FOUR DAYS IN LONDON
Monday (August 27, 2001)
The alarm clock went off at 5:05am. Katja and I had a quick breakfast and did some last minute preparations for our trip to London/UK. We decided to take an early train to Stuttgart Airport in order to check in our luggage before a huge queue of other passengers will come up. Well, suddenly the watch displayed 6:10am, which definitely was a little bit late. So we grabbed our suitcases and backpacks and hurried to the Uhldingen-Muehlhofen train station. There was exactly one minute left when we arrived at the station. Just in time we jumped into the train. Once sitting inside, we had a feeling that nothing could go wrong anymore.
A friendly conductor suggested to change to another line in Singen for 'additional traveling convenience'. (Other than stated in our traveling schedule.) Therefore, we left the train in Singen and waited on the platform for arrival of the other line. We were waiting, and waiting, and waiting. However, no train did arrive at this platform, at all. It turned out, that the line suggested by the conductor is not in service on Mondays. Angry and nervously we had to wait for a later train from Singen to Stuttgart. Form now on, nothing must go wrong anymore!
Fortunately, there were no more delays and we could check in for our flight just in time. Katja and I enjoyed a very nice flight in a British Airways Airbus A319. There were only a few clouds, so we had a great view on the channel. The weather in London was marvelous (sunny and about 19 degrees centigrade). Since the London underground ('tube') is definitely the cheapest way to travel in London, we made our way to the underground station of Heathrow Airport.
After a bumpy 55-minutes drive in crowded underground trains, we arrived at London Barbican. Although the name of our hotel was 'Thistle City Barbican', we were having an endless walk before we arrived in our room at about 4pm. Exploring the London map more thoroughly, we could find another underground station that was located a little bit closer to our hotel: Old Street.
At about 6pm we went to Old Street station and took the tube to Notting Hill, since this was the last day of the famous 'Notting Hill Carnival'. I think that I've never seen that many crazy guys on a street in Germany. In between the crowd there were policemen on horses. They shouted through megaphones to prevent people from blocking escape routes. Amazingly, the horses calmly ignored the hurting noise. Maybe they were deaf in both ears. :-)
People sold T-shirts, stickers, beverages, and even drugs on the street. Of course, Katja and I didn't buy any drugs, but very nice T-shirts instead. When we decided to return to the hotel about 11:30pm, Notting Hill underground station has already been closed for security reasons. Just in time we could make it to Queensway station (before police closed this station, too). The trains were even more crowded than we experienced on our first tour from Heathrow Airport to Barbican. Back in the hotel, we fell asleep soon.
Tuesday (August 28, 2001)
Obviously, the guest staying in the adjacent room was a police horse from Notting Hill, so we woke up around 4:30am due to very loud TV audio. After having a delicious breakfast, we took the tube to Picadilly Circus. Considering the heavy traffic driving on the left I got convinced that I never want to drive any car in London. Even walking around on your own feet can be quite life threatening, since you're always tempted to look into the wrong direction when crossing a street.
Katja and I took and extensive walk through Soho/China Town, where we were attacked by numerous different smells, some of which our European noses were not accustomed to.
From Soho you can directly get to Covent Garden. There are a lot of cool shops and very nice cafes. In the South Hall of the Covent Garden Market Halls, there are always artists playing good music, singing, or dancing. Make sure you visit this place when you're staying in London.
Compared to my home town (village), London is a very noisy city and the air quality is not the best. Whenever you blow your nose, you can see the evidence in your handkerchief. However, there are a lot of nice parks. Katja and I visited the Royal Park where you can watch numerous animals like pelicans, ducks, squirrels, and pigeons.
It was already 5pm and my feet were hurting, but we still wanted to see the Buckingham Palace (at least from outside). So we got there, took a few photos, and returned to the hotel.
On the way back we stopped by at a store and bought some food for dinner. While Katja was watching TV (English only), I wasted my remaining power in the gym of a wellness club associated with our hotel.
Right after dinner, we visited one of the numerous London pubs and I enjoyed a pint of strong English beer. (Yes, I still can remember our way back to the hotel.) ;-)
Wednesday (August 29, 2001)
To make sure all the alcohol will be washed out of my body, I started this day in the gym. After breakfast, Katja and I bought two tickets for the evening performance of 'Phantom of the Opera' in 'Her Majesty's Theater'.
Beside the famous theaters there is another 'must-have-seen' in London: 'Madame Tussaud's'. It was about 11:30am when Katja and I reached Baker Street and discovered the huge queue of people waiting at the entrance. Since we didn't want to spend our whole vacation waiting in queues, we decided to visit 'Madam Tussaud's Rock Circus' instead. There you can see famous rock and pop stars from all periods of time. I took about twenty pictures of them: Katja and Madonna, Katja and Elvis, Katja and the Spice Girls, and so on, and so on, ... ;-)
Katja and I had some fresh fruits from one of the Soho street markets for lunch. The entire afternoon was dedicated to shopping. Gosh, you can spend a fortune of money when shopping in London!
For dinner, we were having traditional 'fish 'n' chips'. This, however, did not match our usual nutrition, since it was really fatty. Katja got stomachache and I got diarrhea. Well, anyway, you must try 'fish 'n' chips. :-)
When we eventually managed to deal with our physical condition (hurting legs, stomachache, diarrhea), we dressed up ourselves for the theater. The great performance made up for all the inconvenience caused by our health related problems. Especially the music of 'Phantom of the Opera' is wonderful when it is played live by an orchestra.
Post-theatre we discovered the streets of Soho by night reading hundreds of menus in the windows of Asia restaurants and Sushi bars. Back in the hotel we fell asleep at about 1am.
Thursday (August 30, 2001)
Same like the day before I stared with 45 minutes of exercising in the gym. I didn't eat that much for breakfast, since my diarrhea was just getting better. Katja and I went to Barbican Center, where we expected to see some more shops, museums, etc. Arriving there, however, we could see nothing of the above but yet another theater. So we proceeded by tube to Tower Hill underground station in order to take some photos of the London Tower and Tower Bridge. Shortly after our arrival at the bridge it has been lifted in order to allow ships passing through.
As Katja really likes shops, we got back to the tube and traveled to Knightsbridge underground station. There are plenty of very exclusive shops in that area. Well, compared to Germany, everything in London is about 50 to 75% more expensive. The shops at Knightsbridge, however, are really expensive!
One of the most famous ones is 'Harrods', where you can get almost everything. In one window of the 'Harrods' store, by the way, they have placed a picture of Dodi and Princess Diana. People have laid down bouquets of flowers in front of the window, so it became sort of a 'Diana Memorial'.
On Thursday afternoon, we found ourselves in Covent Garden exploring some less expensive shops. There is a very nice shop called 'Lush' selling handmade soaps, which are perfect presents for relatives at home.
Right beneath the Covent Garden Market Halls, there is the 'London Museum of Transport', which shows how public transport has transformed the capital and the lives of Londoners since the early 1800s. It's really worth it to visit this museum, especially if you're interested in busses and underground trains. You can also visit its web site: http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk
When we left the transport museum, Katja and I faced 'real' London weather. It was raining heavily. Well, we didn't have any problems with it, because so far it had been sunny and almost a little too hot. It was about 5:30pm and our stomachs felt hungry, so we decided to take the tube from Covent Garden to Leicester Square. Since all the other people had the same idea to avoid getting wet, Katja and I got yet another demonstration of where the weakest link is in London's public transport system: The escalators in London's underground stations.
Eventually we arrived at Mildred's vegetarian restaurant in Soho. Yes, you won't get any
meat or fish there. It offers great vegetarian dishes to reasonable prices instead. If you
are a German traveler, you might notice some differences between British and German
restaurants:
After a little walk we 'tubed' back to the hotel were we spent the remaining evening watching TV. I felt pain in each bone of my legs.
Friday (August 31, 2001)
No gym today, since we had to clear our room at 10:30am in order to get to Heathrow Airport in time. Once more we enjoyed the yummy breakfast and went to Old Street underground station carrying all our luggage. We arrived at Heathrow Airport in time, checked in our luggage, and did a last shopping tour through several British duty-free shops.
The flight from London Heathrow to Stuttgart in a Boeing 737-400 was very nice, although it constantly flew above a white carpet of clouds, which looked like an ocean of cotton wool.
Without any problems Katja and I arrived at home in the late Friday evening with our minds full of new impressions, our bags full of British stuff, and our bank accounts sucked empty. ;-)
Some hints if you're planning to visit London
Written by Andre M. Maier.
All rights reserved.
September 20, 2001