Hello to all:
We arrived in London mid-morning on July 9. Heathrow airport is immense with five terminals, all with different transportation and access systems. We had purchased a London Pass with the travel option in advance (which, by the way, we highly recommend), so we set out to find the Heathrow Connect Rail line which was included in our pass. Dragging our cases, we spent the next two hours finding, riding and changing trains, arriving at Paddington Station to find we needed to travel yet further on a bus (not meant for four large suitcases), then got off at the wrong Marriott and had to drag the suitcases through the City for another 1/2 hour to find our Marriott which turned out to be in the heart of the middle-Eastern community in London - more about that later. And, adding to the fun, we found out that we had arrived on the hottest day of the year - it was pushing 90!
We met up with our friends, Bill and Micki, who will spend the next two weeks with us, and all felt much better after a cold beer or so. B&M are experienced Londoneers, so we were happy to follow their lead. We had terrific weather all week - warm and sunny, so we were happy and very much at home in shorts every day. The transportation system throughout London is wonderful (providing you are not hauling suitcases) and we went everywhere using buses, the underground (mighty hot and sweaty on hot London days), and the rail system - all fully covered by our London Pass. We think we paid for the Pass just on transportation alone, plus entry to all the castles, museums, etc. was also included.
Over the next five days we did all the expected things: Covent Garden (the pubs were packed and all were spilled out onto the sidewalk because of the hot weather - drinking in the street is not allowed, but sidewalk imbibing
is jolly good fun), the Tower Bridge with a walk along the Thames (I'll break here for a side story)
We lunched in an outdoor cafe on the river and asked the server for ice teas. He wasn't sure if they had that, but after checking, brought us four ice teas. We later asked him for refills. When we got our bill, we discovered that eight ice teas cost us 64£ (about $100). We were shocked and outraged, but they covered themselves by showing us on the bar menu that we had ordered non-alcoholic cocktails at 8£ apiece. Since then, everythÃng we buy is compared to the cost of ice tea.
Back to the travelogue: we did the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace,the Queens Gallery, the Mews (where Bill, a newly minted Wyoming mountain man, just about got arrested for having a hunting knife in his backpack) , Hyde Park, Green Park, Regents Park, St. James Park, Hampton Court, and on and on. Some of the highlights were Windsor Castle - a great tour, the Churchill War Rooms - absolutely fascinating, and we saw a wonderful musical - We Will Rock You - in SoHo. We also watched the final World Cup match in a bar surrounded by lots of guys who probably couldn't get past our TSA folks. Luckily they were all cheering for Spain, so we all left happy.
London is incredibly worldly and cosmopolitan - also very, very expensive. The food was generally mediocre until we finally asked the concierge for his favorite restaurant. He apologized that it was in SoHo and we would have to take the tube, and that it was Indian. We are all fans of Indian food and were we pleased! One of the best meals any of us had ever had - an absolute 10! Is is The Red Fort and don't miss it if you love Indian cuisine - it's also a great value. We also met a delightful pub owner - The Duke of York - also a fun experience. But every evening, we had to go back to the hotel and the last five blocks we walked from the tube was entirely middle-east - burkhas, hookahs, lots of cigarette smoking, and not a Brit in sight.
We were wrapping up our London adventure - it was great to have M&B to show us around so be sure to invite
them on your next trip there. We were next off to Denmark. We got to Heathrow a lot quicker and a lot smarter than our arrival, but found the crowd in Terminal 3 almost impassable. Naturally BJ and I had our baggage searched and we had too many items in too large plastic bags, so spent about 1/2 hour with the friendly security folks. Then we got in this huge line to check in, worrying if we had enough time to get to the plane. Then, thank God for racial profiling, a tall young man worked his way through the crowd and asked if we were really going to Beirut! We were clearly the only anglos in that line. He steered us to the SAS line where we breathed a huge sigh of relief and headed off for Copenhagen.
We arrived in London mid-morning on July 9. Heathrow airport is immense with five terminals, all with different transportation and access systems. We had purchased a London Pass with the travel option in advance (which, by the way, we highly recommend), so we set out to find the Heathrow Connect Rail line which was included in our pass. Dragging our cases, we spent the next two hours finding, riding and changing trains, arriving at Paddington Station to find we needed to travel yet further on a bus (not meant for four large suitcases), then got off at the wrong Marriott and had to drag the suitcases through the City for another 1/2 hour to find our Marriott which turned out to be in the heart of the middle-Eastern community in London - more about that later. And, adding to the fun, we found out that we had arrived on the hottest day of the year - it was pushing 90!
We met up with our friends, Bill and Micki, who will spend the next two weeks with us, and all felt much better after a cold beer or so. B&M are experienced Londoneers, so we were happy to follow their lead. We had terrific weather all week - warm and sunny, so we were happy and very much at home in shorts every day. The transportation system throughout London is wonderful (providing you are not hauling suitcases) and we went everywhere using buses, the underground (mighty hot and sweaty on hot London days), and the rail system - all fully covered by our London Pass. We think we paid for the Pass just on transportation alone, plus entry to all the castles, museums, etc. was also included.
Over the next five days we did all the expected things: Covent Garden (the pubs were packed and all were spilled out onto the sidewalk because of the hot weather - drinking in the street is not allowed, but sidewalk imbibing
is jolly good fun), the Tower Bridge with a walk along the Thames (I'll break here for a side story)We lunched in an outdoor cafe on the river and asked the server for ice teas. He wasn't sure if they had that, but after checking, brought us four ice teas. We later asked him for refills. When we got our bill, we discovered that eight ice teas cost us 64£ (about $100). We were shocked and outraged, but they covered themselves by showing us on the bar menu that we had ordered non-alcoholic cocktails at 8£ apiece. Since then, everythÃng we buy is compared to the cost of ice tea.
Back to the travelogue: we did the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace,the Queens Gallery, the Mews (where Bill, a newly minted Wyoming mountain man, just about got arrested for having a hunting knife in his backpack) , Hyde Park, Green Park, Regents Park, St. James Park, Hampton Court, and on and on. Some of the highlights were Windsor Castle - a great tour, the Churchill War Rooms - absolutely fascinating, and we saw a wonderful musical - We Will Rock You - in SoHo. We also watched the final World Cup match in a bar surrounded by lots of guys who probably couldn't get past our TSA folks. Luckily they were all cheering for Spain, so we all left happy.
London is incredibly worldly and cosmopolitan - also very, very expensive. The food was generally mediocre until we finally asked the concierge for his favorite restaurant. He apologized that it was in SoHo and we would have to take the tube, and that it was Indian. We are all fans of Indian food and were we pleased! One of the best meals any of us had ever had - an absolute 10! Is is The Red Fort and don't miss it if you love Indian cuisine - it's also a great value. We also met a delightful pub owner - The Duke of York - also a fun experience. But every evening, we had to go back to the hotel and the last five blocks we walked from the tube was entirely middle-east - burkhas, hookahs, lots of cigarette smoking, and not a Brit in sight.
We were wrapping up our London adventure - it was great to have M&B to show us around so be sure to invite
them on your next trip there. We were next off to Denmark. We got to Heathrow a lot quicker and a lot smarter than our arrival, but found the crowd in Terminal 3 almost impassable. Naturally BJ and I had our baggage searched and we had too many items in too large plastic bags, so spent about 1/2 hour with the friendly security folks. Then we got in this huge line to check in, worrying if we had enough time to get to the plane. Then, thank God for racial profiling, a tall young man worked his way through the crowd and asked if we were really going to Beirut! We were clearly the only anglos in that line. He steered us to the SAS line where we breathed a huge sigh of relief and headed off for Copenhagen. 
No comments:
Post a Comment