Chapter 18 - London Part III

Chapter 18 – London Part III

Sunday, October 30, 2022

We awoke to the unexpected news that the UK changed from Daylight Savings Time at 2:00 am in the morning. We gained an hour. Since the US changes next Sunday, November 6, does that mean we will have gained two hours in our life this year? After breakfast at the hotel, we parted ways. Bruce took the underground to Baker Street, got a good picture of the statue of Sherlock Holmes), and toured the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221 Baker Street (where else would it be? Photo 18 - 1). In the afternoon, he rode the London Eye (Photos 18 - 2) and took several arial photos of the Westminster, Whitehall, and St. James’s Park areas. The first shows silhouette of Parliament from the Eye (Photo 18 - 3). The next shows Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, and the London skyline (Photo 18 - 4). The third one shows Horse Guards Parade and government buildings by the Thames (Photo 18 - 5). The last one shows the entrance to Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister (Photo 18 – 6).

Sarah took the underground to Westminster Station, walked down to the Westminster Pier and took the Uber Water Taxi to Greenwich. She got good views of the London Eye, the Tate Modern Art Museum, and the Shard (Photo 18 - 7). The taxi passed the World War II-era cruiser, HMS Belfast, and proceeded under the Tower Bridge. She walked around Greenwich for about an hour poking into a lovely small garden behind an old church. Amazingly, some flowers were still blooming. She walked through the Greenwich Vintage Market and the Greenwich Market established 1737 (Photo 18 - 8). It was a rainy, cool day so she stopped into Pho Street for a lovely hot bowl of chicken pho.

She took the water taxi back to Westminster Pier and the underground from there to Victoria Station. She had a ticket for Wicked at the Victoria Apollo Theater which she thoroughly enjoyed.

We met up back at the hotel at around 5:30 pm and had dinner in the Blue Boar in the hotel. Bruce had fish and chips with broccoli. Sarah had leek fritters and broccoli.

Monday, October 31, 2022

Happy Halloween! We saw lots of kids (and adults) this weekend dressed up for Halloween. We had breakfast at the hotel and thanked all the lovely staff who’ve made our stay at the Conrad St. James special. One in particular was Sherif, the

breakfast service manager (Photo 18 - 9). He is an assistant manager who could not have been more attentive. Once he learned Bruce liked the berry compote that came on the pancakes, he made sure to bring him a small dish of it every morning (Photo 18 - 10). It was also delicious on croissants.

We finished packing, stored our bags with the front desk, and headed out for our last couple of hours in London. We had a taxi scheduled to pick us up at 1:00 pm to move to the Hilton near Heathrow airport.

Sarah walked for about an hour and a half. She went through St. James’s Park and up by Buckingham Palace. She was able to see a little of the changing of the guards. From there she

went through Green Park to the Marble Arch (Photo 18 - 11) and the Wellington Statue (Photo 18 – 12). She then crossed over the street to Hyde Park, one of London’s eight Royal Parks. It covers 350 acres and has beautiful rose gardens, a small lake, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, and lovely waterfront cafes.

From Hyde Park, Sarah entered Kensington Gardens, passed the Prince Albert Memorial, and ended up at Kensington Palace (Photo 18 - 13). The statue of Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace (Photo 18 – 14) sits in front of Kensington Palace.. Realizing time was getting short, she took the underground back to the hotel.

Bruce went to Westminster, walked up to Whitehall and got a picture of the Cenotaph (Photo 18 – 15). At the end of Whitehall is Trafalgar Square and the Nelson Monument (Photo 18 – 16). He saw the changing of the guards at the Horse Guards Parade (Photos 18 - 17 and 18 - 18). He tried to go to the Guards Museum, but it was closed. He walked back through St. James Park and onto Queen Anne’s Street (Photo 18 – 19).

We met back at the hotel and got our taxi to the Hilton at Heathrow Airport Terminal Four. At that point, Sarah

realized she should have made the reservation at the Hilton at Terminal five. Oh well, it will work out. We had a late lunch in the hotel. Bruce had a Caesar salad. Sarah had chicken curry with jasmine rice.

We rested for a while in the room and read. We had some snacks at the Executive Lounge at about 6:30 pm.

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

We are headed home. We had breakfast in the hotel, finished

packing, and got a taxi to Terminal Five where we will catch our 1:20 pm (UK time) flight. Check-in and security were a breeze. We spent the morning at the British Airways Lounge working on the travel diary and reading.

The flight home was uneventful. We arrived at 5:30 pm CDT. Sue and Gil graciously picked us up and took us home (Photo 18 - 20). We are glad to be back in the USA and to sleep in our own bed tonight. It’s been an incredible three months. We are so blessed.

Lessons learned from our Semester Abroad:
• We travel differently. Sarah likes the space and hominess of the Airbnbs; Bruce likes hotels and being catered to with the larger beds and showers. We also need to separate and do our own things at times.
• We could have packed a little lighter especially Bruce but all in all we had planned fairly well.
• Getting a UK Sim Card for our phones was a great idea and once we got past the early bugs (mostly due to our lack of knowledge), it worked fine. ATT in the US is another matter.
• WhatsApp was a good way to keep in touch. We were able

to text and talk by phone, even FaceTime with family and friends when on WiFi.
• The blog has been fun and we’d definitely do it again. It’s hard to pick the few pictures out of the hundreds we’ve taken but it will be a great memory book for us. Hope you’ve had fun reading along.
• Train travel has worked well other than lugging luggage on and off trains and up and down hills. Bruce is done with that, I think. We got a senior Railcard before coming and it saved us 30% on all train fares. We used the app Trainline which worked really well. The UK has numerous train companies, and it would have been impossible trying to figure out which train company we needed to use. Trainline did that all for us.
• Apple maps worked really well for general directions and the underground in London – better than the London Underground App (TFL – Transportation for London). We had no problems using the underground. We each got a week Oyster Card for Zones 1, 2, and 3 and were able to get where we needed to go with ease.
• While we’ve had great meals, especially seafood, we found that there’s little variety in the restaurants. We are ready for some home cooking, American breakfasts, and salads. Amazing how hard it is to find a good salad here – other than those we got at Harrods Foodhall. We didn’t try blood pudding or haggis. We did try Cullen Skink which we both loved.
• Having a private guide in Scotland for those nine days was incredible. We can’t say enough about Andy and how much we saw and how much fun we had seeing it.