So, we dumped our bags, and having consulted a guide to London* kindly lent to me by a workmate, we hotfooted it to the Earl's Court Tube station where our first surprise met us.
I'd seen photos but totally forgotten - there is a Tardis outside the tube station. It brought us all up in our tracks (for some reason I thought it was in Leicester Square). The weird thing (to us) was that people just walk past it as though it's not there. We, however, turned into total fangurls and squeed and squawked at it.
The kindly gent at the ticket booth informed us that a travelcard was our best bet, as we could just hop on and off tubes for the rest of the day to our hearts' content. But we wanted to walk. And so we looked at the tube map, looked at the book, calculated and jumped on a Picadilly line tube to Green Park.
Where I promptly upset the teenaged daughters by taking my first picture of a tube-seat-covering**. Oh the shame!
From Green Park we followed the instructions in the book and walked to Berkley Square passing Devonshire house and Clive of India's house. The nightingales weren't singing and so we moved on rather swiftly in the direction of Mayfair. Now I'm not overly familiar with London despite one of my parents actually being a Londoner, but even I know that Mayfair means money. We wandered, open mouthed around places like Charles Street and wondered what all the armed police were doing outside one rather imposing building, but toodled along without really stopping to admire the buildings because we really wanted to get to Hyde Park to enjoy the last of the sunshine.
After passing the Red Lion Yard - fairly disappointing since only the facade of he pub remains - we did, in fact, stop for a while in the Mount Street Gardens to sit on a bench and watch the schoolchildren having a good run around. The Gruesomes exclaimed "ahh, how cute" just about every time we saw a schoolchild in uniform - especially the little boys in their shorts, blazers and school caps. But they still don't want to have to wear one. Shame. The gardens have lots of garden benches, with plaques to the memory people who have enjoyed their peace over the years. Very Notting Hill (the film) and we sat on one dedicated to a Philidelphia lady who had come over and fallen in love with the place.
But soon it was time to move on and we passed several very expensive designer boutiques - which Gruesome #2 especially loved as she wants to be a designer. We stared for a while at the Laboutin shoes and wondered if it really is humanly possible to do anything but stagger around on those monster heels.
Finally we got to Park Lane - cue several hilarious jokes about not standing still because we couldn't afford Park Lane with a hotel on it. There is a memorial to animals who have died in war over the years which is rather touching - something I'd not seen before, so we took a fair few photos of that. Then it was on to Marble Arch where wonder of wonders we managed to get photos without anyone standing or walking in front of it! There is also a new (to me) sculpture of a horse's head (Horse Drinking) which was a rather marvellous piece.
From there we walked through Hyde Park, down to the boathouse at the Serpentine, then abandoned the Dorling Kindersley walk through Belgravia in favour of going accross to the Albert Hall and Albert Memoria. Blimey - that is one Bling Bling monument - I really didn't remember it being that golden! There were a lot of coaches outsiide the Albert Hall disgorging countless numbers of Women of a Certain Age (older than me). It turned out that Cliff Richard was appearing there all week as part of his 70th birthday celebration. #2 asked a tout how much tickets were, and it seemed they were going for their face value of 70 of your English quids.
By then we were getting tired and hungry and looking for a tube station. But luck would have it, before we found it (Kensington High Street) we stumbled on one of the Giraffe chain of restaurants, slogan: Love, Eat, Live. It's sometimes difficult to find something we all like, and #2 is vegetarian, but in England it seems a lot easier.
Anyway, I had a spiced vegetable risotto (yum), Chef had baramundi with some kind of tomato salsa (yum), #1 had an oriental noodle salad (yum) and #2 had a vegetable burrito (yum - she ate it all, and it was massive). Coffee afterwards for me and they had ice-cream or cake. After that it was a short walk to the tube at Kensington High Street and back to the Youth Hostel for a good nights sleep before our first full day in London.
*London - Dorling Kindersley Vis-à-Vis series (in German... we saw several other people clutching this book on our travels, in various different languages.)
**I've decided to make one monster blog-post later with all the seat covers... just to build up the suspense you understand!
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Monday, 11th October - the trip to London. Part the first.
We didn't have a summer holiday, as such, this year due to lack of funds. However an unexpected windfall arrived in time for us to book a short stay in London during the first week of the Gruesomes' Autumn holidays.
We elected to go by Eurostar, partly becuase I love trains but also because from where we live to any airport, and then from any destination airport into London and all the waiting around involved with air travel it's just as quick to go on the hot and sexy eurostar.
Our original plan was to go for three nights (our budget) and stay at the Premier Inn, but some friends suggested we try the Youth Hostel Association which meant that our budget could stretch to four nights. There were no vacancies at the Kings Cross one, but Earls Court Youth Hostel had a family room which we promptly booked. Unfortunately there were no 2nd class tickets available for the Eurostar and for about 2 minutes it looked as though the trip might be off. But then... Chef and I both said "stuff it, let's go in styleeee" and we booked first class.
Horribly expensive but lovely.
We also took the precaution of booking seats for the parts of the journey not on the Eurostar which paid off on the way home on Friday (15th October)
So, 11th October dawned bright, cold and sunny. At 07:30 our taxi arrived and ten minutes later, horribly early for the 8:02 train, we arrived at the station. Chef and Gruesome #2 were promptly despatched for coffee while #1 and I piled our bags artfully and started to take photos.
The first train took us to Aachen where we had a cold 40 minute wait for the ICE to Brussels. The coffee and the cold had worked on us, so the 3 girls in our party set off to look for the loo. Unfortunately we found it - bleuch, but needs must. The time passed quickly but we had time to check the timetable for the Thalys to Paris while we waited - that will be our next Capital City Destination.
The ICE is a beautiful train, I've always loved them. The shape is just fantastic, and in the first class the seats are wide and comfortable. We had a set of fourr seats with a table, which was lovely, and there is a waiter service to bring coffee and snacks. We stuck to coffee.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to take a photo of Liège station when we stopped there, but it's totally beautiful. Very modern and clean looking - a real change from my local station and the horrrible thing they have at Aachen.
We rolled into Brussels perfectly on time and decided to use the Brussels-Midi station facilities before finding the Eurostar check in. These were slightly better than those on offer at Aachen but it did provoke me to wonder why when you have paid a fortune for tickets (first or any other class) you still have to put up with horribly stinky, cramped and sometimes downright disgusting toilets?
What struck me during the journey to and from London is that stations can be incredibly efficient, sometimes beautiful places. But the toilets are all disgusting. Why, for example, do they persist in the horrible stainless steel fittings and grey non-slip floors. This combo just always always looks disgusting and dirty no matter how recently it's been cleaned. Even in St Pancras which is my new very favourite station and v v fabby and marvy has the most horrible facilities. Added to which, if you're travelling alone with anything other than a small rucksack or bag, there is nowhere to put them while you pee. An oversight which I'd like to see addressed.
Anyway. Where was I?
We checked in for the Eurostar. To get to the UK from mainland Europe you have to show your passport. There were several school parties, and it seemd that each one had one member who had either forgotten their passport, didn't have one, or just couldn't find it. Total nightmare for the teachers I'd imagine.
The train itself is beautiful. Sleek and smooth, like the ICE with lovely comfortable seats. Again we had a 4 group with a table and settled down with our various books, mp3 players and what-have-you.
Soon after we started an airline-stylee meal was served which consisted of prawns in some kind of dressing, sheep's cheese with some kind of dressing and something else with a bit of fig. There was a small bottle of water for each person, and we could have wine or a soft drink too. After that there was coffee or tea. Not too bad and, a with flying, soon after the dishes were cleared away we arrived in London.
One thing: we whizzed into the tunnel without any announcement which I thought was a bit odd. One minute we were zooming through the countryside, the next there was total blackness outside which seemed to last for ages but was about 20 minutes in reality.
St Pancras, a place I'd last seen during my time travelling between Bristol and Germany as a schoolgirl, has changed beyond all recognition. For starters it's St Pancras International. But it has been modernised, the trains are all upstairs, and there are wonderfully shiny new restaurants, cafés and shops in the main concourse. The nice thing is that they have preserved the basic structure of the station, which is a beautiful Victorian edifice, within the small glass-fronted shops. More about St Pancras later though.
For now we decided that rather than annoy the lunchtime tube travellers we'd take a cab to the Youth Hostel at Earl's court. We passed through Hyde Park on the way, and it was such a beautiful, sunny, autumn day we decided that we'd check in, dump our bags and go for a walk.
The taxi driver didn't know the Youth Hostel in Earl'sC ourt but thanks to the fact that I'd noted down their directions from their website, we found 38 Bolton Gardens with no problems. As we don't use a credit card, we'd booked and paid for the room in advance - making the bank transfer at the end of September. But it still hadn't been registered by the YHA - apparently they receive payments at the head office and they inform the place you've booked when the payment is received. They had received my email with the payment details though so there wasn't much to worry about.
Having checked in, paid the non-YHA members fee, we went up to our room. It was at the back of the hostel and was the very basic room I was expecting with two bunk-beds and 4 lockers for our things. There was a loo and a shower close by which was good.
We dumped our bags, re-arranged our rucksacks and consulted a London Guidebook for a walk. Originally we'd planned a route through Notting Hill, but having seen how gorgeous Hyde Park was looking we changed our plans and jumped on the tube.
We elected to go by Eurostar, partly becuase I love trains but also because from where we live to any airport, and then from any destination airport into London and all the waiting around involved with air travel it's just as quick to go on the hot and sexy eurostar.
Our original plan was to go for three nights (our budget) and stay at the Premier Inn, but some friends suggested we try the Youth Hostel Association which meant that our budget could stretch to four nights. There were no vacancies at the Kings Cross one, but Earls Court Youth Hostel had a family room which we promptly booked. Unfortunately there were no 2nd class tickets available for the Eurostar and for about 2 minutes it looked as though the trip might be off. But then... Chef and I both said "stuff it, let's go in styleeee" and we booked first class.
Horribly expensive but lovely.
We also took the precaution of booking seats for the parts of the journey not on the Eurostar which paid off on the way home on Friday (15th October)
So, 11th October dawned bright, cold and sunny. At 07:30 our taxi arrived and ten minutes later, horribly early for the 8:02 train, we arrived at the station. Chef and Gruesome #2 were promptly despatched for coffee while #1 and I piled our bags artfully and started to take photos.
The first train took us to Aachen where we had a cold 40 minute wait for the ICE to Brussels. The coffee and the cold had worked on us, so the 3 girls in our party set off to look for the loo. Unfortunately we found it - bleuch, but needs must. The time passed quickly but we had time to check the timetable for the Thalys to Paris while we waited - that will be our next Capital City Destination.
The ICE is a beautiful train, I've always loved them. The shape is just fantastic, and in the first class the seats are wide and comfortable. We had a set of fourr seats with a table, which was lovely, and there is a waiter service to bring coffee and snacks. We stuck to coffee.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to take a photo of Liège station when we stopped there, but it's totally beautiful. Very modern and clean looking - a real change from my local station and the horrrible thing they have at Aachen.
We rolled into Brussels perfectly on time and decided to use the Brussels-Midi station facilities before finding the Eurostar check in. These were slightly better than those on offer at Aachen but it did provoke me to wonder why when you have paid a fortune for tickets (first or any other class) you still have to put up with horribly stinky, cramped and sometimes downright disgusting toilets?
What struck me during the journey to and from London is that stations can be incredibly efficient, sometimes beautiful places. But the toilets are all disgusting. Why, for example, do they persist in the horrible stainless steel fittings and grey non-slip floors. This combo just always always looks disgusting and dirty no matter how recently it's been cleaned. Even in St Pancras which is my new very favourite station and v v fabby and marvy has the most horrible facilities. Added to which, if you're travelling alone with anything other than a small rucksack or bag, there is nowhere to put them while you pee. An oversight which I'd like to see addressed.
Anyway. Where was I?
We checked in for the Eurostar. To get to the UK from mainland Europe you have to show your passport. There were several school parties, and it seemd that each one had one member who had either forgotten their passport, didn't have one, or just couldn't find it. Total nightmare for the teachers I'd imagine.
The train itself is beautiful. Sleek and smooth, like the ICE with lovely comfortable seats. Again we had a 4 group with a table and settled down with our various books, mp3 players and what-have-you.
Soon after we started an airline-stylee meal was served which consisted of prawns in some kind of dressing, sheep's cheese with some kind of dressing and something else with a bit of fig. There was a small bottle of water for each person, and we could have wine or a soft drink too. After that there was coffee or tea. Not too bad and, a with flying, soon after the dishes were cleared away we arrived in London.
One thing: we whizzed into the tunnel without any announcement which I thought was a bit odd. One minute we were zooming through the countryside, the next there was total blackness outside which seemed to last for ages but was about 20 minutes in reality.
St Pancras, a place I'd last seen during my time travelling between Bristol and Germany as a schoolgirl, has changed beyond all recognition. For starters it's St Pancras International. But it has been modernised, the trains are all upstairs, and there are wonderfully shiny new restaurants, cafés and shops in the main concourse. The nice thing is that they have preserved the basic structure of the station, which is a beautiful Victorian edifice, within the small glass-fronted shops. More about St Pancras later though.
For now we decided that rather than annoy the lunchtime tube travellers we'd take a cab to the Youth Hostel at Earl's court. We passed through Hyde Park on the way, and it was such a beautiful, sunny, autumn day we decided that we'd check in, dump our bags and go for a walk.
The taxi driver didn't know the Youth Hostel in Earl'sC ourt but thanks to the fact that I'd noted down their directions from their website, we found 38 Bolton Gardens with no problems. As we don't use a credit card, we'd booked and paid for the room in advance - making the bank transfer at the end of September. But it still hadn't been registered by the YHA - apparently they receive payments at the head office and they inform the place you've booked when the payment is received. They had received my email with the payment details though so there wasn't much to worry about.
Having checked in, paid the non-YHA members fee, we went up to our room. It was at the back of the hostel and was the very basic room I was expecting with two bunk-beds and 4 lockers for our things. There was a loo and a shower close by which was good.
We dumped our bags, re-arranged our rucksacks and consulted a London Guidebook for a walk. Originally we'd planned a route through Notting Hill, but having seen how gorgeous Hyde Park was looking we changed our plans and jumped on the tube.
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