London Day 2

We were up and at 'em early on Monday.  Our mission:  To buy passes for the Hop On/Hop Off Bus.   We walked to Kensington Gardens and figured out how to get one of the rental bikes from the rental bike station.  It's a self-serve docking station where you put in your credit card, and you can "borrow" a bike for either 24 hours (£1) or 7 days (£5).  It took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to use it; you have to put your credit card in twice to get the code to get the bike out of the docking station.  We finally got our bikes, and we rode through Kensington Gardens and followed the outside of the gardens to Hyde Park.  We got this treat as we were riding:

We even got adventurous and rode the bikes on the road for a short while.  We found another docking station and parked the bikes, then walked to a Big Bus Stop just up the street from their office.  Come to find out, you can buy passes at any of the Big Bus Stops as long as there is an attendant.  And, there was a stop not far from our hotel.  Oh well; if we had gone to that one, we may not be able to say that we rode bikes through Kensington Gardens!

We hopped on the bus and enjoyed our first view of Parliament.  What an impressive sight!  Such a beautiful building and HUGE.  Pictures just don't do it justice.  This was my first look at Parliament:

My first impression of the Tower of London:  It was so surreal to see the Tower and think about everything that happened there.  

The Tower Bridge wasn't what I was expecting.  For some reason, I had no idea that the bridge's detail was blue.

We hopped on the city cruise boat that went along with the Big Bus, and headed up the Thames toward Greenwich.  This is the view of Greenwich from the river:

We toodled around Greenwich and saw some beautiful sights:

When we got there, we had to walk through a university area to get to the Museum, Queen's House, and Observatory.  CH asked one of the security guards to recommend a pub, so he suggested this one:

I loved how the pubs have flowers outside of them.  So quaint & cozy!  

We walked across the street to the Queen's House.  Renovations were going on with the exterior, and there wasn't much inside.  So, on we went to the Observatory.  Once we got up the hill, we saw the Prime Meridian Line.  There was a charge to go inside and actually straddle the line.  I didn't think it was worth paying just to stand on a line in the concrete, so I just took a picture of it through the gate:

We walked back down the hill and visited the Maritime Museum.  Or, rather, CH visited it, and I sat down and waited on him!  

That night, we went to the Ace Cafe.  Interesting history:  It opened in 1938 as a roadside cafe, but it's proximity to a new "highway" brought in motorcycles.  An onsite gas station was then built, only to be heavily damaged by bombing during WWII.  When it reopened in 1949, it boasted "state of the art" equipment.  The cafe closed down in 1969, after playing a role in the 1963 movie "The Leather Boys".  It has since reopened, and apparently, is the mecca for motorcyclists.

Let me back up just a minute.  I had pinned the Ace Cafe on our google map, and it didn't look like it was very close to where we were staying.  CH thought it was close by.  I told him that I didn't think he realized how expensive a cab ride out there was going to be, but that was how he wanted to get out there.  Interesting ride out there:  the cabbie's father and brother had gone out there before, and, since his gps wasn't working, he called them for directions.  CH ended up using his gps to tell the cabbie where to go, and we had a nice little £25 cab ride.  We sat down, had something to eat (best grilled cheese sandwich EVER!), CH took a look at the bikes and talked to someone for a while, and then we walked to a nearby train station and made our way back to the hotel.  Next time we'll know to take the train!

Here is a collage of the sights during our second day:

London, Getting There & Day 1

Click on any of the pictures for a better view!
The trip over the big pond was uneventful.  We had an older plane flying from DC to Heathrow, so the seats were a little tight.  I was a little perturbed that the movies hadn't switched over to October; they were showing some movies that I wanted to see, but they hadn't switched over yet.  Bummer.
We took the Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington Station, then a quick ride in a black taxi to our hotel.  I was amazed at how much room was actually in those little vehicles.
We had a very easy check in at the hotel.  After reading the reviews of the hotel online, I requested a room on at least the 2nd floor.  The reviews said to not get a room on the "lower ground", i.e., basement.  Guess where our room was?  Yep, basement.  When I told the guy that I had requested a 2nd floor or higher room, he said that I could check back in the morning to see if there were any rooms available.  They sent us down a maze to the basement, down to our room.  Our room was tucked away in what seemed like a corner of the building.  I had a concern about the bed being a "double bed".  CH & I are not little people, and I had visions of us trying to get on a twin bed to sleep.  Luckily, the bed was actually like 2 twin beds pushed together, so we had plenty of room.  Our room also had a small kitchen with a refrigerator, stove with 2 eyes, microwave, and an electric hot pot.  The room was clean and cozy.    There was a fouton kind of couch in the room as well, which could have been taken out to give you more walking room.  Still, it was good for 2 people.
The bathroom was small, but who needs a big bathroom when you're only in the room to sleep & shower?

Sunday was our first full day in London.  We had already decided we were just  going to stay close to the hotel, and explore that area.  The first thing we did was find the Catholic Church, which just happened to be not far from our hotel.  Guess what was right across the street from the church?

We had some time, so we popped into Starbucks before we went to Mass.  We found out a piece of history of the church:  The church didn't start out as a Catholic Church.  I don't know the year, but the church was put up for sale.  A priest showed interest in buying it, but was turned away because he was Catholic.  They ended up auctioning the building, and the priest showed up without his collar to bid on it.  And, he won.

During Mass, Communion was interesting.  Here, we queu in a nice, orderly fashion, according to pews.  It was a complete free-for-all.  Everybody jumped up and made their way to the altar.  And, only the Body of Christ was presented.  I missed the Homily because my latte kicked in and I had to go back to Starbucks to use the "facilities".  I made it back just as the Priest was finishing up.
After Mass, we walked down the street to Kensington Gardens.  Disney was having some kind of princess event, so there were a lot of little girls wearing tiaras and princess dresses.  The temperature was around 80 degrees, so there were people everywhere enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.  We walked by the Round Pond where there were a couple of model sailboats sailing in the water.  We saw the Sunken Gardens at Kensington Palace, but the Palace itself was closed except for one exhibit.  We left that area of the park just before some parade started.

We were getting hungry, so we started looking for someplace to eat.  Apparently there isn't a pub on every corner.  We walked, and walked, and walked, until we came to this magnificent building:

Turns out it is the Museum of Natural History!  BONUS!  We went in, found lunch, and saw some cool stuff. After we spent quite a while in there, we walked back up to Hyde Park.  And, we walked all through Hyde Park.  That is one big park, let me tell you.  We found Princess Diana's "Fountain", which wasn't really a fountain at all, but a large, oval stream bed.  There were so many people there, that we couldn't even see the actually bed.  We walked around the Serpentine.  The swimming area was "closed", but there were people climbing over locked gates to get in to swim.  We continued on through Hyde Park, took a rest under a tree, then made our way to "Speaker's Corner".  We were surprised that, even though there were a lot of people there, and one of the speakers was having a spirited go at it, it was orderly.  

We walked out of the park and went to our first pub:  Bayswater Arms, which was close to our hotel. 

 I had my first fish & chips, which didn't impress me at all.  I don't know if it was just where we ate, but the breading on the fish had no taste at all.  I told CH that I needed to go to the kitchen and tell them about cornmeal and seasoning, but he said that they came up with the dish to begin with.  Whatever.

That pretty much concluded Day 1.  Lots of walking; not quite the "relaxing" day that we expected to have for our first day!  We saw something very interesting, though:

There was a couple sitting in the window, getting a "fish pedicure".  I don't think I could sit there and let fish suck on my feet.  Very interesting, indeed!

Come back tomorrow for Day 2!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Time to get my butt in gear after my break and start blogging again! Here are the questions Joyce has for us this week:

1. Have you ever been 'asked' to report for jury duty? Were you chosen to serve? If not, were you happy or disappointed?

Why, Joyce, what a GREAT question!  (ha, ha!)  I did my civic duty yesterday, for the 3rd time in 3 different states.  In Ga., I was part of a jury for a drug trial.  In SC, it was a murder trial, and I was the only female juror.  Yesterday was my lucky day:  I wasn't chosen, and I was relieved. 

The trial was only suppose to last a couple of hours and it started this afternoon.  AND, it's the only case on the docket this week, so my duty is done.

2. On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being very), how mechanically inclined are you? Give an example to back up your answer.

3, but only after someone shows me how to do it.  I have no examples...my mind is still on vacation!

3. Beets-cabbage-cauliflower-butternut squash....of the four, which is your favorite fall vegetable?

Raw cauliflower.

4. What do you recommend to overcome self-pity?

Do something I like, watch a movie.

5. Do you enjoy classical music?

I love classical music.  My high school band director (even though I only had him until my freshman year...I don't claim his replacement!) brought classical music to life for us.  He would tell us stories about when the pieces were composed when we were learning to play them.

6. October is National Book Month...what's on your reading list this month?

Right now I'm reading "Rescue" by Anita Shreve.  I'm just about halfway through it.

7. What is your idea of 'cute'?

Another great question!  Last week, CH & I went to London for a week.  The first couple of days we were there, we walked down to the "hop on, hop off" bus early---around 8:00 a.m.  The little kids wearing their uniforms with their jackets and hats, riding their scooters or walking with their "mums":  Too stinkin' cute!  I wanted to get a picture (just of their backs, of course), but by the time I thought it, it was too late.  

8. Insert your own random thought here.

London was just AMAZING!  The tube was easy to figure out, and a friend had lent us her atlas of London's streets and tube stations, which was a life-saver.  I didn't take my laptop, but I did write notes at the end of each day.  We packed our days full of site-seeing, and walked a lot.  I'm planning on taking each day and writing one post about it, hopefully starting tomorrow.  I've spent the last 3 days going through my 1,000 pictures, but the pictures just don't do it justice.  It was just incredible.  So, if you want a whirl-wind tour of London, come on back!