London - Day 4

Sunday night had been much quieter than the previous two nights, and I slept right through til 5am. We got up, oohed and aahed at our nice, soft, smooth hair, and headed the block over to our horrible but free breakfast.

By now, I'd become more accustomed to the coffee, Harold had switched to tea, and Cairo stuck to orange juice. I was surprised they were still eating the nasty, cooked food. I was quite happy with granola and toast.

Huge black & white photo of the Royal
 family along the Thames

Monday morning in Covent Gardens is an entirely different experience from the quiet weekend mornings. People are all over, rushing into shops to pick up coffee and tea on their mad dash into work.

We went over to the electronics store to buy another fuse, even though we no longer needed a converter. Our phones, tablets, and netbook all handle the conversion on their own, and the hair tools were now British, so we'd just need adaptors to change the prongs in France and Italy. No longer would we have to worry about converting the actual voltage.

On the Millenium bridge, looking back north to St Paul's

I was starting to feel a little stress at how much we still had to see, and how little time we had left in London. We were leaving early Wednesday morning, so we had two days left, and a ton of places to go. So today the pressure was on.

Bankside / Southwark

We took the tube up to Blackfriars station, where we could walk across the Millenium bridge. We were excited to come out of the station to see the huge black and white photo of the Royal family we had seen during the televised Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. It was quite impressively large and in such a perfect spot that it was easily viewable from all around.

Looking east up the Thames to London and Tower bridges.

The Millenium bridge is a foot bridge that connects Bankside to the city. The bridge itself isn't all that exciting, but it is a beautiful vantage point to take photos of the surrounding landmarks. It also goes right over to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. 

I love modern art, and this is one of the best in the world, but we were pressed for time, Cairo hates modern art, and Harold was noncommittal on it. I figured we'd do this on our next trip to London, when I could spend hours browsing through it all, without a bored 17 year old tagging along.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Once on the south side of the Thames, we decided to stroll up along the Bankside Riverwalk. This was a great walk through and past many interesting and historical locations, with nice views of the City of London and St Paul's Cathedral on the opposite shore.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre - The original theatre that housed Shakespeare's plays, was destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644. This theatre was rebuilt near the site of the original, using only those tools authentic to the period. It continues to put on the works of William Shakespeare.

Bear Gardens - the site of Bankside's bear-baiting arena. In 1613 the bear pit was replaced by the Hope Theatre after the nearby Globe Theatre had burned down. The owner, Philip Henslowe, was a business rival of the Globe owners. Even though it was the most successful of the Bankside theatres, it closed down three years later to resume the more profitable business of bear-baiting. The Hope was demolished in 1656, to be replaced by the Davies Amphitheatre, also used for bear baiting. It wasn't until 1835 that bear-baiting and bull-baiting were both banned.

Bishop of Winchester's medieval palace

Bishop of Winchester's medieval palace - 12th century palace and London house of the Bishops of Winchester from 1109 to 1626. Only the foundations, the west wall and 14th-century rose window still stand.  

Clink Debtors' Prison - Until sometime in the 1800's, debtors were jailed till their debts were paid. This is where the word 'clink', meaning prison, came from. It is believed, the clink may have been derived from the sound of the prison's doors being bolted, or the clinking chains the prisoners wore. The prison was burned down during the Gordon Riots in 1780.  

The Golden Hinde replica
at St Mary Overy Dock

The Clink Liberty - As the liberty lay outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, and that of the county of Surrey, activities such as prostitution, animal baiting, and theatres were allowed here.

St Mary Overy Dock - This dock is where the Golden Hinde, a replica, built in 1973 sits. It is still seaworthy, having travelled nearly 150,000 miles, including around the world in 1979. The original, launched in 1577, first named the Pelican, was the flagship of a fleet with 4 others, under Sir Francis Drake's control. On her first voyage, she was renamed 'The Golden Hinde'. The ship survived for 100 years. 

Southwark Cathedral, from the front

Southwark Cathedral, from the side

Southwark Cathedral - the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark has been a Christian place of worship for over 1,000 years but a cathedral only since 1905.

The George Inn - a medieval pub, the only surviving galleried London coaching inn, was rebuilt in 1676 after a fire destroyed most of Southwark. William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens both visited the George, and Dickens referred to it in Little Dorrit. 

London Bridge - the first London Bridge was built by the Roman founders of London. A number of timber bridges replaced it, then came a 600 year old medieval structure, a 19th century stone-arched bridge, and finally, the current bridge, built in 1973, of concrete and steel. 

Walking under the bridge

In 1968, the previous bridge was sold to an American, from Missouri US $2.46 Million. He has since denied the rumour that he mistakenly thought he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge. 

HMS Belfast

The bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, over the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from Lake Havasu to Thomson Bay, and is now part of an English style theme park.



HMS Belfast - a museum ship, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser, permanently moored in London on the Thames and operated by the Imperial War Museum.

Old operating theatre of St Thomas's Hospital - a museum of surgical history and one of the oldest surviving operating theatres. 


The Tabard - the place owned by Harry Bailey, the host in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The Tower of London

The Tower Bridge with the Olympic symbol

Tower Bridge - sometimes mistakenly referred to as London Bridge, is named for the Tower of London which sits on the banks beside it. It is made up of two towers tied together at the upper level by two walkways. For £8, you can climb up to the walkway where you get a birds-eye view of the river and surrounding area. Originally painted a mid greenish-blue, it was repainted red, white and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee in 1977. 

Tower of London, from outside

Tower of London - This was just as I had remembered it as a child. Yeoman Warders take you on spirited tours of the different sections, and actors involve you in the history of the tower, or you can now take an audio tour of the areas on your own. 

We stayed about 2 hours and managed to see everything, even the Crown Jewels, which I had not seen when I was here as a kid, due to huge summer line-ups. Visiting the tower was well worth the time, even though the hordes of tourists really started to get to me. Stopping so I wouldn't get in someone's picture, another woman rudely demanded I move on since I was holding up their picture. I wanted to push her over into the moat, but I resisted the urge.

One of the actors, playing a judge

Founded in 1066, as part of the Norman Conquest of England, the White Tower, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. It is made up of several buildings set within two rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout has mostly stayed the same since then. 

Inside the Tower walls

Used as a prison since 1100, it's peak period was during the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was used to imprison high status prisoners in a manner they would have lived outside the tower. Before she became the Queen, Elizabeth I was held here by decree of her sister, Queen Mary I. Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey were both held and executed here.

We left the tower, and realized we had once again forgotten lunch. We found another sandwich place called Eat. that was very similar to Pret A Manger.  Harold had the Thai Chicken, Cairo had the Brie, Tomato & Basil, and I had the Smoked Chicken, Tomato & Pesto Bloomer. 

British Museum

After our lunch break, our feet were tired, but we still had to get to the British Museum. I'm not big on museums, I prefer art galleries, but Harold and Cairo enjoy them, and this is an important one, and did I mention that it is free?

The museum is huge, and we had limited time, so we decided to visit the most important exhibits, as outlined in my book:

The Reading Room - This is where the temporary exhibits are shown. The current exhibit was on the history of the horse in art, and showed pieces from the ancient to modern and included depictions of horses in stone reliefs, gold and clay models, horse tack, paintings by George Stubbs, and trophies and rosettes. We found it rather boring and rushed through it.

Elgin Marbles east pediment

The Elgin Marbles - These sculptures were taken from the Greek Parthenon by Lord Elgin in 1805, and the Greek government has been fighting to have them returned ever since.

The Rosetta Stone - This is an ancient text engraved on a tablet in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek, that celebrates the virtues of the 13 year old pharaoh Ptolemy V, who lived in 196 BC. It was found in 1799 by Napoleon's troops and handed over to the British Army as part of the Alexandria Treaty of 1802, to be deciphered in 1822.

Nereid Monument

Statues of the Nereid Monument - 4th century BC Lykian Tomb from southwest Turkey, acquired by the museum in 1816 with the Elgin Marbles.

Treasures of Sutton Hoo - Unfortunately, this area was under renovation, so we were unable to see it. Sutton Hoo was a burial ground of the early Anglo-Saxons. Before excavation in 1939, it had been believed the arts & crafts of England's Dark Ages were simplistic and inferior, but they found well designed musical instruments, glassware, and armour.

Horse from Mausoleum at Halikarnassos 

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus - Remains of one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Ionian Greek tomb built for King Maussollos, from whose name the word mausoleum is derived. The tomb went undisturbed from 351BC to medieval times, when it was damaged by earthquake, then in 1494 Crusaders users the stones to fortify a castle. In 1846, sections of the frieze were found at the castle and given to the British Museum. Excavations then found the horse sculpture and a series of lounging figures.

Asia Gallery - Meditating Buddhas and the Dancing Shiva (a bronze sculpture of Shiva), the Great Stupa (carved in India in the 3rd century BC) looks much like the Elgin Marbles.

Enlightenment Gallery - a neoclassical interior hall lined with mahogany bookshelves stocked with rare books and display cases showing over 5,000 items of an eclectic 18th century Enlightenment scholar.

Lindow Man, aka Bog Man, aka Pete Marsh

Lindow Man - Also called the "Bog Man" and "Pete Marsh"). Found in 1984, this leathery cadaver had been preserved in a peat bog in Cheshire for nearly 2,000 years. He had been struck on the head, garroted, and knifed, then put head first into the bog. It is believed he was killed as part of a sacrificial ritual.

Egyptian Rooms - Death and the afterlife, filled with coffins, sarcophagi, funerary objects, and mummies.

Now thoroughly exhausted, we walked back down to our hotel, to have a rest before dinner.



Later we took a trip downstairs to a 2 for 1 pizza and pasta place. It was cheap and not very good, but it was close.

Next to us sat a group of 2 men and 1 woman, who spent the entire time arguing over religion vs. science. I was quite proud of the Atheist's arguments and patience as his companion heaped on one insult after another. I wondered why he bothered to even continue the conversation, to be honest.

London - Day 3

This particular Sunday will forevermore be known to us as the Quest for Good Hair day.

I woke up early again, about 4am, after a fitful night of being woken by partiers. I kept reminding myself this is the sort of area I love to be in, and it is. I'd rather have some minor interruptions in sleep and be right in the midst of things. Sleep is overrated. I enjoy being up before everyone else. It gives me a chance to read, write, and Facebook.

Once the others woke up, I decided to plug in the blow dryer with the fixed converter and it was successful ... for about ten seconds ... then suddenly stopped, the fuse blown yet again. I figured it must be the outlet's fault, so tried another outlet with the new converter. The same thing happened, though this converter was now garbage since it didn't have an external fuse. Guess that's why it cost only £7! Alright then, so we had one converter left, another cheapie. Obviously the dryer was just not going to work. At least we had the flat iron. Our hair could still, hopefully, be rescued from the frizz of another humid day. I plugged it in, and it began to heat up. I got one length of hair in it, and it was still working, then the green light went out. Damn!

Serving breakfast to the homeless.

This was now an emergency. I was kicking myself for not bringing my travel dryer and iron. Cairo and I were now both looking forward to a vacation of curly hair, something neither of us was prepared for. Once in a while, we may choose to have a curly hair day, but never a curly hair month! So we decided to go look for a cheap UK set. I looked online to find the closest drug stores, and there were a number of Boots and Marks and Spencers in the area, all with different opening times. Their web sites both showed they carried blow dryers and flat irons, at very affordable prices. As this was a Sunday, today was, much to my chagrin, a later opening day.

Charing Cross Station

We headed down to Charing Cross station, which opened earliest, at 9am. The Marks and Spencer was opened first, but all they had was food ... the most wonderful looking sandwiches, salads, and fruits, all packaged for travel. We made a mental note to remember M&S for later. Next door at Boots, we could see a small man inside, stocking shelves, but were frustrated when he didn't open the doors on time. Finally, 10 minutes later, a woman showed up, running, dishevelled, and panting, to open the doors. She apologized to us for opening late, as we ran past her, in search of our items. Alas, our wait was for nought. They didn't have even one! We asked the messy cashier if she knew which stores carried them, but she couldn't tell us.

Gremlin at Covent Gardens

Just a block away was another Boots, this one much bigger. Looking through the windows, we were sure we'd be successful in this store. It was just a matter of when it opened ... ugh ... 11am. Alright, so there were other Boots in the area. Why just down the opposite direction, there was yet another, and it was open 24 hours, and it sold ... glasses only. Well, okay then, there was yet another Boots, closer up to where we were staying, right in the Covent Gardens square, opened at 10am. We wandered around the side streets, looking for other stores that might help us, but even the big Marks & Spencer didn't open until noon.

We now had a plan. Starbucks first, then Covent Gardens Boots at 10, the Strand at 11, M&S at noon. What a day this was turning out to be! Promptly at 10, we walked through the door of the Covent Gardens Boots, to find a tiny little store, smaller than even the train station. I walked through the two tiny aisles, certain it would be of no use, and it was. As we strode dejectedly from the store, Harold pointed out the stairs leading down to the Pharmacy. I was sure it would be a waste of time, but as all we had was time, we went down anyway. To our delight and astonishment, we had found the mother lode! They had not 1, but 3 different dryers, and 3 different flat irons! The prices were cheap, which made me worry about the quality, but better than nothing!

We raced back to the hotel, eager to try out the new tools, and were astonished at the quality. Our hair turned out so soft and beautiful, it was hard not to keep running our fingers through it. I'm not sure why, must be the higher voltage, because my tools are very high quality and expensive, and these Boots ones are the complete opposite!

London Bridge station

So now our hair was taken care of, we could finally get out and see the city. By this time, the weather had turned to intermittent showers, so it seemed like the best time to head off to the London Dungeons, the tourist trap we'd already paid for with our tickets to the London Eye.

Exiting the London Bridge tube station, we were beset upon by aggressive sales people trying to sell us tours and tickets to other trashy places such as the London Bridge Experience and the London Tombs. I surmised, from the way they were dressed as undead characters, that they would be more of the same as what we'd see at the London Dungeon. Our third day of vacation, and our first experience, this trip, of pushy, aggressive sales people. We know better than to even get caught up talking to them, but we weren't weary enough yet, and still wasted our breath telling them "No, thank you."

The London Dungeon

As we had our tickets already, I was hoping we'd get to go at the head of the line, but no such luck. We got put to the back of a long line, with all the others who didn't have tickets yet, to be bothered by sales people over and over with offers of getting in the fast line for just £5 each more. We waited, intent not to give them even a penny ... or even a farthing ... more of our money.

Eventually we got inside, to be shoved in the midst of a high school group from Russia. These were the rudest, most horribly behaved teens I've ever been around, and their parents were just as bad. They were loud and obnoxious. They ran, yelled, pushed and touched everything they were told not to. I'd have felt bad for the Dungeon employees, but they actually had licence to be rude to patrons, since it was all in character. I definitely enjoyed their spoken jabs at the group surrounding us. This was the crowd that taught me to walk with my elbows pointed out so anyone who pushed into me got physically jabbed.

The London Dungeon

The Dungeon was actually better than I expected. It told the bloody history of old London in an entertaining, very gory sort of way, as we wandered through rooms, entertained by characters who regaled us with stories and acting out of gruesome bits of London fokelore. From the serial killer Jack the Ripper, barber Sweeney Todd and regal Bloody Mary to the black plague and the fearsome torture chamber, it was bloody, gory, scary, and fun. Not exactly what we came to London to see, but we had a good time, despite our rude companions.

Comedic String Quartet

After our time in the Dungeon, we came outside to blinding sun, and rumbling tummies. It was now mid afternoon and we hadn't eaten since 7am that morning. Across the road was a sandwich shop called Pret A Manger. It's a sandwich shop with the tastiest sandwiches, soups, and salads made throughout the day. Their selections are more exciting than regular sandwich shops, with items such as Chicken, Stuffing and Mango Chutney Granary, Pole & Line Caught Tuna & Rocket Bloomer and Sweet Chilli Crayfish & Mango Bloomer among many others. At the end of the day, any and all leftovers are given away to charity so it tastes good and feels good to eat there! Unfortunately, they are only available in the UK, Hong Kong, France and a few cities in the USA.

One of the pair of amazingly talented opera singers.

That evening we had reservations at Sarastros on Drury Lane. My Mother had seen this restaurant on an episode of World's Weirdest Restaurants and told me about it. It was pricey, but as it included entertainment as well as a 3 course meal, it seemed worthy of a little extra. We chose to go on Sunday night as that was rumoured to be the best night, with opera singers and a string quartet. That sounds rather staid, and this restaurant is anything but that. It is wildly decorated with dramatic colours, fabrics, and artworks. Low balconies, with banisters from the Royal Opera house are over the bottom layer of tables. The washroom is decorated with renderings of sexual escapades. To me it seemed a mix of old Opera house and bordello. I could imagine, in old London, rich men coming to such a place to experience erotic pleasures. The entertainment was both raucous and talented, with artists from London Opera houses.

Our food was also wonderful here. On Opera nights, they have a 3 course set menu. We started with a selection of Turkish hors d'oeuvres to share, bread, hummus, cacik, kisir, piyaz, cheese borek, mushroom borek, and sucuk. For the main course, I had Lamb Anatolian, Harold had the Beef Bourguignon, and Cairo had Penne Arrabiata. All three meals were very good, but mine was definitely the winner. For dessert, we had a choice of chocolate fudge cake, coffee & mascarpone cake, fruit salad, or ice cream. We all chose the fudge cake. A very good choice.

London - Day 2

The downside to staying in an area with lots of nightlife? There is a lot of nightlife noise going on all night! Especially on a weekend. Which makes it particularly difficult to sleep. Especially when you're in a new timezone. Especially on a hot summer night. Especially when you need all the windows open.

I woke up at 4am local time. I tried to be quiet, to let the others sleep, and they did for another two hours. During this time I read, wrote in my diary, and watched people out the window.



One group was especially interesting. It was about 4:45am, and this convertible with the top down and two men in the front, and a woman in the back pulled up. 


The driver, older, chubbier, hairier (less on top, more on the body), went into the 24 hour store across the road. The other man, this one younger, short hair, appeared to be in good physical shape. He and the young woman got out of the car. She was dark haired and olive skinned, very thin, with legs that kept on going. She was dressed in a very short skirt and a very revealing top. 


The two sat, leaning against the car, talking. A few moments later, a young black woman came out dressed in just as little clothing. The two women hugged and got in the car. The new woman got in the front passenger seat, while the other woman and man got in the back. The driver came back out, was introduced to the black woman, and they left, screeching wheels, music blaring. Not sure what to make of it ... booty call or hookers?

I have a pretty good travel blow dryer and flat iron that I took with me to Southeast Asia last year. I made the choice to leave them at home this year, to bring my much better set instead, figuring I could just use the converter with them. Unfortunately, the converter fuse blew as soon as I turned the dryer on. We figured we could just buy a new fuse and that would fix it. In the meantime, the day would have to be a curly hair day.

Breakfast was included in the price of our hotel, so we walked over to the main location to enjoy our very first English breakfast. And what a feast it was! Rubbery fried eggs, liver tasting sausages, super salty ham, watery scrambled eggs, beans, toast, and granola. The coffee was so thick and strong, it was like sludge. It made me think of the talk I'd heard of how bad the coffee was, as a child when we were here. The instant Nescafe we'd had in the room was so much better. I decided to eat only granola and/or toast for the rest of our stay there.

Reading the morning newspaper, we discovered there were big issues with the Pride parade and festival, and that they might be cancelled due to security fears. It seems that the parade this year was to have been a hugely big deal, with people coming from all over the world.


The expected numbers were too large for the security the organizers had arranged, and the city was demanding they do more. The organizers couldn't afford anymore security since donations have been down this year due to the economic woes in the UK. So the city refused to let it happen as planned. At the very least, the parade wouldn't be allowed floats or acts, and it could only be a march. The concert, at Trafalgar Square was to be limited to a much smaller crowd, and once the number was reached, no more would be allowed in. At the worst, everything would be cancelled. We definitely started to have second thoughts about whether to spend any of our limited time on it.

After breakfast we found an electronics shop on the next street where we bought a fuse for the converter. I had asked Harold to buy 3, just in case, but he decided to buy just 1, thinking he'd come back if he needed to.

Early on Saturday morning, the lanes of Covent Gardens were almost deserted. Stores were still closed, only the occasional restaurant was open. Not even Starbucks was open yet. We began a walk south, past the  Seven Dials sundial pillar, to Trafalgar Square, and along Parliament Street.



On this street are many important and historical buildings:

10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister.


Whitehall Palace, the main London residence of the monarchy between 1530 and 1698.

Horse Guards Parade, a large parade ground where tournaments (including jousting) were held in the time of Henry VIII and annual birthday celebrations took place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.


Churchill War Rooms, a museum including the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout WWII, and the Churchill Museum, all about Winston Churchill.

At the end of the street we came out onto Parliament Square, around which lies:

Westminster Abbey, a large Gothic church, used for coronations, weddings and burials of British monarchs. This place is huge, and holds the crypts for not just the monarchy, but many important artists, writers, generals, admirals, politicians, doctors and scientists. The most surprising, to me, is the burial of Charles Darwin, buried 26 April 1882. 

Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament.



Big Ben, 316 feet (96.3 m) high (roughly 16 storeys), is the iconic Gothic Revival style clock tower, renamed the Elizabeth Tower in tribute to Queen Elizabeth in her Diamond Jubilee year. It was designed by Augustus Pugin, his last design before descent into madness and death.

Once we finished with this area, we decided to take the tube up to The City, a one square mile area that, in the medieval period constituted most of London, but now the metropolis of London has grown to include a huge area. In this area, we saw:

St. Paul's Cathedral, 365 feet (111 m) high, once the tallest building in London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is one of the most famous and most recognizable sights of London, with its dome, framed by the spires of the City churches. 

Museum of London, which shows the history of London from the Prehistoric to the present day. We enjoyed wandering through the different sections showing the happenings and items from each time period.

London Wall, first built by the Romans around Londinium, and maintained until the 18th century. It is now the name of a road in the City of London running along part of the course of the wall. Until the later Middle Ages the wall defined the boundaries of the City of London. There are still sections of it left standing, and it feels surreal to see new modern buildings built right beside these ancient brick structures.

Top Shop, a British retailer which specialises in fashion clothing, shoes, make-up and accessories. It has shops in around 20 countries and online, but none in Vancouver. We decided to hunker down in a Starbucks for a break and allow Cairo to try on clothing. It's hard to be a 17 year old girl in the fashion capitals of Europe, with parents who don't see the point in spending valuable sightseeing time shopping. So we compromised a bit.



Wandering by a computer shop, we decided to look inside, and found another US to UK converter, and it was very reasonably priced so we bought it as backup, in case our other one copped out again.


By this time, our feet were sore, and the jet lag was getting to us, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap. We got up later and headed out for an 8pm dinner. Unlike North America, Europeans tend to eat later. Plus, we were in a trendy, young, nightlife area, so most of the restaurants were packed at this time. After circling the area, we settled on an Indian restaurant right down the road from us. 


London is known for it's great curries, but Vancouver is also home to many, many wonderful Indian restaurants. We found this restaurant to be as good as those we have back home, but not any better. Cairo though, after many complaints about not liking Indian food, discovered she now does like it. It's an important part of growing up, to let go of your childhood food fears, and experiment with tastes that are alien. I'm glad we forced her to try again.

London - Day 1

 We arrived at London Gatwick at 1:35pm (5:35am Vancouver time) on Friday afternoon. Having heard bad reviews of Air Transat flights to London, and once flying them to Las Vegas, I had very low expectations. Our flight was better than expected, however, with a good amount of personal space, individual tv terminals, and two okay meals. I watched two good movies, My Week With Marilyn, which I had wanted to see, and Chronicles, which I'd never even heard of, but was a nice surprise.

We had choices to make about how to get into the city. The Gatwick Express would get us there in 30 min, and cost £18.90 each, the regular train would take 40 min and cost £8.90 each, or Easybus for a few pounds each, but would have to battle traffic into the city. It seemed like an easy choice, so we took the regular train to Victoria station. Half way into town, I realized we had chosen to sit in first class, but since no one was coming around to check, I decided to pretend I'd still not noticed the sign.

I noticed a little note about the Covent Gardens stop, saying it could get very busy and a better stop might be the one before it, but I discounted it since my walking directions were from the CG stop. We got off the tube and walked up the hall to find a huge line of people waiting to get in elevators. This station was too far down for an escalator, I guess. It was so hot and claustrophobic waiting in there with all those people, and we noticed a few leaving the line to walk up the stairs. Cairo and Harold thought we should follow them and I was pretty surprised, since there was a sign right there that said it was 193 steps up. I was rather impressed actually, that Cairo would choose to walk up all those stairs with a heavy backpack on her back, so I was all gung ho. Let's go then!

Half way up, I learned Cairo had not seen the sign, she'd had no idea how many steps it was, but to give her credit, she didn't complain (not much anyway), and just kept going, passing many others who weren't laden down like pack mules. We made a mental note to try not to use this station again, if at all possible.

Covent Gardens is a great area, with a lot of narrow lanes filled with pubs, restaurants, shops, and theatres. Cairo was in awe of all the retro dress shops we walked past on our way to the hotel. Seven Dials Hotel on Monmouth Street had been fully booked when I contacted them, but had an annex location two blocks over on Endell Street, with family size rooms. While it's very easy to find hotels in North America that will fit more than a couple, Europe is not as easy, especially the big cities. It was the priciest stay of our trip, but the location just couldn't be beat.

View from our room

We found the nondescript white door sandwiched in between a travel agent and a retro dress store that pulled at Cairo's heartstrings. Across the road is a 24 hour store, and on the corner is the location for what we were told, by the hotelier, is the best fish & chips in London. Climbing up the narrow stairway to the second floor, we found the lights were all motion censored and came on as we approached. We would find this to be the norm in many of our hotels in Europe. They also have switches on the plugs, so you can shut off the actual receptacle, and two button toilet flushers, so you have a choice of how much water is used. Even the lower level flush appears to use a lot more water than our newer systems though.

We had one double bed, two singles, a couch, armoire, desk, and book shelf. This was a very good size room, but the bathroom was tiny to the point of being restrictive and claustrophobic. The weather was warm and sunny, and our room didn't have a/c, but with the 3 large windows open, it let in lots of fresh air, and the room cooled off nicely. While the main hotel included free Wifi, it was not available in the annex building but I was able to connect to a paid Wifi service that was available in that area for £15 for the week.


We'd not only been told Rock & Sole Plaice, the fish & chips shop on the corner, was the best in London, they had it pasted all over the building and it was bustling with people, inside and out. We opted for a table out front, so we could enjoy the weather and watch the people going by. Food prices were quite expensive, but the wine was cheap. We shared a bottle of red house wine, which was tasty, and had two orders of fish & chips between the 3 of us. Like most fish shops in Vancouver, the portions are always way too big, and even sharing, we had too much food. The batter on the fish was very tasty and nicely done, the chips (English french fries are always called chips. Potato chips are called Crisps.) were thick cut and perfectly fried, but the fish (haddock and cod) was just not as nice as we have here at home.

Smokers outside Pub

After dinner, we went wandering around the area, past theatres playing big and small shows, and restaurants and pubs brimming with people. From down the road at the restaurant, we had noticed what we thought was a line of people waiting to get into a club or theatre. As we got closer we realized it was a pub they were standing outside, and all the people were out there smoking and drinking. There doesn't appear to be much of any rules against people drinking out on the sidewalk like there is at home. There is a rule against smoking inside however.

London Eye capsule

A few blocks down we came out on the Thames, just a bit over from the London Eye. I had read online that queues for the huge Ferris wheel can get up to 2 hours in the summer, but didn't want to pay extra for the fast pass until I had seen for myself it was worth the extra cost. The company who runs the London Eye, also runs Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and another tourist trap, The London Dungeon. They offer better prices if you pay for more than one place.

Partiers we caught from the London Eye

Cairo had really wanted to go to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on this trip. All her life, when we have gone to tourist traps, she's asked to go in the wax museum there, and I always told her the only one worth seeing was the London Tussaud's. But I went there as a child and didn't want to spend the money to go again, and Harold had no interest. We had thought to let Cairo go alone, but she didn't like that idea. We compromised on all going to The London Dungeon instead, even though Harold and I were rolling our eyes about it. We bought the combo ticket and figured we'd fit the Dungeon in another day.











Lucky for us, the weather was beautiful, and the line was short, so we jumped on it right away and were rewarded with a wonderful aerial view of the entire city. I had wondered if the heights would bother me, but I didn't find it at all scary. Just a nice, smooth, slow ride up and around, and back down again. There was a 4D experience ride that was included with our ride, but we found it to be kinda ho-hum.

The waterfront walk was full of entertainers, skateboarders and people paying to have their pictures taken with people in costumes, some very imaginative, while others the same old metallic men and other characters we've seen in many other cities. We wandered around for a while, before walking back across the river on one of the Golden Jubilee pedestrian bridges that flank the Hungerford Bridge. I was quite surprised that Harold and Cairo didn't share my excitement that this was the very same bridge that Bridget Jones had walked across in her first movie.


Up the road we came across Trafalgar Square. One of my fondest memories when I was a kid in London, was coming here and feeding the pigeons. They would land all over your hands, arms, and head, in their quest for the food you offered them. In 2003, feeding them was made illegal. I can definitely understand why, they make a terrible mess of the area, but it's still sad. The square was all cordoned off, in preparation for the concert taking place there on Sunday, the Gay Pride Festival, something we were mulling over attending.


We ended up back at our room about 9pm, and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit their respective pillows.