Day #5
Leaving Earl's Court
Checking out of Earl's Court today. I wanted to go for a final walk to "discover" Earl's Court before we left. One thing about London (so far) is that there are no supermarkets anywhere. No Coles, No Kmart, nothing. There was a gigantic building nearby called (strangely enough) "Earl's Court" which I thought was a shopping centre. Upon closer inspection I discovered it was actually a convention centre (similar to Southbank I guess). There a lots of little stores around and even a few mini-marts, but very few mega-stores. Of course I haven't been to the London suburbs and I guess that even Brisbane CBD doesn’t have that much in the way of mega stores either (Myer Centre?).
We check-out, there is nobody to check-out out to, so we push the key under the door at reception and then leave. Back on the tube with Luggage :(. London tube is very good except for one small thing - there are no elevators anywhere. A lot of the stations are 3-storeys underground. There are stairs everywhere and they mostly have escalators (I loved carrying the 25kg bag up the ones that didn’t). Their escalators are very steep (and long) and poor Amy got vertigo from them. Suffice to say, that it is fun to experience this self-torture but if you are a comfort woos (with plenty of money), take a cab instead.
Arriving at Islington
We got a train from Earl's Court to Monument Station to change over. The confusing (but cool) thing is that stations have different names at different levels. So it was "Monument" station at level #1 and "Bank" station at level #3. From there we changed lines and went to "Angel, Islington" station (we are getting through my plan to visit every Monopoly square ;).
Angel is the name of the station, Islington the suburb (or Borough as they call them here). This place looks lower down the food-chain than Earl's Court and there is a lot more begging here (there was even a guy selling "Big Issue"). We went to a sandwich shop called "Pret-A-Manger" and then started heading up "Upper Street" to find our place of stay. Finally after walking (with luggage) about 1/2 km, we realized (from a road-side map) that we were heading in the wrong direction and started walking back (for anyone who is interested we have some double-decker buses everywhere - but we have not ridden on one yet, nor have we taken a cab - I have this insane desire to walk everywhere).
We walk back in the "right" direction. Amy is starting to get quite tired and is having a hard time keeping up (her bag is also struggling with the uneven surface). My impatience chip is in overdrive, but I hold my tongue (yeh ... I know, I am a bastard).
Finally, we arrive at the accommodation "Roseberry Hall" which is at the London School of economics and Political Science. Yes, we are staying at a University Dormitory (woohoo! All night keg parties with half-naked women pouring beer all over themselves and …. Oh hi Amy didn’t realize you had just come in). We checked in and discovered that our room had toilet & showers (most of the rooms here don’t have them - there is a shared toilet and shower at the end of the hall), and we were very pleased (they had upgraded our room in our absence). We were slightly less pleased when they grabbed us on the way out to tell us that they had forgotten to upgrade our bill and were now asking for an extra 20 pounds for the 2 nights (being sad laidback Aussies we didn’t argue over this and paid the extra).
We unloaded our baggage in the room (always the highlight of travelling) and then headed back to the Angel station to hit the CBD. First we went to Oxfam to buy me a warmer jacket (the cold is finally starting to get to me), then in a moment of spontaneity I decided that we should travel to "London Bridge" station to see London Bridge.
When we arrived back at Angel station, (before we even said anything) the lady that worked at the train station asked if we were enjoying our stay in London and did we want to know which station we wanted to get off at the British museum. She also asked if Amy was feeling better after her cup of tea (which she did have one earlier), After a brief moment of paranoia (and twilight zone music), she explained that she had been queued at "Pret-A-Manger" behind us and heard our entire conversation (this of course is a friendly reminder to be careful what you say. I wouldn’t recommend saying "oh yes I still have that 1000 pounds in my back pocket" in a public place). She was very helpful, and gave us some local tourist guide. On the front it listed a whole bunch of suburbs and she did a cross motion with her finger on the first 4 (of 6) and said "Don’t go there, unless you can dodge bullets". I said "And we worry about terrorists". She said "terrorists have to queue behind locals in some of these suburbs". She also warned us about women with babies begging for money. (Apparently) they are part of an organized crime (begging) ring. We nervously chuckled (like Colin does ;) and she kept saying "You don’t believe me, do you". We said that we did and that we would be on the lookout. London is a funny place. There so much activity around that the rich or corporate class can't help but mingle with beggars or peasant class. One thing for sure, if you want to avoid rough areas, stick to the centre of town. Having said that, I still don’t think it is any more dangerous (so far) than Brisbane would be to a foreign tourist.
London Bridge
We got out (surfaced) at London Bridge Station and I looked around but could not see London Bridge, We headed for the area where I thought it would be (by using my standard algorithm of looking for "valleys" in the skyline - works for bridges, beaches, Godzilla, alien invasions etc) and yes, I found it.
What a disappointment! It looks the same as Victoria Bridge in Brisbane. No marvelous towers or spans, just a flat concrete thing with railings (I was later told a dubious story by a Londoner that the original London Bridge was sold to some guy and taken to Arizona - I will leave it to you people with easy internet access to verify the authenticity of this claim).
We walked halfway across the Bridge and then saw an impressive bridge (in the distance) called "Tower Bridge". This was more like it. I said (naively) "lets go there", so we trudged off towards it.
All this walking is killing my feet. 3 days of walking (+cooped up on planes) is starting to take its toll. In addition my cold is getting worse. Thankfully, alien sights are still keeping me distracted from these problems. As we approach the "Tower Bridge" we bump into a little ;) place called the "Tower of London".
Tower of London
This place is a castle built in the 12th Century to do all sorts of wicked things to nobles (my kind of place). It looks impressive but Amy talks me out of going in (you have to pay 16 pounds each just for the privilege of walking through it and going to their shops - these Londoners do know how to flog tourists). She has been to it before and said she was not impressed with it. She offers to wait outside while I go in but that option does not have much appeal to me and we just walk around the outside of it. It looks impressive but a disappointing thing about it is that between the castle and the fencing there is a 100m(?) wide lawn. All the pictures suggest this was once a moat. Why couldn't they have left it there? It doesn’t look half as impressive without it. After this we decide to look for a tube station again (you almost trip over tube stations in London - they are reasonably difficult to avoid). We reach a station (surprisingly) called "Tower Hill" station and then travel to "Enbankment" Station (the centre-most station, in my opinion, of the city). From there we walk across a foot bridge (Golden Jubilee footbridge) to Southbank (yes, they have a Southbank here too).
London Eye
We walked to the London Eye to get on (Amy had previous booked tickets in Australia - about 35 pounds each - not cheap - but felt free when you don’t have to buy them here ;). It was late afternoon (Sarita told us that the best time to get on is at dusk - daytime going up - nighttime coming down), the skies were clear (reasonably) and the queue was short (a miracle I hear) so we decided to hop on. We mistimed our ride so it was daytime the whole time, not that it mattered. The sight was beautiful, the Sun was partially obscured by cloud and it had that look of rays coming out in all directions that made me want to get on one knee and say "I am seeking the grail my lord". We could clearly see all the major tourist attractions of the city, and it also allowed me to get a handle on how the city is structured (let me tell you, south of the Thames is nothing compared to north of it). Having said that, being a giant bubble ferris wheel means that you get a very "hands-off" view of the city and I would NEVER recommend you go just here to see the city (Amy later said that many people come here first to give them an a way to plan their trip around the city). If you have 35 poinds ($70-80) ea to burn then I say go for it. If money is tight and you have to give up eating to do it, give the place the flick.
Sleep
My feet were really suffering now (and my cold was getting worse) so we decided to head back home (we did briefly ponder going to the Playhouse Theatre, but tiredness got the better of us). I decided to try a different stop to get home, Kings Cross Station (monopoly continues), also known as Pancras station (see earlier comments about multi-naming of stations). I asked the locals the direction to Angel station (and Roseberry Hall) and with some help winged it back home. Once back at Roseberry hall we went to the dining area (much like the mess hall at QUT) to get some food. There were kids (6-10yo) everywhere. Must have been a school excursion or something? Hearing lots of little Aussie kids screaming is one thing but British kids makes it annoying and hilarious at the same time.
Amy decided to queue while I guarded our junk. After 10 minutes the chef (well cook really) told her that he couldn’t serve her because this was a specially catered event (damn you little parasites!! ;) he tried to ask his managers for "special dispensation" but he gave up and we graciously bowed out. We were so tired and sick that we decided to call it a night, we went back to our room and Amy ate an old croissant she had and I ate choc-muesli bar that she gave me. Frankly, after what I have been eating I was very happing with a modest dinner. There is no TV here, and we just crashed (after popping cold-and-flu tablets, my staple diet now).
