Friday 16 January 2009

London Holiday Day 1

Monday morning, we organized ourselves to head to the train station. Two adults had to take an 8:57 train (in order for rail ticket discounts to apply) and the rest of our group had to travel on the 9:26. Bill drove his dad, Joseph, Tjitske, and Drew down to Kettering and dropped them off to come back for Abby, Philip, his mom, and me. Drew and Tjitske took off on the 8:57 with plans to wait for the rest of us at St. Pancras train station. Dad and Joseph chilled in the coffee shop waiting for us to arrive. Our drive down to the train station was as fast as possible but only left us five minutes until the train’s departure. I leapt from the car and whipped out our huge duffel bag and my bag and with Mom’s help, herded the kids into the train station. Bill zoomed off to park the car. As we came out onto the platform, the train was already there waiting, so we started to load our luggage on. Dad and Joseph saw us from the coffee shop and came out with all their luggage and began loading. Bill was nowhere to be found. The train guy was ready to close boarding, and just then I saw Bill coming through the doors. But, unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to get a ticket for the car-park, so he ran to the train to get a train ticket from me. I whipped one out of the holder and stuffed it into his hand as the doors were closing on us. So our train took off without Bill. It was then I realized that I had, in my haste, given Bill a child’s ticket, not an adult’s.

I had my phone, and Drew had Bill’s phone, so Bill was left with no way to communicate with us. We knew he could get a train a half hour later and decided to wait in an obvious place for his later arrival at St. Pancras. I was really hoping they wouldn’t check his ticket too closely so he wouldn’t have to buy a whole other adult ticket.

Once at St. Pancras, we left the frigid track area and went downstairs to the shop area, spotting Tjitske and Drew on our way down the escalator. After a toilet break and a few trips up and down the escalators for Philip, we spotted Bill coming down the escalator! Basically, the car-park ticket machine there at the train station was broken, so Bill had to go all the way across to a different place to get the ticket which was why he was overly delayed. It all worked out pretty well though and the delay was not too long at all. Dad and Mom set off with some of the luggage in a taxi – heading to our hotel – while the rest of us headed for the tube. There were huge long lines to get tickets, so that took some time, but we eventually made our way to the Earl’s Court station and easily found the hotel. We left all of our luggage there and set off for the Tower of London. It was back to Earl’s Court and all the way across the District Line to Tower Hill – a ride of about 20 minutes.


After arriving, hunger set in and all but Bill and Drew went to find somewhere to eat. Bill and Drew got in the hugely long line to buy tickets for the Tower of London. Once we found a nearby bbq restaurant, I went back to the line to tell the guys where we were. Fortunately, the line moved fast so we were all able to get our lunch pretty much together. Then it was off to the Tower.


I personally think the Tower of London is a “must see” and it was quite an amazing tour. You walk along the walls and go through the round towers spread here and there along the walls. In one tower, we found King Edward I; and Bill, Abby, and Joseph were sent by the queen to go before the king to plead for their home and land to be returned to them. King Edward I decided to allow them to live in their home and pay rent to the crown – very magnanimous!
Another tower held ancient crowns used in the past for various monarchs – now without the gemstones because the settings had weakened. Then we moved on to the White Tower – perusing weaponry from the last 1000 years as well as actual suits of armour from various monarchs and aristocrats etc.
It was quite the crush and we tried to see as much as we could of the five floors, but time was going fast and the last admission for the Crown Jewels was 4:30. So with this in mind, we exited there at about 4:15 and got in the huge line to enter the vault. The line moved much faster than I anticipated and we made it through the doors in time. The Crown Jewels at the Tower holds gem encrusted crowns – about a dozen of them, including the State Coronation Crown. There is also the scepter that holds a 530 carat diamond – one of the nine diamonds to be cut from the Cullinan diamond – the largest ever found. There is also a robe made with gold thread as well as huge displays of gold used for dinners and feasts. Of course it’s no photography allowed and there was tons of security everywhere to ensure no one was breaking rules. One guy tried to surreptitiously take a picture and we saw a guard corner him and confiscate the camera and start deleting photos. After being boggled by priceless treasures, we exited to the beautiful sight of the Tower Bridge lit up in the night.


We then took the tube back to our hotel to prepare for dinner. Bill and I had dinner reservations just for us (anniversary dinner a day late) and the rest had reservations at a restaurant named Giraffe. They set off walking shortly before 6:30 and Bill and I leisurely got ready for our later dinner of 8 PM. At 7:30, Bill and I went downstairs to leave and as I was walking by the hotel restaurant, I saw the family sitting at a table getting ready to eat. Somewhat taken back, we went in to see what had happened. They had walked up to Kensington High Street and were just about to reach the restaurant, when a group of Palestinian protesters started up pretty much right in the area of the restaurant. Things were looking a bit chaotic and rowdy and very quickly police arrived on the scene and started barricading things. So they couldn’t get to the restaurant and in the interest of safety, they turned around and brought the kids back to the hotel.

Bill and I then went on to our restaurant, a lovely French place smack in the middle of a high-end designer store area with the requisite Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis, etc. It was a quiet night in that area though and we had a peaceful and delicious dinner before heading back.

A note about this trip: there was definitely a difference in London at this time of year. In August, there were lines at the London Eye, but there was not the huge crush of humanity that occured during this trip. London was packed, everywhere, and it was almost vibrating with energy. Tourists like us were out in droves speaking many languages. Lines for attractions were long and there were little “events” happening everywhere you went. Add to this the heightened security (elite police with automatic weapon guarding various places) and things were hopping.

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