Live-Blogging London: A blog of my husband Paul’s and my first trip to London
Wednesday, September 24 – 3:40pm | Detroit Metropolitan Airport
Paul and I departed Reagan National airport in Washington DC today around 12:30pm. We arrived in Detroit around 2pm and are at the airport awaiting our departure to London, England at around 6pm. So far the airports have not been busy. We have been lucky to find a spot next to a power outlet to set up camp for the next few hours. Unluckily, Internet access is going at a rate of $5 per hour. The Internet will have to wait for London – I am hopeful that the Marriott will be more reasonable.
Wednesday September 24 – 4:30pm | Detroit Metropolitan Airport
Out of curiosity, Paul inquired about upgrades to business class. The cost of the upgrade would have been $4000 each. To put that in perspective, both of our roundtrip flights were a total of $1325.
Wednesday, September 24 – 6pm | the airplane
Now on the plane, we’ve been told there is going to be a 2-hour delay. The announcer reassures that the issue is not mechanical or critical. So far my first venture over the Atlantic Ocean is not going as well as hoped.Moments later the announcer states that we will be moving to another plane and that we are to go back into the airport and take the shuttle to the corresponding gate – about ¾ mile away. We do as instructed and board the shuttle. As soon as we boarded, the shuttle is disabled. Now we walk…and walk…and walk…and continue to wait to board the new and, hopefully, not broken plane.
Wednesday, September 24 – 8pm | the airplane
Now settled into our new plane, we get our in-flight meals and check out the in-flight entertainment. We opt for the Sex and the City movie. The meal was surprisingly palatable. End of the movie, now we sleep…or try to.
We arrived at Heathrow, made our way through the maze of the airport to the Underground. Not knowing which tube tickets to purchase, we decided to go to the info desk. I inquired about the Oyster Card (pay as you go card) that I’d read about. The oh so helpful gentleman then questioned why I’d want to buy something I knew nothing about. To which I replied that I knew enough to want to buy it. We just gave on that pursuit and purchased our tube tickets and finally began our trek to the Marriott. The soothing voice over the PA repeats “This is the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters” for the duration.
After a harrowing tube ride, transfers and hauling luggage up/down stairs (when no elevators or escalators were available…thanks to the guy who carried my bag up to street level and in return did not run away with it as was feared), we arrived at the Marriott. The room is heavenly. The bellboy that brought our luggage up also explained a bit about our room. Not sure about tipping and pound vs dollar values, and not having any smaller bills, Paul tipped the bellboy 5£ (which is about $9…ouch). The plan was to drop off luggage, freshen up and head out for our first day of sightseeing. Instead, we made the mistake of sitting on the bed and taking naps.
We reluctantly awoke from our naps to get ready to go out. We explored a bit of our neighborhood around Park Lane, Oxford street and various side streets. This area is littered with both high end and inexpensive clothing stores and restaurants. Also in close proximity are Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. Tomorrow we plan to start our day early with a double decker bus tour of the city.
Thursday, September 25 – 5-6pm | Oxford Street, London
The pubs really fill up after work here…they pour into the streets with people drinking pints and smoking. There seems to be a lot more smokers in London.
a warning on a pack of cigarettesDinner at an Italian restaurant. Food was so-so, wine was no-no as was horrible Whitney Houston soundtrack.
More walking around after dinner. Found a bar near the hotel. The crowd at this particular bar was bit young, but much better wine than the Italian place.
Thursday, September 25 – 8pm | Marriott Park Lane, London
After dinner and a bit of exploration, we’re back to try to get some much needed rest so that we can do more extensive sightseeing the rest of the week. Paul was checking out the mini bar and prices: an airplane sized bottle of liquor is 7.50£ and a Tobleron is 2.50£…he quipped that he could have gotten two Tobleron’s for the amount he tipped the bellboy. Paul just realized our minibar fridge is equipped with sensors that automatically charge your room if you remove anything. We didn’t actually partake in consuming any of the over-priced goodies in the fridge, so Paul called down to confirm that with the front desk...otherwise we’d most likely have a hefty bill to pay.
This morning we embarked on our tour of London via the Original London Tour double decker hop on/off bus. The bus had an open top which was nice, but the temperature was cooler than I would have liked, so we opted to stay inside the bus for a bit. Then we decided we were missing out, so we opted to go up. It was cold, but nice views. After riding around a while and seeing lots of major sites (Big Ben and Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Dungeon and Tower Bridge to name a few), we got off at the Tower of London to visit.
from top: map of tour, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament & Big Ben
After the TOL visit, we dined at a nearby Subway. I ordered a BLT and, much to my dismay, realized that the British don’t actually cook their bacon and had one of the worst BLTs ever.
Friday, September 26 – 12:30pm | Tour of London
For the next leg of our tour, we opted for the Thames river cruise that was included in our tour. After disembarking, we continued walking around the city and got back on the tour bus to continue with the tour.
Friday, September 26 – 5pm | Buckingham Palace
Purchased tickets to tour Buckingham Palace Saturday morning. Walked around the palace, Clarence House and St. James Palace. Along the way we passed some guards surrounded by people going up having their pictures taken with them. We wanted to also, but felt weird cause of the guards and them working and all…we did it anyway.
One of the guide pamphlets recommended ‘gastropub’ the Cow in the Nottinghill area of London. We arrived via the tube and were greeted by hoards of people on the sidewalk drinking pints. We ventured in and eventually found the restaurant upstairs. Apparently in London, restaurants aren’t really into the whole host/hostess seating thing. We walked in and asked the waiter about seating. We were sat, got menus and ordered drinks. The prices were high, but the food was excellent.
Friday, September 26 – 11pm | Venture for a Pint
After dinner we headed back to our neighborhood and ventured out to find a real pub to get a real pint. We showed up at a place near the hotel, walk up to the bar to order. It’s now 11:05pm…the bar stops serving at 11pm. Really? Yes, really. Apparently, if we’d been there before 11pm we could continue to order drinks. Back to the Marriott.
Saturday, September 27 – 10am | Buckingham Palace
We scarcely arrived at Buckingham Palace on time for our 10am tour. On the tour were we viewed state rooms, 19 I believe, including the dining room, drawing rooms, throne rooms and galleries. At the end of the tour we exited into a garden area and visited the gift shop.
Saturday, September 27 – 11:30am | Harrod’s Department Store
After the Palace Tour, we made our way to Harrod’s for lunch and to have a look around. Upon arrival we were greeted at the entrance by an anti-fur demonstration…the pictures on the placards were disturbing. We made our way to the foodhall via the perfume section where those perfume gals are more than willing to spritz you with the latest scent…we sprinted through, bobbing and weaving to avoid being sprayed. Ah, the foodhall. There were various places to dine, from sit down bistros to deli counters. We opted for the more affordable deli counter for some sandwiches. Little did we know that if you opt for this, there is no where to sit inside the store to eat. Too late, we already got the food, so we then had to leave Harrod’s. Luckily, Hyde Park was nearby so we hiked over there, after some difficulty finding it, and picniced on a bench and, while there, fattened up the over-friendly pigeons and squirrels. After we ate, we went back to Harrod’s to look around. 7 floors, I think, of well, everything. They sell designer clothes, toys, sporting goods, groceries, you name it.
Saturday, September 27 – 3pm | Portabello Road
The rest of the afternoon we cruised the Portabello Road markets. The streets were crammed with people shopping for everything from touristy shops, to flea market goods and antiques. We followed the crowd through the windey, hilly streets for a while, popping in and out of shops. We came upon some pubs and decided to sit a spell and have a pint. We found a really chill pub great for people watching called Ground Floor/First Floor.
middle: cute dog in the pub
sign on left: 2nd from bottom reads ‘it’s pink, it’s bubbly, it’s lovely’
sign on right: interesting selection of ‘snacks’ at the pub includes 'eggs'
sign on right: interesting selection of ‘snacks’ at the pub includes 'eggs'
We got a recommendation from the front desk for a fish-n-chips place and some nearby pubs. We ended up at Aubrey’s. FNC was so-so (I’ve had better stateside). After dinner we walked around, looking lost, we bumped into an American couple that recommended Guy Richie’s (Madonna’s hubby) pub, The Punch Bowl around the corner.
Saturday, September 27 – 9pm | Marriott Park Lane, London
We decided to head back to the hotel to check out the heated indoor pool and sauna. It was great.
Sunday, September 28 – 12pm | Piccadilly Circus
Last day in London. Slept in and headed to Piccadilly Circus. We checked out the Covent Garden, Soho and China Town areas. We stopped in Trafalgar Square for some photo ops then headed to Covent Garden for lunch and browsed the shops and street performers.
from left: in Trafalgar Square, China Town, Covent Garden
We went back to Hyde Park for a more comprehensive visit and saw the Italian fountains complete with swans. We walked to the other end of the park to Kensington Palace, encountered more friendly water foul and saw the sunken gardens at the palace.
Dinner at Henry’s, which was more or less like an Applebee’s type place. Food was so-so. Paul was in heaven with his Sausage and Mash. We strolled along the streets looking for an area that was recommended for good pubs, but never found it. Instead we just walked around aimlessly for a last look of London before heading back to the Marriott.
Monday, September 29 – 9am | Leaving London
Got up, finished packing and went down to do some last minute gift shopping before checking out. We will surely miss the luxury of this hotel.
Blogging: A Retrospective
I decided to blog the London leg of my Europe trip. Paris in a nutshell: cold, rainy, sick, frustrating, language issues, 1-star crap hotel (if we were to do it over, we would have started in Paris and ended in London and spent less time in Paris). One good thing about doing this assignment is that I now have a log of the trip. The challenges were trying to find a work area in which to blog at the various locations or just remember all the details and events of the day if I wasn’t able to blog on site. Also, balancing school time and vacation time and constantly reminding myself make time for school. I enjoyed the more casual, conversational aspect of blogging this piece. I feel that my voice comes out more in this style of blog.
As a blogger I don’t find myself following any of the rules of blogging. I blog (outside of class) when I have time or feel like it. Which is not often these days. I also do not publish my blog to a wide audience. My blogging is generally for my own entertainment and the entertainment of the few that are allowed to read my blog. I do think that blogging can be therapeutic, writing in general can be.
In general I would say this blogging experience was a positive one. Hopefully it was at least somewhat enjoyable to read. I’m going to attempt to use DreamWeaver to copy/paste the HTML into Blogger to see if that helps with the formatting issues.
