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]

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.