Category: Travel

Well, yesterday was both fun and strange. We got on the bus as planned after I finished the last post, but it didn't take us to Westminster as I'd thought, but to Waterloo Station (across the Thames from Westminster Abbey / Parliament / Big Ben). No problem, we just hopped the tube from the station and got out. Had a nice time walking around Parliament, to small park along the river next to it, passing by an old tower (Jewel Tower) that we didn't even know was there, then walked around Westminster Abbey and then on towards Victoria Station (catching another bus on the way). We walked around for a bit in our 'old stomping grounds', which was pretty fun as the memories had started to fade a bit. Plus the area has changed a lot (new buildings, and some old ones torn down).

After that, we took the tube to the Chancery Lane stop to try and walk down to Ye Olde Meter, a pub that was closed earlier in the week. We arrive down the little alley to the cute old building, and guess what? For a second time the pub was closed, this time, for the entire bank holiday weekend (re-opening the day after we leave). Figures. This means the pub was only open for 2 days during our trip. Urgh.

What was more odd was how virtually everything in the area was closed down. We'd noticed the big shopping areas (Oxford Street, and the areas around Piccadilly Circus) were packed with Saturday shoppers. The area a bit east however was a virtual ghost town. We did however find a couple pubs to check out, another from our list (after quite a bit of walking around) was the Olde Cheshire Cheese, which was really cute and very old (it says rebuilt after the great fire of 1666) and has been on the spot through 15 monarchs. Pretty neat spot. It was another Samuel Smith's pub, so all it had were their beers, but I had the excellent Extra Stout again. 🙂

After that we walked and walked, hitting another couple pubs on Fleet Street (one was the Tipperary, the first Irish pub in England, established in the early 1700's) and another spot, The George, where we watched a bit of a Rugby match. After that we walked and walked some more, through the Covent Garden area, and then through Soho, stopping at a few pubs along the way. Eventually we caught another bus towards home and had dinner at a pub around the corner from the hotel called the Allsop Arms, before ending our night at The Globe.

Today we got up, got some coffee and breakfast at the Costa Coffee near our hotel before going and doing some shopping near Piccadilly (along Regents Street), including a visit to the fantastic 5-story toy store Hamleys. After picking out a couple things we headed back to our hotel to drop things off, come to the internet cafe, and check in online with our airline. We've got all that done now, boarding passes and all, and tomorrow we fly home. We're going to go walk up to Abbey Road now though, see the famous spot where the beatles recorded (and walked across the street). And then hang out somewhere for our final evening, get up, finish packing, take the tube to Heathrow and fly home. Probably won't write between now and then, so see you all later. Wish us luck!

Since my last report, we've done quite a bit. We did take a river cruise to Hampton Court Palace. It was both enjoyable and miserable at the same time. We were under the impression by looking online that the trip from Westminster Dock to Hampton Court was an hour and a half. It took three hours to get there. Thus cutting into our time at the palace. However, it was very pretty and relaxing and we got to see London from a perspective we'd otherwise never have. The palace was beautiful and we spent three hours going through it.

We decided to abandon our return trip on the boat, as we didn't want to get back to london after 8pm, and opted for a 35 minute train ride. Once we were back in London we took the tube to Trafalgar Square to hunt down a pub recommended by a friend of a coworker, The Harp. Ended up having a very pleasant chat with a local who recommended an italian restaurant, Topo Gigio's, where we went for dinner. After dinner we walked back to The Harp, stopping along the way at Leicester Square (which was a very active place, even at 10pm.

Yesterday we went to the British Museum and spent several hours looking at ancient artifacts from all over the world. I was, as always, fascinated by the ancient Egyptian and Assyrian works, but we also got to see a great deal of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture and artifacts. One of the things we got to see were the friezes from the Parthenon. Amazing stuff.

After the museum we went down to Tower Bridge and did the tour there, which was pretty fun, and afterwards walked a ways to another of the old and historic pubs of London, the George Inn. It was super crowded though so we only went for a drink and then returned to 'our part of town'. While there we met some friendly locals (who had a flat just across the street) and recommended a spot for dinner (a place called Pizza Express, which is a chain we'd seen many times while here but were under the assumption it was like a Pizza Hut or something like it, but it was fantastic and the pizza was delicious!).

Today is the first day we don't have a lot to see. We'll have the next two days to relax. The locals we'd met last night highly recommended we take a bus that picks up right were we'd normally get on the Tube (bus 139) which is apparently a very enjoyable ride, that goes through a lot of the sights through town as it ends up at Waterloo station (including Abbey Road, Westminster, etc) so we're going to ride that around, perhaps go back to the Victoria area (near where we stayed while here in 2001) and wander around, and later perhaps we'll finally get to go to Ye Olde Meter. 🙂 

Hey all,  back at the internet cafe to check my map for a few things. Yesterday we took the tube out a bit off the beaten path to the Hammersmith region. The reason? I wanted to see the street that was used at the start of this Monty Python sketch sketch (and another that that I couldn't find on YouTube). 🙂  Pretty fun to see, and Kelly noted that it looked a lot smaller in real-life than it does in the sketch. It did get us out of the normal part of London though, even if only for an hour or so. We walked past the BBC Television Centre on the way to the White City stop to catch the tube over towards Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace.

The palace was very interesting to tour through, with loads of period costumes and history of the palace. Queen Victoria was was born there, and Princess Diana lived there right up until her death in 1997. Only recently has portions of the palace been opened to the public. It was a fun tour. The palace sits at the far west end of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and the weather was again beautiful, so we were able to relax a bit and stroll around on our way to and from the palace.

We'd decided to take the tube to Covent Garden, a popular destination for shopping and theatre. We spent some time wandering around (doing a bit of pub-hopping) and found the cheese shop that Kelly wanted to find. It was a very worthwhile visit too, the gentleman who worked there was more than happy to give us samples of cheeses, making many suggestions along the way. Some of it was fantastic too, some was a bit out of my taste range (such as the blue).

There was another football match tonight, Manchester United versus Milan, so any pub with a TV was packed full. Once we got back to our neighborhood (after a nighttime stop at Piccadilly for some photos), we ended up at the Prince Regent for a pint or two, then walked back to The Globe at the end of the match, Manchester had lost and the place was fairly dead. Except for one table, there were 7 or so people sitting around loudly singing along with the showtunes that were playing on the pub's stereo. It was pretty funny to watch.

Anyway, today we're going to try and take a river transport service to Hampton Court Palace. Gotta run.