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.)

Thursday, May 2, 2024. Amsterdam.

 Originally, I had thought about visiting three cities on this trip to Europe - London, Paris, Amsterdam. Looking at dates, time available to be off work, costs and travel options, Paris got cut from the lineup. But I had one bucket list item to take care of and that was the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I researched hotels in Amsterdam and flights in to either Amsterdam or London and out of the other, but that doubled the cost of the flight. I also didn't love the idea of schlepping suitcases to multiple cities during the trip, and adding travel days, so Amsterdam became a day trip.

 There are several trains to Amsterdam from London in the morning and there are return trains at night. I booked us on the earliest train out, at 6:15 AM. That meant being at the train station at 5:15 and waking up at about 4 AM to get dressed and to get to the train station. Cynthia was already sick of walking (and in pain from her broken toe), and there had been thunderstorms overnight, so she ordered us an Uber to St Pancras Station early in the morning. It probably took about as long as the walk/Tube combo would have taken, but we didn’t have to walk at all.

We got to the station in good time and got through customs. They stamped my passport here! Hooray! The London airport, like I said, didn't seem to care who was entering the country via the airport. No stamps, no people. We sat in the waiting area with people who were also waiting to head to Paris and who were very early for the next couple of trains to Paris and Amsterdam. I got a tea and chocolate croissant at Pret a Manger. There was another slight language barrier at Pret. I ordered a tea, and so didn’t recognize my order when the woman called out “tea with milk.” I was the only one standing there, so she asked me directly if I ordered a tea with milk. “I didn’t order milk.” “Did you order it black?” “I didn’t specify. I assumed it would be black.” “This is yours. Tea with milk.” I’m fine with tea with milk, so it wasn’t a problem. I took the tea but I'm still not convinced I didn't drink someone else's tea. My sister ordered a muffin, which was also undercooked. Is this some cultural thing? Undercooked pastries at Pret? I think she threw hers away after one or two bites. I ate the croissant. It was pretty good.

 Just like on the Heathrow Express, I booked us first-class train tickets to Amsterdam. What a good idea! The car we were in was half empty and we could change our seats after they were sure everyone had boarded. We moved to seats facing each other in the front carriage of the car and had no one near us. The first-class seats also included a meal and a snack, and seemingly unlimited drinks. The car attendant put out trays of drinks, including wine, so we could help ourselves. Such a better travel experience than British Air.

(Our private car.)

(View from the train.)

 

(Train breakfast.)

 We arrived in Amsterdam a little late because of some delays on the tracks, but our museum entry wasn’t until 2:30 PM/14:30, so it was fine. Amsterdam uses 24-hour time, though, which is confusing when you aren’t used to it. I changed the settings on my phone so it would display in 24-hour time, but my UK SIM card didn’t work. We only had my sister’s phone to rely on. And Apple Maps sucks!!! It felt like we were walking forever before we found the museum. 

 

 

(Amsterdam, various.)

By this time, I needed a toilet. We went to a nearby cafe and I walked down the scariest stairs in the world to use the men’s toilet because the woman’s toilet had no light! We ate caprese sandwiches in the café to pay them back for letting me use the toilet, and so we wouldn't have to wander around finding somewhere else to eat. We walked back over to the museum and Cynthia sat and listened to the buskers while I went souvenir shopping. I needed a few postcards and had seen some wooden tulips along the walk that I wanted to grab.

(Am I looking up or down this staircase? Up. I'm looking up.)

(Wooden tulips.)

I didn’t do any research about Amsterdam before traveling there, so I still don’t know what was up will all the rubber ducky shops. There were only a few tulips in the mostly cobblestone and pavement city. And bicycles. There were so many bicycles and pedestrians… I was ready to scream from all the people and bicycles. I hated the general vibe.

  

 

 

 

 

(Tulips in planters in Amsterdam near the Van Gogh Museum.)

Anyway, it was time for the museum. We had traveled with carry-on type bags, to hold shopping and, it turned out, our coats. Those larger bags had to be put in free lockers before we could go up to the exhibit. You typed in a code and picked a symbol on a keypad and a locker popped open. You needed to remember the same code and symbol to open the locker when you were leaving, so they suggested using your birthday. Our bags safely locked up, we went up into the exhibit area. 

 

 

 

Here are my observations. The paintings were dark. The museum lighting was terrible. It seemed like there wasn't a lot of actual electric light inside, just ambient light coming through the windows. The paintings were all covered in glass, too, probably a result of things like climate activists throwing paint and soup at the art. The result was that all of the paintings had glaring reflections of the windows in them. You couldn't really see the paint. Wow, it was disappointing.

 The internet age has also ruined lots of things. The number of people turning their backs to the more famous paintings to take selfies with them was crazy. Prove you’ve been there some other way! I also don’t understand taking pictures of the art when you can see it on your computer, in a book, on a poster or in many other ways in better circumstances.

 The museum was crowded and people are annoying. I did love the Giant Peacock Moth and Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette. I was able to eavesdrop on a few of the tours at different stations. I was more moved, though, seeing Irises at the Getty in Los Angeles. I’m glad I went to the Van Gogh Museum, but I didn’t react how I thought I would.

 I took the stairs up the several stories of the museum and my sister took the elevator, so we didn't go through the floors together. After going through the museum, we went to the giftshop and bought lots of things. They were cash only, so the Euros I had left over from lunch and souvenir shopping were still burning a hole in my pocket. After the giftshop, it was back to the basement to retrieve our bags from the lockers. My sister's bad luck continued and her locker wouldn't pop open when she entered her code. I found a museum worker and he was able to open the locker from a table he carried.

 We left the museum and Cynthia summoned an Uber to take us back to the train station. There was a mall inside the train station, so we bought some Simon Levelt tea to use up some of my useless cash. I still left Europe with about €10, so I guess if I ever go back I've got more than enough cash for the trip. Then there was some confusion about how to find our train. I asked a man in a yellow vest, who I'm pretty sure worked at the station, where to go. We found our platform and went back through customs, getting another stamp in our passports, and waited for the train.

This time the first-class car was fully booked, although not everyone was starting out at the Amsterdam station. We had stopped at Brussels and Rotterdam on the way out, but just to let people off of the train. Now people were boarding at Rotterdam, Brussels and Lille, so even though it looked like there were empty seats, they were spoken for. Cynthia and I had to remain in our side-by-side seats this time.

(Train dinner.)

Dinner was served, which was a spinach frittata with couscous and a mango-passionfruit tart for dessert. Excellent! We got a snack a few hours later, a granola bar. There was a slight mystery on the ride back when a male passenger across the aisle got up and left his seat. He came back about ten minutes later, grabbed his laptop and charger, and left again. He didn't return to his seat for the duration of the ride. It was weird. On the plus side, I stole the mango-passionfruit tart from his abandoned food tray. Was that a good idea? I haven't died, so yes. Lola would be proud of me.

 Cynthia Ubered us back to the hotel from St Pancras in London and we fell asleep still feeling the gentle rocking of the train.

 

Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Meeting people.

 Exhausted from Tuesday, I ended up not needing the alarm in the morning. I got a good night's sleep, which is something I don't often get under the best of circumstances. I woke up, got dressed, and went scrounging again.

 I headed back to Queensway, since I knew I would have plenty of options for food and drink there. The Italian creperey I had seen on Monday, and thought I'd go to today, wasn't open yet. They didn't open for breakfast. I didn't want to be out walking for too long, so looked around on the first two blocks of the street near Bayswater. There is a chain fast-food place in England called Pret a Manger where you can buy ready-made sandwiches and coffee drinks. Like if the food section of Starbucks filled two walls instead of just one glass case near the register. Pret a Manger, or less formally "Pret," is a place you will have heard about if you watch a lot of panel shows or English stand-up comedy. I cannot think of the words "Pret a Manger" in anything other than Josh Widdicombe’s voice for this reason. I went to Pret to get breakfast to help add context to all the jokes.

(An emoji installation near the Tube station.)

 There were two lines in the shop, which was busy with commuters getting their morning coffee, using their club rewards. Just after I got in line, the computers went down and the shop suddenly became cash only. I was prepared, but the place cleared out! If you haven't been to London recently, it is nearly cashless. I had gotten quite a bit of cash from the bank before my trip, but still had, if not all of it still, then most of it. One woman who was in the middle of her transaction when the computers went down was still ahead of me in line, hoping to get her discounted coffee, but everyone else left. Her discount wouldn't go through, so her friend bought what looked like a cup of cottage cheese and they left, sans drinks. I got a chocolate croissant and a chocolate chunk cookie from the pastry case and ordered a berry lemonade drink for myself and an iced mocha for Cynthia. Or at least, I thought I did.

 I paid and stood aside while my drinks were prepared. My drink came out but then they stopped making drinks, as if they were completely done until the computers were working again. I asked about the mocha. They either didn’t hear me or forgot to charge me in the computer chaos. A woman threw her hands up and said, "Everything is free today!" She didn’t charge me, made the mocha, and I went back to the hotel.

This chocolate croissant was more to my taste than the pain or chocolate from before, but I only had a bite since that was for Cynthia. The cookie was for me and it was fine but undercooked. The raspberry lemonade was sweet, not very much like lemonade, and tiny! Like a 10 or 12 oz. cup for about $5! Worse than Starbucks for getting ripped off.

I had made arrangements to visit some of my unseen, email-only mysterious coworkers this day. The office was in Soho, so back on the Tube we found our connection and got off at Tottenham Court Road. We found the office, but the receptionist didn’t seem completely convinced we should have been there. But it was the right place! We were only in the waiting area for a few minutes before our guide for the office tour came downstairs and collected us.

 We got a quick tour of the office and then the coworkers suggested we come back at 1 to go to lunch. With a little over an hour to kill, we walked around and went to Primark again. Cynthia wanted to buy a few more things, but it was so crowded we left without getting anything. We would have been in line for too long to make it back for lunch.

 Back at the office a few minutes before one, the coworkers came downstairs and we walked to a nearby pub. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the pub. I'm not sure I even looked! My Google Map Timeline doesn’t show an accurate accounting of where I walked in that area, so it isn't helping. The pub served food upstairs, so we went upstairs and pulled a couple of tables together. I had a pineapple juice and nachos. Nachos! They were fine, a little salty, but not too exotic. Cynthia had a chicken Cesar salad, which had actual anchovies in it, which she didn't enjoy. After lunch, we parted ways with the coworkers and set off on foot for adventures in Soho. It was a treat to meet the coworkers in person!

 

 

(Around Soho.)

 I called Gail again just to check her and Charles availability for the afternoon. They were busy. They lead very active social lives! Gail suggested that while we were in SoHo we should go to Liberty, so that’s where we headed. Most of the shop was your standard Bloomingdale’s type store. High-end clothes divided by brand on several different sales floors. We headed up to the Haberdashery which turned out to be a great choice! They didn't sell hats there, they sold fabric and buttons and sewing supplies! I know you can buy Liberty fabrics at JoAnn's in the US, but this was the real place. My sister planned to buy me a birthday present on the trip, and Liberty had a sewing box I fell in love with. I also got some cute gifts/souvenirs for friends there. Perfect!

(Liberty.)

 

After Liberty we got back on the Tube and headed to Harrods. Diana sent me that gift card, so this was my chance to use it. We went into the food hall. Even though it was the middle of the day on a Wednesday, it was very crowded in the food hall. We walked around the pastry counter but then quickly diverted to the toilets. The elevator and stairs to the toilets led to an isolated area near the fine watches. You had to go back upstairs to go back downstairs to the giftshop area if that's where you wanted to go. Cynthia suggested we go to the giftshop before buying anything in the food hall, so we went back upstairs and got lost. Harrods is huge! It is also divided a lot like a Bloomingdale's, but with that food hall and a giftshop. We finally found an escalator down to the gift shop, but it appeared to be blocked, with a bollard in front of it. To us, that meant "do not use." We roamed around again and finally found another escalator that was also blocked. Culture shock! It was a barricade to prevent strollers, but you were allowed to walk around it, so we did.

(Harrods purchases.)

 The giftshop had everything we needed/wanted, so I spent my gift card and then some on tea and cookies. By now, the fancy shoes I’d worn to meet my coworkers were giving me blisters and my sister, as I mentioned, had a broken toe. She lost interest in getting any pastries, so we left. Since there is no direct Tube line from Harrods north to our hotel, we decided to walk through the park north. We walked a short distance away from Harrods toward Hyde Park and found a place to sit down to regroup. Another couple was already seated there, so it looked legit. After a couple of minutes, a man came out of the restaurant and told us sitting wasn’t allowed. We had to move on. So we continued toward the park. (Apparently there is no sitting in London.) 

(A chestnut tree in bloom in Hyde Park.)

We got to the park and I took my shoes off for a bit, walking through the grass. We had a fight/argument over which way the map said we should go, but did make it back to the hotel. We dropped off our purchases and went to the local pub, The Swan, for dinner. Two pubs in one day! I had Mature Cheddar Rarebit with chips, which is basically another variation of cheese on toast. I don’t remember what Cynthia ate. 

(Cute little weeds in the park.)

We had an unbelievable early morning the next day, so we went back to the room and tried to get to sleep early. I don’t either one of us got more than a couple hours of sleep, though. When you are under pressure to fall asleep, I know that I, at least, can't.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Cynthia's suitcase arrived! Hooray!