London Calling
November 25, 2005 at 9:23 AM
by Ashleigh
I got back on Monday from our London weekend but didn't have time to finish writing this post until today!
We arrived at Stansted on Friday morning at 09h00 and got into London itself at 13h00 just in time to check into our hotel and visit Nandos.
We used the National Express coach service from Stansted to Victoria which was incredibly good value for money (only 35 GBP return for all of us) and saved having to lug heavy luggage on the underground. It takes a long time - 1.5 to 2 hours - but if you're not in a hurry its definitely a simpler way to travel.
Easyjet wasn't 'easy', having failed to pre-board us meaning we got left standing around in aisles in the plane having to ask people to move so we could get two seats together for each adult + kid. The way back was better on the pre-boarding situation, but worse on the delays (which I will get to later).
As usual, we had trouble at Immigration. This time with Sebastian's passport, which still had the flag on it from our previous troubles. So mine was fine, but we still sat in immigration for 35 minutes while they sorted out Seb's!
Later on Friday we met my brother and had dinner at Cafe Rouge, then went back to our hotel for an uncomfortably hot night. The heating pipes ran through our room and although our own heating wasn't on, other rooms had theirs on making our room uncomfortable. We thought the balcony doors were sealed closed, which we later found out wasn't the case, but the first night was very uncomfortable. Joe had a blocked nose which meant he kept crying and fussing and we had about 2 hours sleep in total! All this was solved the next day with some Otrivine nose spray for Joe, and the opening of balcony doors for us. The hotel had loads of hot water and a great English breakfast which we were really happy with.
Saturday morning was comprised of me getting ready to attend my course and Brad getting ready to take the kids to the Natural History Museum. Surprisingly they spent 5 hours there, had lunch and all, and only have about five photos to show for it! I was regaled with stories of the life cycle and habits of house flies, so I guess someone was paying attention ;)
Brad and the kids came with me on the Tube to Holborn where I took a taxi to go 200 metres to the venue for the class because I didn't know where I was going! The taxi driver was very kind and actually told me I could get out and walk and he would tell me where to go. At that point I was so late that I just stayed in the cab and paid the �3 fare!
CA Wells taught her Whitework Sewing Portfolio and the class was held in a fabulous venue. Although I was over 45 minutes late I managed to slot in with very few problems. I learnt lots of new techniques and took copious notes. I think in all, the course was a great time for me to just be alone, without the distractions of kids and in the company of like-minded people. I completed the tape measure cover that was the first 'bit' of our course, but as I hadn't completed the pre-stitching for the other pieces I couldn't finish them. I must get onto doing the stitching work so that I can finish the piece.
I came back to the hotel at around 4 pm, just coinciding with Brad and the kids returning and we then went out to eat at Subway. The kids loved their cheese and ham sandwiches ;)
Sunday morning we hopped on a bus tour and went as far as Waterloo to meet my brother and our friends from Chelmsford. Our London Eye flight was at 3.30 pm and the weather was wonderful for photographs, if very cold. Dinner on Sunday was in the company of friends at Pizza Express.
We spent Monday completing our bus tour, came back to Nando's for a quick lunch and then hopped on the coach back to Stansted where we arrived at 17h00 only to find that our flight was delayed. Eventually got home at 12 pm!
We found time in our schedule to shop for Christmas food, buy a Playstation 2 with 5 games, shop at WH Smith for copious quantities of magazines, went to Starbucks twice and were overwhelmed at how loud and busy the advertising is!
My Bree like itinerary worked out almost perfectly with the only thing we missed being the Science Museum. Never mind, we can go next time :)