ENGLAND - May 12-15, 2009
The short version...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BEWTT4BbFw
The long version...
Getting to England
May 12
I swear the seats on the plane from Charlotte to London were the smallest, least comfortable plane seats I’ve ever sat in. And we sat in them for 9 hours. We were impressed that each seat had their very own little TV though, that they could control, with lots of movie and TV options. Unfortunately, they didn’t work! The whole system froze and they had to reboot, which took quite a while. They did serve us some decent food, though. I was surprised at that. I figured even international flights stopped serving food. So I guess the food evened out the terrible seats.
England
May 13
We arrived at Gatwick airport at 6:50am London time. We seriously considered napping at the airport, but kinda had an adrenaline rush once we stepped out of the plane, and didn’t end up doing that. So, we changed some money and then bought our train ticket to London’s Victoria Station. Gatwick is pretty far from the London center, so we got to see quite a bit of the British countryside. It was so cute, and exactly what you think the British countryside should look like. From the houses that looked like Privet Drive to the British accents, I totally felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie. (I wish!) We immediately noticed that if you want to blend in on the train (and the Tube), you must be reading the newspaper and you must never make eye contact with anyone. It would’ve been hilarious if it wasn’t so sad and isolated-feeling.
We decided to head first to our hostel to see if we could check in even though we were so early. We couldn’t, and they didn’t say we could leave our backpacks there, so we had to keep them on and find something to do. We noticed that we were very close to Hyde Park, so we decided to check it out on our way to Buckingham Palace. The park was very beautiful. Everything was so green, and there were trellises with giant roses covering them. (Actually, that was something I noticed in all of Europe: the roses are all HUGE!) Unfortunately, it was also freezing there. We checked the weather before we left home and it said the highs would be in the 60s. There’s no way it was ever near that warm when we were there. Add the cold to the misting rain, and it was a rather chilly walk across the park. On our way we saw a ton of dogs. Apparently Brits (and, later we discovered, the French also) LOVE dogs. And all the dogs are remarkably well-behaved. In this park were tons of dogs, nearly all off-leash, and they were leaving each other alone. Shocking! While on our walk through the park we saw a memorial to Prince Albert, I think, as well as some British National Guard-type guys on horseback. We also saw an arch that was a memorial to New Zealanders who lost their lives in wars. Random.
We finally arrived at Buckingham Palace, but we were about an hour before the changing of the guard. So, we sat down and froze to death. Heh. The changing of the guard finally happened, and we were surprised to find - since we’d heard it was a big deal and it clearly attracted such a huge crowd - that it was incredibly boring. Perhaps if we had any clue what was going on it would’ve been more interesting, but really, it was just a long, cold wait for some weird marching. The band played some, which was good. They played a song from Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m guessing it was around before PotC if the Queen’s guard band plays it, but I’m uncultured, apparently, so I didn’t know that.
We left Buckingham Palace before the changing of the guard was completely done, because we were so bored and cold. This time we were smart and took the metro to our hostel (Smart Hyde Park Inn), where we were then allowed to check in. It was a strange place… like a house turned into a maze, and then into a hostel. We took an hour nap because jet lag was really kicking in, and then we went to the Imperial War Museum. It’s a free museum, which is surprising considering the caliber of the museum. They had several actual tanks, guns, planes, and even a submarine or two that had actually been used in various wars. They had lots of different displays - such as a war trench experience - but by far the standout part was the Holocaust exhibit. It was incredibly moving, of course, and I learned quite a bit. I would recommend this museum to anyone going to London.
That evening we decided to explore the main street nearest to our hostel. We had everything we could need - even a shopping mall, where I got to go into an H&M store for the first time ever! I didn’t really shop though because we still had our backpacks, and they were heavy. Plus, our feet hurt from walking all the way from Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace and then all around the museum. We couldn’t decide what we wanted for dinner until Isaac saw that a coffee shop had a sign advertising a Cadbury Crème Egg milkshake. That settled that. He got that and a bizarre sausage and hard boiled egg sandwich, and I got a brie and bacon sandwich that was also bizarre, but quite tasty. I felt terrible because the girl had to ask me four times if I wanted butter on the bread. Her accent was just a British accent, but I had so much trouble understanding her!
Following dinner we returned to our room, which was rather small and had 12 beds in it. It had a sink and a shower, though, which we weren’t expecting. We didn’t see any of our roommates until 2am that night. Thankfully, I barely woke up. Isaac was already kind of up from the smoke alarm that went off at 1am because someone was smoking. I totally would’ve died, because even though I woke up for the alarm, I didn’t budge out of bed.
May 14
The hostel mentioned online that they give free breakfast. Well… not really. They offer you corn flakes and toast with really nasty jam and instant coffee. Yeah. Not thrilling. Also, our roommates were all boys and they made the room smell NASTY. I don’t know what it is about boys that they smell so gross sometimes, but dude. Later on this day I sprayed the room with air freshener from the bathroom. It helped only when I directly sprayed it on my pillow. Bleh.
This was the first day of many that we wandered a bit. I wanted to see Notting Hill because I had heard of it and seen pics of it, so we wandered that way. Along the way we went in a few charity shops (thrift stores) to see about getting me a cheap jacket since it was so darn cold, but - no shock here - the prices were much higher than I’m used to at thrift stores. I did pick up a scarf for like $1.40 though, and I wore it pretty much nonstop until I got another one in Paris. It really helped keep me warmer.
Notting Hill was very pretty and just what you think London should look like. There were lots of cute boutique clothing shops. We went in several, but they were all way outside my budget. There was one, though, that I swear I wanted everything in the store.
We managed to wander our way to a metro station (we were good at that), which we took to the Tower of London. That was expensive - 17 pounds each - but absolutely worth it. The tour guide, a.k.a. Yeoman Warder, a.k.a. Beefeater, is free and awesome. The guy was hilarious (He asked, "Are there any Americans here?" We and a few others raised our hands. "This could all have been yours, if only you'd paid just a little tax..." To the Australians he said, "Welcome home! So are you on parole or did you get out on good behavior?" LOL!) and so knowledgeable about the history of the Tower of London. He also had had an interesting life of his own, including guarding the famous nazi, Rudolph Hess, when he (the beefeater) was in the British military. He pointed out where Anne Boleyn and a few others were beheaded, and told us where the main execution place was. (We think we found it later on, but it wasn’t marked so we weren’t sure.) Following the tour we explored on our own, and got to see the queen’s crown jewels (though I’m still not 100% convinced they were real) and some just really interesting stuff.
From there we went to the part of London you think of when you think of London - on the Thames River, where Big Ben and the London Eye are. We both previously thought that Big Ben was part of Westminster Abbey. It’s not. It’s attached to Parliament. So we’re wandering around outside of Parliament wondering where Westminster Abbey is. We saw a big church across the street, but there were no signs saying what it was. We finally asked a policeman who did very well not being sarcastic with us as he said, “Uh, it’s right there. *points across the street* Just go back to that traffic light and cross there.” We felt really stupid. We managed to get into W.A. just when we wanted to, to attend the Evensong service. We were right on time so we couldn’t see the choir or anything, but we could hear them, and it was stunningly beautiful. The singing and the organ in that magnificent old cathedral was so gorgeous.
By that point we were starving, because we’d hardly eaten a thing all day, so we walked down the street a while till we found an authentic-looking British pub (yes, we went to a pub right after a church service!) where Isaac tried real British fish ‘n’ chips and I had another brie sandwich. (I like fish and chips, but fried fish doesn’t like me, so, sadly, I didn’t get to have any.) Good food, that.
We then went across the Thames to see about maybe going up in the London Eye and so I could photograph Big Ben/Parliament. We ended up passing on the London Eye because it was very expensive and there were a ton of loud teenagers going so we did not want to get stuck in a car with them for half an hour. So, instead, we ended up going inside this indoor entertainment place, which was very cool, and using their free wifi. We also found the most amazing street musicians ever, playing violin and cello in a tunnel. They were two guys who are students at a nearby university, and they were fantastic! We listened for a long time. I wish they’d had a CD. When it was dark I took a lot more pictures of Parliament reflecting off the water. The best was when I was doing that and we were right at the mouth of the tunnel, so we could still hear the music very well. That is, until a policeman came and made them leave.
Video of the violin & cello street musicians:
May 15
We didn’t really have much left to do in London - at least not that we had time to do - so we just left for Portsmouth first thing. Before we got on the train we explored the train station and found some interesting potato chips. This became a trip tradition, and we tried unusual chips everywhere we went. Here we bought Prawn Cocktail (not as gross as it sounds, but very strange, and didn’t taste at all like shrimp cocktail) and Grilled Steak. We passed on the Cajun Squirrel. (Yes. Really.)
The train ride to Portsmouth was very pretty. We got to see a lot more of the English countryside. (Well, I did. Isaac slept the whole way.) There were gorgeous yellow flowers and rolling green hills and a few Pride & Prejudice-esque houses. We also saw the sun not hidden by clouds for the first time since we’d been in England. That was very welcome, although it disappeared before we got to Portsmouth.
Upon arriving in Portsmouth we decided we wanted to find our ferry first thing, and then explore. We figured the ferry must be nearby because the ferry line we were on is one of the biggest ones. We asked at the tourist place and were told how to get there and that it was only about a mile and a half. No problem, we thought. Ha! Well, it only got colder and grayer and windier as we walked. We did find the place with virtually no problem, but the walk felt very long because of the cold. We got our bearings at the ferry terminal and just as we decided to walk back to some of the shopping we had seen on the way, it started raining. But we had six hours before the ferry, and this was not a terminal one could easily pass time in. So I wrapped my scarf around my head like a Muslim hijab to keep my ears warm, Isaac put on his sweatshirt hood, and we got out the umbrella - which was only big enough for one person. Fighting wind and rain (I mostly used the umbrella as a wind break, because the wind was far colder than the rain.) we made it to a mall… just as everything in it closed! Here’s the extra frustrating part: it was only 5:30 on a Friday night! And the mall was closed! What on earth! We did find one department store open and we went in mostly just to warm up. Then we spotted a grocery store, which was good since we didn’t have any food for dinner. I also managed to find a sweater for 3 pounds, so I jumped at the chance for an extra layer of warmth.
We braved the cold again (I did the hijab thing again) to return to the terminal, where we enjoyed our dinner of bread, cheese, dried fruit and some fantastic pear cider. By then we only had an hour or so left so we watched some TV on my phone.
We finally got on the ferry around 11pm. When I took my shoes off I discovered that the toes of both my socks had been worn through and had holes! LOL. By the end of the trip I had thrown away two of my original four pairs of socks for this reason. Anyway, on the ferry we had reclining seats, but they hardly reclined at all, so both of us ended up sleeping on the floor. We had also thought we’d be getting seven hours of sleep, but we didn’t know that we would lose an hour going to France, so we got only six. Oy. But the next morning we woke up early in France…
Pictures of our time in England
TO BE CONTINUED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BEWTT4BbFw
Click to viewThe long version...
Getting to England
May 12
I swear the seats on the plane from Charlotte to London were the smallest, least comfortable plane seats I’ve ever sat in. And we sat in them for 9 hours. We were impressed that each seat had their very own little TV though, that they could control, with lots of movie and TV options. Unfortunately, they didn’t work! The whole system froze and they had to reboot, which took quite a while. They did serve us some decent food, though. I was surprised at that. I figured even international flights stopped serving food. So I guess the food evened out the terrible seats.
England
May 13
We arrived at Gatwick airport at 6:50am London time. We seriously considered napping at the airport, but kinda had an adrenaline rush once we stepped out of the plane, and didn’t end up doing that. So, we changed some money and then bought our train ticket to London’s Victoria Station. Gatwick is pretty far from the London center, so we got to see quite a bit of the British countryside. It was so cute, and exactly what you think the British countryside should look like. From the houses that looked like Privet Drive to the British accents, I totally felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie. (I wish!) We immediately noticed that if you want to blend in on the train (and the Tube), you must be reading the newspaper and you must never make eye contact with anyone. It would’ve been hilarious if it wasn’t so sad and isolated-feeling.
We decided to head first to our hostel to see if we could check in even though we were so early. We couldn’t, and they didn’t say we could leave our backpacks there, so we had to keep them on and find something to do. We noticed that we were very close to Hyde Park, so we decided to check it out on our way to Buckingham Palace. The park was very beautiful. Everything was so green, and there were trellises with giant roses covering them. (Actually, that was something I noticed in all of Europe: the roses are all HUGE!) Unfortunately, it was also freezing there. We checked the weather before we left home and it said the highs would be in the 60s. There’s no way it was ever near that warm when we were there. Add the cold to the misting rain, and it was a rather chilly walk across the park. On our way we saw a ton of dogs. Apparently Brits (and, later we discovered, the French also) LOVE dogs. And all the dogs are remarkably well-behaved. In this park were tons of dogs, nearly all off-leash, and they were leaving each other alone. Shocking! While on our walk through the park we saw a memorial to Prince Albert, I think, as well as some British National Guard-type guys on horseback. We also saw an arch that was a memorial to New Zealanders who lost their lives in wars. Random.
We finally arrived at Buckingham Palace, but we were about an hour before the changing of the guard. So, we sat down and froze to death. Heh. The changing of the guard finally happened, and we were surprised to find - since we’d heard it was a big deal and it clearly attracted such a huge crowd - that it was incredibly boring. Perhaps if we had any clue what was going on it would’ve been more interesting, but really, it was just a long, cold wait for some weird marching. The band played some, which was good. They played a song from Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m guessing it was around before PotC if the Queen’s guard band plays it, but I’m uncultured, apparently, so I didn’t know that.
We left Buckingham Palace before the changing of the guard was completely done, because we were so bored and cold. This time we were smart and took the metro to our hostel (Smart Hyde Park Inn), where we were then allowed to check in. It was a strange place… like a house turned into a maze, and then into a hostel. We took an hour nap because jet lag was really kicking in, and then we went to the Imperial War Museum. It’s a free museum, which is surprising considering the caliber of the museum. They had several actual tanks, guns, planes, and even a submarine or two that had actually been used in various wars. They had lots of different displays - such as a war trench experience - but by far the standout part was the Holocaust exhibit. It was incredibly moving, of course, and I learned quite a bit. I would recommend this museum to anyone going to London.
That evening we decided to explore the main street nearest to our hostel. We had everything we could need - even a shopping mall, where I got to go into an H&M store for the first time ever! I didn’t really shop though because we still had our backpacks, and they were heavy. Plus, our feet hurt from walking all the way from Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace and then all around the museum. We couldn’t decide what we wanted for dinner until Isaac saw that a coffee shop had a sign advertising a Cadbury Crème Egg milkshake. That settled that. He got that and a bizarre sausage and hard boiled egg sandwich, and I got a brie and bacon sandwich that was also bizarre, but quite tasty. I felt terrible because the girl had to ask me four times if I wanted butter on the bread. Her accent was just a British accent, but I had so much trouble understanding her!
Following dinner we returned to our room, which was rather small and had 12 beds in it. It had a sink and a shower, though, which we weren’t expecting. We didn’t see any of our roommates until 2am that night. Thankfully, I barely woke up. Isaac was already kind of up from the smoke alarm that went off at 1am because someone was smoking. I totally would’ve died, because even though I woke up for the alarm, I didn’t budge out of bed.
May 14
The hostel mentioned online that they give free breakfast. Well… not really. They offer you corn flakes and toast with really nasty jam and instant coffee. Yeah. Not thrilling. Also, our roommates were all boys and they made the room smell NASTY. I don’t know what it is about boys that they smell so gross sometimes, but dude. Later on this day I sprayed the room with air freshener from the bathroom. It helped only when I directly sprayed it on my pillow. Bleh.
This was the first day of many that we wandered a bit. I wanted to see Notting Hill because I had heard of it and seen pics of it, so we wandered that way. Along the way we went in a few charity shops (thrift stores) to see about getting me a cheap jacket since it was so darn cold, but - no shock here - the prices were much higher than I’m used to at thrift stores. I did pick up a scarf for like $1.40 though, and I wore it pretty much nonstop until I got another one in Paris. It really helped keep me warmer.
Notting Hill was very pretty and just what you think London should look like. There were lots of cute boutique clothing shops. We went in several, but they were all way outside my budget. There was one, though, that I swear I wanted everything in the store.
We managed to wander our way to a metro station (we were good at that), which we took to the Tower of London. That was expensive - 17 pounds each - but absolutely worth it. The tour guide, a.k.a. Yeoman Warder, a.k.a. Beefeater, is free and awesome. The guy was hilarious (He asked, "Are there any Americans here?" We and a few others raised our hands. "This could all have been yours, if only you'd paid just a little tax..." To the Australians he said, "Welcome home! So are you on parole or did you get out on good behavior?" LOL!) and so knowledgeable about the history of the Tower of London. He also had had an interesting life of his own, including guarding the famous nazi, Rudolph Hess, when he (the beefeater) was in the British military. He pointed out where Anne Boleyn and a few others were beheaded, and told us where the main execution place was. (We think we found it later on, but it wasn’t marked so we weren’t sure.) Following the tour we explored on our own, and got to see the queen’s crown jewels (though I’m still not 100% convinced they were real) and some just really interesting stuff.
From there we went to the part of London you think of when you think of London - on the Thames River, where Big Ben and the London Eye are. We both previously thought that Big Ben was part of Westminster Abbey. It’s not. It’s attached to Parliament. So we’re wandering around outside of Parliament wondering where Westminster Abbey is. We saw a big church across the street, but there were no signs saying what it was. We finally asked a policeman who did very well not being sarcastic with us as he said, “Uh, it’s right there. *points across the street* Just go back to that traffic light and cross there.” We felt really stupid. We managed to get into W.A. just when we wanted to, to attend the Evensong service. We were right on time so we couldn’t see the choir or anything, but we could hear them, and it was stunningly beautiful. The singing and the organ in that magnificent old cathedral was so gorgeous.
By that point we were starving, because we’d hardly eaten a thing all day, so we walked down the street a while till we found an authentic-looking British pub (yes, we went to a pub right after a church service!) where Isaac tried real British fish ‘n’ chips and I had another brie sandwich. (I like fish and chips, but fried fish doesn’t like me, so, sadly, I didn’t get to have any.) Good food, that.
We then went across the Thames to see about maybe going up in the London Eye and so I could photograph Big Ben/Parliament. We ended up passing on the London Eye because it was very expensive and there were a ton of loud teenagers going so we did not want to get stuck in a car with them for half an hour. So, instead, we ended up going inside this indoor entertainment place, which was very cool, and using their free wifi. We also found the most amazing street musicians ever, playing violin and cello in a tunnel. They were two guys who are students at a nearby university, and they were fantastic! We listened for a long time. I wish they’d had a CD. When it was dark I took a lot more pictures of Parliament reflecting off the water. The best was when I was doing that and we were right at the mouth of the tunnel, so we could still hear the music very well. That is, until a policeman came and made them leave.
Video of the violin & cello street musicians:
May 15
We didn’t really have much left to do in London - at least not that we had time to do - so we just left for Portsmouth first thing. Before we got on the train we explored the train station and found some interesting potato chips. This became a trip tradition, and we tried unusual chips everywhere we went. Here we bought Prawn Cocktail (not as gross as it sounds, but very strange, and didn’t taste at all like shrimp cocktail) and Grilled Steak. We passed on the Cajun Squirrel. (Yes. Really.)
The train ride to Portsmouth was very pretty. We got to see a lot more of the English countryside. (Well, I did. Isaac slept the whole way.) There were gorgeous yellow flowers and rolling green hills and a few Pride & Prejudice-esque houses. We also saw the sun not hidden by clouds for the first time since we’d been in England. That was very welcome, although it disappeared before we got to Portsmouth.
Upon arriving in Portsmouth we decided we wanted to find our ferry first thing, and then explore. We figured the ferry must be nearby because the ferry line we were on is one of the biggest ones. We asked at the tourist place and were told how to get there and that it was only about a mile and a half. No problem, we thought. Ha! Well, it only got colder and grayer and windier as we walked. We did find the place with virtually no problem, but the walk felt very long because of the cold. We got our bearings at the ferry terminal and just as we decided to walk back to some of the shopping we had seen on the way, it started raining. But we had six hours before the ferry, and this was not a terminal one could easily pass time in. So I wrapped my scarf around my head like a Muslim hijab to keep my ears warm, Isaac put on his sweatshirt hood, and we got out the umbrella - which was only big enough for one person. Fighting wind and rain (I mostly used the umbrella as a wind break, because the wind was far colder than the rain.) we made it to a mall… just as everything in it closed! Here’s the extra frustrating part: it was only 5:30 on a Friday night! And the mall was closed! What on earth! We did find one department store open and we went in mostly just to warm up. Then we spotted a grocery store, which was good since we didn’t have any food for dinner. I also managed to find a sweater for 3 pounds, so I jumped at the chance for an extra layer of warmth.
We braved the cold again (I did the hijab thing again) to return to the terminal, where we enjoyed our dinner of bread, cheese, dried fruit and some fantastic pear cider. By then we only had an hour or so left so we watched some TV on my phone.
We finally got on the ferry around 11pm. When I took my shoes off I discovered that the toes of both my socks had been worn through and had holes! LOL. By the end of the trip I had thrown away two of my original four pairs of socks for this reason. Anyway, on the ferry we had reclining seats, but they hardly reclined at all, so both of us ended up sleeping on the floor. We had also thought we’d be getting seven hours of sleep, but we didn’t know that we would lose an hour going to France, so we got only six. Oy. But the next morning we woke up early in France…
Pictures of our time in England
TO BE CONTINUED