Travel: Revisiting London
For some stupid reason, we had rented our car from someone that had their car park located next to an airport hotel. It had caused us trouble when we needed to pick it up and it caused us trouble when we needed to drop it off.
The drop off in itself went okay but the anxious wait for a taxi to take us from the airport hotel to the actual airport, wasn't pleasant. So if you do rent a car, make sure you choose a company that have their cars parked at the actual airport.
Finally after a long wait, our taxi arrived and drove the four of us with our four bags to the airport. We got dropped off at Terminal 2 in Heathrow and said goodbye to my father. It was an odd experience because it felt wrong to say goodbye to him and have a holiday without him. As far as I can remember that has never happened before.
The three of us took the lift down to the basement level and started heading for the Heathrow Express which is a train that drives directly from Heathrow to Paddington station, which was perfect for us as we were staying less than 500 metres from Paddington.
We were a bit unsure of how to get tickets but luckily, we passed not one but two stands with the opportunity to buy tickets. We stopped with the first lady and paid with credit card and bought our return ticket as well. Very handy, although a bit expensive (30+ pounds for adults) but on the plus side, my little brother still fell into the kid category and thus he travelled for free. The drive only took 15 minutes and we emerged happily at Paddington. That station was absolutely huge and reminded me of Hovedbanegården from home.
We had already collected a handful of tube maps and streets maps since we dropped off my father, and we began the short walk to our hotel. Neither my mother or I are very good with maps or with our sense of direction, so my brother was in charge of that and did excellently, not just on the way to the hotel but during our entire stay in London. When we arrived at the reception desk, we were told that we had been relocated across the street due to maintenance issues but for our troubles we would get complimentary breakfast, which was nice. We didn't really mind the move as we would be slightly closer to the station and the hotel was identical.
We headed out for a "quick bite" and subsequently my mother and brother had a discussion of what classified a "quick bite" as he thought it meant take-away or sort of get the food within a few minutes and I'm still not quite sure what my mother meant. It didn't turn our to be a quick bite as we ended up going to a steakhouse where we had some lovely food.
I've heard about sweet potato fries so often but never actually tried them, so I ordered them with my steak for my mother and I to share. They were soaked in olive oil and presented very nicely. I was surprised at the very sweet taste (I probably shouldn't have been as their name has "sweet" in it) and I liked them although I wouldn't compare them to normal fries. My mother didn't like them at all.
After our dinner, we headed back to the hotel to recharge for our first full London day.
We began the day with breakfast in the hotel and it was a very different vibe from the breakfasts we had had at the guesthouses. This was bigger and with a better and bigger selection but I actually think I preferred the other breakfasts. However, this hotel did have that weird toaster that I've seen in so many hotel breakfasts across the world and that did made me chuckle. Sadly, I didn't take a photo but it's basically a toaster where you put the toast, bun or what ever on a moving belt that then slowly rolls until your item is dropped down from the back. Okay, worst explanation ever but hopefully you get the gist.
Our first stop was at the Portobello Market which opened at 10 AM. But to get there we would need to travel with the Underground, so we needed to get tickets. We walked to the Paddington Underground and observed the ticket machines. Luckily a staff woman was standing by the machines and helped us get our Oyster Cards. We didn't think it would be profitable to buy the cards as we would only be here three days but the woman recommended it to save hassle and money.
We paid a 5 pound deposit for each card and put in 20 pound in each card which was the amount she recommended for three days. My brother needed to have his card changed to a child's rate which was quickly done at the ticket office and then we were good to go! I cannot tell you how easy and nice it was having those cards and just swiping them when we needed to get anywhere.
When we got up at the tube stop, it wasn't hard to figure out where Portobello Market was as a herd of tourist were all heading in the same direction. Embracing our role as tourists, we diligently followed. Now, I'm not much for very crowded places with people stopping right in front of me all the times or pushing to get past, so this wasn't really my cup of tea.
I could, however, recognise that this market was very lovely and they had lots of cute and funny shops stalls with everything from old maps, tin soldiers, antic camera, old military clothing and fresh fruit. I think we walked from one end to the other of Portobello road and saw many wonderful things.
We had lunch in a very cute but busy restaurant. While we sipped our lemonades, we made plans for shopping. Now, I hate shopping but my mother loves it, so, of course, we were going shopping. After lunch, we headed straight for Oxford Street, which is one of the best shopping streets in London if not the best.
I must admit it was nice having all of the stores located on top of each other. We went to Topshop, Boots, GAP and Lush. I did try on a few clothes but I didn't find anything I liked, mostly because I wasn't in a shopping mind-set (which I rarely am). However, I did buy two bath bombs from Lush as I've always wanted to try those but haven't really been able to since we doesn't have a bath at home.
With shopping done and over with, we had nothing planned until the guided walk, which begun at 7.30 PM. We retired to our room and recharged for a while.
Since we didn't want to go long for dinner, we just picked a nice restaurant close to Paddington. My brother had fish and chips for the second time during our England holiday but I must say this one looked much more impressive compared to the first one he had.
The walk we were going on was called Jack the Ripper Haunts and was one of the most popular walks, so we had to do that one. Unfortunately, we ran into some trouble on the way there. Three Underground lines run through Paddington; District (green), Circle (yellow) and Bakerloo (brown), and the two aforementioned were undergoing some work all throughout the weekend and partly shut down. Annoyingly, these were the two lines we needed to travel on the most.
My brother pulled out his handy tube map (which by the end of our trip would be falling apart at the seems) and he and I figured out an alternate route to our destination. Thank God that London Underground has so many lines and stops as it made it quite easy to find a quick alternate route.
When we turned up at our designated stop the tour guides did say that there was a lot less people than usual for a Saturday and that they probably hadn't been able to make it due to the tube construction, which sucked for them but we actually didn't mind that we weren't too many.
This walked tour was similar to the ones we had done in Berlin in the spring and we were excited to see what we would learn from this one. I've never really known about Jack the Ripper in detail but obviously I've known of him. The walk took us to the places where some of the five colonial murders were committed while the guide described the circumstances of the fall of 1888. What really fascinated me was the rivalry between the City of London police and the Metropolitan police and I'm still astonished that that prevented them from working together.
We finished the walk near a pub called The Ten Bells where all of the five victims had been customers back in the day. I wouldn't say that it was fun, especially the description of the mutilations, but it was definitely an interesting walk and I can see why it is so popular.
We didn't go in for a beer in the pub but instead travelled home to the hotel to rest our tired feet. Since we didn't have that many days in London and I now had two bath bombs to use, I decided that I would have a relaxing bath while reading in Dead Man's Folly. I used the first one of the bath bombs, which was called Dragon's Egg due to its "boring" white appearance but once it got in the water it would "hatch" into a fiery "dragon" - spoiler: there was no dragon in it but it did turn the bathwater glittery orange.
Normally, I never take baths and it did feel a bit weird just laying in the water and I probably wouldn't have been able to just lay there but I did enjoy reading my book while the bath bomb moisturised my skin.
The following morning, we had planned to have a morning where we wouldn't have to rush out of the door. We didn't really but we did go down to breakfast half an hour later than usual - that's not called sleeping in, mum!
While we hadn't had any plans for the morning the day before, my mother and brother had decided to visit The British Museum. When we where in London in 2009, we had also visited The British Museum and I had spent the entirety of our visit photographing every single thing in the Greek section to keep myself busy. I'm not much for the traditional type of museums and frankly, I especially found this one very, very overwhelming due to its humongous size.
Still, I wanted to go with them and not sit in the hotel room alone. We were in London and we needed to take advantage of that. Again, we ran into trouble as the Direct tube line wasn't running, so we had to take an alternate route. This one resulted in a change of lines at King's Cross, which turned out to be a very good thing.
My bother had heard that they had set up an actual Harry Potter shop at Perron 9 3/4 and of course we had to see that. We got out from the Underground station and up to the main station where it took some searching for before we spotted it. It technically was between Perron 8 and 9, and not between 9 and 10 as it should have been but it was obvious that there wouldn't be space for it there. It didn't even have much space where it was located.
Outside, a massive line had formed and you could pose with a trolley with Hedwig on top and act as you where running into the wall as Harry and his friends did in the movies. The line was absolutely huge but to be honest, had I been younger I would probably have wanted a photo of that too.
The shop itself was really cramped with people too. We got inside just as they began having a line outside the shop to only let people in when someone left. You could legitimately buy wands that came in a box like to the wizards and you could pick which person's wand you wanted. It was pretty cool. We didn't get a wand but we did buy two T-shirts, a little Hedwig plush toy, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a Chocolate Frog.
With our little detour successfully done with, we headed to the museum. Since I didn't feel like seeing the museum again, I sat happily reading my book on a bench while the other two went to explore the Asia section. They were gone for an hour or so and I honestly don't feel like I missed out. I'm not saying museums aren't interesting but I can only stare at something behind glass and read so many boring descriptions.
We ate a bit of food in the museum's canteen before we travelled by the tube to the starting point of another Famous Walks tour. It would be our second and final walk and we had decided to pick Westminster at War which turned out to be pretty cool. There had been so, so many walks to choose from and I'm sure others would have been interesting too but we really enjoyed the ones we went on.
Unfortunately as with the previous walk, the guides weren't very good with stopping and giving you opportunity to take photos. I was hardly in the mindset anyway because I became engulfed with the stories of the war times. Towards the end, the tour guide spoke briefly about D-Day, a topic I wrote about for my assignment in my last year of gymnasium. We also learned about the Blitz quite a lot and I can hardly imagine what to must have been like to living with the constant threat over your head. Eventually, however, it became part of people's every day life and towards the end many didn't even seek refuse when the alarms sounded.
As usual, the walk took two hours and because we were pretty battered, we headed home to relax in the hotel room. It had been a very long week by now and tomorrow would be our last day. After having done practically nothing for a few hours, we walked up to a tavern where my mother had spotted signs saying that they had traditional Sunday roasts.
I've heard Brits raving about their Sunday roasts and of course, I wanted to experience it for myself. My brother and I both decided to get it and it was so funny and exciting seeing a traditional Sunday roast in person.
I'm a picky eater but I really enjoyed that meal. I mean, the meat was a bit to weeny for my taste but I loved the steamed vegetables, the potato pieces and the Yorkshire pudding. I saved the pudding for last and let it soak in all the sauce, which was lovely and tasted so deliciously.
Stuffed and happy, we went home and I tried my last and final bath bomb. The second one I had chosen was called Sex Bomb and oh, so pretty with its pink and lilac colours and the little rose in the middle. As expected it also turned my bath water quite pink. Again, I enjoyed my bath while reading in my book.
The following morning, we awoke ready to spend our last day in London. We would have a flight home at 8.30 PM but intended to make the most of the day anyway. However, we did have to check out of our hotel room, which we did promptly after breakfast. Seeing as we had a whole day ahead of us and didn't want to be dragging our baggage around, we asked the hotel to store it for us until the afternoon. We walked down to Paddington and got on the tube - feeling like pros by now - and since the weekend work on the tube lines was finished, we were able to take the direct route.
Another event that we wanted to repeat from our 2009-visit, was shopping at Harrods. I didn't really remember the shop that well until we stood in front of it, then the memories came rushing back.
I didn't do any shopping but my brother and I diligently followed my mother around while she looked at every thing. In the end, I think the only thing she left with for herself was a pair of shoes from Fitflop. Other than that we used this opportunity to shop for the people at home, namely my grandmother who babysat our dog and the girl who looked after my horse. We bought them shortbread in nice Harrods tins; obviously by the time I've gotten around to writing this last post of three, we've given them away. But we did buy one for ourselves and I couldn't not share the lovely design.
Harrods have a Disney shop and as the child I am, I really wanted to visit it. I wasn't much for the huge section on princesses but what caught my eye was the characters from Winne the Pooh. I've always loved those stories and their plush versions sat nicely on the shelf and were oh, so soft. I'm a bit annoyed that they didn't have Eeyore, my favourite. However, we did buy one of them for the little newborn in the family. The first of my cousins (I have ten in total) had her baby just a few months ago and we bought a very soft Roo for him, since he is the baby of the Pooh-gang.
It didn't result in much more shopping as my mother and I were both experiencing lady pains and instead we walked out of Harrods and found a place to eat. We had wanted to go to another tea house but settled on a weird mix between restaurant and tea house as that was the first thing we saw. I got the spaghetti carbonara, one of my all time favourite foods, and ate the entire plate. We would be in the airport for dinner and we weren't sure if we would have time to get food, so it was safer to eat up.
As we still had a few hours to kill before heading back to the hotel and grabbing our bags, my brother suggested that we travelled to Westminster as we had hardly spend any time there. We agreed and emerged from the tube station practically next to Big Ben.
We did spend a fair time at Westminster the first time around but it was nice to see this part of London again. It was lovely and even though I had been a sucky photographer for most of the London holiday, I snapped a few shots here.
We sat in front of the parliament for a while before we got off our tired bums and took the tube back to Paddington. We dropped in shortly at the tavern, where we had dinner the night before, just to sit and enjoy a couple of sodas.
We needed to hand in our Oyster Cards and walked back to the machines from where we originally got them. Again a kind staff member was ready to help us, which was very nice. I had under a pound left on my card, so I nearly used up the 20 pounds on the three days but to be fair we used it quite a lot. My mother on the other hand had forgotten to properly swipe it when excited at Paddington just an hour before and thus the card had been running and she had more than minus 2 pounds. It was because one of the stalls had been open and she just ushered through, thinking that it wouldn't matter. I actually told her otherwise at the time but she wouldn't listen, so now I got to have a proper I-told-you-so moment. My brother's kid rate meant that he'd only used about 10 of the 20 pounds, so we got quite a lot of money back on his card.
As we had successfully handed in our cards and got our money back, we walked back to our hotel to collect our bags. All of our suitcases are pretty handy with their four wheels but I was very happy that we hadn't needed to drag them around all day. We found the Heathrow Express pretty easily and within 15 minutes we had arrived at the airport.
Again, we were subjects to a delayed flight but the pilot did make up for most of it during the flight. We arrived home safe and sound and were picked up by my father at the airport. It was nice to see him again and we didn't quite tell him all the times we had had to make fun of his old jokes or had acted like he would in certain situations. It hadn't quite been the same without him.
I hope that we'll always travel together as a family as I love those three people so very much. We were home at about 1 AM and I had to leave at 7 AM the same morning to go to work. It had seemed like a sensible thing at the time I had planned it but it really wasn't when I had only gotten less than six hours of sleep and was tired from our holiday. I made it through though.
If I were to sum up, mention must-sees, give tips or whatever, I think this would be what I recommend the most:
- Get a hotel that's centrally placed! In big cities, locations trumps everything. Also get an Oyster Card if you're planning to see a lot of different places. It was so easy to use and I can highly recommend it (just remember to both scan when you enter and exit the stations).
- Go on London Walks - they are spectacular and have been copied all around the world. They have a wide selection of walks and topics, so it'll be easy to find something that tickles your fancy.
- I guess I should recommend shopping, even though I personally don't really like it. However, if you want to go shopping go to Oxford Street for high street stuff and Harrods for more prestige-filled brands.
- If you're in London on a Sunday, do find a place to get a traditional Sunday roast - I can now understand why it's liked by so many!
I actually made it 'til the end of these! Three out of three. That's new. Also, this will be my fifth blog in a month - something that also never happened before. Weird. I did really enjoy writing them and I know with certainty that I will love looking back at these in a few years and remember all the funny little details.
The drop off in itself went okay but the anxious wait for a taxi to take us from the airport hotel to the actual airport, wasn't pleasant. So if you do rent a car, make sure you choose a company that have their cars parked at the actual airport.
Finally after a long wait, our taxi arrived and drove the four of us with our four bags to the airport. We got dropped off at Terminal 2 in Heathrow and said goodbye to my father. It was an odd experience because it felt wrong to say goodbye to him and have a holiday without him. As far as I can remember that has never happened before.
The three of us took the lift down to the basement level and started heading for the Heathrow Express which is a train that drives directly from Heathrow to Paddington station, which was perfect for us as we were staying less than 500 metres from Paddington.
We were a bit unsure of how to get tickets but luckily, we passed not one but two stands with the opportunity to buy tickets. We stopped with the first lady and paid with credit card and bought our return ticket as well. Very handy, although a bit expensive (30+ pounds for adults) but on the plus side, my little brother still fell into the kid category and thus he travelled for free. The drive only took 15 minutes and we emerged happily at Paddington. That station was absolutely huge and reminded me of Hovedbanegården from home.
We had already collected a handful of tube maps and streets maps since we dropped off my father, and we began the short walk to our hotel. Neither my mother or I are very good with maps or with our sense of direction, so my brother was in charge of that and did excellently, not just on the way to the hotel but during our entire stay in London. When we arrived at the reception desk, we were told that we had been relocated across the street due to maintenance issues but for our troubles we would get complimentary breakfast, which was nice. We didn't really mind the move as we would be slightly closer to the station and the hotel was identical.
We headed out for a "quick bite" and subsequently my mother and brother had a discussion of what classified a "quick bite" as he thought it meant take-away or sort of get the food within a few minutes and I'm still not quite sure what my mother meant. It didn't turn our to be a quick bite as we ended up going to a steakhouse where we had some lovely food.
I've heard about sweet potato fries so often but never actually tried them, so I ordered them with my steak for my mother and I to share. They were soaked in olive oil and presented very nicely. I was surprised at the very sweet taste (I probably shouldn't have been as their name has "sweet" in it) and I liked them although I wouldn't compare them to normal fries. My mother didn't like them at all.
After our dinner, we headed back to the hotel to recharge for our first full London day.
We began the day with breakfast in the hotel and it was a very different vibe from the breakfasts we had had at the guesthouses. This was bigger and with a better and bigger selection but I actually think I preferred the other breakfasts. However, this hotel did have that weird toaster that I've seen in so many hotel breakfasts across the world and that did made me chuckle. Sadly, I didn't take a photo but it's basically a toaster where you put the toast, bun or what ever on a moving belt that then slowly rolls until your item is dropped down from the back. Okay, worst explanation ever but hopefully you get the gist.
Our first stop was at the Portobello Market which opened at 10 AM. But to get there we would need to travel with the Underground, so we needed to get tickets. We walked to the Paddington Underground and observed the ticket machines. Luckily a staff woman was standing by the machines and helped us get our Oyster Cards. We didn't think it would be profitable to buy the cards as we would only be here three days but the woman recommended it to save hassle and money.
We paid a 5 pound deposit for each card and put in 20 pound in each card which was the amount she recommended for three days. My brother needed to have his card changed to a child's rate which was quickly done at the ticket office and then we were good to go! I cannot tell you how easy and nice it was having those cards and just swiping them when we needed to get anywhere.
When we got up at the tube stop, it wasn't hard to figure out where Portobello Market was as a herd of tourist were all heading in the same direction. Embracing our role as tourists, we diligently followed. Now, I'm not much for very crowded places with people stopping right in front of me all the times or pushing to get past, so this wasn't really my cup of tea.
I could, however, recognise that this market was very lovely and they had lots of cute and funny shops stalls with everything from old maps, tin soldiers, antic camera, old military clothing and fresh fruit. I think we walked from one end to the other of Portobello road and saw many wonderful things.
We had lunch in a very cute but busy restaurant. While we sipped our lemonades, we made plans for shopping. Now, I hate shopping but my mother loves it, so, of course, we were going shopping. After lunch, we headed straight for Oxford Street, which is one of the best shopping streets in London if not the best.
I must admit it was nice having all of the stores located on top of each other. We went to Topshop, Boots, GAP and Lush. I did try on a few clothes but I didn't find anything I liked, mostly because I wasn't in a shopping mind-set (which I rarely am). However, I did buy two bath bombs from Lush as I've always wanted to try those but haven't really been able to since we doesn't have a bath at home.
With shopping done and over with, we had nothing planned until the guided walk, which begun at 7.30 PM. We retired to our room and recharged for a while.
Since we didn't want to go long for dinner, we just picked a nice restaurant close to Paddington. My brother had fish and chips for the second time during our England holiday but I must say this one looked much more impressive compared to the first one he had.
The walk we were going on was called Jack the Ripper Haunts and was one of the most popular walks, so we had to do that one. Unfortunately, we ran into some trouble on the way there. Three Underground lines run through Paddington; District (green), Circle (yellow) and Bakerloo (brown), and the two aforementioned were undergoing some work all throughout the weekend and partly shut down. Annoyingly, these were the two lines we needed to travel on the most.
My brother pulled out his handy tube map (which by the end of our trip would be falling apart at the seems) and he and I figured out an alternate route to our destination. Thank God that London Underground has so many lines and stops as it made it quite easy to find a quick alternate route.
When we turned up at our designated stop the tour guides did say that there was a lot less people than usual for a Saturday and that they probably hadn't been able to make it due to the tube construction, which sucked for them but we actually didn't mind that we weren't too many.
This walked tour was similar to the ones we had done in Berlin in the spring and we were excited to see what we would learn from this one. I've never really known about Jack the Ripper in detail but obviously I've known of him. The walk took us to the places where some of the five colonial murders were committed while the guide described the circumstances of the fall of 1888. What really fascinated me was the rivalry between the City of London police and the Metropolitan police and I'm still astonished that that prevented them from working together.
We finished the walk near a pub called The Ten Bells where all of the five victims had been customers back in the day. I wouldn't say that it was fun, especially the description of the mutilations, but it was definitely an interesting walk and I can see why it is so popular.
We didn't go in for a beer in the pub but instead travelled home to the hotel to rest our tired feet. Since we didn't have that many days in London and I now had two bath bombs to use, I decided that I would have a relaxing bath while reading in Dead Man's Folly. I used the first one of the bath bombs, which was called Dragon's Egg due to its "boring" white appearance but once it got in the water it would "hatch" into a fiery "dragon" - spoiler: there was no dragon in it but it did turn the bathwater glittery orange.
Normally, I never take baths and it did feel a bit weird just laying in the water and I probably wouldn't have been able to just lay there but I did enjoy reading my book while the bath bomb moisturised my skin.
The following morning, we had planned to have a morning where we wouldn't have to rush out of the door. We didn't really but we did go down to breakfast half an hour later than usual - that's not called sleeping in, mum!
While we hadn't had any plans for the morning the day before, my mother and brother had decided to visit The British Museum. When we where in London in 2009, we had also visited The British Museum and I had spent the entirety of our visit photographing every single thing in the Greek section to keep myself busy. I'm not much for the traditional type of museums and frankly, I especially found this one very, very overwhelming due to its humongous size.
Still, I wanted to go with them and not sit in the hotel room alone. We were in London and we needed to take advantage of that. Again, we ran into trouble as the Direct tube line wasn't running, so we had to take an alternate route. This one resulted in a change of lines at King's Cross, which turned out to be a very good thing.
My bother had heard that they had set up an actual Harry Potter shop at Perron 9 3/4 and of course we had to see that. We got out from the Underground station and up to the main station where it took some searching for before we spotted it. It technically was between Perron 8 and 9, and not between 9 and 10 as it should have been but it was obvious that there wouldn't be space for it there. It didn't even have much space where it was located.
Outside, a massive line had formed and you could pose with a trolley with Hedwig on top and act as you where running into the wall as Harry and his friends did in the movies. The line was absolutely huge but to be honest, had I been younger I would probably have wanted a photo of that too.
The shop itself was really cramped with people too. We got inside just as they began having a line outside the shop to only let people in when someone left. You could legitimately buy wands that came in a box like to the wizards and you could pick which person's wand you wanted. It was pretty cool. We didn't get a wand but we did buy two T-shirts, a little Hedwig plush toy, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a Chocolate Frog.
With our little detour successfully done with, we headed to the museum. Since I didn't feel like seeing the museum again, I sat happily reading my book on a bench while the other two went to explore the Asia section. They were gone for an hour or so and I honestly don't feel like I missed out. I'm not saying museums aren't interesting but I can only stare at something behind glass and read so many boring descriptions.
We ate a bit of food in the museum's canteen before we travelled by the tube to the starting point of another Famous Walks tour. It would be our second and final walk and we had decided to pick Westminster at War which turned out to be pretty cool. There had been so, so many walks to choose from and I'm sure others would have been interesting too but we really enjoyed the ones we went on.
Unfortunately as with the previous walk, the guides weren't very good with stopping and giving you opportunity to take photos. I was hardly in the mindset anyway because I became engulfed with the stories of the war times. Towards the end, the tour guide spoke briefly about D-Day, a topic I wrote about for my assignment in my last year of gymnasium. We also learned about the Blitz quite a lot and I can hardly imagine what to must have been like to living with the constant threat over your head. Eventually, however, it became part of people's every day life and towards the end many didn't even seek refuse when the alarms sounded.
As usual, the walk took two hours and because we were pretty battered, we headed home to relax in the hotel room. It had been a very long week by now and tomorrow would be our last day. After having done practically nothing for a few hours, we walked up to a tavern where my mother had spotted signs saying that they had traditional Sunday roasts.
I've heard Brits raving about their Sunday roasts and of course, I wanted to experience it for myself. My brother and I both decided to get it and it was so funny and exciting seeing a traditional Sunday roast in person.
I'm a picky eater but I really enjoyed that meal. I mean, the meat was a bit to weeny for my taste but I loved the steamed vegetables, the potato pieces and the Yorkshire pudding. I saved the pudding for last and let it soak in all the sauce, which was lovely and tasted so deliciously.
Stuffed and happy, we went home and I tried my last and final bath bomb. The second one I had chosen was called Sex Bomb and oh, so pretty with its pink and lilac colours and the little rose in the middle. As expected it also turned my bath water quite pink. Again, I enjoyed my bath while reading in my book.
The following morning, we awoke ready to spend our last day in London. We would have a flight home at 8.30 PM but intended to make the most of the day anyway. However, we did have to check out of our hotel room, which we did promptly after breakfast. Seeing as we had a whole day ahead of us and didn't want to be dragging our baggage around, we asked the hotel to store it for us until the afternoon. We walked down to Paddington and got on the tube - feeling like pros by now - and since the weekend work on the tube lines was finished, we were able to take the direct route.
Another event that we wanted to repeat from our 2009-visit, was shopping at Harrods. I didn't really remember the shop that well until we stood in front of it, then the memories came rushing back.
I didn't do any shopping but my brother and I diligently followed my mother around while she looked at every thing. In the end, I think the only thing she left with for herself was a pair of shoes from Fitflop. Other than that we used this opportunity to shop for the people at home, namely my grandmother who babysat our dog and the girl who looked after my horse. We bought them shortbread in nice Harrods tins; obviously by the time I've gotten around to writing this last post of three, we've given them away. But we did buy one for ourselves and I couldn't not share the lovely design.
Harrods have a Disney shop and as the child I am, I really wanted to visit it. I wasn't much for the huge section on princesses but what caught my eye was the characters from Winne the Pooh. I've always loved those stories and their plush versions sat nicely on the shelf and were oh, so soft. I'm a bit annoyed that they didn't have Eeyore, my favourite. However, we did buy one of them for the little newborn in the family. The first of my cousins (I have ten in total) had her baby just a few months ago and we bought a very soft Roo for him, since he is the baby of the Pooh-gang.
It didn't result in much more shopping as my mother and I were both experiencing lady pains and instead we walked out of Harrods and found a place to eat. We had wanted to go to another tea house but settled on a weird mix between restaurant and tea house as that was the first thing we saw. I got the spaghetti carbonara, one of my all time favourite foods, and ate the entire plate. We would be in the airport for dinner and we weren't sure if we would have time to get food, so it was safer to eat up.
As we still had a few hours to kill before heading back to the hotel and grabbing our bags, my brother suggested that we travelled to Westminster as we had hardly spend any time there. We agreed and emerged from the tube station practically next to Big Ben.
We did spend a fair time at Westminster the first time around but it was nice to see this part of London again. It was lovely and even though I had been a sucky photographer for most of the London holiday, I snapped a few shots here.
We sat in front of the parliament for a while before we got off our tired bums and took the tube back to Paddington. We dropped in shortly at the tavern, where we had dinner the night before, just to sit and enjoy a couple of sodas.
We needed to hand in our Oyster Cards and walked back to the machines from where we originally got them. Again a kind staff member was ready to help us, which was very nice. I had under a pound left on my card, so I nearly used up the 20 pounds on the three days but to be fair we used it quite a lot. My mother on the other hand had forgotten to properly swipe it when excited at Paddington just an hour before and thus the card had been running and she had more than minus 2 pounds. It was because one of the stalls had been open and she just ushered through, thinking that it wouldn't matter. I actually told her otherwise at the time but she wouldn't listen, so now I got to have a proper I-told-you-so moment. My brother's kid rate meant that he'd only used about 10 of the 20 pounds, so we got quite a lot of money back on his card.
As we had successfully handed in our cards and got our money back, we walked back to our hotel to collect our bags. All of our suitcases are pretty handy with their four wheels but I was very happy that we hadn't needed to drag them around all day. We found the Heathrow Express pretty easily and within 15 minutes we had arrived at the airport.
Again, we were subjects to a delayed flight but the pilot did make up for most of it during the flight. We arrived home safe and sound and were picked up by my father at the airport. It was nice to see him again and we didn't quite tell him all the times we had had to make fun of his old jokes or had acted like he would in certain situations. It hadn't quite been the same without him.
I hope that we'll always travel together as a family as I love those three people so very much. We were home at about 1 AM and I had to leave at 7 AM the same morning to go to work. It had seemed like a sensible thing at the time I had planned it but it really wasn't when I had only gotten less than six hours of sleep and was tired from our holiday. I made it through though.
If I were to sum up, mention must-sees, give tips or whatever, I think this would be what I recommend the most:
- Get a hotel that's centrally placed! In big cities, locations trumps everything. Also get an Oyster Card if you're planning to see a lot of different places. It was so easy to use and I can highly recommend it (just remember to both scan when you enter and exit the stations).
- Go on London Walks - they are spectacular and have been copied all around the world. They have a wide selection of walks and topics, so it'll be easy to find something that tickles your fancy.
- I guess I should recommend shopping, even though I personally don't really like it. However, if you want to go shopping go to Oxford Street for high street stuff and Harrods for more prestige-filled brands.
- If you're in London on a Sunday, do find a place to get a traditional Sunday roast - I can now understand why it's liked by so many!
I actually made it 'til the end of these! Three out of three. That's new. Also, this will be my fifth blog in a month - something that also never happened before. Weird. I did really enjoy writing them and I know with certainty that I will love looking back at these in a few years and remember all the funny little details.
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