20160615
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Well, the railroad sick-out happened but not in large scale, so Southwestern Rail kept service running on the London line. We woke, had breakfast in Polirocco, then started a hike. We tired of that after a couple of miles and walked back to the room. We slowly packed and checked out. A taxi was called, which whisked us to the station.
Gavin the rail ticket salesman detected American, so he gave me the whole spiel, and I selected the quick train with only one stop (Gatwick) at 35GBP including tube-for-a-day. We walked out onto the train and settled in. It left on time nearly empty. It left Gatwick nearly full. Victoria Station is huge and confusing. An info person recommended we just walk to the hotel rather than get into a confusing tube situation. So we did - one mile, roughly. We saw the Apollo theatre where years ago with the Conleys we saw “Starlight Express” by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Checked into room 401, right next the elevator. Threw our stuff into the room and went down to the pub part for refreshments. D declared her legs are on strike until early evening, so we’re resting while i do these computer chores.
After after a few hours, we went down to have dinner in the pub. The bar area was packed with people and many were standing on the sidewalk outside (legal here). But the dining area had room, so we sat and ordered. D had Rump of Lamb and I did a glazed ham with piccalilli and chips, all very nice.
We considered that we had some power left in us so we hiked off toward a mini-grocery to get goodies for the room refrigerator. En route, we came across a Jamie Oliver place that serves Italian creations. We reserved a table for tomorrow evening.
A new place was seen - an organic fast-food joint. We know people who would love that. We bought the goodies and returned to the room. Then we loafed and read.
20160616 London
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We woke up a little late, showing we must be acclimated to the time zone. Breakfast in the pub but we had to walk down since the lift was “not in service”. The food was good but then we had to climb back to the room. We looked at tour folders and arranged one for tomorrow.
Then it came time for the hop-on-hop-off bus. The weather looked a little threatening so we sat under the overhang up forward. The weather changed all tour long, alternating dry, damp, warm, cool breeze, and so forth.
One usually thinks of a HOHO tour to be an hour or hour-and-a-half long. This one took three and a little. Perhaps it’s due to the amount of traffic. We never seemed to have an empty street in front of us where we could accelerate - it was mostly bumper-to-bumper creeping.
But we *did* see London. A great deal of it. All the big named sites and more. Across the river about six times. Big Ben from every angle. St Pauls Cathedral. London City. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (a pub Dickens and others attended), Tower of London. Trafalgar Square. Marble Arch, including the site of the infamous execution spot called the Tyburn Tree. Many statues of a dragon (London symbol). The Eye. National Theatre.
We finally completed the circuit and went into the hotel. England were playing Wales in the EURO2016 football playoffs. Very crowded in the pub. We drew our glasses and went to the room to watch the finale, observing that the lift had been repaired. England won at the last moment of the game 2-1.
Dinner-time came, so we hiked to Jamie Oliver’s Italian in Victoria Street. As with all of his places, the decor is unique and the food different but good. D had assorted breads with balsamic & oil, then pan-fried hake with clam & kale hot salad. I had olives (large, iced, with flatbread and tapenade), then a prosciutto pan-fried with onion & garlic, served with house-made spaghetti. All very good with 750ml of house rosso.
We stopped for bananas on the way home, then came to the room to rest. Good night, all.
