Skip to main content

31 Days of Traveling to Europe: Day 9 - Our First Day in London


One of my favorite features on the exterior of St. Matthew's Church



We finally arrived in London! We were at Heathrow airport and decided the best way to get to our hotel in Notting Hill was to take the Heathrow Express train on the "Tube". We asked a very nice transit agent for some advice and he told us about the Oyster card.



It is a smartcard that can be used instead of paper tickets. All it takes is a 5 pound deposit and a few pounds more to put on the card and you are ready to go. The thing that was amazing to me is that they refund whatever money you have left on it and give you back your deposit once you turn in the card.

The train gave me my first glimpses of London, running behind the buildings full of flats. Once we got to our stop, we made our way to street level, rather precariously hauling our suitcases up steep flights of stairs. So far London looked like I had imagined but I wasn't expecting the reality of our hotel. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice and the staff was always very friendly. However, it may have been the smallest hotel room I've ever been in. After dragging our suitcases up several flights of stairs (a lift was evidently a modern convenience), we opened the door to a room that barely had enough room for two twin beds.






After we shook off our shock, we hit the streets of Notting Hill to find a pay phone to call our tour company for the next day's pick up point. You would think those charming phone booths would be easy to find but they proved problematic. We did finally find one but shortly after I uttered a few short sentences, the phone cut me off. Thankfully the hotel clerk took pity on us and helped us make arrangements for our tour.

With that off our minds, we hit the streets again and found our way to Kensington Gardens. After walking around the park and snapping a few photos of William and Kate's new home, we set out to check one thing off our to-do list - eat some fish and chips. We found a place called Cafe Diana, which was frequented by Princess Diana. Here we had a delicious serving of the quintessential London meal.

A great first day in London!


Kensington Gardens




 Kensington Palace


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Minute Friday: Roots

Lisa-Jo Baker (lisajobaker.com) hosts a weekly event on her blog called "Five Minute Friday". The rules are 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.. So here's my first try at this. Today's topic was Roots. Roots – I think about my grandparents who lived on a farm until my grandfather’s diabetes worsened and they moved to a town with a hospital nearby. My father still says he wished he could have kept that farm. I think of my grandmother who was a widow for 20 years. Every year she would stand over my PaPa’s grave, wishing she was with him. I think of my parents, a product of those grandparents, how hard my father worked to put 2 girls through
10 comments
Read more

Five Minute Friday: Time

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ . This week's word is Time. Sometimes time feels like this, like we are in it. Standing inside it, watching life pass by. It is so easy to get stuck in a time - in our pain, in our hurt. We hear the ache tick away in our head like a giant clock. Time, instead, is a gift. More time with family, more time to accomplish goals, more time to see the world. When you are hurting, it seems like time takes forever. One day turns into another day, turns into another day. When we hate a job, the five days of time that make up a work week seem to go on forever. But those five days are also a gift. Because these days, a job is not a guarantee. I want to see time as gift, not as a chore. I want to be on the other side of it, wishing there was more of it. Making the most of every hour, minute, and second instead of
6 comments
Read more

Five Minute Friday: Dwell

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ . This week's word is Dwell. I have thought about this word a lot - where should I dwell. After my divorce, I had a big decision to make - did I buy X's half of the house and continue to dwell where I had for the past 15 years or did I sell and move to a new dwelling. After crunching numbers and weighing my options, I decide to stay in the house we had bought together. Because, when it came right down to it, I loved my house. I felt safe there. I try not to dwell on the sadness that happened in this place but instead try to dwell on making it my own. I have painted rooms in colors X would have never agreed upon, I have bought artwork that he would never have hung. I want to dwell in a place that reflects who I am. When the yard is full of weeds and the basement full of water, I long to dwell in
6 comments
Read more