What a weekend!!! I can’t believe it’s already gone. On a whim last Thursday I checked out fares from NYC to London for a weekend trip, as I’m wont to do sometimes. The prices were pitiful, as you might imagine for a last minute trip. The lowest that pulled up was over $600/person on Virgin Atlantic. But then I noticed a small box at the top of the fares marked “Last Minute Deal”. It claimed Air + Hotel + Tax for $336/person. “Too good to be true!!” I clicked on it, and it took me to the hotel selection page, where it offered me the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, a 4 star hotel in London, or a number of other hotels that I could choose, and it would add on a per person charge accordingly. I told Kristi about the amazing deal and we kicked the idea around, but in the end we decided to be responsible and not chuck a bunch of money at the travel industry. Friday morning, Kristi was talking to her mom on the phone. She told her about the deal, and her mom was shocked that we weren’t going. She pretty much told us we were dumb to pass it up. I overheard them talking about it, and I wandered over to Travelocity to see if the fare was still available. Lo and behold, there it was!! So we talked about it some more, and it must have been painfully obvious that I really wanted to go. So we said, “why not?”, and booked ourselves a pair of tickets to leave for London at 9pm that night. Needless to say, the rest of the workday was painfully long. Complicating things was the news that I got on Thursday night that one of my clients was going to sign up a new company that could have a VERY significant impact on Neovest’s revenue, and everyone was in a snit to get it all done. I felt a little guilty about leaving with that going on, but it was Yom Kippur weekend, so the market was going to be pretty dead on Monday anyways. So I got everyone here lined up with what they’d need to do in my absence, and Kristi got all of her work taken care of too, and we were on the 3:40 ferry home to pack.
Let me tell you that carrying on is not the only way to go when flying domestically, but it’s even better when going over-seas. I HATE waiting for luggage after sitting on the plane for hours on end. None of that for us though. We were only going to be gone for 2 days, so we made quick work of packing. The good news is that my mother trained me well, so we took a larger than necessary second bag, with a backpack in it, so we’d have enough room to bring back out haul after plundering the high streets of London. We finally rolled out of the parking lot around 4:45. We had to get gas before we got on the Turnpike, so that plopped us into Friday afternoon rush hour at around 4:55. We were supposed to be to the airport at 6pm to make our 8pm flight. (It takes about 45 minutes under optimal conditions.) No, it did not look good. I had the bright idea to try the back roads in Jersey City and Bayonne. Hard to say if it really made a difference. We kept moving, but not very quickly. At least it wasn’t through too “scenic” a part of town. The roads through Staten Island were ok, but the Verazzano Narrows Bridge and the Belt Parkway around Brooklyn were brutally slow. We finally made it to long term parking at JFK, only to wait around for another 15 minutes for the bus to show up. I think that we finally checked in around 6:50. Perfect timing in my book. We breezed through check in (no luggage – woo hoo!!!), grabbed a bite to eat, and made our way through security to the gate. The flight was fairly full, but at least we were sitting together. It was a 777, so it was a 2, 5, 2 configuration. We had an aisle and middle in that middle 5. Poor Kristi was stuck next to some stinky Spaniards. Smart girl took some Dramamine though, so she passed out for about 4 hours. I think I probably got 3 – 3.5 hours of sleep. That flight really isn’t too bad. We were only in the air for about 6 hours, which is about how long it takes to fly from JFK to SFO. The flight was uneventful though – the best kind, really.
We got to London around 8am, and got to spend a nice amount of time in the passport control line. I can’t remember having seen one that long, but in retrospect we usually land a couple of hours earlier, so they wouldn’t have as much time to get backed up. This is a good time to mention another one of the reasons that we had originally decided not to take the trip. Kristi hasn’t updated her passport since we got married, so it still has the name Kristi Janell Loveridge on it. I was a little nervous about flying overseas (especially since September 11) on a passport that didn’t match the rest of her ID, but we just booked her ticket under her maiden name, and everything went off without a hitch. We filled out 2 landing cards in the UK and USA just to avoid any problems, but noone questioned us at all. We breezed past the luggage carrousels and headed down into the bowels of the airport to catch the tube into town. Our hotel was conveniently located around the corner from the Gloucester Rd. stop on the Picadilly line, so no transfers were necessary on the Tube, and there was an elevator at the station, so it was easy to get our bags up to street level. The map I bought (London Streetwise) showed that the hotel was right across the street from the Tube stop, and after peeking around a corner, sure enough, there was the Holiday Inn sign. However, the young man working the check-in desk couldn’t find our reservation. Turns out that there’s yet another Holiday Inn across the street (we would have run into it if we’d turned right out of the Tube stop instead of left). He said, “That’s the biggest Holiday Inn in the world – we’re the nicest.” I was kinda bummed out by that, but we headed over to the right place. It was about 10am, and we were hoping that they’d just let us dump our bags somewhere until check-in time, but the nice German girl working the desk there found us a room that was already available. Queen bed (we’d reserved 2 singles, since that was the cheapest option from Travelocity), 18th floor, with a GORGEOUS view of the museums, Big Ben, the London Eye, and St. Paul’s Cathedral .
View from the Hotel room window of the London Eye
The room wasn’t huge, but that’s to be expected in London I imagine. The hotel was only 3 years old though, so it was very nice. Nothing particularly fancy, but it was nice and clean, and certainly of above average quality. And the shower worked. There isn’t really too much that can help you regain so much of your humanity after a trans-continental flight as a nice hot shower.
Cleaned up, we were ready to hit the city. It was a little strange to be in London just a few hours after deciding that we were going to go. We didn’t really have any preconceived notions of what the trip was going to be like, nor did we really have plans of what to do. In fact, about the only thing I knew that I wanted to do was go to Coffee Republic and get some hot chocolate. That was a lovely little place that we discovered on the last trip, since it was right across the street from the Allen House. Their hot chocolate blows away anything you’ll ever get at Starbucks, so we availed ourselves of their chocolatey goodness a couple of times over the weekend.
Looking for the hotel, I saw a billboard that gave me one goal for our time in the UK – the Lord of the Rings exhibit at the Science Museum.
Lord of the Rings Exhibit
I’d read briefly about it online, and all I really knew was that it was a hot ticket, and internet pre-sales were going crazy. Since the museum was only a 10 minute walk down the street I figured we’d stick our heads in, see if we could get tickets for the next day, and then head on. A few seconds after we got in line, a man came up behind us and handed us 2 tickets for 11:30, explaining that a couple of his friends hadn’t shown up, and that we could have the tickets. Face value was about $19, so not only were we pleased to have tickets that would let us enter the exhibit in less than half an hour, we saved almost $40 bucks. Everything’s better when it’s free. It was a really cool exhibit. It was all about the making of the movies (the first 2 only – I guess they didn’t want to give anything away about the last one), so they had lots of costumes, weapons, props, and films about how they did the special effects. Too cool! After a quick bathroom break we pounded the pavement again. Actually, it was more like a very nice stroll up the street to Harrod’s. Kristi found a bracelet that matched perfectly with her wedding ring (only £22.50), but it was a little large, so she decided to sleep on it. We went into the Food Halls to check out the first UK Krispy Kreme (just opened a couple of weeks ago), but neither of us were in the mood for the intense sugar rush. I bought some raspberry candies, and we continued our wanderings through the store. Last time we were there we saw a pram that Kristi loved, so we set out to find that again. There it was – all £900 of it. Ouchie.
By this time we were getting pretty hungry, so we left Harrod’s in search of nourishment – or at least something to fill our growling tummies. We wandered in the direction of “Buck House” (Buckingham Palace), our next intended stop, and found Pizza on the Park, a nice little restaurant across the street from Green Park. We split a mozzarella and tomato salad, and a margherita pizza – yummy stuff! Energized, we continued on down to Buckingham. It’s a big pretty building, but not really much to do there, and as we’d already missed the changing of the guard, we moved on down the street to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament. We’d only been to these places a little over a year ago, so we didn’t really need to do a full fledged tour, but Kristi was a little hazy on what she’d seen the last time, so this was a good opportunity to cement everything into her brain. We started to catch some rain (amazingly enough, this was the only time it rained on us the entire trip!), so we ducked underground into the Tube.
We rode the Jubilee line up to Picadilly Circus.
Piccy Circus
Kristi wanted to try to find a baby-sized soccer uniform for our soon-to-be-nephew, and we just happened to be standing in front of Lillywhites (huge sporting goods store). Turns out they had just what we needed – a miniature uniform of the English national team, complete with tiny red socks. The day was starting to wear on by this point, so our options of what to do were winding down. I didn’t want to go back to the hotel and pass out (had to fight the jet lag), so we cruised through Boots, the Body Shop, and the Virgin Megastore. (Boots yielded a new and exciting treasure – Zesty Berry Fanta, which turns out to be Black Currant flavored soda. Yummy!) There was a matinee performance of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) playing at the Criterion Theater, so we got some cheap tickets to that and headed downstairs. It didn’t have the same energy as I remembered when I saw it in NYC, and Kristi didn’t like it as much as their performance of the Complete History of the United States (Abridged), but it was still a great show. When the play let out, we were conveniently in front of the Picadilly Circus Tube station, which happens to be on the same Picadilly Line as our hotel. So a quick ride east, and we were back at Gloucester Road. One of the first things you see when you leave that station is a bright red KFC sign, so we picked up some greasy “American” fast food to take up to the room. I use that term “American” very loosely because they didn’t even have biscuits! It was a crime against KFC’s everywhere. My Zinger Twister was still tasty though. The tub was not the best I’ve ever seen in Europe, but it was still light years ahead of anything here in the states. I’m lucky that I’m here to write this and that I didn’t end up sucking a gallon of water into my lungs, since the water was so wonderfully warm, and I was so super-drowsy. Somehow I pulled myself out, and managed not to fall asleep until 10pm – one of my key to avoiding jet lag.
I really liked the area where we were staying. It’s in Kensington, so the neighborhood is great. The area right in front of the Tube stop had a number of restaurants, grocers, fast food joints, etc., that really gave you a lot of options if you didn’t have dinner plans, or want to shell out big bucks for a hotel breakfast. I’d recommend the area to anyone not lucky enough to be staying in the Allen House.
Apparently one of the other keys to avoiding jet lag is to make up for the sleep that you missed on the plane ride on the way over. That would probably explain why I woke up a little before 10am. Breakfast was another marshmallow filled Hot Chocolate from Coffee Republic (can you say, “Withdrawals”?), this time accompanied by a tasty muffin. I’d also like to take a second here to mention what an absolutely GORGEOUS day it was. Not a cloud in the sky. I’ve never seen anything like it in London. If it hadn’t been for the constant light breeze, I wouldn’t even have worn a coat. It was really a one-in-a-million day.
This morning we had a chance to do something totally new to both of us – not the easiest thing for me to say in London. We tubed up to Notting Hill Gate and strolled down the market street of Portobello Road. It was not at all what I expected, for the most part. It’s a gorgeous area of town, similar in quality to Kensington, but with a very different feel.
Just as you enter Notting Hill
The street was lined with shops, which kind of surprised me. I assumed that it was going to be more of an open air market, but there were only a few tables on the sidewalks. There were plenty of European tourists out and about, but there didn’t seem to be many Americans. We nipped into a grocer and picked up some Star Bars, which will hopefully be making their way into the mail soon. The only vendor that really had anything of interest was at the very end (beginning?) of the street. (We walked up one side, and back down on the other.) He had all kinds of knick-knacky things, including some cool astronomical antiques (astrolabes, telescopes, etc.) If I knew more about that stuff, or we had somewhere to put it, I think we would have made a purchase since it was fairly inexpensive. But we opted to save our pennies for later. We did manage to pick up a Christmas present though (can’t say what, since there’s no telling who will read this), and a little metal plaque that says “Loo” that we are going to attach to the appropriate door at home. It was still pretty early in the day when we finished off the Portobello, so we went back to the hotel to ditch our baggage.
Leicster Square is also on the Picadilly line (noticing a trend?), and was our next stop. Our target was the British Museum, and if Foyle’s just happens to be in between the two, then who am I to complain? Actually, there was a specific book that I was looking for – the paperback version of the Patricia Cornwell book on Jack the Ripper, Portrait of a Killer. I’m reading it right now – creepy, but fascinating. We also admired the enormous section on chess. Yes, I said Chess. I’ve seen bookstores with fewer books than this place had on chess. Frightening. A few more blocks, and we arrived at “The Brit”. I love free museums. Have I mentioned that everything is better when it’s free? Last time we were in town we came to the British Museum, but we neglected to visit the Rosetta Stone. We didn’t really want to shell out the £2 just to buy a map (especially after getting in for free), so we just wandered through the Egyptian hall until we came across it. Pretty cool to think how much knowledge has come from that little piece of rock. We also went into the temporary exhibit “Medicine Man: The forgotten museum of Henry Wellcome”. Apparently he collected all sorts of medical stuff from through the ages. All I can say is that the dude was messed up in the head. Anybody who owns that many pairs of obstetrical forceps has got to have something wrong with him …. But I digress. Upstairs is a nice little café where we had afternoon tea. Not the best I’ve ever had, but it was an excuse to smother a scone with clotted cream and jam, and drink some more hot chocolate. And to sit down – let’s not over look that little fact. The café was on the upper floor (easier to say “upper” than confuse myself trying to figure out if it’s the first or second floor – crazy Europeans) which is where the Lindow Man resides. He’s the mummified guy from the 1st century AD that they found in a Peat Bog. The theory is that he was the victim of human sacrifice by the druids because of the way that his head was bashed in, his neck garroted, and the blood drained out of his body. Ew. Of course, Kristi loved it.
The museum is just a couple of blocks back from Oxford Street, so we wandered down past some of the shops. The dollar has been struggling against the pound for a while, so there weren’t really any bargains to be found. We really saw that what dad always said was true – the prices are the same as they are in America. Except in the UK, that means you have to add about 50-60% to the price. Brutal. Not that that stopped us from going to Hamley’s. Yes, I’m 28, but I still love that store. Sticker shock notwithstanding, it’s an amazing place. At the end of Regent Street is Picadilly Circus, where we caught the ……. You don’t really don’t care how we got home, do you? I didn’t think so. We watched some British programming on the telly to wait for our appetites to kick back in after the late tea, and then headed out for dinner at one of the local places. There was a pub right there, and we’d hoped to get some pub food, but there was a football (not American) game on, and the place was packed. Apparently they’d stopped serving food a little earlier, which was a major downer because the special of the day was either roast beef or roast turkey, served with Yorkshire pudding; makes me sad even as I write this. Maybe I’ll try my hand at Yorkshire pudding this Sunday….. We ended up at Garfunkel’s, a chain type restaurant that’s like a cross between TGIFriday’s and Marie Callender’s. Nothing special, but fairly safe. Then it was around the corner, and time for bed.
It’s now our final day in London, and our time was fast ticking away. But that wasn’t going to stop us from our Full English Breakfast. It was still over-priced at £9.50, but if they hadn’t given us vouchers when we checked in, it would have been £14. Each. It was decent food though, and we filled up enough to make it through the day without needing a real lunch. We checked out of the hotel, dropped our bags in the luggage room, and we were off to make our last few stops. Our first stop was Westminster (Circle and District line, for those of you keeping score at home. No, it’s not the Picadilly line, but the C&D also stopped at Gloucester Rd.). We’d been over here on the first day, but Kristi wanted to walk across the bridge and past the London Eye. We snapped a few pictures of the Eye, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament, and a great one that nobody else is likely to think particularly amusing. In the last James Bond flick, there is a scene near the Westminster Bridge where he sneaks in through a doorway and heads to a secret underground base. When we first saw the movie, we both recognized the exact location (on the southern side of the Westminster Bridge) from when we were there last time. Kristi tried to convince the people on the other side of the door that she really was MI6 , but I guess they hadn’t seen the movie.
Jimmy Bond, watch out!
We walked past the eye, and then crossed back over the Thames via the Golden Jubilee Bridge. It parallels the train tracks that run over the river from Charing Cross station, and was just built for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Another Tube ride along the river, and we ended up at Tower Hill. Some might think that we were there to go see the ancient fortress first built by the Romans, or the invaluable Crown Jewels contained within the Tower’s vaults. They’d be wrong. We were there to gawk at the spectacle that is David Blaine, the American “magician” that decided to hang in a box over the South Bank for 40 days without food. What an idiot. But we dutifully marched ourselves across Tower Bridge to go and gawk with the rest of the folks. Kristi pretty much summed it up with a look .
The Look
We walked back along the South Bank to the London Bridge station, but the Tube stop was shut down due to an “emergency”. We had no idea how long the station was going to be closed (gates barred and really annoying siren/sign flashing the word “Emergency”), or when we’d be able to get out of there, so we headed upstairs and hopped into a taxi. We rode back up to Oxford Street and had him drop us outside of Selfridge’s. At the time I couldn’t really remember why I asked him to take us there – there wasn’t anything in particular that we wanted or needed from there. But was we walked out of the store and down the street, I thanked my subconscious for it’s hard work, for there in front of us was the Belgian waffle stand. I could never hope to accurately describe the yumminess of the caramelized sugar, or the ooziness of the rich Belgian chocolate swimming in the nooks and crannies of that wonderful pastry, so I’ll just leave you to dream and drool. A few more stops on the Tube and it was back to Harrod’s. Kristi wanted to give the bracelet one more shot, but it was just too big to be comfortable, so we moved on. We had a little more time to kill before we needed to head for the airport, so we went upstairs to ogle our phone. It’s a beauty made by Bang & Olufsen that we saw last year. Sadly, they don’t make it for the US market, and I assume that their phones wouldn’t be compatible with our system. And I don’t think we’re ready to commit to shelling out 500 bucks for a phone either.
Our final stop was a grocery store right next to the hotel. We wanted to pick up some sandwiches for the trip (hoping they’d be cheaper at the supermarket than the airport), and I needed to re-stock on my Cadbury’s hot chocolate mix – the next best thing to Coffee Republic’s delightful beverage. Then we gathered up our bags, and hit the Tube for our ride back to Heathrow. We made pretty good time, and we even got there early enough that we could have made the earlier 4:30 flight back to NYC. But they wanted to charge us $200 per person to change our tickets, so we figured that we could hang around the shopping mall inside the terminal for a couple of hours. The funny thing is, that’s where we got some of our best shopping done. Kristi picked up a ring and a scarf, and we stocked up on some more supplies (candy & soda) for the flight home.
The flight back was great! It was probably only half full, at least back in steerage where we were sitting. So we each had 2 seats to ourselves, which was just enough space to get some wiggle room. We got a huge treat before we were even off of the ground. Two or three places in front of us in line to take off was the British Airways Concorde on its way to NYC. (I always love seeing that!!) Once in the air, we both caught a short nap, and read our books. The only thing I can think to complain about with the entire trip was the 30 minutes that we spent waiting for the shuttle to pick us up and take us back to long term parking. Traffic was totally dead at 9:30 at night, so we made it home in a reasonable 45 minutes. Two showers later, and we were back in our own bed, dreading the morning, and the ferry ride back to work.
My next project was to take an old dress I had for a friend's wedding and turn the skirt into another skirt. I loved the yellow fabric but it was a full skirt on a sleeveless top that I knew I would never wear again. So I cut the skirt portion off, found a cute pattern for a more fitted, shorter skirt and sewed away. I think it turned out pretty well. This picture is of the back since the front isn't too interesting. All of the detail is in the back. I think I have a pretty nice rear end so hopefully this skirt will accentuate that feature!!! "Whatever draws attention away from your face!"
Next project is to make an apron for my sister for her birthday (we still need to go fabric shopping Kami). Then I'm going to attempt to make a purse. I have a shape in mind I want to try, so we'll see how it goes. If it bites I'll just give it to Samantha....she'd love a new play purse I'm sure.
