Day 5: London on 2 Hours Sleep

Well, here I am. I landed around 9:00 A.M. and after the lines and a lot of walking and a lot of carrying around my suitcases I made my way to the London Heathrow Express. That cost me about 12 pounds. Got me into Paddington in less than 15 minutes, though. Nothing special about the train (besides maybe the tv)--reminded me of the trains in Sydney. The station exit dumped me right off on some street corner, and it took me a little while to figure out where I was with my Pocket Streets program. I discovered quite unfortunately that my London maps aren't quite programmed with correct GPS coordinates. They seem to be a few blocks off. (Thanks a lot Microsoft). I wonder if the Germany maps have the same problem. Well, they'll still do for helping me get around. Anyway, so I was lost and kind of disoriented for a little while on the streets of London. And my arms were really tired from lugging around my luggage. I really need to get new bags with wheels, instead of these 8 year old things with wheels having fallen off. But I found the hotel. The New Haven Plaza Hotel. It's actually in the same white, block-long building as a number of other hotels. Seems kind of like a series of flats that got converted to hotels because they were so close to Paddington station. The New Haven Plaza hotel is by far the most elaborate, which is probably why I found it on the Internet. I was worried they wouldn't let me in until 2:00, because that's what they advertise, but I got there at 11:00 and they let me in. It's a small room. Just a bed, TV and bathroom. But it was a great price, and besides, I don't plan to do anything but sleep in it. Actually, as soon as I walked in, I decided to take a nap, since I didn't get much sleep on the plane. If I hadn't set my alarm, I might have slept all the way into evening. But I managed to wake up to the alarm around 1:00, and I reluctantly arose (couldn't afford to waste an afternoon of sunlight). First thing I did was go downstairs and arranged a Stonehenge tour. I didn't get the tour I wanted, which would have been tomorrow, but I got one for Thursday. Then I decided to go tour Westminster Abbey. The tour I wanted to go on started at 2:00, and I asked the receptionist how long it would take to walk down there, and she thought no more than half an hour or so, so I started walking (I didn't want to risk getting lost on the tube). I went through Hyde Park, which is huge, but very nice. Lots of soccer and joggers. I walked by Buckingham Palace. Didn't even realize what it was until I saw the guards. And then I found Westminster. Now, I'm going to confess a bit of ignorance here. I knew Westminster was where "the Abbey" was, but I didn't realize that it was the center of everything. Big Ben. Parliament House. It caught me a little off guard. I even had a faulty understanding of what the 'Abbey' was. I had no idea it was a full-fledge Cathedral where kings were buried. I was thinking more along the lines of something outdoors, like the walk in Hollywood, with all these poet graves. So yes, I'm stupid. But I'm learning. On a sidenote, maybe I was just distracted, but it's a 45 minute walk at least. I just barely got there in time for the tour, and I think wearing sandals was a really bad idea because I could already feel the blisters then (they got worse later).

So the tour I went on was part of this "Walks of London" series. I picked up a pamphlet on it at the airport just because I was bored and wanted some reading material. I'm glad I did. It's really cool. You land a whole bunch of other people) meet a guide outside of a train station and for 5 pounds, he'll take you around and show you things. No appointments necessary. They have a wide variety of customized "walks," a different selection each day of the week. A great way to see London. Much better than all the double-decker buses going around, unable to stop and get close to anything. Our tour guide was a strange fellow. He wore a suit coat, but underneath it was a well worn pink polo shirt. He was unshaven and almost looked like a bum. But he was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and had a great English wit. He took our group of about 15 people around the Abbey. the Parliament building, and into the backstreets, giving us all sorts of interesting histories. Learned a lot about British politics. Even walked by party headquarters. There were a couple of American chicks in our group, as well as a single Aussie chick from Brisbane. Cool chicks, but they were all leaving tomorrow, so kind of difficult to make a move. Everybody else was, ironically, British. We ended up by Winston Churchill's war room around 4:00.

About that time, it really started to rain. It had been sprinkling off and on. But this was a downpour. I was really not dressed for it. Come to think of it, I was really not packed for it. It was a very cold day, and I was in short sleeves and sandals. I did have the foresight to bring my BYU sweatshirt at least, but that's the only thing I packed that will keep me warm. Anyways, I found shelter outside the north door of the Abbey for about half an hour. I was hoping to go in, but it was closed. I was thinking of trying again tomorrow. Then the rain stopped, and I took a stroll down the north bank of the Thames. It's a decent size river. I took a few pictures of the bridges. What interested me the most was the pubs that were housed in barges right on the river. I almost stopped in one of these for dinner, but I decided there was still time to do other things before eating. So I cut on over to Trafalgar Square and took a very rapid 30 minute stroll through the National Portrait Museum. By then it was 6:00 and everything was closing, so I ate at the nearest restaurant I could find, Garfunkles. I've seen a couple of them, so I guess they're some sort of chain or something. I had fish and chips. But not like fast food fish and chips wrapped up in Newspaper and eaten on the sidewalk. I've still got to find me some of that. This was more restaurant style, the fish not even fried. It was still good, of course. Two observations about eating in England so far. First off, food is expensive. Judging from the various menus I've looked at, as well as McDonalds, the prices are just slightly higher than America when it comes to the numbers. However, when you consider the exchange rate, you realize things are twice as expensive. Secondly, do you know how hard it is to get a decent cup of water? I ask for water and they asked "mineral or sparkling?" And when I said tap, they just kind of looked at me funny. But they gave it to me anyways, so that's good. Oh, and finally, everyone here seems to smoke. The non-smoking section was really small, and there's no way I wasn't getting second hand smoke. But I'll tell you, there were some hot chicks eating alone in the smoking section. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have gone over there and flirted. Well, maybe.

From there, I walked back down to St. James Park. That's a pretty cool park. Lots of water fowl. Then I went to Buckingham Palace, this time with a little more time to observe. The cool thing here was I managed to be right at the gate when Tony Blair drove out of the palace. Complete with motorcade and everything. I tried to get it on video, but I'm not sure you can see him. And from there, I went back through Hyde Park. I tried to find a Frisbee game, which supposedly was going on, but couldn't. Besides, I was wet and my feet had blisters and I was wicked tired. So I guess it's a good thing I didn't find a game. From Hyde Park I walked back to the hotel. It was probably 8:30 when I walked in, and I just crashed. Like immediately. In fact, it's tomorrow morning already when I'm writing this.

Posted May 13, 2003 (11:01 PM) | Comments (0)