Lindsay's London recap - now with PHOTOS!
Nov. 18th, 2005 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lindsaydotcomA tease: >
We left for London on November 1 on a nonstop flight out to Heathrow. All I can say is that British Airways so totally rocks my world. They gave these little baggies with socks and a toothbrush and toothpaste and an eye mask that I know must have only cost them about $1 but delighted me to no end. As did the fact that when I asked if B and I could be moved to sit with Jose and Maribel the four of us got moved to the bulkhead section (good travel karma #1). An 11-hour flight with no one leaning into my lap? Niiiice. Also nice was the fact that they individual TV screens that have 11 or 12 channels of movies. So I watched War of the Worlds, Mad Hot Ballroom, and two others which obviously didn't make an impression on me since I can't remember them. Point to take away from this whole thing was that the flight was long. Free wine definitely helped, though. We each got two mini bottles with our meal, drank one, stashed one in my bag, and got another one later on the plane. Mm. Wine. We watched the news saying that there was rioting in Paris, which was the first we'd heard of it. We were concerned, but figured it was likely to all have blown over by the time we got there, so nothing to worry about.
Arrived in London on the 2nd and took the Tube to our hotel stop after much debate with J&M who wanted to take the Heathrow Express. In the end the idea of the 2GBP/person journey won out over the 15GBP/person trip. And might I take this opportunity of saying: duh. Got to the hotel with only minor incidents (couldn't find which street to turn down and no one we stopped to ask directions had heard of this place even though it was two blocks from where we were asking them) and got up to our rooms. We stayed at the Millennium Copthorne Tara in Kensington, and they must have been smoking crack when they rated this a four star hotel. The lobby was stylish and nice, but our room was fairly nondescript and looked not too far off what you might find at a Marriot Courtyard or Hampton Inn or something similar. But the real problem was that when I sat down on the edge of the bed I noticed an odd smell. It was sort of faint, but definitely there: urine. I called down to the front desk immediately and complained, asking for a room change but they were completely filled up, so they sent up some ladies to spray something. They used some sort of enzyme/cleaning spray on the carpeting off the side of the bed, which seemed to take care of the urine smell but left an antiseptic smell instead. Fab-u-lous! It seemed as though the smell had been originating from the carpet rather than the bed (thank god, but still: Ew.) and while it still grossed me out I figured I could put up with it for three nights. I do plan on leaving detailed room ratings on Trip Advisor and Expedia though. Bastards.
We met J&M in the lobby and hemmed and hawed about whether or not to try and make it to the Ghost Walk/Pub Walk that Hthrstarr had recommended. More specifically, Bryan putzed around about deciding whether or not to do it (I'm tired, we haven't slept, we haven't unpacked, the time change has gotten to me, blah, blah, blah) - the rest of us were good to go. Finally we decided to go and made it to the meeting point at Trafalgar Square barely in time and had to run to catch up with the group as they were leaving the square. First stop: Sherlock Holmes Museum and Pub.
Mm. Ale. It was a fun evening, and we alternately walked around listening to spooky things that had happened in the vicinity and stopping in at pubs for drinks for two or three hours. The tour guide just assumed that we had booked the tour-bus pass that had come with the free ghost walk tour so he never asked us for the 5GBP a person fee (good travel karma #2). He did wink at me a few times, though. Maybe he knew and didn't care. Either way, it worked for me. After the tour ended we headed out to yet another pub for dinner and more drinks. Bryan was considerably more relaxed by this point and was saying how much he liked visiting all the pubs. Oh, you men. Easier to read than a book, I tell you. Bryan and I had fish and chips and cider on tap (it was good, but I've honestly had better fish and chips here. That's sad, right?) and headed back to our hotel.
Next day we did an all-day coach tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath, which was very nice. We headed out very early and went directly to Windsor, passing Runnymede (site of the signing of the Magna Carta) along the way. The tour guide was a cute gal with a lot of sass that kept us well entertained and told us the various history of places we drove through on our way. Honestly Windsor wasn't something that I had been expecting to enjoy. I don't dig on pomp and circumstance all that much so seeing the state rooms of the castle didn't seem like something I'd care about, but it was all right. There was an absolutely beautiful sketch in the gallery by Michelangelo and some of DaVinci's papers which were fascinating. Don't be fooled by pictures showing how grand the formal dining rooms are - the room isn't that big, it's just that the table is close to the ground and the chairs are small. No, not just small. Tiny. As in they'd comfortably fit three- or four-year-olds. Or oompa loompas.
Went from there onto Stonehenge and was very pleased to see that we were able to get much closer that we thought after hearing stories about how far away you have to stand and how there are fences in the way that obstruct your view. If you call standing twenty feet from the stones with nothing but a rope one foot off the ground blocking your path a horrible obstruction, so be it. But we thought it was fabulous. The history of the place is so interesting, and the guide spent a lot of time talking about the progression of how it as built and about the barrows in the area. I wouldn't say being there felt mystical, exactly. More like how you would feel at an Indian site: in tune with nature and respectful and maybe a bit sorrowful for the innocence lost. The hills were so incredibly lush and the wind would come whipping along the plains and we stood there and watched the sun poke through the clouds every now and then so you could see shafts of sunlight hitting the stones. Just beautiful.
After Stonehenge the tour went to the second oldest (I think?) running coaching inn in the country for lunch. The George Inn. Eh. I was the only one who'd opted for a vegetarian meal, and after I saw everyone else's meat-based meals I was glad I had a potato-leek-gratin to eat. There has never been anything appealing to me about brown meat with brown sauce, but the way everyone held up their hands for the roast beef you'd think they were being served pieces of gold. I did envy their Yorkshire puddings, though.
After lunch we headed onto Bath. Which was awesome. The tour allowed forfor some time to explore the town and the Abbey before our appointment at the roman baths so we wandered around trying to avoid a guy from New York who had glommed onto to our little group. We went to a lovely little chocolatier's for a cup of cocoa (heaven) and to look at their products that had large busts of pure white chocolate and penises out of dark chocolate. We could have taken some fun photos, but didn't. Our tour package included a private champagne reception guided tour of the torch-lit roman baths. So damn cool. Got to shake my head at those Romans, though. The guide told us how after the men went from the warm to the hot baths they'd got to the cool baths where the rich ones would have their dead skin and grime and sweat scraped off their bodies by a sharp blade and that nastiness was then sold to wealthy women who would SLATHER IT ON THEIR FACES AS A BEAUTY PRODUCT.
Bath Abbey - side
Bath Abbey - front
The Pump Room - Bath. As is JANE AUSTEN's PUMP ROOM. *heart*
The natural spa waters in the Pump room (yes, I tried it. Yes, they're nasty.)
Roman baths by torchlight.
We four had been sitting in the front of the tour coach and ended up getting into a very fun discussion of various cultural differences with the sassy tour guide and the coach driver, which no one else got to participate in (Good travel karma #3). We talked about what teachers get paid (25,000GBP or $50,000 a year to start) and how much things cost (the coach driver had just bought the newly released Star Wars Ep III for 16GBP, or about $32), and whatnot. Even though they said they couldn't drop everyone off at their individual hotels because it would take too long they dropped us off only a couple of blocks from ours (Good travel karma #4). After returning to the hotel we went searching for another pub, didn't find a single one that was still serving dinner (at the very late hour of 9:30, mind you) and ended up eating at a noodle house with the very unlikely name of something like the Hound and the Haire. Oookay. Good ramen. Good chow mein. Good sushi. Good tea. Mm. I had heard that most British food isn't very tasty and we should stick to either pub food or Indian food, but this was easily on par with what we could get here, so I think things are probably changing.
Next day we went to the Tower of London. Yay, torture chambers! Yay, great big ravens! Yay, treachery and plots, and ammunition, and heroism, and very funny guides! The Crown Jewels were there are they are truly spectacularly impressive. The Cullian Diamond was so flawlessly clear; I had no idea. We figured we'd spend a couple of hours there and go onto other things. Um, no. Try four hours, a hasty lunch of fish (them) or chicken pie (me) and chips and headed onto the London Eye.
Tower of London
The EIIR on the Guide's coat stands for Elizabeth Regina II, or Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. Yes, I asked.
Legend has it that when the last ravens leave the Tower of London, the Tower will fall. So they keep a minimum of five around at all times, and they're HUGE. This is William. I think. Or maybe it was Thor. Hard to remember exactly.
London Bridge, as seen from the edge of the tower of London.
More like: headed out to stand in line to buy tickets for the London Eye... which took about half an hour, and I understand we were pretty lucky how short the line was (Good travel karma #5). The ride itself was impressive - it takes a full half an hour to go around once and the views from the top are amazing. We could even see the Eiffel Tower. :)
From about 1/2 way into the ascent.
About 1/2 way into the descent.
The sun was just beginning to set while we were on the way around, and afterwards we walked over to Parliament and Big Ben and Westminster Abbey for some photos before heading back to the hotel and then our last pub meal.
The next day we spent some time (window) shopping on Oxford Street and then headed out for the train station to get to Paris. Ah, Paris!
I'll start on Paris sometime soon, but it's going to be a recap of epic proportions.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 06:07 pm (UTC)(And yeah, BA does rule. I still have those little socks that came in the packet and I love them.)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-22 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 06:10 pm (UTC)Sounds like you had a lovely trip!!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-22 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-22 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-22 06:56 pm (UTC)