We had the potential for another train disaster leaving Amsterdam, as the train just never came. We had a changeover before connecting with the ferry, so time was of the essence. Luckily we found another train stopping at the changeover station, and we made it to the ferry – crisis averted. The ferry was quite nice, with comfy seats and windows, shops, restaurants, 3 different styles of bars…they even had a cinema onboard. Got a bit of reading in, had some dinner, and made it to London without further hitches, though late in the evening. The next morning we switched to a different hostel, conveniently located on King’s Cross Road, right by King’s Cross, which many of you may recognize from Harry Potter. And yes, I found Platform 9 and ¾. I even have pictures to prove it. We went to a pub from the 18th century for lunch – Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese – the kind of place that has a peat fire going and sawdust on the floors and big cozy booths. I had braised pheasant with stewed vegetable and berries and baked asparagus with bacon and cheese. It was delicious, along with the pub’s own organic lager. We stopped back at the hostel and sorted out our flights to Barcelona next week, then went to London Bridge before going on the Grim Reapers of London tour. It took us all over the East End, to Tower Bridge, the Bloody Tower, Traitor’s Gate, the plague pits, the world’s first psychiatric hospital, and to the sites where several of Jack the Ripper’s victims were found. Dark, but fun. We met two other girls on our tour who were studying in France, so we grabbed a bit to eat with them and swapped stories.
The next morning I had a very cold, very pathetic shower –the kind you have to push the button and you get 10 seconds of water and then it turns off. It was fairly miserable, but it was nice to be clean afterwards. And, at my insistence, we stopped at Starbucks and got some Christmas flavored coffees to take on our walking tour. The tour guide was an absolute hoot, and took us just about everywhere – including Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben among other places. We had lunch at The Old Monk’s Exchange with another girl we’d met on our tour, Kelsey, from America working as an au pair in Italy. They even had Hobgoblin on tap! We parted ways and Caitlin and I headed for the Natural History Museum. Sadly, there was a very long queue to see the dinosaur exhibit, and we didn’t have a ton of time there, so we gave it a miss and explored the rest. It’s an amazing museum, and they do an excellent job of explaining ideas and concepts and significance in their displays. You could spend days in there. We grabbed a British dinner, and here by British I mean something that sounded pretty good on the menu and yet they still managed to make it bland. But we had a great Rioja wine with it and a great chat, and decided London was much cooler than we had expected. Turned out Kelsey was in our room at the hostel that night – so a pleasant surprise to end with.
The next morning I had a very cold, very pathetic shower –the kind you have to push the button and you get 10 seconds of water and then it turns off. It was fairly miserable, but it was nice to be clean afterwards. And, at my insistence, we stopped at Starbucks and got some Christmas flavored coffees to take on our walking tour. The tour guide was an absolute hoot, and took us just about everywhere – including Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben among other places. We had lunch at The Old Monk’s Exchange with another girl we’d met on our tour, Kelsey, from America working as an au pair in Italy. They even had Hobgoblin on tap! We parted ways and Caitlin and I headed for the Natural History Museum. Sadly, there was a very long queue to see the dinosaur exhibit, and we didn’t have a ton of time there, so we gave it a miss and explored the rest. It’s an amazing museum, and they do an excellent job of explaining ideas and concepts and significance in their displays. You could spend days in there. We grabbed a British dinner, and here by British I mean something that sounded pretty good on the menu and yet they still managed to make it bland. But we had a great Rioja wine with it and a great chat, and decided London was much cooler than we had expected. Turned out Kelsey was in our room at the hostel that night – so a pleasant surprise to end with.
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