| London 2005 Trip On 2/9/2006 12:55:00 AM, Mike wrote : | Viewed : 470 |
| London 2005 I started out packing and ended up discovering that I mispacked and was missing about half of my stuff (underwear and socks). Tyler and Matt were champs about taking me to the airport and I was happy to be finally on my way. The trip to DC went off without a hitch and I ended up getting stuck next to the quiet couple. Nothing like getting stuck for 5 hours next to two people who don't say a single word the entire time. I mean, I am ok with it, but they were just bickering back and forth. BLEH.. After that I boarded the flight from Dulles to London. The next flight I was seated next to a very enteraining girl who was probably just out of HS. She was going to London to stay at a friends place for New years. Scott met me on the exit platform just after I picked up my luggage. I was very happy to see a familiar face as I wasn't sure I could handle the underground. turns out, its a good thing he was there. We took the Heathrow Express back to Picadilly Circus and back to our hotel. we were originally supposed to stay in a different hotel near Hyde Park, but turns out that there was a mistake and we ended up getting moved to a much nicer place. The location was ideal for sightseeing and traveling. With Leicester Square and Picadilly Circus within less than a 5 minute walk, we were able to get around with almost no hassle. By the time we both got back to the hotel, it was just after midnight and we were both a bit hungry. We headed to a local cafe for a bite to eat and so began the quest to eat as many ham and cheese paninis as we possibly could. We got up pretty early the next morning sugffering from some major jetlag and unable to sleep. I really wanted a real enlish breakfast and we found a local place that had exactly what I wanted. Eggs, Sausage, Ham (they call it bacon) and baked beans. yeah, not sure where the baked beans came from, but it was a tasty addition to my breakfast and i think I'd add it to my camping menu. From there, we decided to head to the Tower of London. It was quite a place with a dungeon and lots of armor. It also houses the crown jewels. We also managed to make friends with a beefeater, hehehe, well, not really. He was quite entertaining and apperently we got the good one as I later found a CD of him in the airport on my way home. Wierdness. He managed to only reinforce the fact that as an American, its really hard to distinguish the differce between straight and gay with most of the europeans we met. I am quite certain that most of them are not as gay as they appeared to us, but man, it sure was enteraining to have a beefeater make jokes about wearing drag. I'll let you decide. After the tour, it was pretty late and we were both a bit peckish so we headed to the cafe. They had some really fantastic tomato soup and Scott enjoyed his Potato and Leek soup as well. After that we headed for a walk over to see tower bridge. It is truely amazing that we don't have anything as architeturally stunning as what we saw. I'll let the pictures tell the story rather than me trying to muddle some words down to describe it. I'll have to ask scott where we ate dinner that night as I am sitting here on the plane and I cam't seem to remember where it was. The next day we got up a little closer to normal UK time and we headed to the London Eye. The pictures really don't do it justice as it is really huge. The view from the top is outstanding and you can see so many popular sights like "Big Ben" and Westminster Abbey. The trip takes about 25 minutes or so and was well worth the time and money. from there we headed across the river on the underground and over to the Westeminster Abbey. I spent the whole day unable to remember the name and for some resaon, it came out as the Winchester Abbey instead. Scott thought I might have been thinking about the Winchester Mystery House, but I can't recall ever having been there. The Abbey was an amazing site, but they were very specific about no pictures in the Abbey and we even saw one of the guards give one of the other tourist a hard time about trying to snap a picture on the sly. After the tour we headed back to the hotel to get dressed for a night out. We decided to head to what is referred to as the best gay bar in the world. Now while I would speculate that there are better clubs elsewhere, we did have a good time. We had a few drinks, counted down to 0, had another drink and headed home for the night. We wanted to get an early start on the day. Well, despite our best efforts, we ended up sleeping a bit later than we expected. We got up and headed toward Hyde Park after a big lunch at Pizza Hut. It was very authentic and was just like home. From there we headed to Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. We basically went on a long walk and saw the Palace, but of course since the Queen was home, we weren't going to get a tour. We took a few pictures and headed back to the hotel. Since we had seen all of the major sites in london, Scott suggested going to Stratford Upon Avon. You might have heard of it...It is where some guy named William Shakespere was born. we took and early train that took us diretly to the town and that was the first time I'd ever been officially on a train. We chatted over a few pastries we'd picked up inthe train station and before we knew it, two hours had come and gone and we were there. We decided to try and find some info and take a walk. We ran into Bill's house and took the tour. Again with the no pictures thing, UGH. It was quite a site to see and I don't think I really appreciated where i was until we started walking around. We stopped for a bit of lunch which had the most confusing instructions for ordering. Apperetly, you sit down, read the menu, go up to the counter and then pay then they bring it to you. Somehow it sounds simpler here, but we did have a bit of trouble ordering lunch when we walked in about 15 mins before they were ready to. From there we went on a walk and Scott explained out a loch works (though to his own admittance, we made a tiny little error, but that is ok, we still love him). In walking around we came upon the church were Bill was baptised. We took some pictures and I left Grandma Kantanen's name in the prayer list. I normally wouldn't have bothered, but I knew that would have been something she'd have appreciated. We took some pictures of the very creepy graveyard. We walked around a bit more, froze our butts off and then headed back to the train station. I think I would have wanted to stay a bit longer had it not been like 35 outside. (And that is in "f" not "c" there kiddies) We got up the next morning and headed to the coach station to pickup Daniel. He is from Prague, no really, he'll tell you a few times in the videos. After picking him up, we moved all of our stuff to the new hotel in the Docklands. From what I gathered, its a bit of a new development area and its a bit off the beaten path. Since we were already there, we headed to the Maritime museum where they have the line for Greenich Mean time. Pretty cool and you can see in the pictures the laser they use to demarkate the line. From there we did some walking around and took a few more pictures then headed back to the hotel so we could head out for the evening. We had dinner at a random Indian resturant and was happy that the food was yummy. From there we headed to Compton St (I think its Compton St) for a few "throat washings" and after about the 4th pub, we headed home. I got up the next AM and headed back for LA via Chicago. All in all, a damn good trip. | |