LONDON! Part 1

[beelikej]

Last Thursday I took the train to Brussels, where tanisafan was (supposed to be) waiting in front of the Eurostar entrance to start our four day trip to London. Here's a selection of photos of our adventures...


Day 1: Thursday August 4

My bicycle and me, happily waving, unaware of the journey to come...


View from the 'Silent' train compartment; train from Zwolle to Rotterdam. This train was on schedule and I arrived in Rotterdam well in time to catch the 10.55 to Brussels. Except that train was cancelled for unknown reasons. I didn't panic; I still had my back up train from 11.55, that would get there on time to go through Eurostar check in and customs. Except that train turned out to be delayed:


AAAAAAArgh. /o\ Twenty-five minutes late meant that I had less than the required thirty minutes by the time I arrived in Brussels. So when I got there I ran to the Eurostar, hoping to be allowed on. I did panic a little when I didn't see Tan at the entrance, but fortunately she had only stepped in to ask the staff what we should do if we missed the train.
Luckily we were still able to check in and customs was faster than usual too, so we managed to catch the Eurostar after all. Pfew.


Arrived in London exactly according to schedule, yay!


After checking into our hotel, we took the Tube into town, scored theatre tickets at half price and went to Covent Garden for a bit of shopping. (no icecream, but I loved this sign;)


We had dinner at Brasserie Johnstons. I had a apple-virgin-mojito, T. had wine!
Food was delicious too; T. had the starter Vichyssoise (Chilled leek and potato soup) and we both had the main course: Pork fillet served with prune dauphinoise and apple jus. For dessert I had a fresh fruit plate with lemon sorbet. Omnomnom.


While we walked to the Trafalgar Studios we did some sightseeing...


The entrance of the CharingCross Station


Detail on unknown building at Trafalgar Square


Nelson's Column, day time (scroll down for night time view;)


The theatre where we saw the musical Bewixt in a tiny tiny basement that would fit about 90 people, we sat second row with an audience of about 60 people. It was awesome! Great performance, with fun lyrics, dancing and amazing actors. Recommended!


Nelson's Column, night time (scroll up for day time view;)


I ended the day with a luxury bath. (With sensual pearls, mmm)


Today's loot: goodies from Lush, a filled up Oyster card for public transport (brought from home;) and program of Betwixt.



Day 2: Friday August 5

English breakfast \o/


Our hotelroom


Before going into town, we relaxed in Russel Square Park. We saw squirls :-D


Detail of the gate of the British Museum, which we passed while we walked to Forbidden Planet (Shaftsbury Av.)
After shopping there, we took the Tube to Camden, where T. scored a pair of pretty shoes and I bought a really cool notebook. But we mostly just walked around, enjoying the atmosphere;)


Storefront of Aldo.


More cool shop designs


Camden Stables

From here we walked up north to a cemetery that T. wanted to visit and to have lunch on Parliament Hill. Unfortunately we got a little lost and got tired of walking, so once we found out where we were, we hopped on a bus to Hampstead Heath and pretty much sat down on the first parkbench we found.


So much walking, but eventually we sort of managed to have our picnic;)


In the -almost- middle of nature ;-p

After relaxing, reading and eating we took the bus back to our hotel to prepare for another evening in the theatre.


Goodies day 2: present at Forbidden Planet and very cool leather notebook.


We took the Tube to Waterloo station and walked to The Old Vic theatre to pick up our tickets (I had bought them in January!)


I had reserved premium seats for Richard III with Kevin Spacey (directed by Sam Mendes)


Before the play, we bought pasties and potato-skins and ate them in a park nearby.

The play was brilliant: over three hours of Shakespeare at his best:) Very overwhelming.

We got back in our hotel around 23.30.


Did I already tell you we had a separate toilet and bathroom? We also had a bidet. How fancy is that?


Another luxury soak in the tub; this time with a bubbly Ma-barr from lush.


More goodies from day 2: I not only bought a program, but also a poster and the script with extended notes. (had delicious icecream at intermission: caramel, vanilla with honeycomb.)


:-) To be continued!

Comments

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

You really makes me want to go to London again now. Well - that, combined with the knowledge that Steve Carlson has concerts in London in October.... I really, REALLY want to go to London!

I would have been so stressed with the train delay!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

:-) I say start saving for October; London by itself is pretty awesome, but if you have an additional reason to go there, it's even better!

Ahw, yes, the trains. Well, it's not unusual for the ones between The Netherlands and Belgium to be cancelled, so I'm always prepared, but the delay was very stressful. Luckily both Tan and I have experience in traveling this way, but it's never fun to not have control. I was glad I had time on the Eurostar to catch my breath;)

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiousity - how much time and money does it cost you to get from Netherlands to London with train?

Sometimes I envy ppl living a little more in the center of Europe that seems to have a little shorter travel to the rest of Europe than for us here at the top...Although, London is a short trip for us as well, and rather inexpensive, because there are a lot of direct flighths from Oslo to London. London is probably the cheapest flight - often even cheaper than domestic flights.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

The cheapest Eurostar ticket is a return for 99 euros, which includes traintravel back and forth from any city in the Netherlands to Brussels.

As for time: if I did things according to schedule (and not take an extra hour to be safe;) I would have taken the 9.46 train from Zwolle to arrive in London at 15.30 local time (one hour behind of NL) so that's 6 hours and 45 minutes to get to the centre of London. (It's only two hours from Brussels, the biggest haul is to get there, lots of time to read;)

Going back we left London at 16.00 local time and I arrived in Zwolle at 23.15; we had a connecting train in Brussels and no customs on that end, that saved me half an hour:)

FYI, flying is also an option and may be a little faster and cheaper, but all in all I think the train is the hassle-free option (even with the mishaps;)

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

for me, plane is the only option. They go basically all day, and from I take the bus from here (to train station - train to airport, then flight to London and then train from airport to center of London) it'll take about 4 - 5 hours, and it'll cost around 320 Euros al lin all.

I am looking into flights to Rome now - for JIB con. I am hoping to get flights for under 380 Euros this time.... but I didn't manage to find it cheaper for the previous two years, so I doubt I find it this time either. A direct flight takes 3 hours, but last year I didn't get a direct fligt and ended up with a 7 hour journey (plus the hour to get from the airport and home). I will definitely pay the extra for a direct flight this time - UNLESS I can find a cheaper flight with KLM and that happens to be the one Sillie82 will be on!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Wow that's quite a lot of money, I suspect because of the distance, but also because Norway is more expensive to live in.

Being able to make the most of my time in London (instead of spending it trying to get to and from Heathrow) is one of the main reasons I take the train. The hotel (and the city!) is only one stop away on the Underground.

It takes about an hour and a half from here to Schiphol airport, but you have to check in a long time beforehand, so that's also lost time.

I didn't include traveltime to the station, because that would be the same whether I had to travel to Brussels or Schiphol and is only about ten-fifteen minutes by bicycle:)

Hope you find a fitting flight to Rome (You still have some time for that, right?

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

It's a 25 min busdrive to the train station from me.

I have plenty of time to find the flights. I won't buy right now. They have changed the dates for the con once already, so I think I wait a bit so that I am 100% sure that these dates stick.

It irks me a bit when Americans say that European cons are cheaper for us (than american cons are for them), because we all live so close that we don't have to spend so much money on traveling. I honestly don't think I spend that little money on the traveling! :-(
Probably not all say that - but I saw that as a huge point in a discussion once, and I was just like 0.o
Sure it cost to travel in the USA as well, but not all of us live IN Rome (or in Germany etc). It's not like any cons (or concerts) ever happens in Norway.

The main reason it cost so much to most cities from Oslo, is that Oslo is not one of the 'main airports' in Europe (like Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen). Wherever we are flying, we usually have a stop at those airports. So if both Sillie82 and I fly to Rome with KLM, she'll have to pay the price Amsterdam - Rome. But I have to pay the flight Oslo - Amsterdam as well. The direct flights are usually more popular, so they are even more expensive. (I can save about 60 Euros flying through Schiphol than Oslo - Rome directly, but it adds 3 - 4 hour to my traveltime. (from 3 hours, 5 mins for the direct flight, to 6 or 7 hours (depending on chosen flight) through Amsterdam (that includes a 2 hour wait at Schiphol)

The Norwegian flag carrier is SAS, which is scandinavian, and has it's HQ in Denmark, so most SAS flights go through Copenhagen.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Oh, traveling inside the USA is definitely much cheaper than traveling through Europe. Even though most countries now have the Euro, you're still dealing with separate systems/prizes/companies, etcetera;) That makes it more complicated and more expensive, especially since we both start our journeys in rich countries.

And even though distances seem shorter, that is relative, since Europe's infrastructure is not as connected as the US's.

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I definitely start my travel in an expensive country. Which wouldn't be so bad, if I had a regular Norwegian salary. But the disability benefit is about 40% of an average salary in Norway... with the child support, child benefit, municipal house allowance etc though, I get paid every month about 70% of what one would get paid on a normal low-salary job. I do have to support myself and a daughter on that though. So I can't just always pay the same as everyone else in Norway.

[fred-bear.livejournal.com]

Looks like you had a fab time. So glad you got home before the riots started though!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

We had a splendid time (will put up photos of final two days later;) The riots did start when we were there, but we only saw them on tv Saturday evening and we spent Sunday on the other side of town before going home.

[hiddenmuse.livejournal.com]

Looks like a lot of fun! Can't wait to see more pictures of the visit!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

We had so much fun I totally forgot about the stressful day of traveling;) Part two of my travelreport is up now!

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Damn it, I totally forgot to try out the bidet! Opportunities missed *sadpanda*.

Also, I totally look like someone punched me in the face, wow. Sexy.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Me too :(

Oh shut up *shoves* you look lovely. Plus walking a hundred kilometers in the blistering sun is a totally valid excuse for being a bit exhausted. :-p

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Hahaha I do, though! Look at my eye! What is that?

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I think that's an imprint from your sunglasses? I'm sorry; I really wanted to include a photo of the two of us and this was the only one I could cut my chins off that had a bit of a LND site in the background;)