Last Full Day in London

Tuesday June 29, 2010

The next day was our last full day in London so we wanted to make the most of it.  We started at the Tower of London which was the original London castle, with armory and the crown jewels.

Afterwards we had fish and chips on the Thames.  We had eaten breakfast at the Hostel to save time.  Next we took a bus to the Tate Modern Art Museum.

Then we went to the giant department store Harrod's but we only ended up staying 1/2 hour and during that time Laurie was looking for a tote bag to store our laundry in.  (We should have come to Harrod's last the night before when we were looking for something to do.)  One escalator had an Egyptian display.  The escalators are almost like an amusement park ride.  Laurie looked around while Matt and I had coffee & a donut.

That night we saw "Wicked" at the Appollo Victoria Theater across from Victoria Tube station.    Matt loved "Wicked."  After the show we walked down to the coach station that we would be taking the next morning to Dover so we would know exactly where to go.  Coming home we got onto bus C1 instead of bus C2.  I soon realized we were going the wrong way.  It turned out we should have taken RV2.  Luckily there was a tube at the next stop so we decided to take the tube which turned out to be lucky since the Victoria Line we had come in on had broken down.  A couple of times we travelled the tube during rush hour and it was extremely busy, standing room only, on the subway and busses.  Finally we caught the 88 to go back to the hotel but when I pushed the button it went past our usual stop.  Maybe at night they don't go to all the stops?  We got in late to the hotel.

London

Monday June 28, 2010

The second day in London we slept in a little and started off the day towards the British Museum and to look for an english breakfast.  We finally found a pub (near Soho square) with traditional English breakfast: Egg, hash browns, baked beans in tomato sauce, fried 1/2 tomato, sausage, thick bacon.  Matt ordered the big breakfast which came with 2 eggs, bacon, & sausages.  Laurie had the mediterranean breakfast that came with greek olives and other food.

Needless to say this was way too much food for us.  It took us a while to eat it all and we got to the museum later than we had planned.  Matt liked the British museum quite a bit.  We got 3 sets of audio tours here but did not find them as useful or good as the audio tour at the Bath exhibit or Stonehenge because most things in the museum were not on the audio tour.  It turned out easier to just read the descriptions.

After the museum I bought tickets to see Wicked for Tuesday night our last night in London.

I also took a nap that day, (it was quite hot) and by the time we got out again everything was basically closed.  We went to the Globe hoping to see a show but found out that there were no shows on Monday only Tuesday, but we couldn't do that show because we already had tickets for Wicked.  We went to the Tate Modern museum but by the time we got there it was closed.  We ended up going back to the hotel.  Laurie and I went out for ice cream (Gellato) and spent 15 P on it at a place by Picadilly Circus.

London Calling

Sunday June 27, 2010

I took a last walk around Bath early in the morning

then we checked out of the Bath YMCA and set off for London.  We filled up on gas just before the airport and returned the car.  They noted that the hub caps on the right side of the car were all scratched up.  Luckily we had the car zero deductible insurance.  I was happy not to be driving anymore on this trip.

We bought a six zone single day travel card good for the underground "Tubes" and the busses. (You have to pay more for more zones and zone 6 is the most expensive which includes the airport.)  Spent some time figuring out the London transit system.

Got out at Oxford circus (a large circular part of the road) and walked a ways to the hotel.  Checked into the hostel:

YHA London Central
104-108 Bolsover St. London
P. +44 (0) 845 371 9154

This room had two bunk beds and a shower and toilet in the room.  The toilet had two flush buttons, one for small flushes and one for larger flushes which I thought was a good idea.  The shower did not have any lip so water tended to get out onto the floor.  We decided to ride around on the busses for a while since we had the six zone travel card for the day.  We got on what was to become one of your favorite busses, the 88 (88 was easy to remember!)  This picked us up 1-2 blocks from our hotel and went past all of the major sites, including: Piccadilly Circus, West Minster Abby, Parliament, Trafalgar Square and especially, the power plant on the cover of Pink Floyd's, Animals album.

Laurie wanted to ride to the end of the line to see more of the outskirts of London.  We got there and the bus driver said we had to get off.  We got off the double decker bus and walked around until we found a bus stop.  Then got on the bus again to go back.  We transferred to the 77 bus to the Eye of London and some of the other attractions.

We ate at a restaurant near Trafalgar Square (the Lord Moon of the Mall) recommended by Rick Steves Best of Europe 2010.  This was the first of a number of disappointing restaurants recommended by Rick Steves.  I had the roast beef which turned out to be just a thin slice of roast beef in brown gravy.  (the roast beef dinner reminded me very closely of Swanson's TV dinner).  The fish and chips were mediocre.  That day England played Germany in the world cup (England lost 4-1)  A bunch of revelers poured into Trafalgar square chanting and celebrating, climbed the fountain and got drenched.  The fountains are rather large and one person fell while trying to get to the next level of the fountain but no one got hurt and the police didn't arrest anyone that we saw.  They just let them wear themselves out:

Around dark we went back to the hotel and went to bed.