Been too long since I posted, but since not much has gone on in my life of late, short of attending an exhibition game at the new Yankee Stadium last weekend (quick note on that, nice stadium, expensive stuff, more space to walk around the concourse and when you sit at your seats inside it feels a lot like the old stadium, aside from the gargantuan TV screen in center field) not much has been going on.
Well, until this week.
This week, my wife and I are in London for a vacation (or, holiday). I haven't been here in 7 years, my wife has never been here. We figured that London was close enough to fly to, the airfare we got was good ($960 total for both of us roundtrip on British Airways) and heck, why not?
Day 1
We left on the red eye on Saturday, April 11, from Newark, which was relatively dead. (Note to all humans: Fly out of Newark on Saturdays, it's very quiet there). We arrived in London on Easter morning. The flight over wasn't too bad, we had two seats at the very rear of the plane, and aside from some really really really large people sitting in front of us who brought their seats back so much that you have to act like you were going spelunking into a mine to get into and out of them, the flight was good. (By the way, not to worry, I was sure to purposely whack the idiots seats in front of me as I climbed in and out of the seat, knowing for a fact I knocked the ugly fat male out of a deep sleep and I think forcing him to stay up for most of the flight, my other half did the same, so airplane seat justice was accomplished - Note, do these idiots have any clue that when they bring their seats back, they jame them so deep into the chests of the people behind them that I'm pretty sure when they bring their seats back up, there will be a lung stuck to the back of the seat?)
Anyway, I did oddly sleep 2 hours on the flight, which is 2 hours more than normal. Watched about 3 hours of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries (which is part of my minor quest to rewatch the entire series) too. We left on time and arrived pretty much on time too.
After a relatively short trip through customs, we found the Underground station and took the tube to our hotel.
For this trip, we're staying at the Harrington Courts apartments in South Kensington. Since we were going to be here for 8 nights, I wanted to stay some place that had a little more space and some extra amenities so we could save on food. I also wanted a location that was close enough to the city, and near transportation. This place fits the bill. After being temporarily moved to the larger two bedroom apartment the first night due to some issues with no hot water in the room were were going to be in, we moved into our actual room the 2nd night. The apartment itself is fairly spacious, with a seperate bedroom, small Kitchen and nice sized living room. The extra space is good especially in relationships where one spouse (my wife) tends to sleep a bit later, letting me wake up to go out to the living room to blog.
Of course, if one is used to American beds, one learns real quick (as I have in the past) that European beds are A) Lower to the ground and B) Made of bedrock. This means I can get about 7-8 hours in a bed tops before the massive back pain takes over. Oddly, I'm used to this by now from the various trips to Europe so I plan accordingly: I start by sleeping on my sides.
Also, while the apartment faces the busier street side of the hotel, it is noisy, but, the fact that this apartment has two balconies and it's fun to just watch London life outside through the windows (plus there's a lot of light in the living room at 7:30 AM on Tuesday as I type this).
The apartments are a block away from the tube stop, so transporting luggage here was not an ordeal at all.
So, after arriving here on Sunday morning, and learning our temporary room was not ready, we walked around for a few hours. We were really tired from the flight (by the way, when you go to Europe, red eyes are the best way to adjust to the new time zone since you're so exhausted by the end of the first full day in Europe you have no problems falling asleep). We wandered around the local area, making our way up to Hyde Park and spending Easter Sunday just having a slow walk. We're not too far from Harrod's either and passed by their on our way back to the hotel.
There will be no jumping into the water at Hyde Park!
We got back here by around 3 or so and our temporary room was ready. We got in and wound up taking naps to let the body catch up on sleep a little.
We then headed out for dinner, sticking in the South Kensington area as it's easy to walk around here. We had dinner at Byron's where we both had some surprisingly good British burgers. We stopped at a small grocery store on the way back and picked up breakfast for the next morning too.
Then, we headed to sleep in our temporary 2-bedroom apartment.
Day 2
Up by 9 or so (an hour earlier on my part), we packed up our stuff and had breakfast.
We decided to make our way roughly to Piccadilly Circus and see what happens. We walked up past Harrod's (which was open on Easter Monday, a holiday here) but didn't go in, deciding to save that for later. We walked over to Buckingham Palace and were amazed at the sheer number of people who seemed to have been there for the changing of the guard even though it wasn't happening on the Holiday.
London - Teeming with happy tourists!
We took it all in and then just started wandering the streets heading over to Piccadilly Circus. Since we're here for a week, we took it easy, and just kind of meandered around. I did manage to get to the Forbidden Planet, a comic store I had wanted to get to on this trip, and we grabbed some Thai food for lunch nearby on a quiet street a block away. We wandered around the SoHo area too, hitting a cool discount bookstore/music store, Fopp, where not shockingly, I bought really cheap books.
After, walking around quite a bit, we started to meander back towards the hotel. We stopped and grabbed a park bench in St. James Park where we sat for about 45 minutes just taking in the nice day.
We made it back to the hotel, moved to our now permanent room and after an adventure with the wireless, was able to get hooked up to the internet using a wired connection, which I actually prefer.
For dinner, we made our way into Kensington and had dinner at a little place called A Taste of India, which was very good and very filling. Then, we made our way back to the apartment and collapsed.
Day 3
Up at 7, started writing this blog and had breakfast at the apartment. Today, we decided to start at the Tower of London and see where it goes from there.
Here's what ultimately happened:
View Larger Map
What started out as an innocent day at the Tower of London turned into a trek literally across the city. The Tower of London was good, if a bit pricey for the admission. Here's what I learned at the Tower of London:
- You can see the Crown Jewels there
- Apparently, Henry the VIII thought the crown jewels were his, uh, his "special area", which was evident (in a way that has tarnished my mind forever so much so that I have the need to claw out my Mind's eye) in his suit of armor.
From there, we walked over the Tower Bridge to the South Bank where we decided to walk along the Thames River until we basically got to the the London Eye (that really big famous Ferris Wheel). It was a great walk and we got to see a lot of the South Bank along the way.
Lunch was at Wagamama (www.wagamama.com) a really good chain of noodle shops that is based in Europe (although there are 3 locations in Boston now, I just checked) and someplace I had been to years ago and wanted to get to on this trip.
We continued on, making a stop at Waterloo station (hey Jason Bourne fans, that was the big station in the Bourne Ultimatum!) before we decided to take a ride on the London Eye, which is this massive ferris wheel on the bank of the Thames River. It's well worth doing, although it is also a tad pricey, but you do get an incredible view of the city. It takes about a half hour to go around, but you have really good views that entire time and you can barely tell you are on a Ferris wheel as you get into these large cabins where you stand the entire time.
Ben, sometimes, he's not so big.
From there, we crossed the Thames River making our way past Big Ben and wandering around the Parliament building.
From there, we somehow wound up in Embassy Row (hey! we found the US Embassy!) and wandered down quiet back streets away from the massive throngs of tourists (I may be a tourist, but I sure don't like 'em, must be a residual from working in NYC all those years).
For dinner we found this little pub called The Hour Glass in Brompton, which was a good place to have a few beers, some fish and chips (look! we ate actual English food!) and not be on our feet for at least once today.
We came back to the hotel, dropped off our stuff and then ran over to the local Tesco because I had a mad urge for chips.
And that's where we are as I write this.
We have a vague idea of what to do tomorrow, but lord knows what will happen until we actually do it. That seems to be the norm on this trip so far.
