I made it to England - now if I could only find the hotel!

London Voyage - Thursday & Friday, October 3 & 4, 2002

So I was sick of the Azores, literally and mentally, and I went to London! I wanted to do one last trip to Europe before being sent back stateside, so the choice came down to Berlin or London. I didn't want to do a hodgepodge of cities like in May - just one and I would spend a week there. Ultimately, my laziness won out, as I didn't want to have to speak German, just English. So, London it was! My buddy Alan who I knew from San Antonio always said we had to meet up in Europe one day, and so what better opportunity. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get in to London until 4 days after I had already arrived. You can read why here at his website. So I had London for my own - what to do? Well, first get there. I was dying of allergies or something upon leaving Terceira, but getting into London that night, I felt great. Go figure. As I finally got into central London from Heathrow, it was getting closer to midnight, which is important. Mainly because the hostel closed then, but I didn't know that. So after taking the wrong tube line and going too far, backtracking, then getting outside and taking ANOTHER wrong guess and walking the wrong way, I finally made it to my hotel at 12:10 am. But no open door for me! I was so freaking tired! I had walked by a Holiday Inn earlier, so I went there. It couldn't be that expensive, right? WRONG. £134 later (~$200), I was in the executive suite at the Holiday Inn. It was nice, but DAMN!!!!!!!!! 27th floor, no less - so that next morning, the view was impressive. Below are some pictures from my initial arrival and of the Holiday Inn view. Look closely to see the London Eye Ferris Wheel. The next morning, I checked out and made it to the Curzon House Hotel, which had the 'reasonable' rate of £44 (~$66) per night for a single room with a full size bed. Nice.

The Arrival and Curzon House Hotel

Needless to say, I woke up refreshed and ready to go - that's what an expensive hotel room will do for you. After having a great breakfast, I moved to my digs in the Curzon. Not too nice, not too bad. Decent place to sleep in - and I knew that I would barely be there anyways. First task to tackle - ride the double decker bus tour around London to get my bearings - and what is cool is that you get a ticket valid for 24 hours, so you can ride the tour, jump off at a point of interest, then jump back on when you're finished exploring. I rode the Original Tour bus, which had both a guide or taped narration, based on which bus you got in. I rode from Madame Tussaud's (which I didn't go to - wax people don't do much for me, especially when it costs about £27 admission) all around London, passing Parliament, Big Ben (heh heh), Regent Street, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and finally the Tower Bridge, at which I disembarked to go explore the Tower of London!

The Original Bus Tour of London pictures

Wow - the Tower of London. You hear about it in all sorts of movies and books, and to finally see it in person is quite amazing. It's not really one tower, but actually quite a few. In fact, it's a castle surrounding the inner part, which is known as the White Tower, which actually has four towers on it. Confusing, eh? Maybe the British were just so confused that they got pissed off and that's why so many people were imprisoned here. And did you know, men were not executed here - just imprisoned. Women were though, and two of Henry VIII's wives were executed here (Anne Boleyn and .... Catherine of Aragorn? can't remember right now) on the castle green, seen below. I took the free tour which is guided by a Beefeater (Yeoman). These guys are characters, and actually live in the houses off the castle green. I finally then was able to walk right in to see the Crown Jewels! Amazing - I got to see the 2 biggest diamonds in the world. Unbelievable. The Tower of London is situated right on the river, next to the Tower Bridge, so I took a few pictures of the bridge and me as well.

The Tower of London

I rejoined the bus tour, which handily was stopping at the Embankment, where the complimentary boat tour starts. If you get a ticket for the bus tour, you get a free boat ride up and down the Thames River as well. I was working London today! So I got on the boat ride, got a great seat on the right side of the boat (always sit on the right side, because the guide always talks about things on the right side of the river - always!), and enjoyed some magnificent views of London. I even saw London Bridge! Well, at least the version London has, and not the one in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

My River Thames boat tour

Well, by now it was starting to approach evening, but I still had to finish the bus tour. I rejoined one of the buses, unfortunately it was going to its final stop at Picadilly Circus, but that was okay, as I knew I'd see Buckingham Palace later. So I got out at Picadilly Circus, and lo and behold, look! There was a Virgin Megastore AND a Tower Records, all within spitting distance of each other. It wasn't too hard to find these. Finally! Needless to say, I went to both of them and about lost my mind. Oh the selection! But oh the prices! Who cared then though? It was just incredible to see such selection again. I love those stores!

Picadilly Circus

Finally I made it back to the hotel - exhausted by the amount I'd seen. But I definitely had a good understanding of my whereabouts now. That night I also planned out the rest of my time there, including the fact I wanted to pick up tickets to another show in addition to Les Miserables, which I had already purchased tickets for before leaving the Azores. I saw a poster for Mamma Mia, heard it was a hard show to get into, and made it my mission to pick up tickets for Alan and me during the week. How could you go wrong with ABBA songs? Answer: You can't!!!!! I also scoped out a ton of the London Walks trips. Boy, would my feet hate me later. But sitting here now, writing this, it was ALL WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LONDON RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click here to see what happened the next day!

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