than they can in the US, though in this case, most of what you saw were things you would rather do without.  Holly noticed that the show was narrated by Ashley Jensen, an actress who we both enjoy quite a bit, along with Ricky Gervais, in the BBC/HBO show Extras.