Mind The Gap!

One of the things I like doing best when traveling in another country is taking the local transportation.  It makes me feel a little more like one of the locals or maybe I just get a thrill in trying to figure it all out.
One of the other more practical reasons is cost.  It's cheaper if you can navigate the way most folks do.  It's also different than me deciding where I want to go and getting in my car and driving as most all of us do. 

In London we took the underground from the airport to near our apartment.  We then bought seven day travel cards which allowed us travel on the underground, trains, and busses for seven days.  Technology has really come along since we've traveled overseas.  In other words there's an app for that. 

We used the city mapper app.  It allowed us to put in 'get me somewhere' on the app.  It knew our location and would then give us all the options available, the time each would take to get you there and a map, whether bus, rail, underground or a combination. 

It took us several days to figure out the best and quickest ways to get around.  About midweek Kim figured out I could take a screenshot and save it and avoid having to have my phone online all the time. 

We literally went all over, sometimes on the bus, sometimes on the underground, sometimes a combination of both.  All for 31 pounds each.  Quite a bargain compared to a taxi everywhere and saved our legs to some degree.  We still put on lots of steps this week. 

People who travel that way everyday are different though.  They rarely make eye contact and are usually looking at their phone, the side of the subway car, or maybe reading something.  The London Evening Standard is free in huge stacks by all the major underground stations just walk by and grab one either that or everyone was stealing them so I did too.  I guess they get that way living among 9 million people crammed into a city the size of London.  It ain't Texas that's for sure but unique and enjoyable none the less.

As you approach each and every underground stop there's an announcement that tells you the name of the upcoming station, like Picadilly, St James Park, or Westminster, and then she says 'mind the gap' as you depart the train.  It's one of the things I'll always remember.

An Incredible Time So Far!!

We've enjoyed an amazing few days here in London to say the least.  Our first day was mainly involved making our way from Heathrow to the apartment, buying a few groceries and a walk down the south bank of the Thames. After a much needed nap then dinner, another walk along the river it was time for sleep.

We decided several months ago to rent an apartment that would provide several things.  We have a kitchen which allows us to fix our own breakfast and dinner.  We have a living room, a couch, and London's most basic cable.  There's very little American TV except for Big bang theory and NCIS. We didn't come to watch TV anyway.  We have a very private and secure entrance.  We can be walking on the Tower Bridge, along the Thames, or catch a bus going somewhere in about 2 minutes.

Wednesday we saw all the sites by taking the hop on hop off tour.  It helped us get somewhat oriented for the rest of the trip.
We hopped off a couple of times to find the loo at Harrods and to see if we could find discount theater tickets.  Yes on the loo, no on the tickets.

Thursday we took in the Tower of London which lasted about three hours.  You get a beefeater guide who walks you through for the first hour or so.  Dave was our guide and was funny, dry humor and very informative.  After his final presentation in the Tower Chapel we were free to see the crown jewels and the white house, the original Tower which started up in 1099.
After that we headed for a special surprise I planned for Kim. 

An early dinner on Wednesday found us making our way east by train to one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants called The Narrows.  I picked this one because they were serving Thanksgiving dinner, well their version anyway.  Needless to say a special Thanksgiving dinner on the Thames river was really special to celebrate our 35th anniversary. 

Next time I'll cover trains, planes, busses, and the underground railroad. "Mind the gap as you depart the train!!"

No more oops for now!

After a couple oops on our way to the airport I am glad to report none since.  We departed Houston Monday evening and arrived at Heathrow about 9 am. I think we both slept about 2 hours during the flight.  Then there's the normal half mile trek through the terminal to the customs and immigration waiting line then to find the underground depot to buy train tickets to London.  The other two options were the much more expensive Heathrow express or to go by taxi.  The express train is faster but three times as costly. A taxi costs about 100 pounds or $155. I like to take the local transport when somewhere new so that was the ticket, about $20 for us both.

We boarded the train, made our one station transfer with no problems and arrived at the London Bridge Underground where we bought travel card passes for all local transport for seven days.  After a half mile walk or so we arrived at the apartment we rented for a week, met the representative from the leasing company, got our keys and got settled. 

The apartment is about a half block from the Tower Bridge which is very cool.  We found a small market just a few blocks away and brought home some basics for the week, breakfast and sandwich stuff, and a couple of beverages.  London is one of the most expensive cities in the world so eating in a couple times a day was our plan.  Then we had to have a couple hour nap to carry us through the time change to then hopefully sleep through the night.  After our nap we went for a walk down the Thames and stopped at The Vault, under the Tower Bridge where Kim enjoyed an excellent fish and chips dinner.  The day was well done.

Today we did the recommended 'hop on hop off' bus tour which takes you by all the famous sites of London with an audio guide.  It was rainy and foggy the first half of the day so we sat inside the bus. It gave us a good lay of the land and helped us sort out where we want to go over the next few days. 

We did 'hop off' at Harrods department store which I figure is also one of the most expensive stores in the world.  We browsed and gasped at the prices and took advantage of their fabulous loo!  Each one had a full-time loo attendant to make sure our experience was fabulous.  No tipping please! 

We 'hopped on' then off for a late lunch stop at Picadilly and nearby Chinatown, Soho, at Baozi Inn. We were the only people in the place that weren't speaking Chinese so that was a good sign. We ordered pork baozi, which were spicy pork filled dumplings but much bigger and a couple of spicy beef entrees.  It was terrific and very reasonable.  We 'hopped on' and then off again at Leicester Square to see the area and look for theatre ticket possibilities. 

Then it was 'hop on' again through the last part of the tour, back to the Tower Bridge stop and the walk back home for hot chocolate and a cream filled bun we bought from a little bakery in Chinatown along with a huge cupcake, a ham and spinach bun, and a coconut bun which will be for breakfast tomorrow. All for less than four pounds. Brilliant and yummy.

All in all a great start to our trip and no more oops for now.  Pics are posted on Facebook.  The Tower of London tour is our first destination tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!!

Oops #2

So the first oops was a shortage of personal items which we overcame by borrowing from the London bag.  This morning we headed to wally world for cough drops,  ear plugs (I'm still not sure what for) and to make a couple of passport photos for a seven day London travel card.  The local pharmacy wanted $12 and wally wanted $8 so we took pictures of ourselves on the phone, uploaded them to the photo center and printed one print for 28 cents.  SCORE one for us!  We saved enough to buy lunch at Chili's.

On to the oops part.  I dropped Kim off at wally world and parked.  I got out of the car, put my keys in my jacket pocket, then decided I didn't need my jacket so back it went into the front seat.  I proceeded to find Kim in the photo section in the back of the store, made said photo, found cough drops, ear plugs, and checked out.

When we left the store I reached for my keys and nada. Noooo!!!!  Where were they?  Where's the car? Noooo!! 

Finally, after a few panicked moments I spot the car and run to it to find......the car unlocked, jacket in the front seat with my keys still in the front pocket where I had put them. All our stuff exactly where we left it.  I darned near soiled myself!!

Oops! #2

London here we come!

My bride and I love to travel, we always have.  I didn't grow up in a family that traveled a great deal, there just wasn't the time, money, or vehicles that efficiently carried seven of us. And who really wants to go very far with five kids? My dad just wasn't interested in 'seeing the world.'  When I was in high school I had the chance to take a trip to Europe with a group called 'America's Youth in Concert.'  It was a group of 300 teenagers, a chorus and band that spent three weeks touring Europe and performing.  It was then the travel bug bit.  That was back in the summer of 1973, I think.  I've enjoyed going ever since.

That's enough for now feel free to follow along if you'd like.  I'll try to post regularly. Thanks for reading.

David