Day in London

Yesterday we got an early start off into London (9am being early to get out the door for us here) but the good news is we are finally able to fall asleep before midnight. We walked down the street to the bus stop and wanted to make sure we were out and ready for the bus so that we didn't get passed by. The bus was a few minutes late and we were starting to get nervous since we only had a 15 minute window after the bus was to drop us off and our train was to leave. So we saw the #2 bus approaching so we got out of the shelter and walked out to the boarding dock. The bus driver hesitated in stopping and quickly pulled over looking irritated. He said, "you are supposed to raise your hand." Geez, they should post these rules somewhere. It was then I realized this was the same bus driver who didn't stop when I asked him to on Saturday because I didn't press the button.

The bus is a great place to do some people watching. I notice that everyone who is without children in tow is dressed very proper. Although it is cold and windy, most women are wearing skirts and stockings. Most women wear dress shoes regardless if they are practical for their journey. The families with children are dressed casually as we are. The teenage girls dress similar to how they dress back in the States. Kinda that mismatched skater/Emo style. Everyone seems friendly and are very helpful when I ask them questions (except that one Mr. Bus Driver, of course). Although they probably think I am hard of hearing because I have to have them repeat their questions especially if there is any background noises. If you want to know what it is like, go to a loud coffee shop, insert 2 large marshmallows in your mouth, and talk to your friend. See if they can understand what they are talking about! It is amazing to me how we can be speaking the same language but it sounds so different. They put the wrong emPHAsis on the wrong SylLAble, so you have to listen very carefully to understand. I am sure they are saying the same about us =) So...back to our adventure.

We arrived by  #2 bus to the Milton Keynes Central Train Station. We had bought our train tickets online but just need to print out the tickets at the kiosk. The first kiosk we used was not reading our credit card and panic goes through us that it has been demagnetized and will be useless for the rest of our trip. So we wait for another kiosk to open to try it, meanwhile our train is to leave in 1 minute. The next machine works and they begin to print. I know we are now going to miss our train but the good news is that you can just hop on the next train as long as it is the same train type. We only have to wait 25 minutes for the next one and are ready to board as we see the train coming down the tracks. Then it switches onto a different platform and we hear overhead that they have switched our platform to the other one. Of course we are the last ones to react to the announcement trying to process the accent, so we hurry up the stairs behind the crowd, across the terminal and down the stairs to the other platform. Unfortunately we are no longer first on the train so we have to walk though several cars before finding 3 seats even remotely together. But finally we are on our way to Euston Station in London.

From the Euston Station we head to the Underground where you have to go down 3 flights of steep escalators and several hallways. We are using the Oyster Pass which is basically a prepaid card you scan when you start and end at a tube station. It automatically calculates the fare and deducts it off the pass. Fares are almost half off this way. Today we had to do a few line changes, which is fairly easy and well marked but you still do a fair amount of walking and stairs between the lines. The underground is pretty clean, well lit, and you can hear musicians playing. I would feel pretty safe traveling here alone.

Finally we arrive to the Tottenham station and walk about 5 blocks to the British Museum.

The museum has free admission and we headed straight to the Egyptian exhibit. We are greeted by the Rosetta Stone with the reflection/shadow of the sexiest man. The Rosetta Stone was the first rock found with translations in 3 different languages which allowed us to be about to understand the ancient Egyptian and Greek languages. It dates back to 196 B.C.

Here are some more pictures of some exhibits. We weren't anticipating photography being allowed so we had left our main camera at home and just had our GoPro with us which has a slight fish-eye lens.

Unfortunately we found out that the workers were on strike today so they had all the upper levels closed which included the mummies. We were really disappointed but glad we were able to see some mummies while at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. We also realized that all over England there are "mum"mies everywhere =)

After the museum we stopped in a souvenir shop to look for a charm to go on Ally's new charm bracelet which will feature her travels. She chose a little charm of the crown jewels which we will get to see on Saturday. Then we stopped to get a bite to eat out at our favorite little cafe called Pret A Manger. We had some soup, salad, and fruit.

Then we got to treat Ally to a big surprise we had planned and kept from her. We took her to see Phantom of the Opera for the first time. It was Eric's 10th time and my 3rd time and this was the best performance yet. Everyone had fabulous voices and they fit the parts as far as age and what you would picture each character to look like. Photography was not allowed inside the theatre, but of course we tried to capture a few at intermission, hence the blurry second picture. We were about to be caught. I wasn't going to include it since it is so blurry but I figured maybe you could try 3D glasses and see if it comes in clear (jk)

After the play we went to check out the famous department store Harrods. It is absolutely enormous and feels more like a museum.

Inside was a memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi the "Innocent Victims"

We contemplated buying this light fixture (behind my head) for our house but figured it would too difficult to pack in our carry on. The 96,000 Pound price tag had nothing to do with it.

We had planned on eating in one of the 15 or so restaurants within Harrods but after seeing the price tag, we thought we would get some food to-go from the Food Court instead. It still wasn't cheap. Ally got a sushi roll, Eric and I got some pad thai and chicken skewers. We got a yummy dark chocolate bar for dessert and a bottle of water and it cost 34 pounds which is $54, and the food was cold like getting it from a deli counter. Oh well, at least we can say we ate from Harrods. Though, we couldn't actually eat it there so we went outside and found a park bench next to this cute church.

We were enjoying our food and ended up getting some free entertainment. There we encountered our first drunk man in his Pjs that we have had in the city. We watched him yell at cars, talk to himself while taking swigs off his bottle of vodka. This is in the very upscale area of Chelsea and there were 2 security guards roaming the street but they seemed to do nothing about him since he wasn't really bothering anyone. After a while he crossed the street coming toward us and I told Ally to just look at her food and not pay attention. He was mumbling things at us and I could smell him from 5 feet away. He smelled like a dumpster. Eric told him goodbye and he started to walk away as he yelled, "You just don't give a ****, you ugly Americans!" We giggled the whole way home. If ugly to him means, freshly laundered, washed and straight white teeth, then hey, I will take it! LOL. Our overall impression of London is that people are very professional and well dressed and fancy their extremely expensive cars. It is not uncommon to see Ferrari's, Aston Martin's, and Bentley's cruising through the city. In fact, the only vehicles on the road are buses, taxis, and expensive cars. The people are friendly when approached but generally keep to themselves.

We headed back to the train station and were able to get on a train an hour earlier than planned since it was still off-peak hours at 7pm. Unfortunately, there were no seats left together. So we decided to sit on the floor together at a doorway (after seeing another gentleman doing the same) until the first stop where a bunch of people got off and we were able to sit together. It was a long day and we finally got home at 9:30pm since we had to wait 45 minutes for the bus to home. We went straight to bed!