Following the Dream

Christian September 1st, 2008

     We arrived at London Heathrow on the morning of the 21st of August.  With the little amount of sleep on the overnight flight, we were not particularly thrilled with the battery of questions that we had recieved from the customs officer.  At one point I swear he was going to ask me what my dogs’ names were and my astrological sign.  Once out of the interpretation room, it was pretty smooth sailing.  Leg two of the great round the world journey has officially begun.  The subway connects right from the airport to all parts of London, including Harrow the town on the outskirts of London that we were staying in.  Our room small but had everything we would want, and at $95 dollars a night, it was a steal for London.  We started our trip out with a well deserved nap.  Awaking refreshed, we headed out to see a few things.  The weather was surprisingly nice.  We got off the tube by the London Eye.  We walked for a bit along the river, stopping to watch the performers.  These are people that put on little acts such as magic shows, dancing, playing instruments or dress up in elaborate costumes and people tip them for their photo with them.  It was pretty fun.  The London Eye can be described as a huge “ferris wheel” with capsals that you stand in instead on sitting in a chair.  Since the weather in London is notoriously rainy, we decided to go ahead and take a ride on it while the weather was decent.  The wait in line was over three hours or ten minutes with the fast pass.  We decided to go with the fast pass.  Thirty minutes and one hundred dollars later, we had finished our ride on the London Eye.  The views of the city were fantastic, especially of Big Ben.  Once finished on the Eye, we headed for a quick bite to eat.  It may be stereotypical and seem wrong, but that bite to eat was at McDonalds.  It was quick, close by, and the cheapest option.  We then we off to get a close up look of Big Ben.  Whenever you are looking at such iconic cultural symbols in person, it is pretty amazing.  It is something that you see on TV, in movies, and see photos of.  Standing there with the black cabs and red double decker buses of London whizzing by while looking at Big Ben and Parliment is a great experience.    

 
     After snapping a few photos, we crossed the street and took in views of Westminster Abbey.  It is amazing how much history is jammed into London.  Due to budget constraints and expensive entrance fees, we had to pick and choose what buildings we went into.  Unfortunately this was not one of them.  We admired it from the outside.  We continued on through Green Park, passing White Hall and ending up at the Buckingham Palace. 

Traffic was shut down out front of Buckingham because men were setting up a stage for an Olyimpic Celebration.  We unfortunately did not get to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  From Buckingham we made our way to Piccadilly Circus.  This almost looks like a mini Times Square.  It definitely seemed like the hangout for many teenie boppers.  Next up was Trafalgar Square.  They had set up a huge screen in the middle of the square that showed BBC’s coverage of the Olymipics.  There were tons of people watching them, showing their support for their country’s atheletes.  We headed back to the room from there for some much needed food, beer and sleep.  The town we are staying in is pretty nice,(about 30 mins outside city center) and much cheaper to go out in than Central London.
     The next day we did not get moving and out the door until 2:30.  The time change is really taking it’s effect.  We decided to go to the Tower of London.  It is a medieval castle in London that was used to protect the city, overlooking the river.  Now it protects the royal armory and the crown jewels.  We were able to catch a sword fighting show, which was pretty fun to watch.  As we climbed into the White Tower, we were greeted by columns wrapped in flint lock pistols.  The have pieces of armor worn by the kings of the past, and ceramic molds of their horses.  To imagine that the kings of the past were actually wearing the armor at one point was amazing.  Alongside some the armor, they sometimes had old paintings of the kings wearing the same armor.  From the White Tower we made our way to the crown jewel collection.  The line was long, but moved very quickly.  We were lucky enough to be standing behind a twelve year old with a world class mullet.  It was amazing and worthy of a photo.  The crown jewels were also amazing.  You are led through a series of rooms that show short video clips on the jewels.  Then when you get to the vaulted room that the jewels are in, you go onto a moving sidewalk that moves the crowds past the jewels.  They shimmer and shine in the lights of the cases and include the world’s largest diamond called “The Heart of Africa).  Once out of the jewel room, we explored the Tower of London a bit more.  We took in views of the Tower Bridge from the wall.  After we left the Tower of London, we grabbed some fish and chips from a food stand.  It was pretty good, not bad for English cooking.  Then again, it is just a deep fried piece of fish with french fries, not that hard to get wrong.  We decided to head back early and get some food and do some research.  We brought Subway back to the room and paid for wireless internet access so that we could put the last post up as well as book our transportation to the airport for our flight to Amsterdam.  We fell asleep early and woke up early so that we could get an early start.
     The next morning we awoke nice and early and headed to Kew Gardens.  It required a few train switchs and took over an hour to get to.  It is supposedly the world’s largest botanical gardens with the most diverse collection of plants.  It was large, and well kept.  We headed to the treetop walkway where we climbed a bunch of stairs to get to a metal walkway that was at the height of the treetops.  It was neat to be up there, but there was not too much to see.  We then headed into a few of the greenhouses and to the pagoda that they have, stopping on the way the international garden photography contest display.  All in all, we felt the gardens were nice but not amazing.  Every two minutes there was a low flying jet overhead which disrupted the peace and quiet of the gardens.  Also, at the time we went there were no flowers in bloom.  We felt a little let down, since for half the price it seems that Longwood Gardens at home is much more beatiful.  After spending a few hours walking in the gardens, we headed to Covent Gardens to get some food.  There was a ton of people and performers here.  We could not find anything to eat for under $20 a person so we decided to look elsewhere.  We stopped at a streetside stand and got a piece of pizza for $3 each and made our way to the British Museum.  On the way we stopped at a traditional English pub and had a pint with some food, since the pizza did not fill us.  After some good food, we headed on to the British Museum.  It is free and amazing.  Their collection of artifacts is incredible.  Due to the limited time we had at the museum due to the closing time approaching, we headed to the Egyptian rooms and then to the artifacts from Mesopitamia.  We also saw the Rosetta Stone, a huge Easter Island statue, among other incredible artifacts including a crystal skull as featured in the most recent Indiana Jones movie.  After they kicked everyone out, we sat on the stairs of the museum for a while, trying to figure out what to do next.  We ended up going back to the hotel and going out for a bite to eat in one of the restaurants in our town.  They had a great deal, two meals for $15.  After dinner we walked around the town for a bit. 

      The next day we went to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Saying it is huge is an understatement.  We walked around it and took some photos before heading over to the Millenium Bridge.  On the way over the bridge, you can see the Tate Modern Museum.  Interestingly, on the wall there is a painting of a man with a gun pointed right at you as you walk towards the end of the bridge.  We then swung a left and walked along the river to see Shakespere’s rebuilt Globe Theater.  There were no tours on that day, so we continued on our way.  We decided to go to the Notting Hill Carnival, supposedly Europe’s largest street party.  It did not dissappoint.

   The subway was overflowing with people blowing whistles and chanting out loud on the way to Notting Hill.  We got off at the stop and just followed the drunk people to the party.  The bass from the speakers was vibrating the air from blocks away.  The closer we got to the party, the wilder it got.  We stopped to watch a parade of a truck with 50 or so five foot speakers playing music with a crowd of people dressed in costume following it.  The party had a Jamaican vibe to it.  Everyone was carrying around cans of Red Stripe, and the streets were littered with vendors selling Jerk Chicken.  Each block had it’s own thing.  There were walls of speakers set up at various points with crazy shirtless teens dancing thier hearing away right infront of the speakers that stood taller than they did.  There was even some live performances.  Along our travels, I picked up a few beers and joined in with the festivities.  It was a great time.  There were tons of people dressed in wild clothing, from spiderman outfits to pink tutus.  After a spending a few hours in the countless blocks of wall to wall people, we headed back to the hotel for a nap and dinner.

  We spent a little bit of time on our last day looking for a convertor for my Nintendo DS.  It was a last minute decision to take with, and I had forgotten to check if it could handle 220 voltage.  It only took about an hour to locate one.  After that we went back down and said goodbye to our friend, Big Ben.  After that, we headed back to start packing for the next day.  We caught our shuttle through EasyBus to the airport without any problems.  We even made it to the airport 2 hours before the flight.  Things were looking good.  That is until we were waiting in line and realized that we had come to the wrong airport.  London has five airports, and we changed our mind last minute on our flight and did not realize it flew out of a different airport.  Even after holding the piece of paper with the airport on it while booking the EasyBus to Stanstead, it did not click that we were booking the wrong shuttle.  After we found out it would be three hours to transfer airports, we decided our only option would be to switch flights to Amsterdam and leave at 6:45 PM instead of 2:00PM.  London dug it’s claws into our wallets one more time with a $300 change to our flight.  Our discount flight wasn’t so discount anymore.  We decided to go to the airport’s Irish Pub and enjoy some food and adult beverages to try and forget our horrible day.

We absolutely loved London, it has more history and things to do then you can ever pack into a one week vacation, but we were horrified by the prices. London is not for the budget traveller.  After South America we were just shocked and not willing to pay $9 for a beer or $6 for a slice of pizza, but for those who keep looking you can find some deals, you just have to get used to walking a little further…and a little more further….

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