Day 2 ~ Whiplash

We had really only half a day in London – so what do you do? Our motto for the day was: When life gives you Londons, make Londonade! 😉 Do you hop on a tourist bus and see as many monuments as possible? Do you pick a single neighborhood and let go of all the things you won’t see? We chose the latter, and again, our extremely unfortunate and blindly lucky choice of hotel served us well beyond expectations. The location was exceptional.

Stef had it in her head to visit the Tower Bridge (if you know Stef’s love for the St. John’s Bridge, you know this lady loves a bridge), so we walked across the Millennium Bridge again, and along the waterfront for about a mile. It was full of history, windy little nooks, and sleek new development, and was really fascinating to see. It reminded Stef of Boston a bit in that regard. We saw the remnants from this palace that dated back to the 1600s, with a Rose Window up top and a striking little garden:

After a very enjoyable walk (and at least one coffee stop) we reached the Tower Bridge. It was everything Stef was hoping for…but it was closed to pedestrians. After a moment of rage (see comment on previous post), we moved on, back to the London Bridge to return to the other side of town. Note that the bridge is going up in the photo below – it’s a low bridge; they must raise and lower it a hundred times a day.

We had found a website with a map of hidden gems around London, and were pleased to find a cluster of them right in our neighborhood. We found St. Dunstan’s garden, which really was a hidden gem indeed. Most of the church was destroyed in the war, but they kept the gardens open as an oasis in the city. It was a unique and sacred place.

Our next stop was Leadenhall Market, and it was such a wonderful place! It’s a covered mall with the sweetest little shops, and looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie. We were grateful to rest with croissants and cappucinos at a completely endearing cafe.

Walking from place to place was full of interesting sights, like the Guildhall:

…and the Royal Exchange, a municipal building turned chic mall that was unfortunately closed on Saturdays. We walked all the way up to the Barbican, a unique-to-its time complex of businesses, public spaces, and expensive residences that Daniel remembered visiting in 1999.

And of course Stef had to get a picture of the day care center:

There was a wall of memorial marble plaques opposite, which is stately but a little morbid for toddlers. I guess train them on “memento mori” while they’re young. Speaking of memorials to the past, we saw many Roman walls:

This is a city that’s been around for nearly 2,000 years. What a place.

Also on the “hidden gems” list was this utterly charming Postman’s Park – shout out to Debbie. In the middle of one of the more modern areas of the city, it was a cool pool of green.

We were hungry after a long day of walking, and running out of time, so we went to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for lunch. We thought the name might be ironic somehow, but this was the most Ye Olde place we’ve ever been in our lives. It was a pub rebuilt in the 1600s, so this place has been here a long time. There was one secret nook of tables after another, with a wine cellar-like basement that unfolded into cozy hidden chambers. The food was solid, and they had a zero proof brown ale! Stef was very pleased.

More than satisfied with our half-day in London, we packed up and left for the airport with plenty of time. We were so happy about this fortuitous turn, excited to be on our way, and thrilled with the London memories we’d created. We were nervous getting on the tube because of a worker’s strike, but budgeted in some extra time, and were well on our way.

Then, one stop from the terminal at Heathrow, the conductor announced the train would not be moving on, but another one was coming right behind. We dutifully filed off the train, and waited, hundreds of us Heathrow-bound with our suitcases. Daniel and I would occasionally see a wave of Suitcase People move toward a different spot on the platform, and we didn’t know why. Finally, we heard that the train would be arriving at a different platform than the one we were on. We ran up the stairs, ran down the stairs as the precious train pulled up…then the doors closed right in front of us, not to reopen. We had missed our train.

So we waited. Every five minutes, an announcement would inform us that the next train was delayed…and delayed…and delayed. We were about to give up and try Uber, when Daniel wisely said we should wait just a couple more minutes. Success! We had used all our contingency time, but we arrived at the airport without much more delay.

Minutes after arriving at the airport, Daniel approached with more bad news: Our Brussels flight was two hours delayed. We were already arriving late, at 10pm (that’s 22:00 in Europe time), and now it would be midnight. We made the best of it with a luxurious meal at Wagamama, a pan-Asian chain that’s hot in the UK, and spent more precious vacation hours in the airport.

When it was time to board, we somehow got mixed up with people who were volunteering their bags to be checked, and had our bags pulled from our reluctant hands. The way air travel had been going, we could see lost luggage in our future. But then we were on our way! We arrived in Brussels – check – got our bags – check – got to the hotel – check – and absolutely collapsed into bed. We had finally arrived, two and a half days later, but back on track.