Wednesday June 16, 2010 Portsmouth to London
Awoke slowly this morning, two nights in the same bed made it seem familiar. Got cleaned up, went across to the Shell petro, which is near our hotel, to buy a snack and came back to ask the desk clerk at the Hilton to order us a taxi for 10:15. We had a snack (Walker shortbread cookies, apples, and cream cheese and crackers) and tea while we waited for time--that actually turned out to be breakfast. Nancy had made an adjustment to our packing, and we cut down one bag. Do you think Pete and Jess will miss the Oreos we had to jettison. The cab came right on time as we sat outside in the cool sunshine. The driver was wonderful, he had been to the states and was planning to go back, but he had never been to Iowa—go figure. We arrived at the station with baggage, bought our passes and our tickets, had a Coke and waited for the 11:16 to London, Victoria Station.
After a very easy pleasant trip (we saw a castle on the way), we arrived at Victoria. Had a quick lunch in the station about 2:00 and then went to get in a taxi. Here begins the one glich of the day. Nancy asked the police officer if this was the correct place to get a taxi that would take us to Belgrave Road. Instead he tells us we don’t need a cab and he explained it was just a little ways—off the neophytes go dragging bags and so on down the crowded sidewalk. We did find the Hotel, and it's not too far from Victoria if you go the other way than the policeman indicated path, and don’t have a small mountain of luggage.
We made it however, checked in and went up to our room which is smaller than the cabin on the Queen Mary. Actually, it is taller than it is wide. I never had a dorm room this small. There we immediately stripped down and tried to cool off. After a break which was longer than necessary because Nancy thought Neil wanted to finish his book, and Neil thought Nancy had important computer stuff to complete we set off for a walk. Off we went with a map. We got back to Victoria Station, stopped and read menus on the restaurants along the way, and finally reached Buckingham Palace……the queen didn’t invite us in...darn! Took pictures though. Took pictures of the Victoria monument and then headed down Birdcage Walk, which went on one side of St. James park. Then we saw it…..Big Ben….picture taking time again. We walked on to Westminster Bridge, more pictures. We back tracked and saw the back side/members’ entrance to the House of Parliament and then walked across to Westminster Abby. We didn’t go inside anything today since they were already closed. We then continued our journey back to the Sidney, stopping at a neighborhood pub for fish and chips which was quite tasty. Cute pub, but it was extremely noisy….the US may go nuts over the SuperBowl…..but you haven’t seen anything until you see World Cup frenzy which every Englishman seems to celebrate in the pubs.
13,850 steps --- no wonder the feet are tired
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