London Bridge Looking Good (Not Falling Down!)

Photo courtesy of Fodors.com

We all arrived in London safely.  Rick and I flew British from Seattle, and hey, it's a 9-1/2 hour flight to London from the west coast.  Not a trip for wimps.  I don't like to fly AT ALL, but I guess I have to deal with it if I want to travel.  The flight was uneventful, thankfully.  Tim and Linda flew Air France through L.A. and Paris, and had a much longer day because of expected layovers and unexpected delays.  They finally arrived all in one piece.

Transport from Heathrow into London was fairly easy.  There are a few options, and the guidebooks explain cost and transit time.  We took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, then the Underground from Paddington to Victoria Station, near our hotel.  The Express train was quick and comfortable, but 19 b.p. (British pounds) per person.  The Underground services Heathrow also, and is far cheaper, but it takes much longer to get into town that way.   Tim and Linda took this route, and had no complaints about the service or time involved.

The best thing about mass transit now in London is the Oyster card.  It allows you to ride on the Underground and the buses using a pre-paid card.  You decide how much money you'd like to load on the card and can re-load easily as your trip goes on.  The cost per trip is greatly reduced when using the Oyster card, and machines seem to be in every Underground station to allow for the initial purchase and re-loading as needed.  At the end of your trip, you can turn in the card at a ticket office for a refund.

We're staying at a cute little place about 1/2 mile from Victoria station.  The Luna Simone hotel has been in business for about 40 years, and is run by twin brothers.  Nicely updated, and very friendly, it's a good deal in a good location.  Rooms are small, but there are some nice amenities - free breakfast, wi-fi, flat screen tv, in-room tea service.

I wish I had taken a photo of the basic breakfast option there:  fried egg, fried bacon (more like ham), toast and pork and beans.  Nothing like some good beans for breakfast!  They also had some other options, like cereal and fruit, or granola and yogurt.

There is so much to see in London, but we knew we couldn't see much of it in just a few days.  Our top priority was the Tower of London, and we also had an interest in seeing the London Eye, The War Museum, The Cabinet War rooms and spending a few minutes in Harrods.  We would have liked to see Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, but felt like the cost to enter them ($20-$25 each) was prohibitive. 

The Tower of London was a great first stop.  We arrived there about 9:30, and saw the crowds increase dramatically as the morning went on.  First priority was to see the crown jewels.  No photos allowed.  Sorry!   They looked amazingly sparkly, and astoundingly heavy.  How those royals can hold their heads up with all that gold and jewels to balance on top I don't know.

Next we took a Beefeater tour.  Beefeaters are the guards who work at the Tower, and also live on the grounds.  They do an amazing job of bringing the history of the Tower to life.  I was glad to have read some books and watched some movies related to the events during the time of Henry VIII, as his beheaded queens and former compatriots are buried here and there in the chapel.

Beefeater playing tour guide

We walked the ramparts and saw some other fascinating stuff.  The sign below was my favorite:

A local pub was recommended by one of the employees at the Tower.  We especially enjoyed the side of "mushy peas" served with the fish and chips.  Mushy peas seem to be canned peas, you guessed it, mushed up!

 
For the rest of the afternoon we walked along the Thames.  There are so many new and modern buildings in the city that from across the river the Tower looks wedged in, and rather insignificant.

Dinner that night was at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen.  We love the concept behind this place.  He employs street kids who don't have much of a future and provides the training they need for jobs in his restaurant.  I made reservations online 3 months prior to our visit, and the only disappointment was that Jamie wasn't in the restaurant that night.   Rick and Tim especially enjoyed the fish stew.

Here's Rick with his dinner.

One of the great desserts we had - a semifreddo with strawberry sauce, lemon sorbet and baby basil leaves.

Tim and Linda getting cozy in a traditional British phone booth. This could be the movie set for Dr. Who or Harry Potter, not sure which.  Nice lady to the left is waiting patiently for the picture to be over so she can actually make a phone call, not descend to the Ministry of Magic.

We had a great first day, and can almost understand English being spoken by English people.  Stay tuned for more....