And so to London

[tvordlj]

When last we spoke, gramie_dee and i were heading to London. One of the main reasons for our trip was to take in the Doctor Who Experience and exhibition at the Olympia Two. We are both avid fans and wanted to see this so tickets were prebooked for the day we arrived. Train tickets booked, what else can we do this weekend? We decided we'd also take in a show as we hadn't done that in awhile and after much discussion and perusing of what was on, we decided on Wicked.

All that, on one day! In retrospect probably a bit too much to do in one day but we'll know better next time. But at the time, there was a tentative picnic on Saturday out in Greenwich so we didn't want to have to worry about getting back to the city for a show. We arranged a pub meet for Sunday afternoon to hopefully catch up with some folks and later, the picnic was rearranged for Sunday as well so it ended up that we would have all Saturday free after all. But the tickets were already bought so there was nothing to do about it.

So. Train to London, arrival mid day. Staying at the Melia White House next to Regent Park but we couldn't get into the room before 3. We dropped the bags and went west to the Olympia, found a caff for a hot drink while we waited for the time to enter (timed ticket entry). The Doctor Who Experience was very good. It was done to appeal to all ages of course, and we enjoyed the half hour multi media effects then browsed and looked at all the stuff they had in the exhibit - costumes, props, there was the 9/10th Doctor Tardis set, an older one as well. Lots of things to see and take photos of.

Get back across to Victoria where the theatre is, have a quick meal in a pub and off to the Theatah, luvvie. We did enjoy Wicked, the costumes, sets and the actors were great. The story was fun, too but neither of us really warmed up to the songs overly.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was after 11 and we were exhausted! We got checked in, got an upgraded room offered, had our bags taken up for us. The room was nice, a comfortable size with an enormous king sized bed. We had showers and collapsed on it! The room didn't come with breakfast so we didn't have to get up too early which was a good thing!

We had two good weather days, Saturday being better than sunday but still both were pretty good. Saturday was brilliant. We discovered a little cafe on Warren Street called Cafe le Midi that did a hot breakfast for £3.50 which included tea/coffee. Excellent except it was closed for Sundays. Sunny day... gotta do something outside so we went to the Zoo in the morning. That was pretty good but... no elephants!!! I was a bit surprised. Some of the animals were sleeping in the shade but we did see Gorillas, meerkats, otters, Llamas, various birds and monkeys and camels. Graham also enjoyed the bugs. I sat on a bench and relaxed while he took in the creepy crawleys! The meerkats were wonderful, probably could have stood and watched them for hours!

We didn't see everything because our feet were pretty sore. Next up, we took the bus over to Camden. Yes. More walking but the first order of business was to have lunch so we'd get a rest there. Being Saturday it was full on market day and very, very busy! The markets were great, though. We went through the Lock and Stables markets, browsing and window shopping in the sunshine. There was just enough of a breeze to make it comfortable. The markets are unbelievable, and you can probably get just about anything if you look long enough.

We were finally worn out! Even though it was a sunny Saturday night, all we could think of by now was going back to the hotel room with sandwiches and snacks and recovering while watching.... yep, Doctor Who! That's exactly what we did, joking that we were getting old. Really though, my feet wouldn't have taken any more.

Since the cafe wasn't open on Sunday, we ate in the hotel on Sunday morning. Probably shouldn't have, should have gone out looking for another caff because the hotel price for breakfast was scandalous. By this time i couldn't be arsed.

We were meeting a few at a pub at 12:30 but had the morning to do something. I had thought about the National Gallery as it was handy the pub but it was a fairly nice day and Graham had wanted to maybe go on the London Eye, something he'd never done. Well, let's try and see if the queue isn't too long. By the time we got there, by bus, through a bit of a bottleneck, we weren't sure we'd have the time. the Queues weren't excessive but long enough that we wondered. But i saw a booth where you could get fast track tickets (for a premium price) for a priority queue. Again, what the heck... let's do it. Up we went, views amazing, Aside from the tall buildings at Canary Wharf, we also were able to spot the top of Tower Bridge, which is closer but shorter. Of course you can see miles but when looking East, there's a lot of buildings there too.

We took a cab and got back to the pub in time to meet up with naturalbornkaos, sparklielizard and stevenothing and their family including brand new baby Gabriel! sorry we didn't get to see more of you all but i realize it was a bit last minute. We had our lunch at the pub and didn't make our way out to Greenwich for the picnic after all as it was a bit later in the afternoon. I would like to go out and spend the day in Greenwich sometime, though. I've seen the Observatory and the Fan Museum but not any of the other museums nor really seen much of the town.

It's our last day and night together. :( We had a look through the National Gallery afterwards and ended up back in the hotel for the evening much as last night, with a light snack to hold us though to morning.

We parted at the hotel, me in a car for the airport, he to go to the cafe for breakfast before the train. We only have three months until the next visit when he comes here in September so that's good but it will be a longer stretch on the other side.

Comments

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

Hey, was cool to see you again. :) Glad you had fun!

[tvor.livejournal.com]

I'm glad we still keep in touch!