London Week 2: Sightseeing

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Friday

Trafalgar Square
Oxford Circus
Regent St
Oxford St
Notting Hill

The plan this day was to buy a week ticket on the buses. There were many advantages for us to use buses. We were living fairly close to the central part of London, so probably wouldn't be travelling very far too far often. We were on holidays so not in a huge hurry to get anywhere, buses were slow compared with the underground or train. Buses were comparatively cheap and gave us the opportunity to understand where we were in relation to where we were going. Last time I was in London was over 20 years ago and I used the tube. I would climb underground and then pop up wherever I had to go and had no idea of where I was in relation to anything else nor any sense of direction
The tube had an off peak rate after 9.30 am but was more expensive in the busier part of the morning whereas busses cost the same all day and was the same price per journey no matter where or how far you travelled. So the week ticket cost £21.
For tourists as ourselves buses also made sense because we could sightsee as we travelled.. Of course, if I had to commute to work daily, or was big a hurry then the underground or train were obvious better choices.

So we headed off to buy our week ticket at 10.30 and then rode directly into Trafalgar Square where we looked around, acted like tourists and had lunch.

The National Museum was next. It was situated right on Trafalgar Square and we saw many paintings from Great Masters before watching some street busking on Trafalgar Square.

A long walk from there along Regent Street to Oxford street to the new Primark Store, that had been recommended. It was really too crowded to entice me to bother to look at anything. Good prices though and from what I saw the quality looked decent. Just don't ask me how ethical the production of all their stock would have been.

Then Tomas wanted to go to Notting Hill because it was one of the few places he was aware of thanks to the movie. Unlike me, who grew up playing the London version of Monopoly, Tomas grew up playing the Stockholm version. None of the London landmarks were familiar to him.
We couldn't find the Notting Hill bookshop so it was either fictional or we were in the wrong part. It started raining while we were there, so all we saw were a few vintage clothing shops and then headed home through the busiest part of the city so that just sitting on the bus took about 2 hours. I would have rather been on a bicycle.
Had Tomas have been more prepared a Google search would have given us all the movie locations.

Saturday

Borough Markets
Richmond

Up early to walk Fly and then off to the Borough Markets without a hitch. Loads of yummy food tastings every where and a colourful, vibrant atmosphere.
At 2pm we had a date with my friends who I know from Adelaide and work and live in London. We met at a lovely riverside town of Richmond. The village was buzzing on a Saturday. Pubs and cafes were crowded and people walking and boating on the river. It was so much more picturesque, spacious and relaxed here than it had been closer to the city. It reminded me much more to what I would have imagined a pretty English village should be like.

We lunched at Steins, which was a Riverside pub with a German theme. Sausages, potato and sauerkraut were big on the menu. The atmosphere and location were worth it on such a sunny, pleasant day.
It was great to catch up with people I had such a long history with.

It wasn't such a long bus ride home but it took about 3 hours and stopping to do groceries in Brixton added to it. Brixton was overly crowded and I found it very unpleasant at this time of day.

Fly was snoozing at the top of the landing of the stairs but quickly perked up when he noticed we were home. We took him for a long, happy walk in the fading sunshine. We had fallen for this lovely, gentle creature. He was such a delight to spend time with.

Sunday

Brick Lane
Spitalfield Market
Greenwich

Up early to celebrate Fly's 18th birthday with a long walk in the park as soon as we woke. By 9.30 we were on the bus to Brick Lane and Spital field Markets. It was suggested that we go to these markets on a Sundays They were busy, popular and at their best.
We arrived just after their 10 am opening and wandered around until just before midday.

To catch buses in London I had to be quite well prepared in advance. I used the internet before leaving the house to download the information for all the routes we were considering to travel during the day. The Google Maps App was my method of choice and then I would take a snapshot of my screen, so that I could save the information offline.
From the markets we had decided to travel to Greenwich where The Greenwich Mean Time line is. There is also London's Astronomical Observatory, Nautical Museum and Cutty Sark Ship. It is a popular place to spend a day on weekends with plenty of free and pay to enter attractions. Especially on a sunny day, such as this.

When we jumped on the bus we weren't completely sure that we were gong in the right direction as it arrived quite quickly so I asked the driver if we were heading to Greenwich and he looked confused. Then I asked for West Ferry Road and he said that I was on the wrong bus. We jumped off crossed the road and that looked wrong. Crossed back to where we were and everything looked right. I checked with my map and saw that we would be arriving on the opposite side of the river to Greenwich. Almost on the verge of aborting our plans and choosing to do something else I looked closer on my map. There appeared to be a foot tunnel passing under the river to Greenwich so we waiting for the next bus of which we had just been on and continued without any more hitches.

The route to our end point passed the financial district of Canary Wharf. It looked as if here all the banks had super modern and imposing, expensive towers.

We had lunch in the landscaped garden beside the Thames facing Greenwich and then walked across the underwater footbridge. The afternoon was spent wandering around all the attractions. Tomas wanted a photo on the line that indicated the point of mean time, so we lined up for about 20 minutes for our turn.

We could have spent plenty of more time. By 3 pm we decided that we would be happier to be home with Fly and help him to celebrate his birthday as it could well be his last. He makes it obvious that he is disappointed to see us leave the house each day so we feel guilty leaving him for too long.
He got lots of hugs and cuddles, a long walk and then an evening of being brushed and I know he enjoyed that we were all together.

Monday
Tower of London

An early morning and a big day at the Tower of London today. Woke early with the alarm and took Fly for his walk. We left the house at 8.30am and the bus got us to the Tower at 9.30am.

At 10am we joined the first Beefeater tour guide running a 50 minute introductory tour. I was happy that we got going early as it wasn't overly busy yet. He was good at his job and made a performance of the tour telling us of each beheading and the dramatic stories of the royals of past. We were also lucky to get through the crown jewels display without much of a crowd at all. Those that arrived in the afternoon were not so lucky. Then we toured the kings residences before eating our lunch in the glorious sunshine in the tower gardens.

Another 2 hours of touring after lunch through all the remaining exhibitions and by about 3 pm we were done.

With a little time to spare before feeling that we needed to be home we took a bus to Harrods.
From my point of view it was just a regular department store that concentrated on only the most expensive products available in the world. Most of the people shopping were women in veils. Each shop department was displayed to show extravagance and appealed to those who were attracted to glitter and opulence. I read recently that you can even purchase your personal private aeroplane from Harrods.

Tuesday

Hampton Court Palace and Gardens

Another early start to head out to Hampton Court. It was about 2 hours from where we lived by bus. We were there at 9.30 am but it didn't open until 10 am so sat in a nearby cafe for a half hour. It was much colder today than it had been the last week and we unfortunately weren't so appropriately dressed. Leaving so early in the morning didn't give us a chance to monitor the weather properly. The forecast had said sun and 22 but maybe not for Hampton Court. Luckily when we entered the Palace part of the viewing experience was to borrow medieval capes, so we managed to warm up and join in with the atmosphere.

Hampton Court spans back 500 years. Part of the Palace was built for King Henry VIII in Tudor style and a few centuries later King William III knocked part of it down to build a Renaissance styled palace. He ran our of money and his wife Katherine passed away before he had the chance to knock down more of the Tudor Palace.

There were many medieval impromptu acting performances activities and information sessions. Unlike at the Tower of London the audio tour was free. We attended a talk on the Guinness took of Records largest grape vine in the world by the woman in charge of caring for it.

I was also keen to do the Garden History Tour which was the last thing that we could fit in our day. By that time I was disappointed that I hadn't managed to cover even half of the buildings in the Castle, so I raced through what remained without covering any detail.
I really felt that I could have done with another day to explore.

Before heading home we had to find our way through the famous mazed hedges. The entrance to the maze was included with our Palace admission.

When returning home we got a huge welcome from Fly who tried jumping all over us, he was so excited. It was nice to spend a relaxed evening in the animal's company. Only one more night left for us in this house before we leave.

Wednesday

Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard
Science Museum

Fly got his walk and a brush before we headed off by bus to Buckingham Palace.
We arrived at 10.30am and already there was a thick crowd of people waiting for the ceremony, which happens every second day in August.
I waited the hour squashed into the second row back from the gates.
I was squashed beside a bus tour of Italians which, I thought, was quite lucky as they were all even shorter than me. I understood a few words and guessed they must have been hungry: lasagne and spaghetti. That must be why they left before the end and gave me a prime viewing spot.

We next got ourselves to the Science Museum. It took a while as we first started heading in the wrong direction and had to turn back.
It was impossible to cover all the exhibitions in the afternoon. I would have liked the chance to return because too much of it was exhausting.



Another few days in London would have worked out well in order to manage to return to more exhibitions. The Science Museum had free entry and no queues. It was impossible to try to see everything in one go. After three hours I was exhausted and felt quite suffocated.

Now I can make my assessment
of the 3 museums in the same area. Of the Victoria and Albert, Science Museum and The Natural History Museum my favorites are in that order. If I was 10 years old then my favorites would probably be in the reverse order.

Of all the things I have done and seen in London I would say that what I will most treasure was the company of those two sweet animals and my memories of walking Fly in the Gardens will be my fondest.

Thursday

Heathrow

Our flight wasn't until 5.45pm so we could have a fairly relaxed morning. By 12 we had cleaned and packed and Fly had been on 2 walks and had a good chunk of what remained of the treat packets. It was sad to say goodbye but he looked well and we were grateful that nothing bad had happened to him during our watch. He will be very happy to see his real family again, who would be arriving only a few hours after we left.

We got to the airport at 2.30 and check in opened at 2.45. Our last remaining job was to get our Oyster Travel Card refunded including the credit remaining in it. They could only do this through a machine in Terminal 4 and the machine didn't like that our cards still had a valid weekly ticket on them.
The Information Officers were extremely helpful and directed us to go to terminal 3 with the train where they could help us at the ticket office. It wasn't such a big deal really but we didn't know how long this would take, nor how difficult it would be so it was a little nerve wracking as we hadn't factored in having to do this.
All turned out fine and we caught the Heathrow express back to Terminal 4 with plenty of time to spare.
The whole process was the most streamlined and civilized of all the airports we had yet experienced. Very little waiting in any of the queues and every process appeared to be well organized. The airport didn't even seem crowded but our plane appeared to be full.

It felt good to finally be on the plane. No responsibility for a while. Sit back, be fed and served drinks. Royal Brunei don't serve alcohol, which may be why their flight was quite cheap. This didn't bother me in the least as if I flew with an airline that did I would probably be subsidizing other people's drinks.

London to Brunei had reasonably good meals. Mine was ratatouille and Tomas had a spicy chicken rice which smelt amazing. Both were followed by ice cream. The meal from Dubai was very ordinary and I then remembered that it was an identical meal to what we had on the way over.

Dubai to Brunei was more comfortable for us as there were more empty seats on the plane and I managed a pretty decent sleep.

Unfortunately, from Brunei we had been due to leave at 8pm but the plane had technical difficulties and as I understand we had to wait for another plane to be brought in and we weren't scheduled to leave until 1.15pm. This was an inconvenience for many. For us as we had planned to catch up with friends in Melbourne on Saturday and it would be a long train trip to see them and then back to where we were staying. Others we spoke to had connecting flights to New Zealand and were practically in tears over the possibility of missing them.

On the upside. We were well looked after with food and drinks at the airport. After 10 pm the airport was very quiet. The seats were great for stretching out on and it was a good chance to shake off some potential jet lag.

At 11 pm there was an announcement that our flight would then be leaving at 12 midnight and there were cheers and applause.

Arrival at Melbourne was 9 am on a clear, bright but brisk morning. The initial shock of the cold air when walking out of the plane to the terminal bus felt like diving into cold water. It felt safe, familiar and comfortable but I was also itching to start scanning the internet for what possibilities I might find for our next overseas adventure.

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