Fortunately
we had some lovely English spring weather, meaning 0-2°C snow and rain plus a
chilling wind that tried to rip the flesh from our soaked bodies... man, how I
hate that bloody weather over there…
Nevertheless
we got to see a few really noteworthy attractions during those days, the first
one being the Tower of London. On a few maze like tracks through a few dozens
of towers, galleries, halls and chambers you explore the old fortress and get
to know some interesting facts about the Tower’s history. Due to the narrow and
steep staircases, like you only see them in the Netherlands these days ;-),
this trip can be quite a challenge but is still worth it if you are keen on
English history, medieval stuff or ancient architecture. Unfortunately a
greater part of the tours require you to get outside into the inhabitable area
of rain and chill. But as long as you stay inside, e.g. visiting the crown
jewels (very impressive stuff) it is rather pleasant. As we just arrived that
day, and some of us acted as if they were freezing to death, this was the only
sightseeing we did that day.
For dinner
we fancied some curry and the hotel staff sent us to “Brick Lane”, it took us
some time to figure out that this was not the name of a specific restaurant but
instead a street name where you can find a lot of Indian restaurants next to
each other. And what happened there was something we have never encountered
before. In front of each of those restaurants was a guy advertising rather aggressively
for said restaurant, telling us that this was the best place etc. Well, we were
there for the food after all so we just took one and went in, after the guy
outside promised us a 20% discount on the food. Inside we saw that all tables
were full and the place was rather crowded. But before we (a party of 5 people
after all) could leave again we were given some drinks and told to wait as
there would be a table available soon. And so the ushering began… A two person table just got free and on the
other side of the aisle a three person party seemed to finish their meal. But those
two tables could not be connected on the other hand there was a small table
next to the three person table where two girls just got their food and were
enjoying it. So those two simply got relocated by the staff to the other side
of the aisle and suddenly there was enough room for us. To be honest, something
like that would get the place shut down very quickly if you tried that in
Germany ;-) So we sat down... ordered… and ate the food that was IMO rather
tasty. But as soon as we finished our plates were taken away, in some cases in
the very same second the cutlery hit the plate (and I am NOT exaggerating here).
Well, we paid up and emptied our drinks but we were not quick enough to avoid
being asked to leave... politely but nevertheless it was clear they wanted us
out as soon as possible… Now that was a first to all of us…
Afterwards
we were to meet up with friend of one of my companions who already lives in
London for a few years now. He took us to some kind nightclub in the city. As I
am not much of a clubbing person that was not my favorite part of the trip ;-)
But I learned that people are people no matter if you are in London or Munich
or anywhere else… add loud music, enough alcohol and heat and the idiocy
emerges ;-) Yes, I know… I am just too cranky about that topic so let’s just
move on… When we left the club the tube was already shut so we had to find a
bus line taking us back to our hotels (I stayed at a different place than my
mates) but that was rather tricky as our guide had not much clue himself about
the bus night lines. At least we found a line at Picadilly that took us to my
mates’ hotel and I decided to join them and take a cab from their place. So we
already saw Picadilly and I had London cab ride… Check ;-)
On the next
day we met up at Hyde Park, had a look at Speakers’ Corner and walked south to
the Buckingham Palace. Then took a turn through the government quarters looking
at Downing Street and then at the Houses of Parliament as well as Westminster
Abbey. Too bad it was Sunday, so Westminster was closed for tourists. After crossing
the Thames to the Eye of London we walked all the way to the Tate Modern Museum
too look at some crazy shit… Yeah right, I am not an art person, congrats for
figuring that one out… As that was a very long walk we had, we decided to go
back to the hotel and so crossed the Thames again to St. Paul’s via the
Millenium Bridge and had another nice bus ride. This time we decided to go for
an Italian dinner, which actually was quite nice in a rather classy place. But
when it came to the check there was some confusion, the check had a service charge
on it (about 12.5%) and as far as we knew that meant that we should not give an
additional tip. But our waitress did not look too happy so we just asked and
she told us, that this service charge was for the company only but also that it
was “okay”… So we all put in some extra for a nice tip, but after some more
research on the topic it now seems that the bitch screwed us over. Afterwards
we headed for pub next to the hotel and had a nice chatty evening while
enjoying funny named beers like “Doom Bar” or “Panzerfaust”, yes that’s right,
that is how those English people name beer. The experience of a bar closing down
at 11 pm, even though it was expected, was somehow weird though.
Okay, final
sightseeing day. We started out at Harrods, holy cow they sell a lot of crap
there… It was really impressing seeing such a big and overwhelming shopping
mall especially with a lot of luxury stuff. On the top level I found the
following item in the sports section, please note the very reasonable price on the sign sitting on the right side of the seabob (okay, looks like you can't zoom in, well the sign says you can buy this nifty toy for the very reasonable price of 80.000 GBP):
After about
an hour we headed off to Madame Tussauds to see some wax celebrities and I must
say, some of them look _really_ impressive. My favorite of live like look is
Sean Connery, that face seemed almost alive. All in all there was quite a lot
to see but the “horror show” does not deserve its name and the “Marvel
Experience” has just nothing to do with the rest. Even though, the visit was
well worth it and I can only recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see
it. Afterwards we were considering to try Westminster Abbey again until we
found out it had already closed down for that day, darn it! So we did call it a
day and headed back to the hotel again. This time our dinner plans took us to a
Mexican place that was close to the Italian we were at before, for some reason
I could not interest anyone in an English dinner ;-) After a really lovely but
rather expensive meal we tried a different pub which was also quite lovely.
The next
two days were filled with conference stuff which I will write about in some
other post. On the first evening I was at the conference until 10 pm but the
others left earlier as the later talks were not interesting for them. So they
went back to the pub from the day before but had a not that pleasant experience
with a obviously drunk fellow that tried to get them started on “the war, that
we lost” etc. When I heard about that I was pretty happy I stayed at the
conference ;-) But seriously, is that really something English people need to
talk about? Or do you consider it funny to annoy us? Or do you just like to make
Nazi references? I really hope that one was an exception…
On our last
evening after the conference ended we went to another Italian place and a pub afterwards
near the conference venue. This one got by without any trouble what so ever and
was kind of a perfect ending for our trip.
I must say
despite being an awful expensive place to live London seems like a real nice
place, at least for a short vacation
even though it seemed to me that an awful lot of litter was laying around
everywhere. But the tube took me any place I had to go very reliably and the
huge amount of signs and service people everywhere (all way more friendly and
helpful than those at home) made it very easy for me as a foreigner to find my
way. So I guess I will be back some day to get to see the stuff I missed this
time... Beware!!!
