Day 1 - London
Mar. 16th, 2006 04:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flummoxicated(am loving the increased # of icons! I've been hoping for this for some time.)
I'm having a hard time readjusting to East Coast time after the trip. It would probably help if I would not go to bed at 9:30, but there it is.
So - Day 1. We decided to fly out of Jacksonville as it's much cheaper. We left in plenty of time; of course we didn't count on a huge traffic jam on the Interstate in the middle of the morning. While we were stuck in traffic, we got rearended by a lady in an older SUV who claimed that her brakes suddenly failed. If that were the case, why did she hit us hard enough to crumple the bumper in stopped traffic? I was really angry, as you can imagine; since![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shipbrook was driving anyway, I let him deal with her; what if we missed going to London because of a stupid fender-bender? Though I knew we had a few hours before the big flight left NYC. There was a DoT guy nearby who called the highway patrol...who eventually showed up, and gave her the ticket despite her claims of a vehicular malfunction (despite claiming to have no brakes, she drove away - interesting, no?). We wound up missing the flight to NYC. Since we had an accident report, they were able to reticket us, but we had to fly into Laguardia, not JFK where our London flight was taking off from. "Just take a cab," the ticket agent said. That seemed pretty intimidating, but we had no choice, so off we went to Laguardia.
Once in NYC, we noticed a shuttle bus service to JFK, so we opted for that. Fortunately we had plenty of time to make the London flight even with the delay. We flew Virgin Atlantic - very nice, they have a neat entertainment system for each seat with loads of movies and video games to choose from, but since it was an overnight flight, I opted to try and get some sleep. Those seats are pretty uncomfortable, however, and I don't think I got much rest that night.
The flight was surprisingly fast for the distance covered - under six hours, I think - and we arrived in London, checked in with immigration and claimed our luggage by around 9 am. We bought two passes for the Underground that would last the week, and boarded the Tube that would take us to our hotel. I am a suburban girl and have never lived in a city with decent mass transit, so I was extra impressed with the tube technology. It seemed like magic - get on a train and whoosh! you're in another part of the city. We did have a bit of a walk with our luggage, especially since we didn't exactly know where we were going. Eventually we found our hotel and were able to check in early. The room was small, certainly smaller than most American hotel rooms, but it had a decent view and was very clean. I longed for a nap, butshipbrook said that would be bad; instead, we showered and decided to start hitting the museums. First museum: The National Portrait Gallery. We did stop for lunch first. I think there are a bunch of chain pubs that look like the real deal. We kept winding up in them, but the beer and food there was quite good, much better than a chain here in the states (think Bennigans). Fish and chips, yum!
The portrait gallery was fab! The first painting confronting us was the huge portrait of Sir Thomas More and family. Unfortunately, there was a big group of school kids on a field trip in the Tudor room, so we had to skip ahead and then double back to see Elizabeth I. I especially enjoyed getting a close look at the Darnley portrait. They also happen to have a Shakespeare exhibition, for which we had to pony up a few pounds (the rest of the gallery was free). This display was worth it, lots of documents, paintings, and extant clothes from the era all in one room for me to enjoy. I was tired, and for this reason didn't find a lot to buy in the shops. We went back to our room, and I prevailed uponshipbrook to let us take a nap: after all, if it was rainy and we were tired and we were home, we would take a nap, right? After that, we went out to dinner. I think we ate at an Indian restaurant near the hotel, which was quite tasty, and we planned Day 2.
I'm having a hard time readjusting to East Coast time after the trip. It would probably help if I would not go to bed at 9:30, but there it is.
So - Day 1. We decided to fly out of Jacksonville as it's much cheaper. We left in plenty of time; of course we didn't count on a huge traffic jam on the Interstate in the middle of the morning. While we were stuck in traffic, we got rearended by a lady in an older SUV who claimed that her brakes suddenly failed. If that were the case, why did she hit us hard enough to crumple the bumper in stopped traffic? I was really angry, as you can imagine; since
shipbrook was driving anyway, I let him deal with her; what if we missed going to London because of a stupid fender-bender? Though I knew we had a few hours before the big flight left NYC. There was a DoT guy nearby who called the highway patrol...who eventually showed up, and gave her the ticket despite her claims of a vehicular malfunction (despite claiming to have no brakes, she drove away - interesting, no?). We wound up missing the flight to NYC. Since we had an accident report, they were able to reticket us, but we had to fly into Laguardia, not JFK where our London flight was taking off from. "Just take a cab," the ticket agent said. That seemed pretty intimidating, but we had no choice, so off we went to Laguardia.Once in NYC, we noticed a shuttle bus service to JFK, so we opted for that. Fortunately we had plenty of time to make the London flight even with the delay. We flew Virgin Atlantic - very nice, they have a neat entertainment system for each seat with loads of movies and video games to choose from, but since it was an overnight flight, I opted to try and get some sleep. Those seats are pretty uncomfortable, however, and I don't think I got much rest that night.
The flight was surprisingly fast for the distance covered - under six hours, I think - and we arrived in London, checked in with immigration and claimed our luggage by around 9 am. We bought two passes for the Underground that would last the week, and boarded the Tube that would take us to our hotel. I am a suburban girl and have never lived in a city with decent mass transit, so I was extra impressed with the tube technology. It seemed like magic - get on a train and whoosh! you're in another part of the city. We did have a bit of a walk with our luggage, especially since we didn't exactly know where we were going. Eventually we found our hotel and were able to check in early. The room was small, certainly smaller than most American hotel rooms, but it had a decent view and was very clean. I longed for a nap, but
shipbrook said that would be bad; instead, we showered and decided to start hitting the museums. First museum: The National Portrait Gallery. We did stop for lunch first. I think there are a bunch of chain pubs that look like the real deal. We kept winding up in them, but the beer and food there was quite good, much better than a chain here in the states (think Bennigans). Fish and chips, yum!The portrait gallery was fab! The first painting confronting us was the huge portrait of Sir Thomas More and family. Unfortunately, there was a big group of school kids on a field trip in the Tudor room, so we had to skip ahead and then double back to see Elizabeth I. I especially enjoyed getting a close look at the Darnley portrait. They also happen to have a Shakespeare exhibition, for which we had to pony up a few pounds (the rest of the gallery was free). This display was worth it, lots of documents, paintings, and extant clothes from the era all in one room for me to enjoy. I was tired, and for this reason didn't find a lot to buy in the shops. We went back to our room, and I prevailed upon
shipbrook to let us take a nap: after all, if it was rainy and we were tired and we were home, we would take a nap, right? After that, we went out to dinner. I think we ate at an Indian restaurant near the hotel, which was quite tasty, and we planned Day 2.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 10:19 am (UTC)Eva
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 10:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 10:53 am (UTC)Eva
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 10:46 am (UTC)Meanwhile, random fact about the Tube: the system is about 100 years old, and I mean everything about it is 100 years old. It's so vital that they can never stop it running long enough to renew or upgrade anything, so it's still running on the Victorian valve system, so far successfully.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 11:41 am (UTC)Covent Garden Market - very fun
Silver gallery at the V&A - I was amazed, and I'm not normally into that.
Talk to the cabbies, so wonderful! and they NEVER get lost and have to know where everything is. Worth the money when you need to get there fast.
--------
THE SV1 BUS - A must ride!
Actually two buses in opposite directions running nearly 24 hours with stops about every ten minutes.
It goes from Covent Garden, across the river into southwark, to the London Eye, all the way across Southwark Street (which is where the Globe, the Tate Modern, the torture museum and Southwark Cathedral (one of the few old er ones) are all located on or right off it) then it goes across Tower Bridge to the Tower of London and back in a BIG Wide U shape.
It's a GREAT route lots to see (but we were staying on southwark street at the Holiday inn Express - not our choice of hotel), we went on it everyday as there was TONS of places to stop along the way to shop or eat and we'd hop on and off as we felt like. Your tube pass should work on the buses too.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/spiders/pdf/southwark.pdf (sv2 is marked and a red line)
The Tower bridge is a great walk across, down on the southside of the river at the foot of the bridge, is a line BUNCH of restaurants, french medieterraean, the works, and the design Musuem, and a GREAT place to take pictures. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/verybigjen/103423841/in/set-72057594069079568/ is a picture I took there! you can kinda see how long it goes)
Southwark is pronounced a number ways - suffick, suthick, depending on who you talk to and you'll never say it right no matter how hard or many times you try.
Don't miss the Globe - i was there at christmas, it was closed. There are signs to the tate and the globe on Southwark street, it
s next/behind the tate, which is easy to see from the street even though it's a few blocks back since it's got this HUGE four or five story tower. follow the street around and to the globe. Google maps will take you ALL THE WAY DOWN TO MAX!
ST BARTOLMEW Cathedral! It's a MASSIve medieval cathedral, one of the few left!
-----
Food:
Pasta Brown in the Theatre District - yummy REAL italian
Live Bait - Where ever you can find it, one in covent garden - upscale gourmet seafood delish! Not terribly priced for london
Munchkins - across from brit museum, tasy fish and chip chain - cheap
Eat as many places as you can, Spanish tapas and the local indian/curry shops ESPECIALLY!!! And street vendors, good stuff.
If i had known you were going I'd recommended a mapguide we found invaluable, or did I do that already?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 11:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 01:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 08:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-16 01:55 pm (UTC)Overnight flights are none too cool. I had difficulty sleeping during my flights to and from Dublin last year. If you arrived in the a.m., staying awake and active is the best thing. Besides, you'll eventually regret missing anything for a mere nap.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 03:11 am (UTC)tell me about something victorian (sorry, i'm a victorianist who's never been to england, so i gotta ask).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:28 pm (UTC)