UK Trip - Day 16
Today we got up really early since this was the last day and we still had Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle on the agenda.
We woke up very early, had breakfast and got out to St. Paul's Cathedral which we thought opens at 8:30. But when we got there at 9, we found out that there's a service going on so it won't open until 10:15.
Whaaattt? We can't waste our time like that. So we hurried to Westminster Abbey instead. But we had hard time locating the subway station. So we kept going on circles while I was gritting my teeth on wasted time.
Finally we reached to the Abbey at 10. I knew that it will take time. We got to it right away.
They don't allow people to take pictures inside the Abbey which is a good thing. Because it took us two hours to see the Abbey without taking any pictures. Had they allowed pictures, it would have taken us half a day to go through the Abbey.
After the tour, we had a quick snack before heading over to Windsor Castle, the Queen's residence or so we thought.
Mr. O was in charge of the logistics. He informed me that the Windsor Castle is a short subway ride away. I had seen something different in the Google maps. But hey, I am directionally challenged. So what do I know?
Anyhoo, then he said that we have enough time to knock off St. Paul's Cathedral which should be opened by then. Great!!! I am hitting all the goals I had for the day.
We headed over to St. Paul's Cathedral which is a Catholic Church. This was as richly decorated as the Abbey except newer. Both Catholic and Protestant churches were neck to neck in terms of gorgeous architecture and grandeur.
But of course, the Abbey is older and got more money thanks to the King's patronage.
However, neither of the churches lets you take pictures inside. So you guys will just have to imagine it or Google old pictures.
After we got out of the Cathedral, it was already 2:30. According to Mr. O, we were just about 17 mins subway ride away. Okie Dokie!!!
We hopped on to the subway (with one change, missed our station, went back to one station) and landed in a very, to put it politely, a not very palace-esque area. More suited to low income neighbourhood than a Queen. Now unless, Windsor Castle's neighbours suddenly went bankrupt and like Ambani house in Mumbai, built a Britain's version of slum beside it, this can't be the palace area.
Then Mr. O checked his phone and it seems we reached a branch of Windsor Castle, the pub not Windsor Castle, the Queen's home. I guess when you google Windsor Castle and multiple entries pop up, it's better to check which one is the right one.
Anyhoo, Mr. O was all apologetic. He looked up and realised that we could go to Paddington (one station up from us, and this is the station we got to previously and turned back because we thought we missed the actual station) and take train (change of train required here as well) to Windsor, UK where the real Castle is.
We checked the timing and realised that it will take total of two hours to see the Castle for two hours (I thought that the Castle closed at 6).
But Mr. O convinced me to go on an adventure. We booked return tickets and caught the train. While in the train, I connected to the on board wi-fi and checked the castle for a plan since we had two hours.
But I found out that it actually closes at 5:30 and worse, the last entry is allowed at 4. We were scheduled to reach at 4:03 p.m. Excellent!!!
So that means, we spent £20 ($30) and wasting two hours to see the Castle from the outside. Mr. O still wanted to carry on and put ourselves on the mercy of the castle staff. But I didn't want to waste what day I have left of my last day of vacation only to beg for entry. I just had enough by then.
So I told Mr. O that I am getting down at Slough (this is the station where we had to change our train to go to Windsor) and took the train back to Paddington.
By now, it was 4 p.m. So we could not do anything anymore. We also didn't have any lunch except a cup of soup and bread at Westminster Abbey to "tide us over until lunch"...
We got to the Embankment pier and we decided to use our free Thames Cruise. But turns out, the free ride leaves from Westminster pier, not the Embankment pier which is 10 mins away.
I didn't want to get in subway anymore. So we decided to pay to get the Thames ride that leaves from there.
Mr. O wanted to be on the top and in open air. We got up and turned out a couple of chairs had water pooling on the chair from the rain in the morning.
Guess who sat in one of them?
Yep, yours truly. Now not only one half of my already limited days in London is wasted in subways, I am also hungry and now my jeans is wet.
But since we were already on the boat, we took the trip to salvage something out of the day.
It was a good sail and the weather was great too. I got a few good pictures of the city.
Then we got down from the boat at Westminster pier. Now, there were still some agenda left for the day.
1. Grab something to eat
2. Go to hotel and drop the souvenirs off which I was carting all day (and Mr. O to drop off his heavy camera backpack)
3. Go out for our last dinner in London
4. Go to Bond Street and do some shopping which I thought like Monday to Thursday, closes at 11 p.m. But it was only 5 p.m. So I thought I had time.
Mr. O wanted to get back into subway, but I refused to step foot in another subway. I either wanted a bus or a cab, but I didn't want to waste one more second in underground.
So I grabbed a samosa and a granola bar for Mr. O from a convenience store and called an Uber. It cost us more money, but at least I was looking at London and not underground tunnel.
We reached home, dropped our stuff. While our phone was charging, I checked on places to eat. But these were the constraints I was had...
1. It was already 7, and we still wanted to go to Bond Street by 9 so I have two hours to shop
2. We are extremely hungry and can't wait to eat.
3. Mr. O refused to eat Indian food which wiped out 50% of well-reviewed places
4. He didn't want to go far from Soho where we were which didn't have well-reviewed restaurants.
So I decided to just eat at the hotel which as usual was bad food.
I had thought that I will have not much of food option in Scotland but will have great selections of restaurants in London.
I didn't have one horrible food experience in Scotland (even their cafeteria food in their tourist attractions were incredible) and one decent food experience in London.
I had to throw out portions every single meal I ordered in London. They were that bad.
Granted we didn't look for great restaurants or traveled for it. But you take out Indian restaurants and the ones that costs £££ or ££££ range, you are out of luck. At least in Soho. And don't even get me started on their cafeteria food at the tourist attractions where we had lunch. They cost in two digits but the value and taste are both poorer than even gas station sandwiches in Scotland.
Anyhoo, after that sucky meal, we went to Bond Street. We first had to go to Selfridges so that Mr. O can match the original with the Netflix series.
Then we started to walk on the Bond Street. I just had time to go to one shop. After I got out, I realised that everything is closing up. Turns out, everything closes at 10 on Friday. So, I only had one hour to check things out, not two.
I didn't need and further proof that today was a big effing waste.
But then I saw a souvenir shop that was still open. It had London hoodies and t-shirts.
We bought a couple of gifts for family and I bought a London hoodie.
I wore it right away and got my profile pic with the iconic Red bus behind me.
Anyhoo, we still had one more thing to do. We still had to return our Oyster Card which is the transit card. We were told that you can return the card and get leftover credit and deposit back. Except no one said that you only get the credit back if it's under £10 (Mr. O's card was under £10, but I had £11.80 in mine) and only exactly 48 hours after you buy it. And since we bought the card on Thursday, we could only return it on Saturday.
So we had one more thing to do in the morning before 8 a.m. (That's when our taxi was booked for the airport).
Then we made our way back to the hotel. By then our feet were aching. We took shower and packed up our suitcases because we had no time the next morning.
It had been a day which I will never forget. If there was a day when you couldn't decide if you'd rather wipe off the memory or think back or smile. It was that day.
What people experience in the duration of a vacation, we experienced on one day. If nothing else, it will be a lesson on what not to do in vacation in future.
Tomorrow we fly home to Toronto. All our vacations is used up for the rest of the year. But as great as the vacation was, I am happy to go home.
We woke up very early, had breakfast and got out to St. Paul's Cathedral which we thought opens at 8:30. But when we got there at 9, we found out that there's a service going on so it won't open until 10:15.
Bubble & Squeak - my breakfast. Consists of mashed potatoes with carrots with poached eggs and bacon on top. Served with Hollandaise sauce.
Whaaattt? We can't waste our time like that. So we hurried to Westminster Abbey instead. But we had hard time locating the subway station. So we kept going on circles while I was gritting my teeth on wasted time.
Finally we reached to the Abbey at 10. I knew that it will take time. We got to it right away.
They don't allow people to take pictures inside the Abbey which is a good thing. Because it took us two hours to see the Abbey without taking any pictures. Had they allowed pictures, it would have taken us half a day to go through the Abbey.
After the tour, we had a quick snack before heading over to Windsor Castle, the Queen's residence or so we thought.
Mr. O was in charge of the logistics. He informed me that the Windsor Castle is a short subway ride away. I had seen something different in the Google maps. But hey, I am directionally challenged. So what do I know?
Anyhoo, then he said that we have enough time to knock off St. Paul's Cathedral which should be opened by then. Great!!! I am hitting all the goals I had for the day.
We headed over to St. Paul's Cathedral which is a Catholic Church. This was as richly decorated as the Abbey except newer. Both Catholic and Protestant churches were neck to neck in terms of gorgeous architecture and grandeur.
But of course, the Abbey is older and got more money thanks to the King's patronage.
However, neither of the churches lets you take pictures inside. So you guys will just have to imagine it or Google old pictures.
After we got out of the Cathedral, it was already 2:30. According to Mr. O, we were just about 17 mins subway ride away. Okie Dokie!!!
Who remembers this? Hint: DDLJ (Think Shahrukh and Kajol)
We hopped on to the subway (with one change, missed our station, went back to one station) and landed in a very, to put it politely, a not very palace-esque area. More suited to low income neighbourhood than a Queen. Now unless, Windsor Castle's neighbours suddenly went bankrupt and like Ambani house in Mumbai, built a Britain's version of slum beside it, this can't be the palace area.
Then Mr. O checked his phone and it seems we reached a branch of Windsor Castle, the pub not Windsor Castle, the Queen's home. I guess when you google Windsor Castle and multiple entries pop up, it's better to check which one is the right one.
Anyhoo, Mr. O was all apologetic. He looked up and realised that we could go to Paddington (one station up from us, and this is the station we got to previously and turned back because we thought we missed the actual station) and take train (change of train required here as well) to Windsor, UK where the real Castle is.
We checked the timing and realised that it will take total of two hours to see the Castle for two hours (I thought that the Castle closed at 6).
But Mr. O convinced me to go on an adventure. We booked return tickets and caught the train. While in the train, I connected to the on board wi-fi and checked the castle for a plan since we had two hours.
But I found out that it actually closes at 5:30 and worse, the last entry is allowed at 4. We were scheduled to reach at 4:03 p.m. Excellent!!!
So that means, we spent £20 ($30) and wasting two hours to see the Castle from the outside. Mr. O still wanted to carry on and put ourselves on the mercy of the castle staff. But I didn't want to waste what day I have left of my last day of vacation only to beg for entry. I just had enough by then.
So I told Mr. O that I am getting down at Slough (this is the station where we had to change our train to go to Windsor) and took the train back to Paddington.
By now, it was 4 p.m. So we could not do anything anymore. We also didn't have any lunch except a cup of soup and bread at Westminster Abbey to "tide us over until lunch"...
We got to the Embankment pier and we decided to use our free Thames Cruise. But turns out, the free ride leaves from Westminster pier, not the Embankment pier which is 10 mins away.
I didn't want to get in subway anymore. So we decided to pay to get the Thames ride that leaves from there.
Mr. O wanted to be on the top and in open air. We got up and turned out a couple of chairs had water pooling on the chair from the rain in the morning.
Guess who sat in one of them?
Yep, yours truly. Now not only one half of my already limited days in London is wasted in subways, I am also hungry and now my jeans is wet.
But since we were already on the boat, we took the trip to salvage something out of the day.
It was a good sail and the weather was great too. I got a few good pictures of the city.
Then we got down from the boat at Westminster pier. Now, there were still some agenda left for the day.
1. Grab something to eat
2. Go to hotel and drop the souvenirs off which I was carting all day (and Mr. O to drop off his heavy camera backpack)
3. Go out for our last dinner in London
4. Go to Bond Street and do some shopping which I thought like Monday to Thursday, closes at 11 p.m. But it was only 5 p.m. So I thought I had time.
Mr. O wanted to get back into subway, but I refused to step foot in another subway. I either wanted a bus or a cab, but I didn't want to waste one more second in underground.
So I grabbed a samosa and a granola bar for Mr. O from a convenience store and called an Uber. It cost us more money, but at least I was looking at London and not underground tunnel.
We reached home, dropped our stuff. While our phone was charging, I checked on places to eat. But these were the constraints I was had...
1. It was already 7, and we still wanted to go to Bond Street by 9 so I have two hours to shop
2. We are extremely hungry and can't wait to eat.
3. Mr. O refused to eat Indian food which wiped out 50% of well-reviewed places
4. He didn't want to go far from Soho where we were which didn't have well-reviewed restaurants.
So I decided to just eat at the hotel which as usual was bad food.
I had thought that I will have not much of food option in Scotland but will have great selections of restaurants in London.
I didn't have one horrible food experience in Scotland (even their cafeteria food in their tourist attractions were incredible) and one decent food experience in London.
I had to throw out portions every single meal I ordered in London. They were that bad.
Granted we didn't look for great restaurants or traveled for it. But you take out Indian restaurants and the ones that costs £££ or ££££ range, you are out of luck. At least in Soho. And don't even get me started on their cafeteria food at the tourist attractions where we had lunch. They cost in two digits but the value and taste are both poorer than even gas station sandwiches in Scotland.
Anyhoo, after that sucky meal, we went to Bond Street. We first had to go to Selfridges so that Mr. O can match the original with the Netflix series.
Then we started to walk on the Bond Street. I just had time to go to one shop. After I got out, I realised that everything is closing up. Turns out, everything closes at 10 on Friday. So, I only had one hour to check things out, not two.
I didn't need and further proof that today was a big effing waste.
But then I saw a souvenir shop that was still open. It had London hoodies and t-shirts.
We bought a couple of gifts for family and I bought a London hoodie.
I wore it right away and got my profile pic with the iconic Red bus behind me.
Anyhoo, we still had one more thing to do. We still had to return our Oyster Card which is the transit card. We were told that you can return the card and get leftover credit and deposit back. Except no one said that you only get the credit back if it's under £10 (Mr. O's card was under £10, but I had £11.80 in mine) and only exactly 48 hours after you buy it. And since we bought the card on Thursday, we could only return it on Saturday.
So we had one more thing to do in the morning before 8 a.m. (That's when our taxi was booked for the airport).
Then we made our way back to the hotel. By then our feet were aching. We took shower and packed up our suitcases because we had no time the next morning.
It had been a day which I will never forget. If there was a day when you couldn't decide if you'd rather wipe off the memory or think back or smile. It was that day.
What people experience in the duration of a vacation, we experienced on one day. If nothing else, it will be a lesson on what not to do in vacation in future.
Tomorrow we fly home to Toronto. All our vacations is used up for the rest of the year. But as great as the vacation was, I am happy to go home.
Cool tia ur pix are great
ReplyDeleteFew places get missed so it's ok u saw London that's important
Windsor castle needs a full day dear .
I didn't know they have limited visiting
Abbey church has some rules we never saw from inside
Subway is best place we used to hit every weekend trust me it was different zone already busy with crowd .
U know what tia slough was the first place we stayed for 2 months contract when we first visited London then we had to go to India for a month then we came back to red hill stayed for 6 yrs then we moved to USA .
London weather is like this either raining gloomy or cold hardly sun comes out when it comes out u will see ppl crazy in beaches like Brighton they go n***lol .
Food is very expensive dear that to in London and Indian food is more expensive.
Everything is dam costly
U needed 4 days for London dear but it's ok this is basic what u saw and enough .
So ur trip is over but not ur memories it won't fade out that easily
Thanks for the information Shailu. I am definitely going back to London again. I agree, two days weren't enough to check out London. I will have to do it in installment. May be Windsor Castle will be on my agenda next time. :)
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