Friday, May 3, 2024. What's left?

 

We didn't have anything scheduled for Friday. We had stopped in an M&S food shop in St Pancras station the night before, so Cynthia could get a Coke for the next morning. While waiting around for her, I browsed some of their packaged cookies and decided we should go to a bigger M&S on Friday to get some gifts for friends back home. And I also wanted to try on a few of the dresses I had seen on our first, more frantic visit to M&S on Sunday evening.

 But a visit to M&S wasn't enough of a plan for the whole day. I asked if there was anything Cynthia wanted to see that we hadn't seen. No. I checked in with Gail and Charles, but they had a few things scheduled for the day, so seeing each other might be rough. It would all come down to if we were in their part of the city when they were free. 

Even though we had had great weather after our initial touch of rain when we landed, it was a dreary and drizzling now. Steve, the Stonehenge tour guide, had told us about a Tardis at the Earl's Court Tube station, so visiting that was a possibility. But I worried it would be crowded and a let down, with not much else we wanted to do in that area. I tried to remember what I knew about London from the movies I've worked on and seen. I then remembered working on Last Christmas, where the lead female character worked at a Christmas shop in the Apple Market at Covent Garden. Covent Garden looked like a cute area, so I suggested we head over there. So we did. 

 I remembered I did have one thing I needed to do, since this was our last day in town, and that was to buy stamps for the postcards I'd written. We walked from our hotel to Paddington station and took the Tube to Charring Cross Road. This let us out on The Strand. I found a post office on my map and had some trouble finding it in real life. We went into a souvenir shop that looked like it was in about the right place, in case they were the post office. They weren't a post office but they did sell decorative stamps, similar to those I had purchased at Stonehenge. But the decorative stamps were more expensive than the internet said stamps should cost, and Charles had warned us about counterfeit stamps, so I decided to find the real post office. The guy in the souvenir shop said it was three shops down.

 Three stops down turned out to be more like 7 or 8. The post office was, oddly, in the basement of a shop that had nothing to do with the post office. Weird! I bought my stamps and mailed my postcards. Chore done!

 We went back to the souvenir shop to finish up some souvenir shopping and to look at the hats they sold. Cynthia had wanted to buy a hat on this trip, and the fancy ones turned out to be outrageously expensive - like in the £600 range. Souvenir shop hats were probably more in line with what we were looking for. She found a flatcap for about £35 and I found a newsboy hat that I liked, also for £35. Cynthia bought some tea and we set off in search of Covent Garden. 

(The newsboy cap I bought.)

Part of the problem with the search for Covent Garden was that Covent Garden was a larger area than I thought. I didn't realize we were specifically looking for the Apple Market, so it took a while to figure out which way to go and what we were looking for. But we found it.

 

 

The Apple Market was cute. There were stalls with vendors selling their homemade arts and crafts in addition to some high-end shops. Cynthia was thrilled they had a Guerlain shop where she could buy her favorite perfume. We browsed around the market. We bought chocolates in a shop, Neuhaus, that had the royal warrant of Denmark, and bought some tea from Whittard of Chelsea. They had several pots brewed around the shop, so you could taste before buying and wash down the chocolate you just ate. 

 

Without much of a plan, we returned to the Strand and walked toward the river. We had driven over the river on the Misery Tour and Stonehenge trip, but hadn't gone to see it yet. We were enticed into an Italian restaurant for lunch, L'Ulivo. How many more times would we eat Italian food on this trip? We shared a cheese pizza and tricolore salad. I also bought some roast potatoes. I had a small pot of tea and used the toilet, which was downstairs again. Their toilets were really nice. We were the only diners in what was an unusually large restaurant for London.

 

(The restaurant interior.)

We walked to the river and I was surprised to see we were directly across from the London Eye. I suggested we walk west along the river for a while before heading back to the hotel. We went through Victoria's Park and another small park on the Embankment and ended up at the Palace of Westminster. We stopped at a souvenir stall on the walk and both bought flatcaps for £10! We had driven past on Monday, but now we were up close. I asked Cynthia if she wanted to go see Westminster Abby or St Paul's while we were in the area, but the Tube station (Westminster) was right there, so we got on the subway and headed back to the hotel to drop off our hats and souvenirs.

(£10 flatcap)

 

 

 

  

 

We took a short break at the hotel room. Cynthia caught up on her games. I started packing. I tried to check in for the flight the next day, but I got an error message that I couldn't complete the check in. Cynthia checked in and it worked for her. She got her boarding passes but I'd have to get mine at the airport.

We headed back out, heading to the M&S on Oxford Street, not far from the hotel. I bought a dress and some chocolates and cookies, a black current cordial drink and some water for the night and next morning. We had a miscommunication and I thought we would drop things off at the hotel again before heading to dinner, but Cynthia thought we were heading to dinner first, so she didn't buy heavy drinks. There weren't a lot of restaurants visible from where we were on Oxford Street - it was all shops - so we continuing to the Tube station, which was very close to where we were. We had an argument/fight, but got on the Tube. I suggested we should go to Queensway to find food, which was the stop past Lancaster Gate.

(This is a box of cookies! It is a metal tin with reflective artwork.)

  

 

(Which of these dresses did I buy???)

We went to Queensway and I told Cynthia she should pick the food. I knew she wanted to have Indian food while in London, and this was the last chance. We walked into an Indian restaurant, but it didn't smell right to her. We went to a hamburger joint, but they only had a table free for about 45 minutes, so we'd have to rush. Then we found a nearly empty restaurant and went there. My friends, let me tell you, we did manage to have Italian food one more time. I had pasta pomodoro and Cynthia had spaghetti bolognaise. I told her that spag-bol was practically a national dish, according to my media consumption, so it was an authentic English meal for our last night.

Cynthia still needed some provisions for the night and next morning, so we went in a shop on Queensway that was called something like "Wine and Cheese." Turns out, it was all Asian import food. Not wine and not cheese. We left and headed back down Bayswater to our local Waitrose at the service station and got some last-minute things. I had wanted to try Ribena while I was in London, so I bought one. I also bought some Flakes and another water.

 The sun was just going down as we got back to the hotel. The Ribena was sweet and watery with a slightly chemical flavor. Not good. I didn't finish it. The black current cordial was sweet and thick, like juice concentrate. It was good for a few sips and then became too much to take. Maybe with ice or added to lemonade or something it would have been better.

I finished packing and discovered my luggage scale wasn't working. How much did my bag weight? I couldn't tell. I decided to remove the heavier teas from the suitcase and put them in the carry-on, just to be sure I wouldn't have to pull things out of the suitcase at the airport. My suitcase barely closed, even though it was almost half empty when I got there. I bought a lot of stuff!

Our flight back wasn't until around 1 PM the next day, but we needed to be at the airport 3 hours early according to the Internet. And that didn't look like it was an exaggerated suggestion. It looked like, yes, it would take that long to get through security and make the flight without rushing and panicking. We didn't have to wake up super early the next day, but early enough that I set an alarm.

(I bought the green/blue dress.)

Sunday, April 28, 2024. Unexpected shopping.

 

The plane landed. It was morning. 11-ish? Good to get up out of the seat and move around. My sister and I both decided to wear compression socks for the flight because we’re getting old and that is the kind of thing you take into consideration before long flights. Leg blood clots. Deep vein thrombosis. I knew one thing - I couldn't wait to take them off!

We disembarked. It’s always annoying (to everyone) when a group of travelers know where to go automatically and another group, all lumped together on a plane, don’t. This whole trip, I’m in the second group. Don’t know where I’m going or how to get there. A bunch of us “lost” people stopped to read a sign that was near an escalator. My sister and I didn't stop to read the sign. We just took the escalator down - into a deserted tunnel. There was only one escalator and it went down, so if this was a mistake, I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to go back.

At the bottom of the escalator was a tunnel. An airport worker stopped us as soon as we got to the bottom to let us know that the tunnel walk would take at least 20 minutes. Hey, we’d just been sitting for 9+ hours, a 20-minute walk didn’t sound that bad. At least he didn't say it went to the wrong place. But even in this deserted tunnel walkway, people who wanted to go fast and get around us appeared. There were a few people movers/travelators to cut down on some of the walking, but mostly it was a not-insignificant walk to the customs area. At least spending that time walking would mean less time standing at a carousel waiting for our bags to arrive when we finally got to the carousels.

We had to go through customs first, which was surprisingly easy. You self checked out, placing your passport on a scanner and posing for a confirmation picture. Doors popped open and you walked through without encountering a human. They seemed to not care about people entering the country via the airport. Fine. Easy. Where is my suitcase?

The signs all indicated our bags would arrive on carousel 8. We just got there when there was an announcement over the PA system that my sister needed to report to a window to talk to a person. No big surprise, but her bag didn’t make the transfer from Dallas to London. While she filled out the lost-luggage paperwork (not accurately named since British Airways knew exactly where the bag was - in Dallas), I purchased a SIM card for my phone and waited for my bag to arrive. In hindsight, the SIM card I bought had way more data than I needed and didn't actually work in Amsterdam, but you live and learn. I purchased almost 99 times as much data as I ended up using for the week. Oops! Still cheaper than upgrading my plan on the US SIM. Anyway…

Person after person left carousel 8 until the same 5 bags kept going around and mine wasn’t one of them. I joined my sister at the counter and asked if that was the right carousel or if it had changed. Rude English Person #3 couldn’t tell me anything until I gave her my baggage claim  ticket. Like, she couldn’t even tell me what carousel the bags from our flight were coming from. I left my sister and searched through my carry-on for the claim check ticket and finally found it. Oh, yes, my bag was on carousel 11. Why haven’t I been able to find it? It should be here. As if the signs saying it should be on carousel 8 were known to be wrong. Argh! Anyway, I got my bag. They couldn't give my sister an accurate timeframe of when her bag would arrive, but someone at the next window from the same connection was told her bag might be delivered the next day, so we weren't too worried. Afterall, we already knew there were at least 2 flights from DFW to Heathrow each day. It shouldn't be hard to get my sister's bag on one of those flights.

 (Some of the view from the Heathrow Express.)

Then it was time to hop on the Heathrow Express, which gets you into town and lets you off at Paddington Station. Paddington Station was about ½ mile from our hotel, so not too bad of a walk. Our hotel was closest to Lancaster Gate Tube Station, but walking to Paddington, according to the map and not reality, took about 9 minutes.

It had just finished raining by the time we disembarked the train, but there was still a little drizzle. The streets were drenched, and by the time we got to the hotel, so were we. I was lucky enough to be able to change my clothes and wash my face when we got to our room at The Columbia Hotel. I also had a surprise waiting for me at reception - mail! Diana sent me a Harrods gift certificate that was waiting for me at check-in. I guess a trip to Harrods had to happen!

 

Our room was on the 3rd floor, room 319, which when translated to American means it was on the 4th floor. One of the elevators was broken, so it was either lots of stairs (the stories were massive with high ceilings) or the tiny lift. The lift said the capacity was 4, but that would be a stretch. Two people with luggage was a struggle. And the lift opened to a large step up. Hooray!

 

(Center staircase, The Columbia Hotel)

This is the same hotel I stayed at last time I was in London in 2014. And it is the same hotel we stayed at with our parents 30 or 40 years prior. Last time, I booked a single queen room and was given a double queen room. Huge! Lovely! Old, yest, and the floors make loud noises when you walk, but really comfortable for one person and probably still comfortable for two. This time I booked a twin double. Wow! It was small! It looked like they used an efficiency king room and just put in two twin beds where the king bed would fit. There was just enough room between the wall and foot of the bed to roll my suitcase over to the window. On the plus side, this time we had a view of Hyde Park from the window, so that counts for something.

 

(View from the room.)

The room's toilet felt like it was going to fall over each time you sat down. It even had bolts attached to hold it to the floor. But nevertheless, it was wobbly. And I could not once get it to flush on the first try. Most of the time, it would flush on the second try. But there were a few times when I must have flushed it 12 times before it finally took. This is what 45 is always complaining about! What a waste of time and water.

  

 

(Yes, I took pictures of the gross plumbing in the hotel room.)

We were going to see some friends of mine the next day, so I called Gail and Charles to let them know we made it, and confirm that we’d see them on Monday. I also asked where we should go for my sister to get some emergency clothes and supplies. I wanted to go to TK Maxx while I was in London - because I'm addicted to TJ Maxx - so it worked out that the go-to shop, Marks & Spencer, was on the Kensington High Street near TK Maxx. Well, that worked out for me if not for Cynthia.

In clean clothes and dry shoes (for me), we set off walking. We hadn’t figured out the Tube system yet, so we walked through Hyde Park to the south side where the shops were located. TK Maxx was so crowded it drove both of us crazy. Oh, and did I mention? My sister broke her toe a few weeks before the trip, so she wasn’t thrilled about walking and even less thrilled about stairs. The women’s clothes were downstairs and we didn’t see an immediate lift, so we left and looked for Marks & Spencer. It was next door to an H&M, which saved me, along with Zara, when my bags didn’t arrive in Barcelona in 2014, but my sister didn’t want to go somewhere she could go in the US. Gail had told us that M&S (Marks & Spencer) was where everyone got their knickers / underpants / panties, so in we went. Knickers and pajamas purchased, we went off in search of dinner.

 

(Chestnut tree in bloom in the park and other little flowers.)

We also wanted to get some supplies for the room - like water, Coke, toothpaste and toiletries -so we found a Sainsbury's Local and bought a few things. I bout some granola bars in case dinner didn’t work out. I was still feeling pretty sick from the flight, so wasn't sure if I'd be able to eat dinner or not.

Surprise! Everything closes at 6PM on Sunday! Even most of the restaurants. We still didn’t want to take the Tube, so we walked around the park, through Notting Hill, and back to the hotel. We dropped off our groceries and supplies. From the room, we researched restaurants near the hotel that would stay open past 6, since it was now past 6. We went to an Italian restaurant, Bizzaro. I had pizza and Cynthia had a tricolore salad - a caprese with avocado added. They need to start making this salad in the US.

 

By then we were exhausted, so we went back to the hotel and I think we both fell asleep before 8PM. Luckily, we didn't have to be up early on Monday. Gail and Charles wouldn't be available until after 11AM and we didn't really plan on getting up early for breakfast. We played games on our iPads until we couldn't keep our eyes open and that was the end of our first day in London.