Advertisement
Published: February 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
London Dungeon
Great Friends at the End of our Rope! My First trip across the big blue ocean and my first (of many) stamps in my passport. London, England 1999
Thursday, February 18, 1999. It is hard to believe that only a week ago I had no plans to go to Europe and for that matter, I didn’t even have a passport. But after some super saver emails, trips to the post office and some quick packing, here we are. Deanne and I boarded the plane around 8ish EST. Our in flight food and entertainment was nice. We had pasta with cheese and sausage for dinner but they showed Simon Birch as the dinner time movie. Ever seen it? It is extremely sad. However, later in the evening, when everyone else was trying to sleep, they played the new Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker movie Rush Hour. We were too excited to sleep so we karate chopped each other until the people next to us glared as to say…go the hell to sleep already. And we wish we would have. We were dog tired the following day. When we arrived in London, it was 8am the following day (2/19/99)! We waited for the airbus representative for about an hour but
Us and Arnold
Us at Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum, London they finally arrived and we checked into the hotel around 11. We walked to Harrod’s to get some cash (exchange) and then started our quest to purchase a “White Pass”. This pass grants you admission into 15 museums. We ate lunch at Burger King. This week in London was Fashion Week. Sounds exciting but it really wasn’t. We came back to the hotel to take a nap and get ready for the show tonight. We were truly exhausted. We each sat on the edge of our beds and turned on the TV. OMG! We couldn’t believe what we were watching on their regular broadcast. We sat silently, then in unison we tilted our heads to get a different prospective, then looked at each other and busted out laughing. I’ll just leave it to your imagination. After napping we got ready for our show. We had 7:30pm tickets to see Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre. This is not a good area to be at night. But luckily we were together.
Saturday, February 20, 1999. Today we started on a bus tour of the city, to get our bearings. We exited the bus at Piccadilly Circus to have lunch at Planet Hollywood. We had lunch vouchers that came with our vacation package from US Airways and what a good deal it was. After lunch and some shopping, we walked to the National Gallery. We got to see original paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet. We walked by Talgafar Square where there was a demonstration to release Turkish political prisoners. After watching the protests, we headed for Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and eventually met up with the Ghosts and Legends Walking Tour. I found the G&L tour to be very informative. I got to see one of the churches from Four Weddings and a Funeral. And we learned more than just the legends. Our guide pointed out buildings of interest with a nice night-time perspective. It was a lot of walking but well worth it. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store for bread, snacks and sodas. We also picked up Kentucky Fried Chicken. We were very tired when we reached the room (in my journal I have Kentucky Fried Kitchen to show you how tired we really were).
Sunday, February 21, 1999. This was by far our busiest day. We finally figured out where everything was and how to use the tube “mind the gap”. Our day started at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. I highly recommend this place. Where else can you get a picture with the Queen? I was so impressed by the wax figures that I used an entire roll of film. There is a little ride that takes you through some of it so people aren’t standing in your way. I thought that was a nice touch. There was one that even had something in her chest to make her “breathe”. Afterwards, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I wasn’t too impressed with it. Other places we visited today included Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and London Dungeon. The London Dungeon is like an amusement park. It is not what I thought it was going to be. Ok, I’m morbid but I thought it was going to be a real dungeon. Deanne and I took pictures of “pretending” to cut each other’s heads off but by this time, I think we were ready to do it for real. Thank goodness we are such good friends. It is something to laugh about later. We had a really nice dinner at Hard Rock Café. Our table was right next to the Prince (and the Revolution) wall. Yummy!
Monday, February 22, 1999. We get to come home today. I’m glad but also sad to leave. We lost our return tickets and we were freaked out. But luckily while we were waiting for the lady at the counter to figure out how to get us new ones, we found them. We did some shopping and then boarded the plane. Our in flight meal was beef stew for lunch and finger sandwiches for dinner. They offered us free bottles of wine too! We watched two movies and Darma & Greg.
It was a fun trip with a great friend. I’m glad my first trip across the pond was with Deanne. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0381s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb