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Thursday, May 03, 2018
When I awoke it wasn't long until the breakfast tray was coming down the aisle. My food was not great. It was dry and bland. I didn't expect much and that's what I got. They offered coffee too, which I accepted. That would be the last time I would ever accept airplane coffee. It was just bad, and my stomach was upset after that. Probably not a great idea.
Once over England, we could see the typical fields of green. This time I also saw many fields of yellow. Interesting. We speculated on what was growing in the fields. Certainly not mustard. Yes, mustard plants are yellow, but could farmers be planting THAT much of it? Didn't seem plausible.
After landing, we headed to passport control. The line was long. It also seemed to be mainly our plane as it shortened over time, but only for our crowd. One huge advantage of sitting near the front of the plane (or first class) is reaching there faster. When arriving at the control agent, he was friendly and asked a few questions. All clear. We were through.
The first stop was to the ticket desk. For acquiring the perfect travel ticket for the allotted stay, it's often best to just talk directly with an agent instead of using a machine. The line was short. We got Oyster cards with Travelcards for a week there, plus our train rides to and from London and Gatwick Airport. All in one fell swoop.
Then it was train time. While we only needed to just get to London, I wanted to reach Farrindon Tube stop since it was recommended online, but even though the porter said the train was going there, we arrived at Victoria instead. No matter. We were in London. Once on the Tube, we could get anywhere we needed to be. Now, our bags were fairly heavy. It was late spring, but one never can predict the weather in London so we had to pack for both warm and cold. At least we only had two days of traveling around with said luggage.
On the Tube, we headed to Edgware, and we exited the station. Heading down a few blocks, we reached a Carphone Warehouse store. There, I could buy a SIM card for the week. It works much better (and it's cheaper) than trying to buy minutes from Verizon overseas (which failed grandly in London and Dublin back in 2015). Now Ruth has T-mobile and they actually automatically include data for London. Nice perk, but I didn't have that.
Returning to the Tube, ruth mentioned that she could have just had just waited at the station with the luggage while I ran to complete my mission. It would have saved some lugging around of the suitcases, but too late for that wise thinking.
We trained on over to Westbourne Park Station (WPS). That would be our main stop for the week. Walking about seven minutes led us to our flat. Ah, we could rest at last!
Okay, first we had to get it. I didn't have a text about the lockbox, but that made sense since I was on a new sim card and had been offline for roughly 18 hours. I tried to check AirBNB, though logging in was tough since the login was through Facebook, which was throwing a fit because some guy (me) was trying to log in from a new country. In short, it was a bit of a hassle to make this happen, though I finally got my message about the lockbox code. We span the dials.
It worked! We had the keys! We were in the apartment.
Okay, after a few minutes of fiddling with the keys. It would take about three days before I really mastered using the key and lock there. But, once I got it, I was a pro!
First things first, we had to decide on rooms. One was in the front and faced the street. At the other end of the flat, one faced the canal and had a door to the patio. Ruth asked for that one so I agreed. We could always trade later. (Note: we would indeed not trade later.)
First things first: get sorted out. That was the phrase I had first heard when I was a student in 2002. They told me to just get sorted out and I inferred what they meant. It was nice to unpack and put things in places, knowing I would not need to pack up again for a whole week. I also discovered that there was no closest or dresser space in my room (Not mentioned in the AirBNB description, but very well). That would be fine. I just placed things on the floor in neat piles.
The rest of the place was great. It had a fine kitchen with a fridge and freezer. There was no microwave (not mentioned, but okay), though we didn't miss having one. The flat included a nice living room, where there was a huge TV, but it was never used. Also helpful was a large desk where I could put my iPad and all other items. We plugged in our apapters and began charging all sort of electronic gadgets.
Exhausted as we were, there was limited down time. We were soon back out in public and heading to the Tube. On board, we headed for a quick bite to eat and then walked along south of the Thames, finding a nifty swing set to spend a few minutes on. The weather was simply divine.
Arriving just before show time, we entered the Globe Theatre. I had to have a cider and Ruth had one too. I'd say we got our seats, but this would be standing show for us. At least it wasn't too crowded.
The actors came on stage and did a great job. Time passed, but the standing was tough. I guess we were just too tried from the long day of traveling.
The show was quite interesting since it was "As You Like It," which has some characters going undercover as the opposite sex, but they cast the opposite sex in the those roles, so it was all the more fascinating to watch.
Still, the standing grew tough.
At intermission, we sat and had some snacks, but then we both decided that although it was a fine show, we would leave and miss the second half. We'd both seen a Globe production before so it wasn't like we were missing out on the full experience entirely.
Next, we headed along the Thames. I took photos where I could. We rode over to Westminster station and exited, but alas, the Westminster Tower was under a retrofit. The entire thing was covered in scaffolding. No good for photos.
It would be the first time in six visits to London where I did not take a photo of it. Alas, alas.
Being exhausted, we Tubed back to the flat. However, we needed snacks. I walked down the street and found some late night food places. I visited several of them.
I went to a liquor store, and got beer, cookies, and chips. I then found a place for small pizzas and picked up one pie. Next, I found a fast-food chicken shop where I got a spicy chicken sandwich, fries, chicken strips, and coleslaw. Finally, I got some ice cream cones. Yeah, we had our snacks. Once back at the flat, we said good night and went to our rooms.
Sleep came without a hitch.