July 3rd - London!

July 3rd

What a fun, full day! But first, a bit about our hotel in London. Holy walk-in closet batman! Our room was tiny. TINY! And we were paying a fortune for the pleasure of staying there. Tricia and I had barely any walking around room on the edges of the bed. The TV was hung high in a corner. The bathroom was scarely bigger than the one’s you’d find on an airplane. And climbing into the shower was like performing a Houdiniesque or David Blane escape trick. How we longed for our beautiful La Barrosa beach house or our spacious Portugese hotel rooms. But, as we soon found out, Londoners have a certain knack for crawling into and existing in tight spaces.

The Tube. Yes, the Tube. Or more aptly described, the Sardine Can. While Grandma, Maria and Eva opted for some rest time at the hotel, the rest of us set off onto the streets of London and to our Tube stop at Pimlico. What we thought would be an ordinary ride to Victoria Station and then onto the Tower of London proved to be anything but. It was rush-hour, or peak time on the Tube. We had been on busy subways before in our travels, but none of us had seen anything like this. When the train pulled into the stop, it was clogged and absolutely crowded with people. The trains were not just full, they were wall to wall, elbow to elbow, armpit to face full. There was literally no room for any additional passengers. We must have waited for about 6-8 trains before we decided that it was every man and woman for themselves and that we’d just individually squish onto a train and meet and Victoria Station, the next stop. Casey and I stuck together. We held off for another couple of trains. But finally, we saw our moment. One person got off, so we barged on. We pushed and squeezed and did what we could to slide forward just far enough that the subway doors behind us could close. We made it – just barely.

Upon getting off at the next stop to switch lines, we discovered that Sammie and Tricia had also made it onto that train. We laughed and joked while waiting out several more trains until David and Santi joined us. It was crazy. Not sure how the people of London can do that each and every day. It makes my 15-minute minivan commute to work each day look like child’s play.

So then we were off for the Tower of London. It was a great attraction. We saw and learned a whole lot about Brittish history in this amazing location that has been home to kings and queens, executions, tortures, battles, and Nazi imprisonment. We did a lot of walking, took in the incredible Crown Jewels, then had the fun of experiencing a Beefeater tour led by one of the queen’s working bodyguards. All in all it was a fabulous morning, and the kids and the adults both enjoyed it a great deal.

Following the Tower we met up with Maria, Eva and Grandma for a great pub lunch in the same área. This being our third pub in London, we were beginning to get the hang of it. You order your food and drinks at the bar, beers with long handles are cask beers that are served at room temperaturas and those with short taps are cold, and many Brits seem to prefer drinks like shandy’s, Pim’s, and cider over regular beer. The food and atmosphere in this place were good. According to Rick Steve’s the pub crawl of pub lunches includes beef stew, fish and chips and curry. Last night I had the fish and chips. Today I tried the curry – along with a tall, cold glass of cider. I wasn’t disappointed. It was good stuff all around.

The afternoon? Hop On Hop Off bus tour. It was a good way to see the city, and we basically just hopped on once and hopped off once. We wanted to ride and see most of the sites while just kicking back and relaxing. It was good, though I drifted a bit off a couple times and started feeling tired toward the end. Eventually we hopped off near Trafalgar Square and enjoyed some peaceful moments of ice cream and shade and quiet.

The rest of the night went like this. Sammie and I walked quickly to a tourist office to inquire about Wimbledon and some good viewing places for World Cup. We taxied back to the group at Trafalgar Square then all enjoyed another great pub meal at a place in Picadilly Circus. Following that we walked to the London Eye, London’s huge ferris wheel and answer to Paris’ Eiffel Tower and did the Eye.

It was great and we saw London at sunset from hundreds of feet up. A longish walk back across Westminster Bridge and along the Thames brought us back to our hotel. It was quite a day – full and fun-filled. London is a vast, sprawling city that can be difficult to cover on foot. And its sites are way too numerous to cover in just a few short days. But we sure tried our best to fill our day with London fun, and I think we definitely accomplished our goal.