London Trip, Part I

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Originally uploaded by john_and_erin_rogers.

We stayed in an apartment in Notting Hill, just a 3-minute walk from an underground station. We were all so weary when we finally arrived around 4:00 that we just went to dinner at the pub next door, The Swan, and vegged in front of the TV until we went to bed. Or tried to go to bed. We slept on the pull-out sofa bed in the living room and didn’t get much sleep. Imagine lying on a bunch of springs covered in cloth. Then imagine the whole bed as a canyon with a deep valley in the middle. Then imagine we could not figure out how to turn the heat down so it feels like summer in Texas. Not pleasant. Thankfully, the next day we discovered several extra blankets and an extra super-thick comforter. After folding these blankets and the comforter up and piling them on the bed to cover the springs and even out the canyon, we slept quite well the rest of the week.

Wednesday we were ready to go. Since the grocery stores had been closed the day before, John went to the store while we were all getting ready to go and bought stuff for us to eat for breakfast. He was absolutely delighted that he could converse with the cashier in English, something he hasn’t been able to do for a loooong time! Just a short train ride away was Windsor Castle. Erin and her mom had both been to London before, but Erin had not been to Windsor Castle, so it was new to three of the four of us. The free audio guides were great, and John said it was the best castle he’d been to, mostly because it is actually in use and seems quite new compared to the medieval castles we’ve been visiting lately. We attempted to have some lunch at a pub, but when we went up to the bar the bartender told us the cook was not making anymore food right now because he was too busy. Hmmm. OK. We ended up getting pasties in town near the train station, and they were quite tasty.

Since it was still the Christmas season, St. Paul’s Cathedral had a “Christmas Carols and Readings” service that we went to Wednesday evening. Even though the choir was much smaller than expected (only about 10 of them), it was awesome to be at a service in that cathedral. After the service, in search of sustenance, we wandered into Piccadilly Circus. After perusing the Trocodero we finally found a place to eat, Adam’s Rib, and had some good old pork ribs. John mentioned that he’s like to see Tower Bridge at night, so we headed out there after dinner. We ended up getting some pretty good night pictures of the bridge and walked along the Thames before calling it a day.

We had claimed Thursday as theatre day, so after breakfast at the apartment, we went to stand in line at the tkts booth in Leicester Square to get some half-price musical tickets. There wasn’t a lot of choice for shows that day and we ended up with tickets to “The Producers” playing at the Drury Lane Theatre. The show was OK, but not fantastic. We’ve heard the cast in New York is much better. After purchasing our tickets, we made a quick trip to Starbucks for some coffee, hot chocolate, and the bathroom. We did not have to pay to a use one single toilet the entire week! Another reason John loves England!

We then headed over to see Trafalgar Square and visited some highlights at the National Gallery. That museum is far too big to even see in an entire day. Since we had limited time, we just marched around looking at the most famous pieces and glancing at the galleries we were walking through. Next on our list was the British Museum. We stopped to have some lunch on our way at a café called Munchkins. The tables inside were all taken, and since it wasn’t too terribly cold we opted to just sit at the two tiny tables outside. The food wasn’t awesome or anything and people kept looking at us funny sitting outside in December, but it really wasn’t too cold and we got to people-watch. Erin decided that we and our families are not the only people on the planet who agonize over finding a place to eat while on vacation. Several groups of people stopped in front of Munchkins, perused the menu, had some discussion for a few minutes, argued about when/where/what to eat, and either headed off in search of yet another café or shuffled inside for some lunch. The British Museum was a whirlwind. Again, there is soooo much to see. We saw the highlights of the Greek and Roman rooms, the Africa exhibit, the money exhibit, some etchings of The Nativity, and a brief walk through the Americas rooms. Pretty good for a little less than 2 hours!

We had dinner that night at a restaurant near the Drury Lane Theatre: Sarastro. It was a Turkish restaurant, and although the food wasn’t spectacular, we got crackers to open and the décor in the place was astounding! It was a bit gaudy and over the top, but quite an experience. The musical was not quite astounding. We enjoyed ourselves, though, and the bit in the second act portraying the musical “Springtime for Hitler” (the musical “The Producers” put on in the musical) was absolutely hilarious!