Ploughing through the snow in London - COMPLETED 3/15! About This Page:

[chezp]

Ploughing through the snow in London – part one: “they didn’t forecast snow today”

Date: Friday 25 February
Adventurers: Me, Cheryl and DH Mark, Jennifer, Dave and Alexander Marx
Event: Jennifer, Dave and Alexander are visiting London!

I always love meeting fellow PassPorters, not just at Disney or perhaps Philadelphia or the planned future meet in Boston but I also love being able to show people around London as well, whenever they come over here for a visit. So imagine my delight when I received an e-mail from Jennifer and Dave with the title of “Coming to London”. They would only be here for just over a day and knew that wouldn’t be nearly long enough to do the capital justice – as Dave put it “it’s like trying to do the Magic Kingdom in just 10 minutes”. They were due to arrive on Thursday afternoon and had to leave early on Saturday morning, so Mark and I quickly made arrangements to get the day off work and, as soon as that was confirmed, I went into planning mode!

I asked them what they wanted to see and took their ideas from there, devising something of a loose itinerary for the day, which would see us meeting at their hotel at 9.30, taking a flight on the London Eye at 11.00, then taking an open top tour bus (remember this bit – it will be significant later on ) via sights like St. Paul’s Cathedral, stopping at the Tower of London for a visit there. Then we’d take a river cruise back down to Westminster, look around there and then take the open top bus around various other sights again – such as Buckingham Palace, getting off at Hamley’s to allow them to explore the world’s premiere toy store, finishing off with dinner at a traditional English pub. Well, those were my plans anyway…

Fast forward to Friday 25 February. We’d had snow for much of the week and part of us did like the idea of seeing London with snow on the ground, but there was no snow forecast for the day, so we’d have to wait and see if everything had melted up there. It certainly had melted around our area, when we left our house at about 7.00 in the morning. However, we’d only gone a few miles and we found snow still on the ground:




Then it started to snow again – and that was it – panic time for just about every other driver on the motorway and we were down to 30 miles an hour. We crawled and then speeded up a bit, then slowed down and crawled again, then speeded up a bit – you get the picture – all the way up to North Greenwich, where we were due to catch the tube (subway) into London. On a good day, it should be a 45 minute trip from our house up there. This morning, it took an hour and 20 minutes. Never mind, I’d allowed an hour to get from there up to meet Jennifer and Dave and that should be plenty of time…. Or should it?

We stood on the platform, waiting for the train and when it turned up, it was obvious we wouldn’t stand a chance of squeezing on to it. The next train was about six minutes away and we had visions of the same thing happening again, so Mark came up with the brilliant idea of going the other way, getting off at the next station, where hopefully the train into London would be less crowded and we could get on.

Fortunately, the plan worked – even with a hairy moment when a woman slipped over on the platform and only just missed Mark. I really had visions of her knocking him on to the tracks at one point! We just about squeezed on to the train and then we sat there and waited… and waited… and waited and still we sat there. Eventually we got an announcement, saying we’d be moving once they’d spaced the trains back out to their usual two minute gap.

Finally we were off and, after a couple of stops, I was even able to bag myself a seat, although poor Mark was sandwiched up against the doors for the duration of the trip. We changed over at Westminster and finally got off the tube at around 9.20. Talk about cutting it fine – we were due to meet them in about 10 minutes. We walked down to the hotel and as we walked, it was snowing – a very surreal experience, as snow in central London isn’t a common thing. We found our way into the lobby of the Millennium Gloucester where we’d agreed to meet them and settled down to wait.

We didn’t have long to wait before Mark spotted them heading down to the lobby and we were finally able to personally meet the newest addition to the PassPorter family, appropriately kitted out in PassPorter gear, complete with Disney hat. How he looked and how happy as well. I have to say now that I have never met a baby that is so content and smiles so much. He’s a credit to Jennifer and Dave and obviously a very happy baby.

We gave them some presents we’d bought with us – a book about London and its history for Dave (as we figured they wouldn’t really have time for shopping!), some bath goodies from the Body Shop (as I’ve been told that their goods in the States are just stupidly priced) and a set for Alexander, which included a bib and a wipe and an Eeyore rattle. I tell you, the second I saw that, we just had to buy it for him. Jennifer immediately attached it to his arm and the “Eeyore-ification” of Alexander began. You won’t be surprised to learn that each of my nieces and nephews have been given lots of Eeyore gifts in an attempt to ensure that they grow up to love him later in life.

In return, I got my copy of PassPorter - personal delivery, how is that?! It was all I could do to put it in our bag and not to start reading it there and then, but we had lots to do. Jennifer took all the other presents (apart from Eeyore of course ) back to the room and then we were good to go.

Next: flying high in the London Eye in a snowstorm!

[DopeyGirl]

One of these days, if I can get my act (and a decent amount of money) together, I am going to HAVE to come to London . . . you guys seem to be THE BEST tour guides!!!

Looking forward to more!!!

[LizardCop]

Great Start, sardine ride and all...

MORE!!!!!

[MickeyMAC]

I'm so glad your sharing your day with all of us. Thanks!!!!!

[chezp]

Ploughing through the snow in London – part two: flying high in the London Eye in a snowstorm!

We came out of the lobby, turned left and realised the tube station was right in front of us! On the way there, we’d walked an extra two blocks to get to the hotel. Talk about taking the long route there! We grabbed some tickets for Jennifer and Dave and then had to negotiate getting the stroller into the station. I know where the gate is, but I’ve never actually had to use one before and it took me a moment to realise that it needed to be opened by a station guard. There was one around, so I managed to grab him and get him to open it up.

Fortunately, all the crowds had dispersed by now and Jennifer and I easily got a seat on the journey over to Westminster. We were there more quickly than I anticipated and had some time before we were due to board the London Eye for our 11.00 flight, so I decided some photo opportunities were in order! That was the lovely thing about Jennifer and Dave – they take about as many photos as I do, so it was three against one, as poor old Mark was the only one without a camera and he couldn’t moan at how many photos I was taking – and trust me, I got through a fair few!!


The London Eye

Portcullis House – the new home of our MP’s


The Houses of Parliament

Statue of Churchill – just opposite the Houses of Parliament

Big Ben

St. Margaret’s Church with Westminster Abbey behind

Jennifer and Dave by Parliament and the London Eye

Aren’t they adorable? Mark and Alexander together


Westminster Abbey

London 2012 banners were in evidence everywhere, promoting London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics

... continued in the next post

[chezp]

By now, it was getting near to our flight time on the Eye, so we headed over that way.



I knew we had to book in by 10.30 and I was conscious that it was now past that time, so I went ahead to secure our tickets and had no problem at all. There was barely any wait either – very different to the last time we were on the Eye with Maureen and Kevan in November 2003. That day, we’d waited for about 40 minutes in a queue resembling a wait for a Disney attraction. Today, we jumped straight in line and only waited for about 10 minutes.


Jennifer and Alexander in line

A quick (and I mean quick!) security check and we were boarding, a good 15 minutes ahead of our appointed time – and just as well! As you’ll see from these photos, the weather was beautiful when we boarded, with some great views, but it wasn’t to last…


Big Ben and another capsule on the London Eye

Alexander takes in the sights

Charing Cross station with the BT tower behind

Banqueting House

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Train heading into Charing Cross station over the River Thames

Aerial shot of the Houses of Parliament

Jennifer and Alexander flying the Eye

Houses of Parliament again – a lot murkier now!

The old County Hall building – the former seat of London government

Next: “are you sure that the bus will be along in a minute?”

[JoanW]

I'm thinking the same thing, we need to seriously think about a trip across the Atlantic!

[GoofyMom]

Hurry, hurry! I can't wait to read more, Chez!!!

[Tara O'Hara]

Cheryl, what a wonderful start!! Hurry back with more!!

[HiddenMickey]

Yippie! I look forward to more! -HiddenMickey

[stretch2864]

Great trip report! I'm really enjoying your photos of London as we are still hoping to make it over there sometime this coming summer.

[chezp]

Sorry for taking so long to update this, but I've now got hold of the photos I took with Jennifer's camera - and I'm glad I waited, as they came out [/b]so[/b] well - her camera is so neat! Now I can share the photos with you as well as the rest of my report... on with the show!

Ploughing through the snow in London – part four: the Crown Jewels, award winning toilets and a visit back to the Middle Ages

We walked up to the Jewel House to see the Crown Jewels, a must-do for any visitor to the Tower, snapping some photos on the way – using Jennifer’s camera


The Jewel House

The White Tower

One of the Beefeaters showing a party of tourists around

Jennifer and Dave with Tower Bridge behind them

I will admit that I was expecting to have to wait a long time to see these, as the last time we were here was November 2003 with Maureen and Kevan. On that occasion, we went in by about 9.30, so there was no wait at all. Well, today wasn’t much more of a wait, surprisingly enough. We must have waited about 10 minutes to get in there and even that wasn’t too bad, as there were lots of interesting films to watch on the way about the history of the Crown Jewels. You see, Disney aren’t the only ones who know how to make a queue interesting!

I don’t think I could ever tire of seeing the Crown Jewels. It really is an incredible collection and I couldn’t help but notice how Alexander’s eyes were popped out of his head at the sparkling goodies in front of him. Eventually, we dragged ourselves away from admiring them and wondering what it would be like to wear one of those crowns and headed back outside.

At this point, I nearly died of shock. There appeared to be a yellow thing in the sky and, for a moment, I couldn’t figure out what it was – not having seen it for so long, but then it came back to me. That’s right – the sun! Jennifer went off to use the baby change facilities and came back, reporting on all the awards that this place has for good toilets and baby changing facilities. This then became something of a running joke throughout the rest of the day, although to be honest, that is quite common over here, particularly at major tourist attractions and shops.

It was at this point that I started to worry that we hadn’t seen any of the world famous ravens so far today. Legend states that should they ever leave the Tower, then the monarchy will fall but they were safe and sound – in a cage, believe it or not. Well, I guess that’s one sure fire way to stop them flying off…


Jennifer, Dave and Alexander in front of the White Tower

By now, I had realised that, due to its age, the Tower of London wasn’t exactly stroller friendly, so I doubtfully suggested taking a walk along one of the walls of the building, half expecting Jennifer and Dave to say “no”, but they were game and folded up the stroller, while Jennifer set off with Alexander. She has such a neat contraption for carrying him in front of her. I’ve never seen anything like it before and Alexander certainly seemed to love it.

As we headed up the stairs of the first tower, we heard voices and I assumed that it was just other visitors, but no, it was three actors, who appeared to be acting out scenes from the Middle Ages. From what I could gather, the guy was playing a Scottish King, who’d been banished to the Tower of London and, from memory, I think reference was made to Edward I, which would put the scene somewhere between 1272 and 1307.

They all did a great job of staying in character, particularly when Mark got involved with the argument they were having over whether a Scottish King should obey an English King. You should’ve heard the comments he made about the Scots How those actors managed to keep straight faces, I do not know. I was expecting them to lapse out of character at any second, but they kept it going beautifully. I guess they get used to light hearted banter like that.

In the end, I made a move to leave the room. Much as I was enjoying it, I had visions of us ending up there all day, as Mark carried on trying to bait them. Then it was up on to the walls, with some beautiful views of Tower Bridge.



The views from the walls

I had noticed as we entered the original tower that the signs said something about not disturbing the residents and as we walked round, sure enough, I could see what looked very much like homes alongside one of the walls. I’d never noticed that before. How it must be to live there – but I dread to think how much it costs to buy a place at the Tower of London!

Next: “Japanese food?” and “I’m sure it was snowing earlier…”

[LizardCop]

Wonderful Pictures, that's a great camera... And another great update!!!

[GoofyMom]

Great update, Cheryl! Those photos were definitely worth waiting for.

[crystalloubear]

Wow - sounds like so much fun!! I was worried when you said about the ravens - I thought maybe they heard of Charles and Camila's wedding and flew the coup!!