The Curious Incident...

We were out early to visit the Cutty Sark.  Last time we were here, it was just after the fire so we missed it.  They have done a brilliant job of restoring it and we had a pleasant but cold morning.

I dragged Allan to Harrod's after that, nominally looking for lunch.  What a disaster!  Millions of people - we couldn't move, so we gave up on that idea.

We had a matinee show booked, a play called the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  Allan chose it, having read the book.  It was brilliant, quite different from anything I had ever seen.  We were seated in one of the boxes at the side with slightly restricted viewing - the only seats we could get as I believe the run is nearly fully booked out.  Anyway, the script called for the female lead to deliver some of her lines from our box - we were warned at half time that this would be happening. The actress was Niamh Cusack who appeared on TV years ago in a series called Heartbeat.  She patted me on the back and thanked us as she left the box, so we are moving in high circles talking to Kings and TV stars!

We ate at the hotel restaurant - a bit flasher than we'd previously done in London and enhanced by live entertainment from a piano player / singer. A fitting end to our week in the UK.
France tomorrow!

More museums and lots of people

A bit slower to get going this morning (Tuesday) but since the wind has dropped, the wind chill factor has reduced, and there is no rain or snow.  Just a bit grey.

We were only going one stop on the tube this morning.  So funny how you quickly become a pro on the Underground but have no clue of distances overland.  Maybe we could have walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum, but we didn't!

This museum was completely different from the British Museum, but I really enjoyed it.  These places are so vast, the upkeep costs must be phenomenal.

There was a lot of old art and tapestries.  I enjoyed the fashion, furniture and jewellery displays - it made me wonder whether anything we own in our times would stand the test of time to be displayed in a museum in 500 years time.  Highly unlikely I think!  There was an interesting display of theatre and music memorabilia too.  The level of craftsmanship and sheer time it must have taken to create many of the items there are incredible.

We had lunch at the Museum - lovely food, but my goodness, the organisation was bizarre.  You had to queue separately for your sandwiches or hot food, your drinks and cakes, and then to pay.  And the queues were huge.  I reckon there was a good chance of your food going mouldy before you got through the queues!  It is mind-blowing to us humble Kiwis how many people there are everywhere you go, no matter what time of day it is.

I left Allan to go to the Science Museum on his own and nipped back to Leicester Square.  Minor diversion when I realised that Prince Charles was there - saw the red carpet, the cars, the security, the crowds, but not the Prince!

Much better choice of show tonight.  We watched Jersey Boys - so slick and polished, and thoroughly enjoyable.  [Allan: having seen this show, I have revised my rating of The Chorus Line - new rating 0.5 stars]

Secrets

I mentioned earlier how much we were loving our hotel. Allan is fascinated by a room adjacent to the breakfast room - it is labelled 'Secrets' and the door is always closed.  Makes you wonder!  (While we're thinking about secrets, did anyone spot the 20 different architectural styles in yesterday's photo of The Mansion at Bletchley Park?)

Our room rate includes a continental breakfast which we're really enjoying. There is something very civilised about breakfast in a restaurant in my book.

The very best thing about the hotel is the short walk to the Tube Station - this has been a bonus with the cold weather.  It's great when you come home late at night to have just a couple of minutes walk back to your room.

Freezing, but fun

Well, they were famous last words!  Even though we didn't think we were tired, I accidentally slept for 3 and a half hours yesterday afternoon, and then we both dropped off for 2 hours after dinner, and then we slept for 9 hours overnight.  Now we're not tired!

After we had freshened up yesterday, we took the train into Oxford St and visited Hamleys toy store.  We've been there before but it was worth another visit to soak up the atmosphere.  Six floors packed with toys, and lots of exuberant young people demonstrating products with much noise and enthusiasm.  The place was teeming with people despite the inclement weather.

It continued to snow all day, but it didn't settle.

We are delighted with our hotel which is 50 metres from the Tube station, a supermarket and several restaurants.  It is a Victorian terraced block of 5 stories, and has been beautifully restored.  Our room is small but perfectly formed.  In fact, from the wall to the foot of the bed is approximately 300 mm and on that wall there is a large flat screen TV at shoulder height so it is a bit of a contortionary act to get through!

Today we've been to the British Museum.  We thought it would be a good choice because of the weather - less snow but a biting -5 degree with the wind chill.  It is a pretty spectacular place with some exceptionally old stuff on display.  It is just huge - it took 3 or 4 hours for us to get around (not that we saw everything), well worth a visit.

London calling...

We are here and it is snowing! A max of 3 degrees expected today, but who cares?

The flight was long but uneventful. We left Melbourne at around 4.40 pm with the intention that we would stay awake until our stopover at Singapore which was seven hours' flying time.  We 'more or less' achieved that (read Allan did and I didn't quite!). It was a brand new Airbus A380 - very quiet and comfortable - for economy!  We ate well too and the service was very friendly.

The new plane has a cool feature on its in-flight entertainment. Qantas has mounted a camera on the tail and you can keep an eye on any fires that break out in the engines (none for our flight). Fun watching take off and landing from that perspective, but a little spooky when the plane banks to turn and the horizon does a drunken tilt!

We had a couple of delays in Singapore - a rubbish bag in our parking spot delayed arrival until it was cleared, and traffic control issues in the skies over Afghanistan delayed departure.  Not sure what that was all about.

Singapore to London was a 13 hour flight completely in the dark for the whole journey. We landed at 5 am Saturday morning and made our way to the hotel by Underground, watching the snow fall (the Underground is not under the ground all the way from Heathrow Airport).  Arrived at the hotel just before 8 am and the lovely man let us check in early - lovely to have a hot shower and freshen up.

Both of us slept in fits and starts on the plane from Singapore but got enough sleep to feel reasonably fresh.  If we can stay awake now until a normal bedtime, I think we'll do not too bad on the jet lag.  Off to Oxford St now!

We survived Terminal Five!

Luckily, it was a bank holiday when we left London, so the traffic was really light. We had some trepidation after all the publicity we’d seen about delays and lost baggage at Terminal 5, but it was a piece of cake really. We had to use the check-in machines like we do at home, and were amazed to find that the default seats we were allocated were the last two together seats on the plane, even though we were early checking in. They were the middle two of the centre four, so we didn’t even have an aisle. We were on a British Airways flight, which was the only one of our trip that we weren’t able to pre-select our seats on.


The terminal is beautiful, and as I said to Allan, “this is what I call duty free shopping!” Miles and miles of shops selling all sorts - didn‘t buy much tho‘.

Security was extreme - we had to remove jackets, shoes (even my open sandals) and belts. Even so, there were only small queues.

The terminal has its own underground train to its other two buildings, so it is pretty vast. The flight was a long 11 hours, leaving at midday local time, and arriving at our hotel at 3 am on our body clocks - we didn’t sleep much either. I prefer to fly at night as we do on our homeward trip - more conducive to sleeping.

Security in LA was extreme as you’d expect, although again we were lucky with queues. We were finger printed and iris scanned, but there is no MAF type checking as we have at home, so the biggest delay was getting our luggage.

Took a shuttle to Santa Monica - our hotel is beautiful and the beach endless, and only a block away.

Homeward bound

After all our farewells, we headed for the Eurostar. Our booked carriage had an air-con malfunction, so they upgraded us to first class - that was pretty special.

Now in London getting organised for our little detour to Santa Monica (Los Angeles) on the way home - another early start tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

Allan's Nostalgia

Houses I lived in more than 40 years ago - in Nottingham:

And London (Greenwich):

Checking out

We carefully planned our journey to pick up the rental car from Hertz in Fulham on Friday. It was out of the congestion zone so we knew we had a wee way to go. Surprisingly, since we haven’t bought much, our suitcases were fit to bust! We took the Tube to the closest station, but we under-estimated the distance to the rental car office - a half hour walk, dragging our cases behind us - phew! Picked up a cute little Kia, pretty peppy, and we were off to Windsor Castle.


I know I keep going on about the castles we are seeing, but they are all different and amazing. This was the grandest and interesting because HM was in residence. It was the day of the christening of Edward and Sophie’s baby at the Chapel there so the whole family was there, and I thought we might get a glimpse, but no such luck.


We ambled through the countryside, thankful for the GPS, looking for a B&B. Proved to be more of a mission than we expected, but finally bought a book and chose one in a place called Weston-sub-Edge near Chipping Campden.


It was a farm, built in 1624 - but beautifully restored and very comfortable. The hostess knows NZ well and her family were into rugby so it was a nice connection.

Thoughts on london

Sue’s thoughts on London:

Loved the shows, the London Eye and the River Cruise. Enjoyed the more recent history, and the old buildings fascinated me.

Blown away by the range of ethnicities - I’d almost say that genuine Poms were in the minority, especially working in the service areas. Apparently there has been a huge influx of Eastern Europeans. Interestingly, it has sometimes been difficult for us to make ourselves understood, even tho’ we speak English!

Plenty left to do next time we come to London!

And some things I (Allan) didn’t know before coming here:

1 - Pall Mall is pronounced “pal mal” not “paul maul”
2 - It can get quite windy on the walkways and escalators down to the underground
3 - There are no rubbish bins on the underground - security reasons
4 - Even though cars drive on the left side of the road, pedestrians don’t walk on the left side of the footpath - they are all over the place
5 - I always wondered where the owners of terraced housing used to park their horses etc - now I know - in the Mews. I guess that’s why there is now no on-site space for a garage
6 - Why some cars have white number plates and other cars have yellow number plates (see Sue's next installment for the answer)

Friday - last day in London

Had lots left on our ’to do’ list so we were out early to Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived. The size and ornateness of the rooms together with the great age made it a fascinating insight.

From there we headed off to Buckingham Palace, although only the Queens Gallery was open. It was bitingly cold today, but worth the walk to see the Palace up close.

After that, we split up - the first time Allan has trusted me to navigate the Underground by myself! I went of to Harrods - what an experience! The food hall had a pizzeria where the pizza man sang opera in the most amazing voice while he tossed pizzas - huge crowds stopped to watch. Had a good poke around, had a makeup demo, and bought a bit of product. Although it was a very elegant and expensive, it had a fun atmosphere, and I was glad I went.

Allan went on tours of the Tower Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and had a quick look in the Tate Modern Gallery. Then he zipped back into Oxford St area for a music mega store - he was very restrained and didn’t buy, but said he could have had a field day.

Dinner in the Hotel restaurant and that’s our London Week done.

The 482 steps

This morning we returned to St Paul’s Cathedral - we climbed the 482 steps (very steep and narrow) to the top for the most amazing views. Most proud of myself! The weather has deteriorated a little, a very cold wind has picked up, but the rain has stayed away thankfully. Then it was off to Waterloo Station for an overland train to Twickenham.

We have now tried most of the transport options - underground, over ground, ferry, light rail and double decker bus. The only thing we haven’t tried is a London cab - they are everywhere.

We got a little lost at Twickenham - the little leggies were struggling!! A little confusing when the sign points to Museum of Twickenham in the opposite direction to Twickenham Museum. It was worth the effort tho’ - the rugby museum was really interesting, and the ground quite spectacular. We went on a guided tour of the stadium and toured the museum - it was pleasing to see NZ well represented there, although it was basically an English Rugby Museum.

Didn’t make it back to the hotel before the show so ate in the theatre district. Phantom was very well done, the sets were so amazing, and the production excellent. Allan especially loved this show, although I’d have to say ‘We Will Rock You’ was my favourite. I could have kept going to shows for weeks - would’ve loved to see Blood Brothers again, and Joseph.

Another 19,000 steps

Another busy day...cloudy and cool, but no rain. Another 19,000 steps on the pedometer as we explored the financial districts and walked both the London and Millennium Bridges. Had a real pub lunch for the first time. The ambience was cool, the pie and mash very English! Had a early tea at a Café that is a bit of a shrine to Princess Diana (opposite Kensington Gardens where she lived). It was another English classic of fish and chips and peas - very well cooked, and nice to be back in the hotel at an early hour.

We are getting a really good feed at the hotel with the included cooked breakfast, lunches have been light, and dinners have been generally at the low budget end as we haven’t really been hungry. Food is very expensive, we’ve given up converting to NZ$. Paid 4 pounds ($10) for a Coke at the theatre!

First fine day!

This morning dawned crystal clear - our first truly fine day, so we took off to the London Eye. It was pretty special, and we took masses of photos and video footage. What a tourist magnet!

After we got off that, we took a ferry up to Greenwich and had a look at the observatory there. Managed to get a photo of me with one foot each side of the Meridian Line. The park there is beautiful - for all its size and huge population, London has lots of beautifully maintained green spaces.

Allan lived in Greenwich as an 8 year old, so we went and found the flat they rented. He had a photo with him of the place back then (1965) and he was able to take a photo from the same perspective 42 years on, so that was special.

Took in our second show tonight - Chicago. It was technically (in the singing and dancing) excellent but seemed to lack the X factor, we thought. Once again, I had trouble staying awake!
I must explain here that we are walking around 12 - 14 kms (according to my pedometer) a day so that is why I am struggling a bit by 8pm at night. I assure you - it isn’t just old age!

We are off to Phantom on Thursday night so will try to do better then!

Out and about on Monday

Up early today - a shock to the system, as we had to meet our tour bus at 8.20am. Part of our accommodation package was this half day tour of London. The guide was fantastic and gave us lots of insights which we wouldn’t have otherwise had. Helped us get our bearings above ground (since we’d already sussed the underground!). Spent an hour in St Paul’s Cathedral. It was amazing - (Glenn, we could understand your temptation to photograph, we resisted tho’!) We will head back on our own to spend more time later in the week.

Monday afternoon was a visit to The Tower of London, which Allan loved - he is fascinated by the history of it all. I found it interesting, but a little long.

We had prepared our wish list for London shows - limiting ourselves to 3 only! We managed to get tickets tonight to ‘We will Rock you’ (Queen). It was fantastic and we both loved it, but one of us (!), despite the music being throbbingly loud, had extreme difficulty staying awake!

Amazing who you come across

Amazing who you come across in London - I ran into this Keira chick who I recognised from somewhere - she was very nice but didn’t say much. Sue chatted to Tom Cruise for a while, but forgot to ask for an autograph.

Our visit to Madam Tussaud’s was interesting, although I thought it was overly commercial, with an opportunity to part with cash around every corner. The wax figures were very good however (some better than others).

London - Day One

Well, it feels like we've been everywhere today - we've knocked off half a Monopoly board already (Pall Mall, Whitehall, Northumberland Ave, the Strand, Trafalgar Square (amazing!), Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford and Regent Sts. In Regent St, we found Hamleys Toy Store - it was huge with so many different things that aren’t available in NZ, especially remote controlled toys and board games. Staff were demonstrating lots of the toys, and it was difficult to drag my little boy away!

We’ve mastered the Underground, there are two stations only a few minutes walk away.

Last on today’s list was the National Art Gallery - it was packed with people, and very vast. We recognised the names of some of the artists and the age of some of the works was phenomenal.

Struck quite a bit of rain today, but it’s not too cold, so all things considered, it could be worse.

Overall impressions? I am blown away by the number of people we are seeing wherever we go, and by the cultural diversity of the place. Roll on tomorrow!