A Little Stroll Through London

This week, I spent three fantastic days in London with Nicole and her great host family. This blog post will recount those three days, so if you don’t want to read the typical American tourist’s account of a visit to London, you can just skip this post. But for anyone who is interested in lots of details, this is the post for you.  And, for those who don’t like to read, there are lots of pictures to break up the long chunks of text, so no worries. Alright, here we go.

The first day in London was Tuesday, December 27th, 2011. We got up at 5:30 am and had a quick breakfast before loading up the car and heading out. We drove a few hours to Calais, in the north of France, where we were going to catch the shuttle under the English Channel. We drove the car onto a big train with lots of other people and their cars, then waited for 30 minutes while the train drove through the tunnel and under then channel. Actually, we got there half an hour before we left, since England is one hour earlier than France. Once the train was stopped, we drove off the train, after being kindly reminded by an animatronic voice to drive on the left side of the road. Then we drove a few hours through the beautiful English countryside to London. I bet it was weird for Nicole’s host father to drive on the left side of the road when his steering wheel was still on the left side of the car.  I stayed awake long enough to note how beautiful the countryside was before falling asleep.

When I woke up again, there was a bright red, double-decker bus on one side of the car, and a black London taxi on the other side of the car. We were officially in London! We were heading to the hotel to drop off our luggage and find a place to park the car, so I figured I would stay awake to look around, but I wasn’t expecting to see anything too exciting. Well, the GPS made sure that wasn’t the case. Thanks to the GPS making a mistake(or us making a mistake in following it’s “super clear” directions) we ended up driving right smack through the center of London, across the bridge that is right next to the London eye, right past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and right around the round point at Trafalgar Square. It was like every single movie where someone arrives in London for the first time, and here we were, living this dream out. One thing that was super weird was doing the roundabouts in the opposite direction. Oh, and we almost got smashed by a double decker that turned left at the same time as we did and didn’t manage to turn sharply enough. I think that woke us all up as we saw the bus about 5 inches from our car.

Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, along with a lovely bus that happened to be in the right place at the right time.

So, we eventually got out of chaotic central London and found our hotel. It looked out on Camden Lock, and a canal, lined with restaurants. It was in quite an interesting part of London, but we didn’t really explore Camden until Thursday, so I’ll talk more about that then. After we dropped off the bags, We parked the car away, knowing we would only be using the underground for the next few days. We walked to find a lunch restaurant, eating at a place called “The Diner.” Not the most exciting name, if you ask me, but the food was really good. Nicole’s host family all got hamburgers with chips, which were French fries. Chips as we Americans know them are called Crisps in England. I was in a breakfast mood, so I got my first ham and cheese omelet in over 4 months.

After lunch, it was time to head off as tourists to explore London. It was lots of fun for Nicole me to be the translators when we were buying tickets or asking questions and things. We took the metro to see the London eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey on foot. Theo, Nicole, Joseph, and I rode the London Eye(The big ferris wheel) all the way to the top, where we could see really far. Unfortunately, none of the pictures really turned out since it was night there, even though it was only 4:30 pm.

Me in front of Big Ben

Me in front of the London Eye

Me riding the London Eye. I know you can't see much in the background, but if you look closely, can you spot Big Ben?

After we were finished walking around and taking lots of pictures there, we hopped on the underground, being sure to “Mind the Gap between the train and the platform” and headed back to the hotel. We were too exhausted to go anywhere for dinner, so we just ate at the hotel. After dinner, it was time for bed, knowing we had a full day ahead of us the next day.

At precisely 8:30 am the next morning, the phone rang with our wake up call and we were busy bundling up for a day in the City. We were downstairs at 9:00 am, ready to go out in search of breakfast. We looked around a bit before finding a restaurant that was open. So I’m not sure about this, but from what I heard and deducted, this is my observation of English eating times. You eat a big, filling breakfast around 10:30, including eggs, breakfast meats(like bacon or sausage or ham), potatoes, toast, and baked beans. You don’t eat lunch unless you are super hungry, and then it would just be more like a snack. Then you eat a really big dinner around 5:30 or 6:00 which is your last meal of the day. I guess it works for the English, but it made finding a restaurant that would serve us toast and coffee at 9:00 am a bit difficult. The Diner, where we went the first day for lunch, said it served breakfast all day, but then didn’t even open until 10:00 am. So, we ended up at a pub for breakfast on Wednesday and Thursday, which was usually empty, but it was still a bit weird. But the food was hot and good, so it worked out well.

After breakfast on Wednesday, we set off to do more tourist things, this time going to visit Buckingham palace. Nicole’s host parents had told us the queen was expecting us for tea, but she very rudely didn’t come down to meet us when we arrived. In fact, she didn’t even schedule a guard change that day. So, we just stared up at the palace and the immobile guards while the flag fluttered above the palace, signaling that the queen was inside somewhere. We spotted a light on in a third-story window and tried to imagine that the queen was inside, looking out at all of the silly tourists.

I love English telephone booths so much I couldn't stand to just take a picture with one, so I took a picture with four at the same time. Funny thing is, I never actually went inside of one.

Mailing postcards in a typical English mailbox, with the royal crest even on the side.

Louise, me, Nicole, and Theo in front of Buckingham palace

After Buckingham, we hopped back onto the underground, and rode to Tower Hill. As we stepped out of the underground station, the first thing we spotted was the Tower Bridge, followed by the Tower of London. We all looked around for a bit, walking across the Tower Bridge to take yet more photos.

Me in front of the Tower Bridge

Me on the tower bridge, trying to capture the typical photo with a double-decker bus going across the bridge. We got one picture with the bus, and one with a taxi, but they were never together when we had the camera ready.

Then we split into the shoppers and the non-shoppers. Nicole’s host dad and I went inside the Tour of London while All the rest of them took off to go shopping. I loved the Tower of London and found all of it’s history fascinating. First, we took a guided tour, which was hilariously funny, (for those who could understand the jokes. I think for Nicole’s host father, it was probably boring and frustrating that he couldn’t understand most of it.) My favorite joke was when the guide was talking about how they executed most of the people up on Tower Hill and then stuck their heads on spikes of the bridge, instead of actually executing them in the Tower. And then, as we were about to move on to the next site, he said “Let’s head off.”

After the guided tour, (during which we saw where Anne Boleyn is buried, heard about two young princes who were murdered and then their bodies hidden for 190 years, and learned about a prisoner who, after he had been killed by beheading, had his head sown back on so that a portrait could be painted of him) Joseph and I walked around and explored things at our own pace. We climbed into towers and saw inscriptions in the walls left by prisoners and saw where the two princes’ bodies had been found. We also went to some of the exhibitions, seeing armor through the ages, models of the castle as it changed owners, and saw some of the real crowns of the former English monarchs.

Unfortunately, the tower closed just two hours after we arrived, so we had to leave, but I could have spent a whole day there. After, we headed to Piccadilly Circus to meet up with the others and look around. It was absolute chaos, with people everywhere! Once we found the rest of the family, we walked around a bit and then decided we had seen enough. We took the metro back to our home station, Camden Town, and rested a bit at the hotel before dinner. For the French, shopping in England is cheaper than shopping back home, but eating is more expensive. One of the cheapest ways to eat is by eating Indian or Chinese. So, Wednesday night we went out for Indian food, at a cute restaurant that has been there more than 40 years. Then it was back home and time for bed, with another full day ahead.

Riding the lovely London Underground

Our home station, Camden Town

Thursday morning was the same as Wednesday, even down to the food that most of us ordered at breakfast. Then we split again, Joseph and I to go to the Museum of London, and the rest to go shopping in Camden. We explored the history of London, from the artifacts found from the first people living there, to organization under Roman rule, through life under different kings, on to the great fire in 1966, and up to Modern Day London. Joseph told me he came to the museum with his middle school class many years ago and that it has barely changed.

After a few hours at the museum, we met up with the others in Camden to eat and explore the market. Camden is an interesting area. It used to be the area of all of the Punks, with the spiky mohawks and black clothing. There are still some rather interesting stores and lots of tattoo and piercing parlors. But, the market was really cool. There was every kind of food imaginable being sold from little stalls lining the market. In fact, you probably could have eaten a full meal by eating every sample shoved toward your face at each stall. After lunch, we wandered through the market and Nicole bartered a bit, getting a 40 pound pair of shoes down to 28 pounds. I bought souvenirs to use up the last of my pounds and pence, and to remember the trip. Another half an hour in the market and everyone’s feet were complaining that it was time to go home. We took another glance around, then headed back to the hotel to drink one that coffee or lemonade before starting the trek home.

Nicole in front of one of the more interesting shops in Camden

The ride home was pretty uneventful, since the GPS didn’t take us through central London this time. I slept most of the way, waking up to see the last few double-decker buses and telephone booths before fully leaving London. We caught the 8:50 shuttle, drove back through France and collapsed into bed, sleeping in this morning to celebrate our very successful stroll through London.