Day 35 – U Aug 2 – debark in Southhampton and train to London
- Stupid alarm/dress/pack and get out of the stateroom by 0800. Even just one more hour would be so helpful. Luckily, they let us pick our departure time (within the window of departures) so we didn’t have to be off the boat until 0900 and were able to have a leisurely breakfast.
- Getting off the boat was a chaotic mess. The UK is quite strict about border control. Their border officers came on the ship and checked each person out personally. Every other time we’ve done this, those checks happen in the cruise terminal. The ship also didn’t put out signs and everyone was confused on where to go, where to stand, etc.. Once in the cruise terminal, it was even more confusing. No lines or areas were labeled at all and we had to rely on humans to tell us where the lines were for taxis, ubers, and private rides. So when five ships came in at the same time and all debarked at the same time the terminal couldn’t really handle all that human traffic. Nearly all the taxis were reserved ahead of time. And most people travel with way too much luggage but the way is set up, we didn’t get to scoot ahead with our small stuff when a small car showed up. We ended up sharing a cab with a lovely couple (Todd & Toni) that I wish we had met on the ship. Our cab driver was a bit of a con artist; he kept trying to convince us to take his cab all the way to London and to Heathrow Airport. I can’t even imagine what a 1.5hr cab ride would have cost. Besides the money, I’d have lost my shit and my sanity. Luckily, Toni and I were engrossed in conversation. The driver was a British version of a MAGAt; both of the guys were rattled by some of the stuff he said. And, he set my soft bag on the ground. (I don’t set my wheel-less bags on the floor, nevermind the ground.) Todd was quite generous and paid the cab driver £20 for our £16 ride but also didn’t want money from us.
- The train station was busy, stinky, and needed seats. You have to have a ticket to get in, so we should get to sit. But the train itself was nice and decently comfortable.
- From the train, we saw a massive skate/bike park and a very brown gold course.
- Once in London, the train and tube were easy to figure out, but quite a workout with luggage and many stairs. I’m soooo glad we travel light! Near the end of our trek, literally a block from our hotel, I was taking the stairs up out of the Tube slowly. A nice man asked if I needed help. I declined and told him this was the end of a long morning. My bags are more wonky than heavy, but I was working hard to make sure I didn’t trip and fall.
- London looks exactly as I expected from TV and movies. We had time to kill, needed a rest, and wanted a snack, so we started the city at a McDonalds that has a basement. Level -1 has its own kiosk and kitchen from the one on 0/G.
- Our hotel was off their Broadway street, in the Strand. Six was in a theater across from us, and Paddington is around the corner. Avenue Q, Lion King, and a couple we haven’t heard of were running, too.
- He had requested an early check-in for us, so by the time we got to the hotel at 1300, we were able to get into the room that was ready by 1200. It was a super cute tiny room that looks like those teensy example apartments at Ikea, but with custom built-ins. The table folded down and two folding chairs were in the closet. It even had a tiny 5’ kitchen with a dishwasher drawer. We couldn’t unpack at the same time, so while I unpacked, he found us a little walking route from our hotel, to The Eye, to Big Ben. And then all my muscles said “no” so we rested instead. We figured The Eye was cooler at night anyway.
- And then I realized that I left my good charging brick in the nightstand on the ship. Dammit.
- Staying inside from 1300-1530 was smart. By the time we ventured out, it was much cooler. He found us a park with a beer garden and a big menu. I had an Italian beer that was new to me: Poretti and a beef on rye that was quite good. He had a massive plank of fish with chips. Every few minutes, we could feel the Tube quivering the ground beneath our feet.
- We did a walk around and saw The Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Whitehall, Westminster Abbey, and the entrance to Downing Street, and then popped in for a pint at a quaint pub, The Vault; their event space is in a room with an actual vault. We then walked to Trafalgar Square and popped into a grocery on the way back to our hotel.
- Except for needing a good shower to clean the grit and grime, it’s a very pretty city.
- After a second rest for the evening, we tried to plan our route from Edinburgh to Oslo. That proved to be difficult; apparently, it’s not a very popular route. When we outlined the trip, we saw plenty of flights, but by August, many of them had disappeared. We planned to spend our “no water” day working on a possible re-route, and decided we better have supper before everything started to close their kitchens. We were kind of down to fast food options, but there were still new things to try, like Thunderbird Fried Chicken, which is like our Canes chicken. It was quite good, but it sure made us miss Canes sauce. (Matt Harris founded after racing in NASCAR. He wanted to bring southern fried chicken to the UK, started a food truck, and expanded from there.)
- We also spent the late evening chatting with our friends from London–that we met in Estes Park a couple of years ago–and setting up a dinner date.
Day 36 – M Aug 3 – the day with no water
- Our hotel had a note in the elevators when we checked in. They needed to repair a leak, so water would be off from 1100-1600. The timing isn’t perfect since that would have been a great day to just work and rest, but we pivot pretty well.
- He found us “The Crypt Cafe” with wifi/drinks/snacks in a cool basement. The floor is tombstones and the Crypt has museum elements, a gift shop, and a concert hall. We found a back corner away from nearly all the tourists and set to work.
- Since our plan of Edinburgh-to-Oslo wasn’t going to work, we planned a south UK loop that brings us back to one of the (smaller) London airports. From there, we will fly to Oslo. At some point, we’ll have to reconfigure the part of our trip where we come back to the UK, but with trains as our main form of transportation, that will be easy.
- We grabbed burgers for a late lunch in a pub that is part of an old opera house. The walk back was hot, but short. We got back to our hotel room at 1500 and were surprised that the plumbing work was done and we had water. Yay for things finishing early instead of dragging on. We never even missed it since we were out the whole time it was off.
- I wrote a very short opinion piece that I’ll probably never publish and set to work learning about L and J cuts in video editing. And then I had a mid-day crash and followed his lead for a nap.
- For supper, we cooked the food we bought at the market. The cajun chicken was quite good and so was the English cheddar cheese.
- After the sun was down, we ventured out again. On our way to a pub he found, we ducked into Ye Olde Cock Tavern, because how could we not? We were the only ones there almost the whole time. We had a drink and then I rushed us out too early. I thought they told another couple who popped in that they were closed. And they were cleaning everything. I was wrong; they had closed the kitchen, not the bar. Womp womp.
- So, we started walking back to the hotel with the idea that we’d point at whatever we found that looked cool. We got a couple of pics of things that look cool at night. (One building had a small light sequence that lit up in #theU colors: orange, white, and green all up a building.) We found a pub to get another drink. It was hot, hot, hot in there. I get that Europe doesn’t have AirCon; I really do. But I do not get how they don’t have fans. I kinda chugged my beer (a little) to get us out of there. By then, it was near 2300 and places were mostly all closing. Plus, our need for showers was more than our need for drinks. Thing is, it was only something like 76ºF/24ºC, but the humidity was pretty thick. When we would walk through an intersection and catch the breeze from The River Thames, it was lovely.
- Back at the hotel, we got a small restock of product, took said showers, and relaxed. We bought tickets to a show I’ve loved for over 20 years, have never seen live, and that he will like. I also caught up on my notes for the day and he tucked himself into bed an hour-ish before I did. What a great day.
Day 37- T Aug 04 – Tea Time, another (smaller) pivot
- It was supposed to cool off a bit, but the predictions were the same as the day before. So, instead of going out in the heat, we saved part of our exploring for when we return to London; it should be cooler. “Relaxed Travel” like this has its challenges like having to pivot for weak planning, but also its perks like being able to pivot when the weather changes. We made plans to visit the Aqua Shard for afternoon tea.
- After our small DIY breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning learning some video editing techniques and working on our Order of the Blue Nose video. Our writings are caught up, but our images and videos are not. We’re still having too much fun. It takes us a few days to get caught up once we have good Wifi.
- We left in plenty of time to go to our Tea Time. We even stopped along the way at Swan Tavern for a drink and a sit. And then we showed up to the very wrong building in the wrong part of town. He called them and got our reservation moved back, and we rerouted and started the trek. It was closer than we thought, but had also warmed up by then. The elevator ride was only 15 seconds to the 32nd storey (which is 33 in American). We waited about 45 minutes for our table. At least our version came with champagne. Service was incredibly slow, but we were starving and don’t know the norm. They also had the dropsies at the bar, with flatware, and even with large serving trays. He said to me, “They could never work on a boat.”
- The tea was okay; it was aqua and quite minty. The food was great. The presentation was superb. Our first tray was the city of London skyline. Our second “course” came from a Treasure Chest with LEDs inside. And our dessert tray was a pirate ship complete with dry ice to be the foggy sea.
- We took the Tube back under the Thames and found a Cocktail Club secret hideaway in a basement with almost no light. It was a cool place to have drinks. Our server was off, though. We asked how long the place had been a bar and he said it was the oldest bar in London, 8 years. Okay, buddy.
- We hit the grocery on the way back to our hotel and showered off the visceral heat of the day.
- Then, we made a plan. Instead of looping through Nottingham, we planned to hit Leicester instead. We heard Nottingham wasn’t that great. Leicester was also easier to get to by train and had the UK’s National Space Center.
Day 38 – W Aug 5 – seeing friends!
- After our in-room breakfast, I crawled back into bed; I wasn’t feeling great. He eventually went for a walk to see St James Park and Buckingham Palace.
- We touched base with U&P, friends we made a couple of years before when they were in Estes Park for a work-related trip for him. We had agreed on Chengdu Chengdu for dinner and met P at the Imperial Pub next door while we all waited for U. We all shared a dry pot of meats and veggies cooked in Sichuan style. It was very good, quite filling, and quite spicy. After dinner, P showed us some of the area and we stopped at the Porcupine for drinks.
- After they headed back to their place, we moved over to Waxy O’Conners for drinks. P was quite funny sending us to yet another Irish Pub. Back at the hotel, we crashed.
Day 39 – R Aug 6 – What do you do with a BA in English?
- I still wasn’t feeling great, so we rested until our show in the West End.
- Since ~2004, I have loved Avenue Q. One of the many Angelas in my life introduced me to it via a very late-night, xmas-cookie-baking session at our house.
- The London production of Avenue Q was great. The cast did a great job and the small tweaks to bring it up to 2026 were well done. It was also only about half full, so we had great seats, and when tall people sat in front of us, we were able to move over and get better views. Thanks to Steve & Jan for telling us that Thursday matinee tickets are so much cheaper.
- After the show, we met U (P had to work) for dinner (upstairs) and then drinks (downstairs). All the pubs and taverns were like this. It separates the dining area from the drinkers. Except for having to climb the stairs (LOL), it’s nice to keep them separate. It was also nice to spend time with her before a show she had booked that evening. On our way back to our hotel, we grabbed Cokes for our hotel fridge, got drinks at Marquess of Anglesey, and booked a Sunday roast for while we would be in Bath. And then, it was time to pack.
