London: Shoes

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Oh London. . . I honestly don't even know where to begin, but I can tell you this. . . If this trip were to end right now, it would still be worth every penny that we have spent. Currently it is 4am and I am sitting in the Stratford airport, partially delirious from sleep deprivation and partially moping that it is time to leave London. It has been absolutely incredible, and so much more than I ever expected! I'll try to fill you in on some of the fun stories without boring you with details (Those can come at home . . . )

We were incredibly proud of ourselves in Frankfurt for getting ahead of the game and booking ourselves a place in London. We found this great hotel called The Central located just east of Hyde park right near all of the tourist attractions, so we were getting more and more excited as we approached London.

A traveler's tip for you, be much more astute when booking places than we were. Turns out, 'Central' Hotel is, in fact, quite great with a great location. . . but 'THE Central' hotel, on the other hand, is located waaaaay out in East London. . . Thus translating to us getting to know the public transportation system very well. After arriving at 6am and realizing this mistake, and after the trek to our East London dive, we were smelly, tired, incredibly cranky, and still a few hours from check-in time. It was not a pretty sight. But we sat in a little Yugoslavian coffee shop and ate, napped, and got filled in on some valuable tourist info, and then went back to check in. After a rejuvenating nap, we took off and headed out for the evening.

I have never been to a country more obsessed with shoes than England. We were out at some fun pubs over by Carneby and Kingsley, which close at about 11 here. After that, all that is open is 'clubs', but we were repetedly informed that we could not get in because of our flip flops. At one point, we were told we could get in for just 20 pounds. Yeah right! However, the pubs were friendly to all shoe types, and we had no problem enjoying good drinks and good conversation in the pubs. Saturday morning, we headed out to Central London to hit the typical tourist spots: Big Ben and the Parliament buildling, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St James' Palace, Picadilly Circus, etc. At this point it had literally been 24 hours since we had eaten a real meal, so we got a little bit of food and then spent the evening out and about in Central London. Today was spent catching up on the tourist attractions we didn't get to hit yesterday, so we spent some time in the National Gallery, the British Museum, attempted to watch the changing of the guard, and the London Tower. We did not do any of these places justice, as we could have literally spent days in each place. They were truly some of the most amazing museums I've ever been to. Then we went to an evening mass at St. Paul's cathedral, which again, cannot be described in words. It was difficult to even sit there and listen to what was going on with how gorgeous the building was.

To end the day, and our trip in London, we decided to trek it on over to the Florence Nightengale museum, partially expecting it would be closed but wanting pictures anyways. So we made a VERY long walk over there, and finally arrived to probably the most rundown building located underneath the hospital directly next to a dumpster with tacky cheap hotel-like letters saying 'The Florence Nightengale Museum'!!!! it was hilarious!!!! We decided if we move here perhaps we will be promoters for the Florence nightengale museum and try and bring it up a notch. I mean really, the Starbucks are in nicer buildings than this was! But again, in the end it all makes good stories.

Ok, like I said, it's about 4am and i'm about to get kicked off this pay by the minute internet, so I'm going to wrap it up. I am leaving out so so so many details, but this is a well documented trip between my video camera, our digital cameras and the numerous journals we are keeping. But for now, Off to Dublin. . .

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Comments

[Mary B]

London sounds awesome!
It sounds like you had a great time in London, did you have tea with Prince William?