Europe Day 04: Last & Longest Day in London

Monday, Monday
Being the start of the workweek (just not ours!), Tam had to get up pretty early. Our goodbyes were a bit rushed, as one bathroom for four people was a bit of a squeeze – but we managed. We thanked Tam for everything – she was an awesome host and we were extremely grateful for the free lodging for these past few days.

On our own
We were able to leave after Tam as the doors in her complex lock themselves after you shut the door. I have mixed feelings about this ability as it doesn’t allow room for mistake in possibly leaving your keys inside… but it was good for us because then we didn’t have to leave with Tam so early, and she didn’t have to wait for us.

A bit of aggravation
As we made our way with all of our luggage on the Tube back to Russell Square to lodge our stuff with the Contiki office for the day, we ran into a few aggravations. First – there were no ticket sellers at Seven Sisters, and we needed to buy day passes. We then tried to use the machines, but they simply wouldn’t accept the five-pound not we had and they also refused to take anything but exact change. There was also all of one person on duty at the entrance we were using and he proved to be very little help. Finally, he gave us directions to the entrance at the other end of the station where there more people on duty to help us.

RAIN!!
However, with our luck, yet again it was raining – and this time it wasn’t a nice sun-in, sun-out mix match – just plain ‘ole constant rain. We finally made it to the other entrance and then got lodged in the middle of rush hour traffic with all of our luggage. It was definitely a bit of rough going for both us and I believe the other people in the train as well. The Tube cars aren’t as wide as our subway cars and definitely don’t leave room for added baggage.

Contiki Basement
Eventually we made our way back to Russell Square. We didn’t get lost and I was pretty confident of my mastery of the Tube system. Toronto would be ten times better for it if we found some way to have the subway system a major international city should have. Right now – our transportation rank is down below sea level. We left our luggage at the Contiki basement – 1 pound per bag – and only once we’d fully done it did the guy bother to tell us we could have checked right into our hotel if we had wanted to. Seeing as the rain, Tube ride and money situation had already put me in a foul mood – I pretended to ignore this bit of information so as to prevent myself from exploding.

Bah money
While I absolutely love the ability to use European partner banks to my bank (for the lack of being charged for every transaction) – please let me tell you that their personal customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I was not impressed with our inability to prepare for the rest of Europe by not being able to get Euros on request – especially with such high inter-travel between the UK and the rest of the EU. To say the least – our treatment there was the day’s last straw and I had a bit of a frustration cry in front of Russell Hotel just to release the anger. Plus – it started raining again, which made me fairly grr-argh-ey.

No Loose PG Tips – just bags, bags, bags
It was at this time that Heather realized we had not found the one thing that her mom had asked her to bring back with us – loose leaf PG Tips tea. So at that point we started our hunt for groceries that would carry it. Well – let’s say that search lasted most of the day as it seems that every store we went to either didn’t have it at all, or only had the bag variety (by which I am told contains the crappier parts of the tea leaves as compared to loose leaf which is only the actual leaves).

Oxford Circus
From Russell Square we made our way to Oxford Circus where Tam said there were a lot of shops and good shopping. H-Rabbit and I wanted to head there because we realized that not only should we have never listened to anyone at all who told us about what to bring on the trip, but that we should also have never listened to any advice about the weather. We needed warmer clothes ASAP as the same weather we were experiencing in London was being called for all through France and Switzerland too.

UK Guys are too skinny
Being the way I am, it was going to take too much time to find a place with things to fit me, so I opted to go the guy route and look for stuff in that department. However low and behold – London guys seem to be as skinny or even skinnier than London girls. Yet another frustration for today – bah. We tried H&M and everything there too was skinny-fit. Not happy.

The Something Explorer
It was at this point that H-Rabbit said I needed some food – plus – it was raining again – so we ducked into a nice little pub around the corner from the Tube station. It was called The “Something” Explorer – the “something” referring to a word I can’t remember. I’ll have to go searching for my free lit I picked up there to give you the real name of the pub later on. Anywayz – we got a very nice sandwich to share – and the pub was extremely well taken care of – it was a bit funny that it was totally empty as it was definitely one of the most cleanest and modern pubs I’d seen the whole time we were here.

Back to the shopping
After Heather was convinced I was actually in a better mood, we then ventured into the Gap and finally managed to pick up a few things to augment our desperately lacking travel wardrobe. I managed to get a zippered sweater that I could throw over stuff whenever I was cold and H-Rabbit cleaned up yet again with a wrap, souvenir London Tee and a sweater as well.

The Big Bus Tour
With sweaters in hand for the continuing cold weather, we then felt ready to embark on the Big Bus Tour that we decided would be the best way to get around all day to catch the sites we had missed before.

The Big Bus Tour is just one of the stop-and-go, get-on-get-off bus services that operate in the city for tourists. We chose this particular company only because its three lines visited more of the sites that we had missed than any other line – PLUS – it had a smaller shuttle line that would actually take us right back to Russell Square when we needed to get to the Contiki meeting – a great option to have in our pockets since timing was obviously going to be down and dirty for the day.

The Big Bus Tour buses are double-decker, but with an open top for the upstairs section, so we knew it was risky with the weather and all. However, it was either that or find our own way around, which we were sure would take twice as long considering a few factors: our moods; the weather; and the fact that I stop every five seconds to take another photograph! It was accessible right from Oxford Circus, so we didn’t have to go anywhere else to catch it, and we found a guy selling tickets right on the corner. The tickets we were originally sold were really neat and would have been a great souvenir item, however the first thing that happens when you get on the bus is the driver takes THAT ticket away and then gives you this stupid, flimsy printed receipt and THAT’s what you have to keep safe and show to every driver throughout the day to get on and off. Bloody aggravating decision – but I guess also smart as there’s no way anyone can scam the tour company into becoming their daily transportation by showing the awesome ticket around for days (the original ticket had no date stamping or anything). Anywho – we did get a free pair of earphones each to listen to the recorded commentary (or Live if you’re on a Red Line bus), but missed out on free ponchos (they were all gone already) – yay for us having our own super-duper Canadian raincoats on hand because…

RAIN... again!
…what happened as soon as we got on the bus, and made our way up top (and managed to de-wet a few chairs enough to sit on them without soaking ourselves)? It began to… RAIN!! AGAIN!! However, armed with sweaters, raincoats and umbrellas – we made the brave decision to tough it out because it was the only way we’d actually see anything and be able to take picture while on the bus as the windows on the lower level were just not happy (foggy, cloudy, destroyed… basically – they might as well have been solid wood doors).

First off point: The Steps of St. Paul’s
Thankfully – during the first leg of the ride – the rain really was on and off, and a little way in, the sun actually came out again which was nice. I can’t quote remember which parts we ran through at this point but I do believe we passed Fleet Street and saw the building that was apparently the inspiration for tiered wedding cakes.

NOTE: As promised before – I’ll re-touch on things like our actual tour route and some of the things we’re seeing in other blogs later since obviously – my memory sucks, and I may totally have screwed up our actual driving route in recalling it, and there is no way I am going to be able to keep every single thing I’ve learned every day in my head for life at just one mention – there’s just too much information!

We made our first get-off point St. Paul’s Cathedral. I immediately began singing Mary Poppins’ Bird Woman song, so H-Rabbit made a beeline to get away from me – but I do love that song and it was neat to be in the actual place of somewhere I had dreamed about often as a kid. We took a few photos along the steps where many people were just hanging around. I do love how people are so comfortable here making their own public spaces. Toronto has very few comparable spots, and nowhere near the same amount – though our population also is nowhere near enough to keep them all filled. We also don’t attract anywhere near the same amount of tourists so you would never be able to recreate the same feeling of community even if we did.

We wanted to get a chance to see inside – but it cost money that we hadn’t budgeted for so we just leaned over ropes and pew stands and whatnot to get a good look at the inside – to the dismay of the people manning the line-up but so what.

After that – H-Rabbit spied a Marks & Spencer grocery store across the way and went in to try and continue the search for the PG Tips loose-leaf tea – but to no avail. M&S food stores only sell M&S food! Foiled again.

London Bridge is Falling Down
After we hopped back on to the Big Bus Tour and made our way towards London Bridge, which is, regardless of childhood lore, just a bridge - a regular, un-fancy, concrete and steel bridge. However – from it – you do get a pretty good view of the Tower Bridge down the way – now that’s a cool bridge. Yay for going there sometime soon.

Around the Globe Theatre
One of the things that H-Rabbit had wanted to see was the re-built Shakespearean Globe Theatre – however it wasn’t on the tour route. We managed to figure out that if we got off at London Bridge station, it seemed like we’d be able to walk there in a few minutes, see it, and then walk back and join the tour again when we were done. We obviously were not good judges of our London maps and it actually took a much longer walk to get there than we thought. Also – signage for the theatre is not happy and we got lost – only to find it by going down the most obscure set of stairs around a condo building right beside a bridge across the Thames, that led to the waterfront walkway towards the Art Gallery. Then magically – it was in front of us.

We were really hoping to go inside just to see it – as the web site we had checked the night before said we could either pay for a tour, or pay to just see the exhibition and inside – but we knew we didn’t have time for the tour since we still had to see so many other places and make it back to the Contiki headquarters for our tour meeting at 6pm.

However – at the front desk we learned that their web site sucks ass and is wrong – the only way in to see the theatre is either by taking the tour or seeing a show – neither of which we had the time for. So sadly – we only got to see the outside and had made the crazy trek finding the place for nothing.

Tower Bridge
Since the walk to the theatre ended up being way longer than we thought, we caught a local bus instead of the tour bus to take us directly to the Tower Bridge location, and got off before it crossed. That bridge is truly an impressive sight. I’m really glad we took the time to walk across it ourselves rather than ride across as it offers not only some awesome views of the city, but great views of itself as well.

Tower of London
At the base of the north side of the Tower Bridge, we then came across the fort that surrounds the Tower of London. I’ll be honest here – because I had no clue what the tower looked like – I was extremely disappointed that the actual Tower, which is in the centre of the fortress walls, is so short! You can barely tell there’s a tower there at all from the public walkways (for those of us who weren’t able to make it inside). Originally – we had wanted to go in to see the Crown Jewels that are supposed to be kept there – but we simply didn’t have the time (constrained by the damn occurrence of that Contiki meeting!) and so we didn’t really see the Tower of London at all – just the surrounding area. Let it be known – for awhile I was also quite confused – and took pictures of a much taller building across the street from the Tower – believing IT was the Tower – simply because it was much taller and actually looked like a tower. At this point – I still have no idea what I took a picture of but will have to look it up when I get home.

SUPER RAIN!
From the Tower of London stop, we hooked up with the Big Bus Tour again and went up top because we had thought the skies had cleared… only to be drenched and covered in SUPER RAIN – again! In our tussle to put on our rain gear and get everything covered – H-Rabbit managed to take a long sit in a very wet seat and gave herself wet pants for the rest of the day! This was our longest ride on the bus too since we were heading out all the way to the west end to see Buckingham Palace. Poor H-Rabbit – she was not impressed!

Buckingham Palace
Eventually we arrived at our destination and made the little trek towards the gates in front of the Palace. I was actually quite impressed with them, and the commemorative statue of Queen Victoria, more so than the palace itself. It’s just so… dreary looking and so symmetrical. Add the dreary weather and it just wasn’t as magnificent as some people might think. You can’t get into the palace and take a tour unless it’s August or September when the Royal family doesn’t reside there, so we didn’t have to worry about setting aside time for that. Hilariously enough – we did watch the antics of a weird dancing and waving Guard in front of the palace. Here we were thinking they all had to be super serious and here he was waving and shaking his booty at us. I never managed to get a picture, as he was always so quick about it or unexpected. However – both H-Rabbit and I saw it (along with about 20 other people) so it did indeed happen! Maybe the Queen needs to weed out her guards a bit better. Ha!

SUPER DUPER DOWNPOUR
Just as we finished taking our photos and looking around – we then got hit with the day’s most massive downpour. It was like having buckets of water poured down right on top of you. Even with all our rain gear – we were still getting wet – but unlike almost everyone else at the gates – we at least had umbrellas and could manage to wait the downpour out without having to move. Funnily enough – that was actually the only time I ever saw anyone run to try and get out of the rain. Every other time people just kept walking – sometimes without a coat or umbrella or anything. Londoners have definitely come to acquire an awesome skill of just ignoring the wet. I however could not – and so convinced H-Rabbit we should just get to the bus.

End of touring
Time had finally caught up with us and we realized we wouldn’t make the link to the Big Bus Tour line that ran by the Contiki area in time for our meeting so we got off at the closest Metro location – Green Park.

Loose PG Tips!
Before we hopped on, H-Rabbit noticed a Sainsbury grocery store, so we tried again for the elusive loose leaf PG Tips. Ta-da! Finally – we found some – but only after random help from a woman who thought we were American and seemed to be a bit flabbergasted by the fact that we were actually Canadian when we told her so. She said that apparently all the Indian stores in Toronto carry the stuff so next time we shouldn’t be too worried about finding it all the way over here.

Contiki Meeting
After buying the tea – and some awesomely delicious Brownie bites amongst a few other snacky things – we then Tubed directly to Russell Square for our Contiki meeting. I’m going to be brutally honest here – the “Begin the Tour” meeting the night before your tour starts is a big waste of time. Besides being reminded about every single rule that you should have already read in the paperwork you were sent ages ago, the only other thing you got to do was “sort of” meet the other people on your tour, and meet your tour manager. While I understand checking in, and giving pertinent information needed to happen – it most certainly didn’t have to happen in a meeting fashion that interrupted the day at a very specific time. When Contiki has full-time staff at a welcome desk pretty much all day long, we should have just been able to check in with them whenever we first arrived and given them whatever information they needed. They could also then have given us the information we needed. The standard start meeting is most definitely a way for them to cut their workload rather than serve their clients. So yeah, wrapping that up with a “not impressed”.

Checked into our first Hotel
After the meeting we grabbed our bags from the Basement and then walked over to the Imperial Hotel to check in. It was a standard room and pretty much what we were expecting, regardless of the rumblings we had heard from some girls in the meeting who described it as awful. They awesomely had a kettle and all the makings for tea so we rested a bit by watching some random hilarious British comedy show while Heather dried off and changed out of her wet clothes. Mine had survived quite well with my raincoat so I only needed a drying “period” to be comfortable again.
Back to Leicester one more time
To end our stay in London we decided to head back to Leicester one last time as it was the most liveliest part of town that we had seen our whole time there. We decided to get our “traditional” fish & chips meal at the Mermaid’s Tail (right in the square). The price actually wasn’t too bad, and neither were the fish & chips. After dinner we reminded ourselves sharply that we hadn’t picked up a single souvenir and I decided on magnets as my city-to-city souvenir for myself. We picked up a few other things as well and enjoyed the awesome nightlife the city had to offer.

Leicester to Piccadilly to Embankment
It was a Monday night but London’s nightlife was rip roaring and building with every moment – even though by this time it was nearing 11pm. Instead of less and less people being around, it seemed like there actually was more and more and more. The streets were teeming and alive. We went back to Piccadilly to see the London “Times Square” in full effect with lights and People and music. We then wanted to see the Thames in lights and took the Tube to Embankment again to see what we saw in the day under the night lights of the city. London at night was extremely beautiful – though I think that of pretty much every city at night I must admit.

The end of London
In the end, we Tubed “home” just in time – the last trains on all of London’s Tube lines end around the midnight mark – even though so many people were obviously out on the town. London cabbies must make a pretty penny when everyone finally makes their way home since it seemed like the entire city was out having a blast. We – however – had to be on a bus for 6:30am so we made it back into our rooms to settle in for a few hours sleep and semi-pack again for the start of our tour. Can’t believe we’re going to be getting a 5:30am wake-up call. It’s been a blast, but I know the adventure is only just starting – I can’t wait for what’s next.