2nd Day in London…

After a restful night in my large bottom bunk bed, under a nice window that I’d cracked open the night before for a cooling breeze, I dressed and hurried down to breakfast in the basement. It was 6:30 ish as I’d gone to bed early and awoke early. I’d toured the low ceiling room last night and found there were only so many outlets and this morning I’d found my slow charger had not topped off my tablet overnight. Crap. So I found a seat at a four person table, right next to an outlet, plugged in and proceeded to load my tray with free breakfast goodies. Cereal, milk, coffee, toast, jam, and a couple slices of cheese. They had cold cuts, but I don’t have meat for breakfast as a rule. Except on weekends, and I forgot that today was Sunday. Hah. I should have gone out and had an interesting English breakfast…too late now, I was already stuffing my face by the time I thought of it.

And then this really cute 20 something gurl sits across from me at this not very wide table and proceeds to cough and hack the entire time she sat there. Gah! Go away! I don’t want no fuk’n cold! I tried to lean far, far away from her zone of germs…as far as my electrical charging cord would allow. Since the breakfast room was packed now, I had nowhere to move and still charge up my tablet.

After checking my email and reading my comics, I see that I’ve got even less battery charge left on my tablet then before. This ain’t right. Normally it would fully charge overnight. And barely lose any charge while plugged in while I’m using it. I’d replaced my charger with a substitute when one of the originals ‘legs’, the part that plugs into the wall socket, got all wiggly a month before because it had a broken solder joint. I also took a close look at the specs printed on the devices and found that the substitute charger I was now using a 1 Amp charger whereas the original was a 2 Amp. In addition, the cord for the original charger was thicker and heavier than any of the spare cables I’d brought. Damn.

I finished breakfast and surfing, then trudged upstairs trying to figure out what to do about the slow charging rate on my tablet. For starters, I figured I could charge it up all day in my room while I’m gone. That’s scary of course because there weren’t any lockable storage containers in the room at all, and I really couldn’t afford to have my tablet stolen. It had all my plans, links, phone numbers, notes, travel bargain bookmarks on it. It even has a working phone built in. Even if I find a secret place to charge the thing, I’m going to have to find a better charger somewhere in London to replace the bad one. Well, screw it, I’m in London and want to tour the town and charge my tablet. I looked all over the room trying to find a place where it wouldn’t be so visible. Eventually, I pulled out my heavy bunk bed and there was an outlet hidden behind it. Oh, great! I plugged in my charger, hid my tablet and charging cord under dirty clothes, blankets and pillows, pushed the bunk bed back against the wall so none of my roommates would spot it and off I went exploring London. And while exploring, I’d be looking for an electronics shop where I could buy a new charger.

The hostel had a walking tour assembling outside the building and I joined that group. We briskly set off towards King’s Cross to board the tube, and stopped every few minutes as our guide regaled us with stories of ancient daring do.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–Of cabbages–and kings–

And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

And so, along our walk—we talked of many things. But sadly, as was our lot—saw nary a pig with wings.

We did, however, see some typical English neighborhoods with their typical cabs and lorries.

And soon enough, we arrive at Covent Gardens. The guide passed us off to another tour guide so we waited here a bit while people gathered. Had just enough time to wander around the Gardens proper. There was shopping to be had of course. I was more interested in the history of the place than trying to find trinkets. Most of the stuff marked Made in England though, so, that’s good. They had some nice fruits available but I was still stuffed from b-fast.And then the time came and off we went for the next portion of our walking tour. Saw a golf ball for a giant, (whiffle ball actually). On top that building.  And here we happen upon Trafalgar Square. Like they’d planned it that way for a reason. The National Gallery of Art.

Dunno what this is.

And here we pass by St. James Place. Where part of the royal family lives. Very nice sculpture outside ot St. James Place. The causeway up to Buckingham Palace. This is all in/near downtown London by the way. One of the side gates to the palace, where they do the changing of the guard for tourists. He’s wearing a beaver hat. Beaver’s still alive, bit his nose. And we were treated to a marching band practicing for something special which I can’t recall. It’s not the Queen’s B-day, that happens on June 13th. There were preparations all over the Queen’s estate and nearby but I just don’t remember what was going on. I think it was some sort of international thing too. See all the crowds I’d missed yesterday when I was here at 7 AM? It was now near noon and the area is getting filled up with tours and tourists. We walked over there and were promptly jostled by the crowds. I forget what we were doing other than just gawking at the statue and palace. Off in the distance I spotted the ‘London Eye’. And here, a marching band wandered by, practicing, so I made a video: London Marching Band

A sweet little cottage hidden near the royal residence. Big Ben over there. We did walk up to it eventually. And here is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom building. Pretty neat carvings.

And here is Westminster Abbey. Very cool old gothic building. Damn, this is the only picture I got of the facade and I didn’t hold still. Flying buttresses going on there. This is the Palace of Westminster. I really liked this building for some reason. Check it out…also, notice the parade ground all blocked off for the big event, whatever it was. And here’s where we got up close to Big Ben. And a storm started rolling in… And then our guide left us across the street from Westminster under a large statue next to a gothic church with instructions on how to get back to the hostel. Tip was in order if you so desired.

The guide pointed me in the direction of the tour boats on the Themes so off I went, and was soon aboard just before the weather turned. It drizzled off and on for over an hour. Wind whipped up and the temperature dropped. Happy I’d brought my light jacket and wore my cow hat. This is where London Bridge use to be. They shipped it over to the US and it’s now at Lake Havasu City, Arizona Clouds look a little threatening, don’t they? A pink bridge? Can’t find info on it.  And here is the modern Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. As we passed, I thought about the reproduction theater of the Globe I’d been to in Ashland, Oregon. The several plays in Ashland I went to in that theater, performed by real pro actors, were amazing. And still are from what I hear.

Don’t remember what this ship is, I figured I’d make it back later for a tour but never did. Damn. Now I’m unhappy that I missed it. An old WWI battle cruiser. And here’s the London Eye. Now that I’d passed it on the water, and saw that it just slowly turns, stopping at each cabin to unload and load passengers, my enthusiasm for taking a ride diminished. Even more so when we got close enough that I could see there were no seats in the cabins, which are each large enough to hold 25 people. You have to stand the entire 1/2 hour circuit. No thanks. The view would be terrific though. They say you can see 40 miles away during good weather. If I’d been with someone who wanted to ride, I would have of course. After the walking tour and boat tour, I had a pretty good sense of where I was in London and was planning on returning to some of the places for a re-visit the next day or two. The tube did pass by the train station so I stopped by and found where I could buy a ticket for my next destination…Bath, England. So after that, I took the tube to Kings Cross, then the bus to the Clink hostel. Then after checking on my tablet (still not charged), I wander around the neighborhood until 4-5 blocks away I found a nice ethnic restaurant that offered spicy, Moroccan style chicken dinner. Delish.

Back to the Carpenters Pub for a few rounds with my new bar friends, later on a couple more in the hostel bar where I had a nice conversation with the bartender and a couple cute gurls, and then on to bed. The next day was scheduled as a rest, haircut, laundry, planning day and nothing else. Except I also HAD to find a new charger for my tablet. This slow charging issue was killing my fun.

See you next time. But first I’m going to point out that there were many times in Europe where I should have gone and visited something, but one thing or another prevented my visit. One was the mental exhaustion from traveling for almost 2 months at this point. Then was the expense of some areas, and everything in England is pretty damned expensive. Then there was missed connections and memory failures. For instance, while I was in Prague and planning my next adventure, I did not realize I was so close to Vienna, Mozart’s hangout. Had I known, I would have headed there instead of Berlin, just to tour all of Mozart’s favorite hangouts. And then, who knows where? Greece? But, I missed that I was that close and headed to Berlin instead. C’est la vie.