Day 88: Return to London

Today we return to London. First, we pack. Then we walk down the street to eat at Patisserie Victoria. Side note: Yesterday, after I had posted something to Instagram/FB, an old friend from high school messaged me to say he was now living in Oxford with his family and that I should message him to see if we could meet up. I sent him our itinerary, but he ended up with "baby duties" and wasn't able to get out of the house. Then this morning, we tried again, but it wasn't meant to happen. So, I said the next time I was in Oxford or the next time he was in Oregon. Ah well. That's the way it goes.

We check out of the hotel, take a taxi to the station, and realise that we didn't really get any souvenirs from Oxford. We are early for our train, so the kids walk around with me to look for a store, just in case there's something we'd like to get. But, there is nothing here. At the train station, there are only a few food stores and counters. Outside and down the street there are a lot of restaurants (mostly Asian) and a few industrial shops. Oh, and another barber. Why wouldn't you put a lot of touristy things right near the train station? Seems like an easy money maker. Duh! That's ok. We really didn't need anything anyway.

No souvenir shops, but a lot of bicycles, some personal and some for rent.

The train arrives and this time we have reserved seats. Not surprisingly, someone is in our seat, but Chris shows them our reservation and they move. We are not all together at a table, but in a line. Xander and Chris sit at one table and Venice and I at the other. All the seats eventually fill up. This is a very busy train (some even end up standing for a portion of the trip).

The biggest bummer is the seat size seems to be smaller here in second class (or is it the British trains versus the ICE of Germany?) Whatever the reason, or illusion, we are crammed in there. Venice has no where to put her feet, because the woman across from her has her purse on the floor and her feet over her "line" into Venice's foot space. Same goes for me. I'm carefully angling my right foot to go between the man's feet across from me and my left foot is in the aisle. How can you stay made at them when they talk with such a nice accent? Anyway, the man across from me sleeps the entire way, so it's ok when I bump his foot with mine once in a while. The woman across from Venice is reading her paper, so she's in her own world as well. Again, thankfully it's only a one hour train ride.

We arrive at Paddington Station and decide to use the restrooms and grab a coffee. Here at the train station, it's 30 pence to use the bathroom (it's a turnstile adventure, put in 30 pence and you can pass through the turnstile).

Venice on the train (top-left), Paddington Train Station (top-middle), Paddington Tube Station (top two right)
A bunch of crazy wiring at one of the Tube stations.

We walk from Paddington Train station to the Paddington Tube station. Transfer Tubes. Then walk a bit to our hotel. At this point, it's so very hot. Ugh. I think it's about 10 degrees warmer than what we were used to in Berlin and the humidity is definitely higher. Just ugh. I guess it could be raining. So, I'll keep my mouth shut.

Our new hotel is in a bit of a weird location. It's right at one side of a bridge. We came walking under the bridge. Google was telling us to go left, but there was no left, only a wall, since we were under the bridge. We finally figured it out and walked all around until we were up over the bridge and found out hotel. Later, we saw that there was a staircase within the bridge (not marked with any signs). This would have gotten us from below to above quickly.

And to be exact, we are not in a normal hotel. We are in an "Aparthotel". It's an apartment/hotel. Our unit has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, dining area, and small kitchen. AND, there's a washer/dryer (combo again) here! Yay!!!! I will not have to go hunting for a Laundromat! It's a nice, small apartment, but we rent it like a hotel. We're only expecting cleaning services once while we are here.

I have to say. I felt major relief (of stress I didn't even know I was carrying) when we walked in. It's clean. It's modern. It's very nice. I think having a home base like this will help us feel more settled. It's been hard living out of a suitcase for the last few weeks (first in southeastern Germany, then London a few days, then Oxford). This will be the first place we'll stay for a longer time in about two weeks. I'm feeling very happy to have a nice place to settle into. Of course, as I write this, I think of the refugees and how crappy it must feel to live out of what you can carry and to not have a place to settle into or call home. I'm now feeling very fortunate, too.

After a small respite, we head down the street to eat at a restaurant that's located right next door to HotelTonight. When we've had lunch, we'll go to HotelTonight to pick up our bags that we left there last week. Chris suggested this Asian restaurant (he had foo from here last week) and when we sit down, Xander is the only one without chopsticks. "It's as if they knew I was coming," he said, as he would rather use a fork than chopsticks.

The owner came to talk with us. Have we been here before? Would we like to hear some suggestions? When he learns that Chris works next door and we're here for a short time, he runs off and jots down a few places we MUST visit while here. Everything comes with a name and a Tube station so we know how to get there. He's very helpful with our meal choices (and it was extremely tasty) and with making us feel welcome.

We head right next door to pick up our bags. Chris introduces us to a few HotelTonight employees. Some come over and give us more ideas on things to do here and in Edinburgh. Everyone is friendly, the space is bright, it's another fun visit with HotelTonight.

Can you see our giant bags hiding at the back of the middle photo?

Side note: I took a photo of Xander pushing the button to open the doors to the street (remember how I almost got locked in because I couldn't figure it out?) When I looked at the photo later, I noticed the owner of todays' lunch restaurant is walking by in the door! Funny coincidence.

The view from the stairwell (left), Xander pushing the button to open the door (middle)
View from in front of the offices of HotelTonight (right)

Also next door to HotelTonight is a small market. Here, we pick up some laundry detergent (yippee!) and a few items for breakfast (OMG, we have also been eating out EVERY SINGLE MEAL since leaving Berlin and it's become cumbersome, not to mention I've probably gained back any weight I've lost due to eating out!)

Venice on her way
to the aparthotel.

Before dinner, we want to go see something in town. We head out to the Tube and get ourselves to Harrods. Our tour guide for Stonehenge joked about how one should go to Harrods, buy a 10£ bag that says Harrods on it, then go to the other department store (I'm forgetting the name of it) and fill it with affordable items. Then, one can walk down the street with a Harrods bag bulging and appear as wealthy as can be. Ok, I get what he's saying. Harrods is definitely for the wealthy (and currently, a lot of wealthy people are from the Oil Industry). So, if you're into caviar, oysters, and top of the line clothing, then this place is for you.

We gawk a bit and then circle back to find a map. The hosts at the directory station are very nice in chatting with us as we say we're just looking around. They tell us where the toys and the souvenirs are. Perfect. We probably spend an hour playing with all the toys and looking at electronics. And, we didn't buy a thing. Awesome!

Harrods (and surrounding street lights) - top
Different rooms in Harrods, with the Egyptian room on the right - bottom

Part of a ceiling inside Harrods (top)
Look at the Candy Store in the background... and Venice chose to play piano instead! She's in heaven.
A line of taxis waiting to take you and your purchases wherever you want to go (bottom)

Chris leads us to Kingly Court for dinner. Now, there was quite a miscommunication regarding this dinner. We all heard the word court and that there are multiple places to eat there. So, a few of us made the assumption that it was a "food court" and we were excited to eat what we wanted. But, when we arrived, it became clear that, while there is a lot of food there, it's all regular restaurants. We will need to agree upon a single place to eat. And the easy ones are out. Venice wanted a smoothie (easy to swallow with her sore throat), but it's closed. Pizza is a crowd pleaser, but it's closed. So, we must walk around the three story court to find one that suits us all.

We settle on Shoryu, a ramen house. It's a 30 minute wait, but we have little other choice. So we wait. It was well worth the wait. It is 2 for 1 bun Monday! So Xander gets 4 "pork buns" (two were shrimp) for the price of 2. Venice, Chris, and I get ramen (all three different flavours... I like mine the best... spicy curry!)

We plan to head home right after dinner, but when we walk out into the streets, we are faced with an amazing display of lights. I'm sure it's for the holidays. There are twinkly lights on several streets. And when we get to Oxford street, WOW! The lights are spectacular.

Piccadilly Circus (top)
Surrounding streets (bottom)

Surrounding streets (left and middle), Oxford Street (right)

More photos from the lights on Oxford Street.
John Lewis had its entire building sides covered in string lights (right)

Now, sufficiently tired from a vey long day of travel and exploration, we are ready to head home for some good sleep. Time to fully unpack and get ready for the next day's adventures.

Venice finds "herself" and Xander finds a new "Amplemann".

Day 87: Oxford

Yahoo! Chris saw the "kids" check out this morning. He said they were as loud in the lobby as they were last night. So, we're hoping this means we'll have a quieter night this evening.

We left Venice, still not feeling well, sleeping in bed, while the three of us went down the street for breakfast. Savory crepes and waffles.

Side note: since we've been in the UK, we have gotten water for free! Tap water is available at all restaurants. Whew. You can still buy still or bubbly water, but you can also ask for tap water. Asking for "tap water" sounds awful, something I have to get over, but I'm so happy to be able to get it again. No more drinking as little as possible to make the €3 bottle last the whole meal. So nice. On the other hand, some restaurants put a service charge on your bill. This is the tip. So you have to be vigilant to be sure don't tip twice. I still feel uncomfortable not leaving a tip, but everything I read says the service charge is the tip. The last thing I've noticed is how good the food has been. Everyone has warned us how bad the food is. But, I'm not sure I understand why. The food is definitely more expensive. So if you take a similarly priced meal here in London versus Berlin, Berlin will win. You can get pretty tasty food for a relatively good price. Here, so far, we've had to pay a lot more, but the food has been a lot tastier. THAT being said, we really haven't had any traditional English fare. Most of our food has been Asian, American inspired, Thai, or other. So, perhaps the warnings we've heard about is regarding traditional food. Hmm...

Ok, after breakfast, we picked Venice up and headed out for a day of sight seeing. We began by heading out to see Carfax Tower. Actually, it's St. Martin's Tower, but Carfax means "crossroads" and the tower is located in the city's centre at the junction of St Aldate's (south), Cornmarket Street (north), Queen Street(west) and the High Street (east) (all information I found out after our visit).

After other steps we've climbed, this is an easy 99 steps, albeit a bit cramped in some spots. And, as with the other towers, we are treated to a beautiful view of the city.

A tight section of the stairs (left), Weathervane at the top (right)

After a quick walk down the street, we find ourselves at Oxford Castle, which was an old Norman Medieval Castle, turned into a prison in the 18th century, and, as of 1996, redeveloped into a hotel. There is a part of the castle that you can still tour, but we decided to just look around the grounds and walk "The Castle Mound". All throughout the castle grounds there are restaurants, shops, and the hotel. 

On The Castle Mound is a dark staircase going to the old well (didn't go all the way)

Our plan was to have lunch next, but most were not hungry enough for a full meal. So, we stopped at a café for coffee and snacks at a cool coffee house that showcased artworks. After our break, we headed to the Bridge of Sighs.

Again, not having read anything about the Bridge of Sighs, I assumed it was like other Bridges of Sighs in usage. But, this one is actually just a bridge connecting to college buildings. And, according to my online research, appears more similar to the Rialto bridge than the Bridge of Signs in Venice, Italy.

Just beyond the Bridge of Sighs is The Turf Tavern. You must walk along a zig-zag alley way to get there. We only walked in, took a look, and then left. This is where President Clinton "did not inhale". So, you know, we were looky-loos.

We are ready for lunch now. We head back to the covered market area to eat at Pieminister. Some memories are coming back from Chris and my trip to Australia, back in 2001. We ate the meat pies from the street carts. They came with peas, mash, and, if you wanted it, "red sauce" (which is just an Australian term for ketchup). Funny how the memory works (or doesn't) as I can't remember what we thought of them (were they good?) I only really remember eating them once, maybe twice.

Lunch

There are a lot of pies to choose from. We pick 4 and share in eating them all. We ordered a few sides of mash and mushy peas. I was so looking forward to the mushy peas (I had them in Prague and they were SO good!) Well... we weren't impressed. Some of the pies were ok, but mostly they were all mediocre. The mushy peas were.... well... mushy. Not my favourite flavour. The mash was... ok. Better with gravy. All in all, we were underwhelmed. Perhaps this is what others are saying when they claim British food is not good. Piminister is an award winning British pie establishment, if you choose to believe, but not something we'd go back to. So, there you go.

After lunch, we took ourselves a few stores over to Ben's Cookies (also popular). Stand in line, get our cookies. We at them a little later (after our stomachs had made some room), and I was not impressed by these cookies either. I was expecting Mrs. Fields cookies, but these were no Mrs. Fields cookies. Ben's cookies are thicker with less salt or butter. A bit of a tasteless confection, if you ask me. But, there are enough chocolate chips in there to help out, so don't get me wrong, they were eaten.

The one item left on our list is to see a bit of the University of Oxford campus. This actually proves to be trickier than we had imagined. There are a lot of walls around, which hide gardens beyond. Some have gates that are locked or we're too scared to try. Chris says, let's go one or two more blocks before turning around, and that's when we happened on the Museum of Natural History. It's open. It's free. It's ON!

Side note: Charles Darwin debated the origin of species in this museum in 1860... that's pretty cool!

Xander would have critter-napped these guys if he could.
He liked the otter (right) the best.

Ahhhhh! This is for the cousins (I guess Casey, in particular).

The Museum of Natural History was a great find. Again, it was free. That's awesome all by itself. But, in addition, there was so much the kids could touch and manipulate. It was fantastic for them to be able to go around and open drawers, discover bones, read digital displays, press buttons, pet animals, and touch billions-of-years-old rocks and minerals. Oh, and it had a free bathroom.

After visiting the museum, we took another walk through campus, aiming for the hotel using a different path. We came across a nature spot and went in for a stroll.

We found our hotel and took a nice long rest. The kids played on devices. I blogged. Chris started a new book. Venice is still not feeling well. Over a week ago she had a few headaches. Then she had a sore throat. Last night she had a bit of a rash on her body that flared with a bath but subsided today. She's thinking today's the "hump" and she'll feel better tomorrow.

Then we were off to find our dinner.  Good thing Chris looked online first, the ramen restaurant we wanted to go to is closed on Sundays. We have developed a small habit of looking at stores and places to be sure they are open on Sundays. It just paid off. Chris researched another restaurant and we headed towards it. Once again, we had fabulous food (but it's not English food and it was expensive). Their proportions were generous and the food was delicious.

The kids, having bellies filled with yummy food, turned goofy on us. Laughing and having a grand ol' time. Good thing we were on an upper floor with not too many sharing space with us. We were a bit rowdy. 

Venice using her fancy water glass (left), Generous proportions of eel on sushi (middle-left)
Venice and Xander trying to smile with the top half of their face while
crying with the bottom half of their face (right photos) Now YOU try it!

Side note: Our room has a placard on the door that reads: Room Privilege. What does this mean? I actually don't know. Xander connects it to our Nespresso machines in our room (the "pod" holder says for Room Privilege). But is that it? Or is it the privilege of being next to the elevator (and all the hallway noise that comes with that?) Side, side note: the England has, so far, had many doors for Fire Safety. So, the elevators are in a different section, on the other side of this fire door. This seems to be everywhere we've stayed and in other buildings we've been in. I guess it keeps fire and smoke from spreading, should there be a fire. It makes me wonder if it really works... why don't we do this in the U.S.?

Anyway, we've concluded our touring of Oxford. Time for bed because tomorrow we pack and go!

Day 86: Travel to Oxford

Time to pack up... again. Good-bye noisy flag! (There is a metal bar at the bottom of the flag to keep it open... but every time the wind blows, the metal bar hits the wall outside our window making a lovely rapping noise.)

It's also time to shower. The hair dryer here is like a vacuum cleaner that, instead, blows air. It's attached to the wall and has an odd tube connecting it to the unit and a wide "mouth" that looks like it's going to suck up your hair, not dry it. But it does dry... I do have a hard time directing the air where I want it to go, so I give up after a minute or two.

We had breakfast at Nero (a common café chain here) on our corner. We finish packing and head out to the Tube.

We're glad to see that the Tube is much less crowded this morning. It is Saturday and it's later in the morning, so we actually get seats! That's how empty it is. Everyone is grateful.

I'm still surprised by how warm it is here. We're all hot walking along the streets, dragging our luggage and heavy food bag (chips, nuts, candy), and backpacks. Just glad it's just drizzling and not raining, that would have added to the fun.

We get ourselves to Paddington Station (cool!) and Chris goes to the ticket machine. There seems to be a lot of "do-it-yourself" ticket machines, here. We had ordered our tickets a week ago, but you have to print them at the station. So, Chris puts in the information and 13 credit-card sized pieces of paper come out. 1 is a receipt. 4 are tickets for us on our trip to Oxford. 4 are tickets for us on our trip back. And 4 are specific for our seat assignments on the way back (no assigned seats on the way there).

A Tube hallway (left), Paddington Station (right)

Now we wait for a platform assignment. We're a bit early, but that's ok, there are tons of seats facing the departure board. Brilliant! So, we can all relax while we wait. Meanwhile, it's now POURING rain outside. The sound it makes on the roof is wonderful and I'm super glad we aren't arriving now, we would have been soaked. Interestingly, we are getting a little dripped on, here and there. I guess the roof isn't leak-proof. Annoying, but not bad considering alternatives.

Our train gets assigned a platform and we head out to find a seat, since we don't have assigned seating. The train is virtually empty so we pick 4 seats facing one another. But they're cramped and we convince Chris to switch to the 6 seats facing one another. Maybe we'll get lucky and we'll get all 6. No such luck. Chris' hesitation was right. We should have stuck with out 4. Oh well. We share with some strangers and it's not too bad. The trip is only 1 hour. The biggest problem is how much luggage we have (4 bulging backpacks, 2 rollers, 1 bag of food, and 1 bag of extra stuff that didn't fit into the other luggage... guess we'll have to ship more stuff back??) Finding space wasn't too hard as we were there early, but we're hogging the space, that's for sure.

Our first stop is Slough. Barely anyone gets off. Next stop is Reading. Almost everyone gets off. So the last leg of our journey was almost just us on the train. I guess Reading is popular!

Now it's our turn to disembark and we are in Oxford. The rain has stopped again. It's mostly dry. We follow signs to a taxi stand. There is a group of kids (sportsteam of some sort) waiting on the taxi island, but they don't seem to be in line? We look about, it seems more like the bus side of things... where to go...? There is another couple there looking around like us... they ask if we are looking for a taxi, too? Yes! They are from Florida. So, it's just us Americans who can't find the taxi stand!

But we do eventually find it on the other side of the island (it was only 50ft from the bus waiting area). But it says to wait for the taxi on the other side.. where? The other side of the street is for cars. Up on the hill is a parking lot. It's not clear where to go. Meanwhile, taxis are driving right by us, some empty and some with passengers. I walk around to see if I can find something else to help... Chris goes across the street to investigate. And, when I come back to where the kids are, I see the "Other" side of the sign that says to wait on the "other side"... on THIS side of the same sign it says to wait "here". Oy! I guess they want to control the swing of the line, but seriously, that was confusing. And just as we figure it out, here comes a taxi and stops for us, just as if it was easy all along.

At the train station... looks like a LEGO building (left), a part of High street (middle and right)

We haven't taken too many taxis while in the UK, but these last two rides have very opinionated drivers. Our driver from our Stonehenge tour was also opinionated. Today's driver asked if we fell for Merkel while we were in Berlin. We mumbled something and he said, "Well, England has. Hook line and sinker." Ok... just get us to our hotel and we'll be happy! Side note: The people here definitely have an air of intelligence about them (I can tell just by looking). There is an afternoon paper that fills the stands. It's free (how does this happen in this day and age?) and people get in the line to pick one up on their way to the Tube. AND they actually read it! I do feel, as a community, they are much better educated by the happenings in the world than I am I don't doubt that.

We arrived and check into our hotel. We have two rooms side-by-side (no adjoining doors), so we split up. Chris and Venice take one room and Xander and I take the other. Then we head out in search of a coffee café.

As I promised the taxi driver, it has stopped raining and the sun has broken through the clouds. The city is beautiful, sparkly its after-rain sheen.

Chris and I enjoy our coffees. Very good. The kids enjoy their half-baked brownies (Venice got chocolate-raspberry and Xander got chocolate-salt-caramel). Very good. And then to walk back through town again. Side note: On every block, there is no less than 2-3 barbers. We even passed one that had three people waiting while one got his hair trimmed. We figure, this is Oxford, one MUST keep one's hair neat, therefore, the abundance of places to get groomed.

We decided to walk through the botanical gardens as it's our way. But, we just missed the last entry by a few minutes. We'll have to come back tomorrow if we still want to come. There is a place to peak into the gardens and then a hedge-maze out front, so we did get a little taste of what's there. We'll wait if we need to see more tomorrow.

High street (left), Xander on the bridge (middle-left), Botanical Gardens (middle-right), Hedge-Maze (right)

This trip is probably our first venture where we didn't do much, if at all, research before coming. So, it's a quick search on the internet to figure out where to go and what to see. Chris had read about a bookstore, in town, that claims to have the largest single room devoted to book sales in all of Europe (10,000 sqf if you want to know). Xander isn't too excited about the prospect of being in a giant room with books. On the other hand, Venice is excited and we push forward.

As we walked through the front of the Botanical Gardens, there was a city map (they are erected all over town), I saw that we were nearly on Dead Man's Walk, the route of medieval Jewish funeral processions. It sounds more ominous than it is. In fact, today, with the sun out and lowering in the sky, it's a very serene and beautiful walk.

On the other side of Dead Man's Walk is Christ church. This is our first hint that there might be something going on here in town... we see a few people in cap-and-gown outfits. Graduation? I did a Google search later and did find that today is one of Oxford University's fall graduations. I didn't check into any other colleges that are in town (because there are tons and tons of colleges here, I didn't know that...), too many to search. But we did come across several more graduates during the rest of the day.

Christ Church (top and bottom -left), a street... forget which one (right)

We also walked through the covered market area. This shopping and eating area reminded me of Pike Place in Seattle. Lots of little shops sharing the covered area. We scope out lunch for tomorrow (Pieminister) and dessert (Ben's Cookies). Then we find our way to the bookstore where we lose ourselves for about an hour.

The covered market (left) and the largest single room devoted to book sales (right)

When we finally pull ourselves out of the bookstore, we find that it's twilight. The town continues to be beautiful. We walk through other colleges, taking tons of photos as we go, and make our way back to our hotel where we've decided to have dinner.

Town (top and right)
Jesus College (bottom left and middle),
where the first woman to study there crossed the threshold in 1974

Back at the hotel, we get ready for dinner. We are the ONLY ones in the restaurant. Not a good sign, right? All the other restaurants we passed were full-up. I have to say, the food was excellent and we were waited on quite nicely. It was as if we had a private party. Only when we were ready to pay our bill did other people come in to dine. What a nice way to end our day. Side note: Venice has not been feeling well. She's been itchy and has had a sore throat for a while (foreshadowing warning...)

After dinner, we head back to our rooms. None of our keys work on Chris' door. I can't remember if I mentioned that we were locked out of our room in London a few days ago, too. My key stopped working. A hotel worker happened by, tried his key and that didn't work either. He went to fix our keys and it was all good. This time, they hotel workers came up and couldn't get their door to work. They suspected that the batteries in the door were out and said they would fix it in the morning after we head out for the day. So, Chris and Venice are tucked in for the night, no leaving!

Once in our own rooms, getting ready for bed, Xander says, "Was that fireworks?" I say, no, couldn't be... why would there be fireworks? Must have been a car backfiring. Well, we heard it again, head to the window, and to our delight, we were treated to a long, wonderful fireworks show! Right outside our window! 

And we thought our evening couldn't get any better.... and we were right. Our joy ended around 9pm when "kids" started running up and down our hallways, making quite a raucous. I'm bad at telling age, now... maybe early 20s? I actually feel like they were younger and this was their first time in a hotel without adult supervision.

In any case, they ran up and down the hallways, chasing each other, laughing, yelling, thumping. Up and down the hallways and staircases. This is an older hotel, so everything creaks and thumps so much louder than in a new-modern hotel. So, a little after 9pm, I got "old lady, motherly" on them. I opened my door and shushed them. I actually said something like, "Hey guys, come on, there are kids trying to sleep, here." The girls seemed apologetic (I don't think the guys even heard me) and it was more quiet... for about 15 minutes. At that point, I had fantasies of opening the door quickly and taking their photo to send to the front desk with a complaint. But... that was too much for me. Chris, however, opened his door and shushed them too. Then, around 10pm, Chris called the front desk. Didn't do much help. Maybe by 11:30pm it had quieted down. What a bummer of a way to end the night.

For you, I'll let you end on a bit of our fireworks display: