Our very first destination was a lil 2 night/3 day stopover in London town. A mini trip within a trip. My grand plan is that every time we go to Croatia (hopefully every other year at least), we will do a mini trip within the trip. This is partly fueled by the fact that you cannot fly direct to Croatia and need to take a connecting flight. Therefore, why not fly into a different connecting city in Europe every time and spend a few days there before heading on over to the big kahuna of Croatia and the island of Pag? Basically, I think it is a splendid plan and will enable us to see a bit of the world and experience new things together. Rob, on the other hand, is not as keen as moi and I need to drag him on these little escapades of cultural enlightenment. He would much rather spend every day of his allotted vacation time in his (and my) beloved Jakisnica. And I can’t say I blame him. But there’s always a little room for the new and exciting ;)
Anyhoo his mock disdain for other European locales (that are not Croatia and therefore rendered irrelevant) was vastly perpetuated by our not so smooth sailing of an experience in London. From the get-go things got muddy, literally. The morning we arrived in London at Gatwick Airport, there was a mudslide and 2 tons of mud fell on the rail tracks connecting the airport and suburban London areas to the central city of London. We made it one stop before everyone was booted off the train onto a tiny platform, suitcases and all, standing around waiting on what to do next. All trains were cancelled. To top it all off, there was a heat wave in London, a notoriously gloomy and cool city (the only reason why I packed long pants and sleeves and sweaters) WOULD have a heat wave when we were there but of course. Just our travel luck.
Then the bus fiasco started, as all trains were indefinitely cancelled. We piled on a double decker bus, in line with hundreds of other stranded people, lugging our suitcases and carry-ons and all, in the sweltering heat, nestled snugly between many smelly disgruntled people. We were told the wrong stop to get off at to connect to another train and then walked high and low among suburban London. Luckily we had a lovely old British couple who told us to follow them as we navigated around to the next rail station. Then that rail station also was inoperative, and chaotic to say the least. So we took a streetcar to another one. Then again the rail service. And then the subway. And then off the subway to another double decker bus (as naturally the line where our station was happened to be closed for repair just when we were there).
Planes, trains, and automobiles (and buses and streetcars and subways)!
At the end of it all millions of travelers and London-ites were affected by the chaos, including myself and the husband. For a journey that should have taken about 40 minutes or so from the airport to our hotel, it took us over 6 hours. Yup. In effect, we sorta lost that day as a travel and sightseeing day and we were exhausted, especially Rob from lugging around all our luggage across most of London. Write-off.
That night we took it easy and took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and walked around and hat a pint and grub at a pub. Checked out Trafalgar square and then checked out – literally – to sleep.
DAY 2
Day 2 was our only full day there, so we packed the sightseeing goodness in as much as we could, Rob was obviously thrilled with this. First we walked the Mall and headed to Buckingham Palace (or as Rob has affectionately coined it, BP). However, even though we were there at 10 a.m. tickets for the day were already sold out. Surprisingly, I wasn’t too perturbed, as I had heard BP can be kind of overated (though Kate’s wedding dress was on display and I would have liked to have seen it). But I was happy enough by seeing the outside, snapping some pics and heading on our merry way, which would be a WAY from the hordes upon hordes of tourists. Sort of ruins the experience and ambience when you’re in an open space, yet packed like gawking sardines. No thanks, BP, no thanks.
We decided, upon the recommendation our travel guide, that we would spend our precious pounds on the admission price to a much more attractive attraction, the Tower of London. And it was well worth the crazy entrance fees. The Tower of London is a World Heritage Site and most definitely worth a visit if you are in London. It has a lengthy and sordid past that dates back to the 11th century. It has been a fortress, a medieval palace, a prison, a torture den, a zoo of sorts, an execution site… among other things. It was, in short and plain and simply, really cool. We stumbled into a tour given by a Yeoman Warder (commonly known as “Beefeater”) when we happened to be taking a photo by his next speaking spot. Glad we did because it heightened the experience tenfold. He was highly entertaining and amusing and captivating, recounting a myriad of atrocious and fascinating historical events. Also at the Tower of London, are housed the Crown Jewels. We waited in line for these, only because we figured we were already there so why not, and they were cool to see, but no big as far as im concerned. Just some velvet and some diamonds and things.
Right across from the Tower (as it is along the river Thames) is the iconic-postcard-London Tower Bridge. So we walked across and around and all up in it and did our snippity snappity picture taking thing.
That night, we had tickets to the Open Air Theatre’s production of Gershwin’s “Crazy For You” in Regent’s Park that I had bought back home in T.O. I had originally wanted to see a production in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, but all was sold out for the days that we were in London, so I stumbled upon this and figured Rob would prefer it to Shakespeare anyway, since I would be dragging him to the show no doubt. In the end, it was most definitely worth it and an utterly amazing show. It was beyond entertaining, and even Rob (not exactly a musical enthusiast) enjoyed it as well. I had never seen a show like this in an open air theatre before, and it didn’t disappoint. Probably the highlight of our London experience, following the London eye (more on that later). The only downside was that I wish we had known you could bring your own food and drink to the show, alcohol included. The people sitting next to us had a veritable wine and cheese picnic going on in between their feet. Some vino with the show would have been perfection!
DAY 3
A rush of a day as we had a plane to catch at Heathrow in the afternoon/early evening, so we really only had a morning to jam pack in some touristy-ness. First on the agenda was the London Eye. This has quickly become one of the number one things to do in London since it’s inception in the new millennium. And it lived up to all the hype. It’s like nothing else in the world really and offers unparallel views of all of London. We got there bright and early and had pre-bought our tickets so we didn’t even wait in the rumoured insanity of a line. And around and around we went! You load into a capsule that fits about 20 people or so, while the Eye is moving (you sort of get herded in like cattle) and then you’re in and the whole cycle lasts about a half an hour. But it’s a sight to see. We had a clear day and we saw it all, on top of the world. Happiness and love.
Second and final stop of the day was the Tate Modern, the nouveau counterpart to the Tate Britain. As all museums in London, the admission was free, so that was a welcome happening. The gallery is housed in an old abandoned power station, which is a large part of what makes it interesting to visit, the building itself. I’ve heard that the Tate pales in comparison to MOMA, but as I’ve never been to MOMA, I can’t quite comment on that observation. Regardless, I was in my happy artsy place and had a gay ol’ time.
And that, as they say, was that!
Cheerio!
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