Bye bye Greece.... it's been a blast! - London, United Kingdom
London, United Kingdom
Off to London……whilst on one hand this was to be our last stop on our overseas jaunt so there was a sense of the "winding down, clock ticking until home time" feeling, it was also going to be pretty jam packed as we had such a limited time there and so much to try and fit in. We left our hotel in the dark for our morning flight and we set off for this last leg with great excitement, mainly I think because as much as we had SO loved our time in Greece I do reckon we were all completely ready to be in an English speaking country where you instinctively understood how things worked and of course you could also put toilet paper in the lavatory! I was lucky enough to get the window seat draw for the Athens to London flight, we always went by the way they were punched out on the boarding passes and this was the first window seat I'd gotten but oh what a one to get! I was amazed to see the outskirts of Athens airport fields covered with solar panels; these, and the wind farms, have struck me all throughout Greece as Liane would attest after getting her camera back at the end of a day’s driving to find a thousand photos of the drive with quite a few of them being Greece’s alternative energy supplies! We appeared to fly almost directly west at first and I could see all the beautiful mountains of Greece but then we flew north between Greece and Italy and it was such a great view of coastlines and islands etc so I took gallons of photos on every available camera and phone etc….. Then we were in the clouds so I “stepped away from the Nikon” (oh so hard to do as I LOVE that camera of Liane’s!) and had some fun playing Angry Birds on my Ipad….tragic I know but I can’t help my addiction!..... At one stage I glanced out the window and OMG!!!….. I yelped with excitement and starting poking the girls awake and gesticulating out the window whilst desperately searching for a camera, any camera……there stretched out below us were the snow-covered Swiss Alps, some peaking out through clouds and some laid bare in the sunlight exposing their incredible beauty to our amazed eyes. I honestly could have cried it was such an awesome and breathtaking sight – as I told the girls, I would have paid the $300 round trip price (or whatever it was for that leg) JUST to witness that view…..it was SUCH a blessing and I will truly never forget it! Now every camera and phone etc got a work out like never before until the girls begged me stop…… I fought back with the argument that the buttons wouldn’t wear out so what was the problem but they reminded me that batteries did so very reluctantly I relinquished each camera until I was left with only my eyes to record the sight before me; the view went on and on for ages until slowly the mountains became snow capped rather than snow covered and then we left them behind……
We flew into London via Gatwick Airport and had had considerable debate in Athens over the best way to get from Gatwick to our hotel. After weighing all our options of time vs money vs convenience given suitcases etc we decided on the Gatwick Express which goes to Victoria Station and then a taxi from there to our hotel. We had booked the Express tickets online whilst in Greece and it was a brilliant thing to have done as once we arrived at the airport we went straight to an automatic machine, punched in our booking number and out spat the tickets….. given there were multiple machines with queues of people trying to buy them on the spot it was great to be able to go directly to the “Bought tickets? Collect them here” machine! A quick train journey to Victoria Station to find taxis aplenty just outside the door and then a short ride to our hotel…..easy peasy! Liane was gathering in excitement as she had been exchanging texts with Cassie who, along with her boyfriend Luke, was meeting us at our hotel. They had begun a two year overseas sojourn a couple of months prior but interrupted their current plans in mainland Europe to come spend some days in London with us. Once we booked in Liane went off with them to a pub down the road whilst GJ and I settled into our room a bit, freshened up etc and then we met up with them there. Unfortunately by this time it was well and truly raining which did take the zing out of the day somewhat but after a drink at the pub we all decided to take a wander about the place. We had a lovely meal in a Lebanese place and it was great to continue catching up with Cass and Luke and exchanging travel stories etc. We also made our way to Leiscester Square to pick up our London Passes and to enquire about tickets to a Show….. we had our hearts set on Mama Mia but had inadvertently picked a weekend for our few days in London, and Friday or Saturday night tickets for that were too expensive to consider…..after some tooing and froing we settled on Dirty Dancing and ended up going to it that evening with Cass and Luke also. I think I’ve seen the movie once and it really wasn’t a favourite of mine so I can’t say I was overwhelmed with it but regardless of that, and my SOAKING wet feet encased in stockings and boots which wasn’t the most pleasant show watching accompaniment, there were one or two great moments of songs for me and the dancing was certainly note worthy. I discovered later that Stomp was showing in London also and mentioned to the girls that that was a Show I really would LOVE to see and I was disappointed I hadn’t noticed it earlier. GJ immediately said she would love to see it also so why not try for tickets for it another night….. Liane wasn’t interested in seeing it at all but was happy to maybe spend that night doing something with Cass and Luke so we decided that we would try for that the next day. We did end up going to see it and I must say if you ever get the chance to see it do so…..it was AMAZING!!! I’ve always been a big fan of tap dancing and rhythm stuff in general but the sounds, music and humour they can get out of the simplest objects is just truly incredible. Since being home I showed a promotional clip of it to Greg and even he, “Mr Not Expressive/Hard to Impress” said it was brilliant which really says something!
(L) We had asked the hotel reception staff to order us a taxi for 5.30am and he was waiting for us right on time. The drive the airport took about half an hour and from there we had a very easy flight to London arriving at our hotel just before lunch time to find Cass and Luke waiting for us outside. How wonderful it was to see them, they have been having an amazing adventure although stories of hostel living didn't sound like too much fun! We stayed at the Darlington Hyde Park Inn, Sussex Gardens which is only a couple of blocks from Paddington station so very well located. Deb has fairly well covered the end of the first day except I must add that as I sit here writing this now one thing I truly regret is not just biting the bullet and paying the 80 something pounds for the Mamma Mia tickets... I should have even paid the gap in Cass and Lukes budgeted amount (they are backpacking after all and came all the way over to London to see us)... I mean when will I be back in London??? Ahh well lesson learned, Rodd has always said to just do it when on holidays cause otherwise you'll regret it, I guess he was right!! Not that I didn't enjoy Dirty Dancing, I've always loved the movie and there was a few stand out performances but something tells me Mamma Mia would have been amazing. After we'd bought the Dirty Dancing tickets we wandered down to get our London Passes which we had bought online from home for 49 pounds each... I walked in to the place that was marked on the email and said to the woman I wanted to pick up London Passes to which she pointed behind me and said "downstairs", as I turned around I saw a huge sign over the staircase that said LONDON PASS DOWNSTAIRS... oops... I kind of laughed and said "how could I miss that" in a self deprecating tone to which she replied "it's alright, I'll get a bigger sign"!! She must be so sick of stupid tourists coming in and asking her for the London Pass... hahaha. It had started to drizzle so the obvious place to be was in a pub, just one drink and a shared plate of nachos and then we thought we'd go for a quick tube ride down to the embankment for a wander before the show. We walked a bit along the river, thank goodness for my Athens umbrella (Deb had also bought one in Athens) and we ended up walking up the Strand before finding an underground station to get back to see Dirty Dancing. I have to say here that I absolutely love the London Underground, it reminds me alot of New Yorks subway and is so easy to use. We had bought Oyster tickets (which are just like Brisbanes Go cards or NYC metro cards) online and they had been sent to us so we were all ready to go with them when we arrived in London, just as well really cos the ticket machines and service windows just about always had a long line up. After the show we all jumped back on the tube, Cass and Luke are only 2 stops from us, by luck rather than design, so we parted ways on the train as we headed off at Paddington for a quick stop at Subway for some dinner before collapsing into bed not too much before midnight!