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I'm in England!!!
No, I didn't shout that when we stepped off the plane in Heathrow, but I sure felt like doing it!
The flight wasn't bad, though neither of us got much sleep... I dozed a bit, but I had a hard time getting comfortable with my shoulders. At least it was pretty easy to get up and walk around from time to time. There was a little girl (about three years old) in the row in front of us who was a bit fussy, but with headsets on, she wasn't all that bad... and it turned out she was having a real problem with airsickness (at one point, just as we were coming in for the landing, I heard her say in a small, very pitiful, miserable voice "Can we go home now?" I hope she enjoys herself more as she gets feeling better.
I think we greatly amused our cabbie from the airport, because we're staying at a hotel outside of London and don't mind that it'll take us a bit longer every morning to get to the city centre. He seemed to find some of our plans quite strange -- apparently, not many people come to England for their first visit and plan to see things like Fenchurch Street Station, the Isle of Man or Lancashire. He was really nice though and gave us all sorts of pointers about driving in England, a quick rundown of roadsigns, some suggestions for places to visit, directions to Lanchashire for when we get our rental car and advice on how to avoid pickpockets in the city.
After we checked into the hotel, I very nearly did the thing I dreamt![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rackham would do... lie down for a minute and fall asleep. Okay, technically, I did fall asleep, but only for about 10 minutes and I think it actually helped quite a bit. We walked over to Brent Cross Shopping Centre and wandered around there for a bit, grabbed a late lunch Wagamama (they serve a whole slew of different types of asian noodle dishes) then walked back to the hotel where we tried not to fall asleep again.
We finally talked ourselves into getting up and walking back across to the mall to catch the bus down to the Ikea in Wembley (?). The point being, mostly, to try to stay awake just a little bit longer. Some fun, different stuff at this Ikea... and we had dinner at the restaurant there (with some different menu items from what we're used to). We also picked up two pillows, to help with the whole "sleeping in comfort" thing over the next two weeks.
Then we got to wait out in the rain for 40 minutes (after wandering around for half an hour trying to even find the right bus stop) for the bus to show up. Of the four lines that use that stop, two of them went back to Brent Cross, so we figured we'd be good... only it took forever for one of them to arrive at all (with one false alarm of a proper bus that was out of service), while one of the other bus lines showed up eight times in the same span. Very frustrating... but I'm still not upset about our decision to used buses for the first week. They're incredibly easy to use (we picked up 7-Day travel cards) and do seem to run nearly everywhere. Tomorrow we'll be taking the Underground for the first time.
Weirdly, it doesn't seem like we've left home... Northwest London, at least, reminds us a great deal of Seattle: Similar weather, similar humidity, similar mix of ethnicities, similar cars, similar types of people... the architecture is different, but a lot of the building materials are the same, and the roads are the same sort of narrow, windy and hilly. Aside from the fact that there are more people with British accents, people drive and walk on the other side of the road/walkway, and WAY more people smoke, there were moments we easily could have been in Downtown Seattle.
The freakiest thing we've seen so far? Double tall lorries. I guess it makes sense to use them in a city that was designed with double-decker buses in mind, but they are just a bit startling to see zooming down the road.
And now I'm going to lapse into unconsciousness... since it's been around 30 hours since I last had any real sleep. Hopefully more updating in a day or so.
The flight wasn't bad, though neither of us got much sleep... I dozed a bit, but I had a hard time getting comfortable with my shoulders. At least it was pretty easy to get up and walk around from time to time. There was a little girl (about three years old) in the row in front of us who was a bit fussy, but with headsets on, she wasn't all that bad... and it turned out she was having a real problem with airsickness (at one point, just as we were coming in for the landing, I heard her say in a small, very pitiful, miserable voice "Can we go home now?" I hope she enjoys herself more as she gets feeling better.
I think we greatly amused our cabbie from the airport, because we're staying at a hotel outside of London and don't mind that it'll take us a bit longer every morning to get to the city centre. He seemed to find some of our plans quite strange -- apparently, not many people come to England for their first visit and plan to see things like Fenchurch Street Station, the Isle of Man or Lancashire. He was really nice though and gave us all sorts of pointers about driving in England, a quick rundown of roadsigns, some suggestions for places to visit, directions to Lanchashire for when we get our rental car and advice on how to avoid pickpockets in the city.
After we checked into the hotel, I very nearly did the thing I dreamt
rackham would do... lie down for a minute and fall asleep. Okay, technically, I did fall asleep, but only for about 10 minutes and I think it actually helped quite a bit. We walked over to Brent Cross Shopping Centre and wandered around there for a bit, grabbed a late lunch Wagamama (they serve a whole slew of different types of asian noodle dishes) then walked back to the hotel where we tried not to fall asleep again.We finally talked ourselves into getting up and walking back across to the mall to catch the bus down to the Ikea in Wembley (?). The point being, mostly, to try to stay awake just a little bit longer. Some fun, different stuff at this Ikea... and we had dinner at the restaurant there (with some different menu items from what we're used to). We also picked up two pillows, to help with the whole "sleeping in comfort" thing over the next two weeks.
Then we got to wait out in the rain for 40 minutes (after wandering around for half an hour trying to even find the right bus stop) for the bus to show up. Of the four lines that use that stop, two of them went back to Brent Cross, so we figured we'd be good... only it took forever for one of them to arrive at all (with one false alarm of a proper bus that was out of service), while one of the other bus lines showed up eight times in the same span. Very frustrating... but I'm still not upset about our decision to used buses for the first week. They're incredibly easy to use (we picked up 7-Day travel cards) and do seem to run nearly everywhere. Tomorrow we'll be taking the Underground for the first time.
Weirdly, it doesn't seem like we've left home... Northwest London, at least, reminds us a great deal of Seattle: Similar weather, similar humidity, similar mix of ethnicities, similar cars, similar types of people... the architecture is different, but a lot of the building materials are the same, and the roads are the same sort of narrow, windy and hilly. Aside from the fact that there are more people with British accents, people drive and walk on the other side of the road/walkway, and WAY more people smoke, there were moments we easily could have been in Downtown Seattle.
The freakiest thing we've seen so far? Double tall lorries. I guess it makes sense to use them in a city that was designed with double-decker buses in mind, but they are just a bit startling to see zooming down the road.
And now I'm going to lapse into unconsciousness... since it's been around 30 hours since I last had any real sleep. Hopefully more updating in a day or so.
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I think the trip sounds so fun, and I think it's really cool that you want to see things other than the typical "Parliament...Big Ben" sites. I've only ever seen London through the windows at Gatwick, which isn't really London proper, anyway, but it was rainy and gray- much like Seattle. You're right!
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I will be off-line for a few days I think, but I will be home on the 10th, although S2C is around at home, if you want any directions from boat to Ballachrink or whatever it will make more sense to ring me! Then we can meet, and I am all a-squee!
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I still can't believe we're here! I'm also beginning to think I need some sort of London icon for while we're visiting.
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Brent Cross? ::boggles:: In honour of David Brent from the Brit The Office? At least you're at the bottom of the M1 when you start driving.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "double tall lorries" - are yours all kinda squat, then? Beware of artics on the motorway, then.
Sorry about the weather. It was actually quite nice until the beginning of the week. It's probably one of your old hurricanes on a visit.
Do try to visit the National Portrait Gallery (just round the corner from Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery) and teh V&A, out in Kensington. And Harrods in Knightsbridge is fun, though stupidly expensive - the Posh People's Shop.
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Nope. It was just inexpensive, had high speed internet, en suite bathrooms and wasn't far from a tube station. Plus being at the bottom of the M1 was a definite consideration. The less driving we have to do in the other direction (i.e. toward London), the better.
Sorry about the weather.
Well, we actually don't mind... because, really? It's a lot like home.
Do try to visit the National Portrait Gallery (just round the corner from Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery) and teh V&A, out in Kensington. And Harrods in Knightsbridge is fun, though stupidly expensive - the Posh People's Shop.
I think those are all on the docket, as well! Assuming we don't wear ourselves out first!
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Also, have tons of fun and don't forget to look left when you cross the road. :)
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Sounds like you're off to a great start!
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Where in Lancashire are you going? Say hello to Lancaster and the Lakes for me!
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As for the 10-minute nap? I've been told that's the best thing to do to give you that push to stay up to a semi-decent hour.
Be sure to scout out some good spots for us to use during Celebration Europe.
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Did more than one of the bus you wanted turn up eventually? Our buses usually like to travel in packs.
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Have fun!!! :)