We get the feel of London today – grey and wet

Woke at 2am, downed a sleeping pill then we both woke at 4am.  And we thought we’d beaten the jet lag!

It’s Sunday morning and we thought we’d be smart today… get up early, have breakfast and race down to the London Eye to use our tickets before the masses arrive.

So, we have a great breakfast in the basement restaurant then leave the hotel.  It’s raining lightly… maybe we should get our rain coats.  “What do you reckon?  Yeah might as well I suppose.”  Just as well we did because as the day went on the rain got heavier and heavier.  It wasn’t cold but it was bloody wet.

We used out “Big Bus Company” tickets again and took the blue circuit through Knightsbridge.  We decided to jump off at Harrods to take a gander at what the rich and famous spend their money on.  It’s 9.30am but the wealthy are still having tea and toast in bed because Harrods doesn’t open until 11.30am on Sundays (and a frightfully early 10am on week days for the bargain hunters).  However, it closes late – I think it was 8 or 10pm.

So, we peer in the windows at gob smacking displays.  It made no difference being closed because the 50 quid in my wallet wouldn’t have bought anything in there anyway.

So, race back to the bus stop to jump back on and we get on what must be the oldest of the “Big Bus Company” busses.  We’re downstairs in the rain and it’s leaking all around us from upstairs.

We decide to sit tight on the bus for a while until we get to Oxford Street – shoppers paradise.

Go past Kensington Palace where Princes Di lived, around Paddington, Gloucester Place, Marylebone Road, Regent Street and leap off at Oxford Street for some shopping.

Stop for a coffee (caffeine boost) at a French patisserie.  It’s new in town, opened in 1883 and is still run by the same family – well descendents of.  I order a latte for me and a double strength Mocha for Jem.  My kiwi accent and quiet voice meant they delivered Jem what looked like a short white double strength brew.  He managed to drink it and has been very perky for the rest of the day so far!

Walked the length of Oxford Street visiting a fair few shops.  For a place where it rains and snows heaps I’m surprised at the lack of shelter over the footpaths – it is non existent. So everyone just get’s wet through. There were a couple of shops which were pretty amazing. HMV was huge and had many aisles of music and DVDs.  I checked out a couple of favourites, Eric Clapton and Queen. Well I’m used to finding 2-3 albums but there would have been at least 15 albums of each.  This place had everything imaginable!  Managed to keep my money in my wallet though.

Next was the Nike store. It was fabulous. Check out the photos.  There’s a section on the 3^rd floor – by appointment only – where you choose your shoe model and size (from the display of grey coloured shoes) then on computer add your own colours, materials and designs to create a unique shoe.  I guess you then order it and a few weeks later it makes its way from China to your doorstep.  The shoes on display were works of art.

Next it’s try and find something for Kat’s birthday.  There’s no shortage of female clothing shops and Jem does his best with me traipsing behind.  They’re going into winter here and back home of course we’re heading for summer.  Looks like the summer sales are well over and there is plenty of choice of winter styles.  Jem eventually finds something he’d like to get but Dad says it’s too expensive after I do the math (sorry Kat!!).  We’ll try again in Rome where maybe there’s more summer stuff left.

By the time we finish with Oxford Street we’re getting pretty tired of waling, pulling raincoats off and on again each time we go in and our of a store.  We come to Charing Cross Road – recognise that – and head down it, back toward Trafalgar Square and the tour bus route.  No pub lunch today… we decide to lighten up and have Subway.  But the experience is pathetic compared with our subway. The dudes behind the counter aren’t interested in us, there’s only 2 choices of bread left, both “white” and boring and while we’re eating a deliver man drops in about 4 more boxes of “white bread”.  So much for “we make the bread fresh on the premises” that we’re used to.  However, it does the trick and refuels us.

We walk a few blocks in the now teaming rain and jump on a tour bus.  No room downstairs so we go upstairs. No room in the forward shelter so bugger it we go to the back seat and sit in the rain.  You can see us eating it up in the rain.

Well the bus route map shows the route breaking into two and one heading back to Victoria Station near our hotel and the other going in the opposite direction towards old London Town.  We assume, because we want to go home, that we’re on the Victoria route. Wrong. Bugger. We jump off on the London side of Waterloo Bridge and decide that it is more reliable to walk home (probably about 3-4k).  We get wetter and wetter.  We stop at a bus stop but can’t fathom the system.  I ask a cabbie how much to take us home. Ten pounds. Bugger that – we’ll walk.  We pass The Embankment underground station and I suggest we have a crack at the tube.  We enter the station – it’s pretty big.  The famous tube map baffles us beginners at first look so was ask for help.  Londoners are always “lovely” to you when you ask for help.  We get put on the straight and narrow, buy a couple of oyster cards which are electronic and you just load money on them and when you get on and off the train or bus it deducts the amount off the card.  So we’re set for tomorrow too.

Well the underground was brilliant and got us home quick smart.  We’re only about a 400 metre walk from the Victoria Station.

I say we’re staying in a hotel. But it’s one of a line of many very small hotels.  It is I guess 4-5 storeys high, with I guess about 5 rooms per floor.  It’s brilliant though and we did well getting it.  Booked via www.londontown.com – a fantastic site for planning a visit to London – and we got it at rock bottom prices of between 65 and 85 pounds per night by booking a couple of months ahead.  It’s no sweat to pay 200-300 pounds a night staying in London – do the math on that at x2.5 for NZD!

As we walk back to our little hotel it has stopped raining and is blowing strongly. This is brilliant because it dries us out really quickly and our damp jeans and saturated coats are virtually dry when we walk in the door at about 3.15pm.

Time to “chill” says Jem.

We both jump on our laptops and decide to “write home”.

Next… let’s go see what kind of deal I can get for a wireless internet connection.  The 30 minute “complimentary” went last night.  We’re suffering from lack of sleep and lack of internet access.

Back now… got 2 internet tickets. Each lasts 1 hour for 2 quid.  That’s $10/hour – pretty steep. But at least we’ve got it.  If we want it full time they charge 15 quid a day (about $40 which would normally buy you about 10 gigs of data over a month).

We’re going to see if we can log in two laptops on one ticket at the same time… I wonder if we can get away with it.

Cheers for now

Doug