London Trip May 2003Part I: Monday, Tuesday, WednesdayCast of Characters: Fred and Carol; Barb and John; Katie and Gail
 
That was rather scary! I had never been on a London bus before, even though the bus system is also part of the Travelcard. So we were not only driving on the "wrong" side of the road, but up in the front of the top deck. . . pedestrians and cyclists kept disappearing and since there were no screams we had to assume they were going BY and not UNDER the bus!
We had a minor adventure getting to the play since
the Bakerloo line was closed due to a fire.
Below is just a sample of the many, many beautiful, interesting, creative and fun sights to be seen! 
 
  We were quite exhausted by the end of the day. Katie had made reservations at the Hunan Restaurant on Pimlico Road (just a few blocks away) that was recommended by a friend. And that was an experience! There are no menus here. The owner just wanders over and asks what you like. Then he starts sending food out. It's a bit like dim sum I guess - they just keep coming out with more and more food in small portions for everybody to try. It was really quite fun, though we began to worry that the price was going to be horrendous. But actually, after walking miles and miles and fighting crowds all day, we were just as happy to sit there and let them keep bringing us food for hours! We had soup, a green bean tempura-like thing, mushrooms, little fish and salmon rolls, something with hunks of steak, sesame chicken, peas and scallops, pork rolls, chicken roll-ups, spinach in sesame batter - probably something else I've forgotten - and finally duck (in two versions: the hot, spicy one and the "Barb" style). So that was our one "expensive" meal for the trip; but it was not out of line with what we got and it was a fun end to a unique day. Click here to return to the London index |
It started to pour just as
we emerged from the tube at Paddington and being impatient travelers,
we just marched on to the hotel. Of course, it stopped about the time
we got there! We checked in but the rooms
weren't quite ready so we went to lunch at Nikos Greek restaurant about
a block from the hotel. Since we didn't plan to have supper, we had a
sizeable meal which was very good. Stopped back at the hotel to get
settled in and get clean clothes on, then we headed off to Hyde Park
and Kensington Gardens - about a 3-4 block walk from the hotel. (See us
on bench below. Notice the sun!)
We
spent about 3 hours there. Saw the Albert Memorial (right), walked
through the Kensington Palace gardens and into parts of the palace
(pictures below). As the sun came out, it got very warm. But it faded
in and out before we got too hot. Sprinkled a bit more but not much. We
wandered down several "Flower Walks" and started getting a taste of
English gardens. Katie and Gail went on to the Victoria and Albert
museum since we were close to Kensington - they said afterwards that
might have been too much for the first day cause they were falling
asleep. We stopped at the convenience store for snacks on the way back
and went to bed about 6 PM to get on London time for the next morning.
Fred
and Carol declared Tuesday a sightseeing day and went off to the Tower
of London. The rest of us had done that before, so we started at the
TKTS book to get tickets for "Stones in His Pockets" tonight. Then
Katie and Gail went to Vinopolous and other south bank activities; John
and I went to the National Gallery. I was particularly interested in
the Pisarro in London exhibition which was small but quite interesting.
I had never even heard of Pisarro until we went to Paris and I saw his
work at the Musee d'Orsee but now he's one of my favorite
impressionists.
We had lunch at the Cafe there in the National Gallery; wandered the
area of Trafalgar a little bit. Went to Fortnum and Masons and looked
at tea. We sampled some at the "Rare Tea Bar" there, then took a bus to
Holland Park. 
We spent
a couple of hours in Holland Park - saw the Kyoto Garden (left), roses,
iris garden, the Azalea walk, various pompous peacocks (right),
aggressive squirrels and many rhododendrons. Took the tube back to
Lancaster Gate around 4:30 PM - time for a rest before dinner and the
show.
We had dinner with Saul's at the Sawyer Arms - on London St. just a
block from the hotel. "Traditional English" food which we thought we
should have at least once. I thought it was good "comfort food" -
similar to a pot pie.
That meant quick
rearranging plans and being in a big hurry instead of having plenty of
time. But we got there just as it was starting. Great show. Two guys
(Brian Doherty and Rupert Degas) played 14 different roles - including
female ones. It was a bit hard at first to pick up the accents (Irish) and the
various roles but after a few minutes we got into it. Funny,
sad, heartwarming. Probably the best of the 3 plays we saw (in my
opinion)!
Wednesday
was Chelsea Flower Show day! (Fred, Barb and John at left.)
The focal point of the trip. CROWDS of people (of course, what did I
expect?) and gazillion exhibits. The queue to see the largest of the
Show Gardens was about 2 hours long so we skipped those. But I believe
we saw just about everything else, including the John Deere exhibit
which made me laugh that we travelled to London to see John Deere
tractors made right here in Iowa! We had lunch at the Food Court on the
grounds - it
was so crowded we just had to sit on the floor to eat. (See Katie and
Gail in their little spot.) But that was okay - they hadn't run out of
floor space yet.
There
were lots of plants we'd never heard of but we soon learned why - they
won't grow in the midwest. It's either too hot or too cold or both!
Which is very frustrating for John who got all these good ideas and now
has to explore the possibility of substitutes. It was rather amusing,
however, when we
would ask if they were hardy to -30 degrees (which interestingly is
just about the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius). Although everyone there
recognized we were from "the States" by our accents, that usually
brought a look of horror along with "Where do you
live?"