Random Tash

Day 1

Tim and I took the red eye from Halifax to London at 11:45 pm June 30th.  After a 5.5 (+) hour direct flight (during which I did not sleep a wink because I was so excited) we arrived!  Due to the 4 hour time change, it was about 9:45 am by the time we arrived.  We hopped on the subway and sped to our hotel – which was a 45 minute ride away in the Paddington area of London.

Sidenote – the London metro system is the oldest and most rickety system I have ever been on.  The cars shake and rattle and there is no air conditioning  I actually got motion sick when I was on it!

I was super happy with our London hotel, and we even got upgraded to a slightly bigger room.  That being said, the room was so small that you couldn’t open your suitcase in it properly.  But it was one of the nicest rooms I have ever been in, despite the size.  It was all chocolate leather and white linen.  And the leather headboard went to the ceiling!  It looked like a designer had decorated it!  It was the most expensive hotel room of our trip, as London is one of the most expensive cities in the world.  I would recommend it to anyone for location and quality, as long as you know you have to pay for it!

We had a l-o-n-g nap and then decided to take a walk and get some food.  Less than 5 minutes away is Hyde Park, so we went there and walked all through it and Kensington Gardens.  It is such a gorgeous and giant park!  It was filled with other walkers, runners and people playing all kinds of sport (including cricket!)  We walked all along the giant lake.  We probably spent 3 hours walking off our jet lag!

Day 2

Our second day in London was jam packed with tourist stuff.  We headed to the London Dungeon first.  It wasn’t what I expected, way too cheesy (and I had expected A LOT of cheese to begin with) but we had a great time anyway.  No pics were allowed inside, but it was basically a cheesy “haunted house” thing with actors in each area.  There was a Jack the Ripper area, a torture device area, a Sweeny Todd area, etc.  Plus 2 rides.  One was a “boat” that went around a roller coaster-ish area, and the other was a ride that you get strapped into, it rises ,and then you suddenly free fall.  The last ride was my favourite.  The only pic from there is this one of me in a crazy chair.

After that, we walked to the Tower of London.  I had always pictured it much bigger than it really was, and much more scary seeing as so many people died there under suspicious circumstances.

But it was cool as hell to see the place old Kings lived and where people like Anne Boleyn were beheaded.  The Traitor’s Gate was my favourite part – I could almost visualize boats pulling up with prisoners in it, ready to die in the Tower.

The part where Kings had lived was incredibly small.  For some reason I always pictured Kings living the high life – but not at the Tower.  Very small sparse rooms were the norm.  I guess they saved the luxury for their other castles.  And size wise,  the Tower was no tower.  It was maybe 3-5 floors high at most.  We did an audio tour of the place and probably spent minimum 4 hours there.

Day 3

The third day we headed to the British Museum to see all that the Brits had stolen from other countries  The museum was free, as are all museums in London.  But we got audio tours because hey, Tim and I are geeks and get off on all this history stuff.

The Rosetta Stone was my favourite, but very hard to look at as it is probably the most important piece in the museum.

The museum was very crowded, especially the Egypt section – mostly school children on summer school/camp trips so it was THAT kind of crowded  I figure I’ll save my Egypty viewing for when I go to Egypt (which will be the next trip I take – I hope!)

However, I did look at all the mummies  . . .

and at this guy – whose body just dried up naturally thousands of year ago out in the Egyptian desert.

For the evening, we had tickets to see “As You Like It” at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for 7:30 pm.  I really wanted to see the theatre, and tickets weren’t that pricey so it all worked out well.  I had booked well in advance, so we had great seats.  No pictures were allowed but I actually took some before I realized that.  Whoops!

The play was fabulous!  Tim really loved it and said it was the highlight of London for him.

Day 4

Our last day was one of the most jam-packed days of the whole trip.  We spent the morning at Parliament and Big Ben

and went up on the London Eye.

Then went to  Westminster Abbey.  Of all the impressive church I have ever been in (and after this trip that is a lot!) Westminster Abbey is my favourite.  It is incredibly beautiful inside, and seeped with such history that it kind of blows your mind.  I mean, people like Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots are buried here!  The audio guide was also the best one I have ever listened to, with Jeremy Irons as the guide.

Then we rushed back to our hotel to meet one of Tim’s best friends and his wife and baby who had driven down from Newcastle to see us.  Tim hadn’t seen this friend since he was best man at his wedding a few years ago.  We spent the rest of the day and evening together (but for some reason I have absolutely no pics of them!)  We had brought baby Alex (he’s 1.5 years old) a plush stuffed lobster  - so that he doesn’t forget his Nova Scotia heritage – and it turns out that it is now his favourite toy and he has to bring it every where he goes and sleeps with it every night.  So cute!  We took them to dinner at this really nice organic farm food restaurant (fancy place that only serves things grown on its own farm or that it can vouch for) and had a good meal.  We had 2 rounds of olives which were the best olives I have ever had in my life!  I took an early night, but Tim and his buddy went pub crawling long onto the night

Stay tuned for the next recap . . . PARIS