england trip #2 – london
Yes, it’s Part 2 in the Series That Will Drag On For Years! In which Edna and Kim Tour England. Part I, featuring the Suitcase From Hell, is one entry back. In this edition, we have said a temporary goodbye to Suitcase From Hell, as it gets stowed in Kim’s London bedroom closet for the week. And she parts with a bunch of clothes in the hopes that it will be less hellish on the return trip — our host offered to take them to the Salvation Army, or its equivalent, for her. She still doesn’t know what she was thinking. Other than the garganto-suitcase seemed like a good idea at the time, and everyone had told her that you could pack everything you own and it STILL wouldn’t be over 50 pounds, because it takes a WHOLE LOT of stuff to hit 50 pounds! I didn’t tell her that, but I would have if it had occurred to me — because I’d done a test when we went to Charleston in August or September or whenever it was we went. My suitcase was so heavy I thought it HAD to be like, oh, 80 pounds! I weighed it, and it was 34 pounds. Apparently I need to do some weight-training. But my point was, I’d have told her the same thing– “Oh, no WAY can you end up with more than fifty pounds of stuff!”
Hahahahahaha!!
Oh, well, water under the bridge for sure. And Kim learned her lesson about international travel and great big suitcases. Sadly, as we remarked often, it wasn’t one of those lessons you could just learn and move on from. It was one of those lessons in which the repercussions followed her the entire trip, taunting her. Over and over. She learned her lesson in the first ten minutes of the trip but had to keep paying for it for the next two weeks.
BUT for the London week, the suitcase got to be stored away. Hooray! And we got to tour London!
And did we tour London! We did not stop. Before the trip we bought London Passes, which we had really debated over, not being sure if it would be worth it or not. Now I’d totally recommend it, if you’re going to be there for a week and you get the travel pass too. It took away all the agonizing over what should we do, what should we see, what’s worth paying for, what’s not worth paying for…. etc etc. A whole lot of stuff is included – WAY more than we got to do. But what we did do, plus the unlimited tube and ferry use (and bus, although we never did take a bus, sadly) made it worth it. Stratford was also out of the Oyster Pass zone, so the travel card, which covers all six zones, really saved us from huge tube costs. The only attraction we paid to see outside the London Pass fee was the London Eye. Everything else, our admission was covered. Since we were trying to do London on the cheap, we would have had a hard time deciding what was worth admission. Of course a whole lot of stuff is free, and next time I’ll probably stick to the free stuff. I loved just walking around. But for this trip, the pass was great, and we got to REALLY be tourists.
SO. We started off Monday morning, walking to the Stratford tube station.
I really liked the neighborhood. Lots of weird old stuff.
You may not be able to read it, but on the left side of the building below there’s a sign that says “Home of Iron Maiden”. Odd.
Stratford is VERY close to where the Olympics will be held in 2012. I think actually it is technically in Stratford. I can’t believe that despite taking over 3000 pictures, I apparently did not get a single picture of the Olympics building site cranes you can see as you walk to the tube station.
The first Touristy Site we visited was The Tower of London!
This guy totally did not look real. Even his skin looked plastic. However, he did march off at one point, so if he was an android, he was a very good one.
There’s basically a whole town- or what once was a whole town- inside the walls of the Tower of London. So there is a huge variety of buildings all over the place. These look like apartments.
There were also helpful instructions on what to do in case of enemy attack. Or rat attack. First of all, I’d put some clothes on.
And of course you have to tour Henry III’s bedchamber.
Nice views, too.
Next up, hopefully quicker than this went up — crossing Tower Bridge and walking around on the other side of the Thames!
There are actually a LOT of grace & favor apartments in the Tower. Must be a fun address to have!
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Yay!!! I’m so psyched now. I was thinking that Scotland would be the highlight of our (someday) England visit, but I guess I should have been giving England more of a chance. Now I will!
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interesting! i never knew there were apartments in the tower of london and henry III ‘s bedroom is really plain!
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I’m really enjoying these entries as I hope to do an England trip in the next couple of years.
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Spectacular pictures. It’s so odd to consider given how sprawling and unprotected modern cities are that for a large part of European history it was very necessary to be able to contain a population in a small space for a long stretch of time.
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I wish we still had little super shoppettes like that first photo. These are, as always, great. Good piece of advice you passed on, because I can see where people might waste a lot of time and energy getting their barrings versus just knowing the options and being able to do them without too much exchanging of foreign currency.
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Haha, I was looking forward to some weird old stuff, and all I saw was normal stuff! I have to admit, though, that I still come across stuff here that I find weird. And that after living here for 14 years… Looking forward to your next instalment 🙂
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The Tower of London was one of my favorite tourist sites, too. Did you see all the ravens? Or the Crown Jewels?
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I too must ask if you at least heard about the ravens? Very cool window shot in the mix here. Great entry. Still thrilled you two went. Very inspirational.
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That Health and Safety sign is a hoot! btw, I dreamed about Suki and Eric last night. Not a particular adventure but I thought it funny to have them in my dreams.
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Wow! I want to go!
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Do they sell a “Fortress health and safety” poster in the gift shop?
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hey!not sure if u remember me ?… long time no read… i’m trying to catch up on what you’ve been doing… i’m hoping to start writing again soon just made my first entry since I left way back in Feb? cant remember but hopefully i’ll be a more frequent visitor and yup still out here
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ooohh, love every one of these!!
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just want you to know i love your photos of the areas visited in England. trying to note everyone, but in the trying i’m failing miserably :(, but i am reading. ryn: i’m still reeling from recent events. still such a prevailing sadness.
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Right now, we are so broke, I don’t think I’ll ever return to England. I really enjoyed looking at your pictures.
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What wonderful pictures. Such an interesting neighborhood indeed.
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Those guards freaked me out, too, when I was in London. I don’t know how they do it. There used to be a sign (this was 548 years ago) that said, “Do not molest, harass, or abuse guards.” I guess people tried to get them to blink, laugh, spew water out of their noses, or something, because I couldn’t figure out any other reason for the sign.
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I love the architecture there, even for the small shops and less elegant neighborhoods. Lots of interesting angles.
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This entry made me curious about the Tower so i was just reading about the Royal Menagerie and how the entrance fee was waived if you brought a dog or cat to feed the lion.
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Reading on. Great pics of quaint little shops.
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Now that would be a great place to live! Even the address would be spiffy. It’s so beautiful there, even the business district and it’s buildings fit, but they always surprise me when I catch a glimpse. It’s not the first thing I think of when I think of London, for sure. This is great!! Reading on…
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