Back to London for one more day. I got the to airport at 8:15am, only to find out at the check-in desk that the plane was already delayed by ninety minutes. Instead of leaving at 10:00am we didn't get going to 11:30am, which sort of killed any big afternoon plans I might have had. Like every time I go to Heathrow there was about three people handling the non-European customs line - it's so stupid that Australia gets less preferred treatment than the entire continent of Europe, last time I checked we were the ones who are still part of the Commonwealth. What's also annoying is that in Australia we do allow the UK jerks to use our automatic gates if they have the new e-passports.
The hotel for the night was right near the airport so that saved a bit of time, it was about 3:00pm by the time we took off into the city.
I got out near Hyde Park and walked up to the Marble Arch at Oxford Street, a lot of the park was boarded up, possibly for a weekend music festival or something like that. I got stuck in line at the currency exchange place behind some angry African man who couldn't send his money, he must not have had his sort code.
 |
| Wellington Arch. |
 |
| And Marble Arch. |
Oxford Street was about the same as I remembered it from last time:
- Souvenir shops everywhere - they can more expensive near the centre of the street, then progressively cheaper again
- Department stores
- Thousands of people and buses filling up the street
- Big Nike store at Oxford Circus
 |
| Oxford Circus. |
 |
| Oxford Street on a random Thursday afternoon. |
I had time for just a bit more exploring before stopping for dinner:
- Regent Street
- Those cool curved buildings
- Even more buses
- Piccadilly Circus
- The buildings were illuminated in pink for some reason
 |
| Pink Piccadilly Circus. |
 |
| And pink Regent Street. |
 |
| It's a trap! |
I ended up in China Town where I found several Asian bakeries. Somehow it didn't occur to me to go searching China Town along the trip to find all the bakeries. One store was even selling taiyaki, but my excitement was short live as they were bite sized (at best) and only four for two pounds.
 |
| Asian bakeries in China Town, who would have guessed? |
 |
| Taiyaki. |
After dinner it was the annoying 45 minute train back to hotel again, they really need to make that Piccadilly line faster and remove stop of the stops.
- London Part 3
- Good
- Asian bakeries
- Hotel was close to the airport
- Bad
- Didn't have much time
- Standing on the train
- Missed Out
- Stamford Bridge
- Various museums
- Europe
- Tourist Rating - 8 out of 10
- Days - 20
- Cities - 9
- Photos - 987
- Words - 17,500 approximately
- Taxis - none!
- Cost - $1500 approximately (plus flights, intercity trains and hotels)
- Good
- Free breakfast buffets
- Google Maps and mobile data
- Just survived with shorts everyday
- No work for three weeks
- Somehow escaped all the rain
- Supermarket bakeries for easy lunches
- Yum Yums
- Bad
- Airport delays
- Eating too much breakfast
- Generally expensive
- Hotels didn't have self service laundry
- Hotels didn't have weight scales
- Needed longer in some cities
- Nike Factory stores
- Not having mobile data in Portugal
- Required a lot of planning
- Running injuries still didn't recovery
- Missed Out
No comments:
Post a Comment