Squally showers in London

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We arrived in London last night. A long 12 hour flight! Service was great again but 12 hours on a plane is still very long! Arriving at Heathrow was not as straight forward as Singapore. There was a loooong line at customs! Then, the transfer guy kept calling my phone…but I didn’t know it was the transfer guy. He had a really heavy accent and so I couldn’t understand him (or maybe he couldn’t understand me?). Anyways when we finally got out he was there waiting for us. The travel to London wasn’t too bad. He did have a little trouble finding our hotel. He actually didn’t know where he was taking us as he had to ask me. In the end we did make it. He even took our bags all the to reception for us.

Regent Palace Hotel is where we’re staying. It’s about 20m from the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus. We had booked 3 nights in an ensuite hotel room but on the first night (last night) we were asked if we could be downgraded as our room had shower problems. We said yes as they offered us a much cheaper rate (30 pounds for a room with shared facilities instead of 69 pounds for a private facilities room. The room was very basic. I guess we had been spoilt in Singapore! Literally a room with a sink, a table and a built-in closet. We went out to get food but as it was already 11pm most decent food places were closed. We ended up getting Burger King (10m away)…bad choice and only ate half of it. Was so tired. By that time we had been up for about 22 hours!

We woke up this morning about 6-7am. A decent sleep in a lumpy bed but still a nice straight sleep. For brekkie we ate Mi Goreng instant noodles and coffee. Worked out pretty well using the portable kettle we also brought. We get ready and check out of our downgraded room - we are told that we will be able to check in to our ensuite room this afternoon when we return.

Next we get tickets for the red “hop-on hop-off” bus - the Original London Bus Tour (₤20) and also entry to the London Eye (₤13) from the concierge. We start our bus tour.

The bus service is really well done. There are live guides on each bus and having live commentary is so much better than listening to the headphones. Today we saw most of the main London tourist sites - Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards (including seeing the Queen being driven out of the palace), Green Park, Ritz Hotel, London Eye, National Gallery, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, St Pauls, Westminster Abbey, etc etc. We bought a hot dog for a mini lunch...a ₤3 hot dog before the London Eye ride. Probably the most expensive hot dog I’ve ever bought! The London Eye was pretty good and we were blessed with a fairly clear morning. The rain came around 2pm. I guess a visit to London isn’t complete without rain.

We walked our way back to our hotel instead of taking the bus. London’s not as big as I thought it was! We settle in to our ensuite room. A nice corner room with the tiniest ensuite I’ve ever seen…but ahh our own shower/toilet!

We were planning to watch the Champions League soccer finals in a pub but all the pubs we went to were PACKED! We ended up grabbing a pizza from Deep Pan Pizza next door, beers (₤1.20 a bottle!) and drinks from the corner shop and watching the game on tv in our hotel room. Good thing too as Arsenal lost!

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Photos

Changing of the Guard @ Buckingham Palace
Me at Buckingham Palace...we even saw the Queen drive out!

Big Todd & Big Ben
Just before the rain started

Todd & Me on the London Eye
The London Eye is the highest observation deck in the world

Todd & London Eye
Todd and his London Eye halo

Comments

[Dean]

London, eh?
London's pretty small, eh? The entire population of Australia (and then some) in an area not much bigger than the inner city of Sydney! You just have to stop thinking about the conversion rate... after a while, I just didn't try converting anymore because I was sick of thinking, "Oh yeah, ₤10 for a meal in a pub, not bad... wait a minute!! That's like $25!! Aww, crap!"