I decided to add time in
London after our East Africa trip. Our flights to and from Africa/Nairobi included stops in London/Heathrow. I had our travel agent book us 4 nights in London from 8/25-8/29/2008. We will be staying at the
Holiday Inn Kensington Forum. I chose this hotel mainly for its location-walking distance to Gloucester Road Tube Station. Cost £404.22/$802.18. I also booked transfer from London/Heathrow to our hotel and return. I used Exclusive Airports for this service. Cost £34.00 for pick up on 8/25 and £28.00 for drop off on 8/29.
How lucky we had those stops in London and could do a layover. London is a city that offers so much-history from Roman to Medieval to Elizabethan to Restoration to Georgian to Victorian to London between the World Wars to postwar London. London has some of the best museums and galleries, amazing churches, beautiful parks and gardens, interesting ceremonies, great shopping, and fantastic architecture.
I had done some research on London before our trip began and knew there were 2 things I had to do. One was to visit Stonehenge and the other was to attend the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. For the Ceremony of the Keys I had to mail a request months before and I got our free admission tickets! For Stonehenge there are so many tours offered. The one I settled on was a private sunrise viewing of Stonehenge, breakfast and tour of Lacock, and a visit to Bath. This full day tour was with Viator and cost $312.59 total for the 2 of us.
We are on overnight flight British Airways #64 departing Nairobi on 8/24/2008 at 11:20 pm and arriving London on 8/25/2008 at 6:00 am. Our scheduled pick up is for 7:30 am. There is a further 30 minutes of free waiting time just in case. We arrive early at 5:30 am. Get our luggage, go through Customs, etc. easily. I find a Barclay's Bank ATM so I can withdraw British currency. Using my debit card I get £250. There is our driver with a name board displaying our name Filipski.
A nice ride to our hotel. Gave the driver a tip £3. Check in. The room is small which we had been told it would be by our back home travel agent. Not like the spacious rooms we had in Africa! In our room we take showers and unpack. Luckily we both feel fine-no jet lag at all. We had a light breakfast on our plane before landing in London so we aren't hungry right now.
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Our hotel
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| Our room |
I have told my daughter I will get a Paddington bear for my newborn grandson. So we walk to Gloucester Road Tube Station. It's 4:00 pm. I buy 2 tickets to get us to
Paddington Station at £4.00 each. We have no trouble getting to Paddington Station. I think we took the circle line right to Paddington. Here I can buy our 3 day travel cards. This paper travel card works like a traditional ticket. It's valid on the tube, buses, and Docklands Light Railway. The 3 day travel card is good for any time of the day. Cost is £34.80/$66.47 for the 2 of us total. There's a kiosk selling Paddington merchandise. This year is the 50th anniversary of Paddington. I buy the adorable Paddington Bear-blue coat, red hat-and the 50th anniversary original book. Cost $40.07. I should note that there was a very small foreign transaction fee charge with every credit card purchase I made.
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| Gloucester Road Tube Station |
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Tube tickets
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| The tube/train |
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Paddington
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| 3 day travel cards |
British Museum next on my list. From Paddington, Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus transfer to Central line to Holborn. The oldest public museum in the world established in 1753. Here you can follow the rise and fall of 3 great civilizations-Egypt, Assyria, and Greece. Oops! It's a bank holiday so the museum is teeming with people. It's too crowded for me. We decide to just see a few things. Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles/Parthenon Sculptures, mummies. I had hoped to get a good picture of the Rosetta Stone but it's in a glass case. The Rosetta stone was the key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. This slab is granodiorite with a vein of pink granite inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek. It was discovered at Rashid/Rosetta, Egypt in 1799. There is lots of controversy associated with the Elgin Marbles as Greece has been trying for years to get them back. The reliefs here were brought to England by Lord Elgin from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The British government purchased them from him in 1816. The ancient Egyptians preserved their dead in expectation of an afterlife. Animals that were believed to have sacred powers were also often mummified. I bought 5 postcards and a guide book, cost £6.50. We walked back to Holborn, transfer to the Piccadilly Line to Gloucester and walk back to our hotel.
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| South front entrance-postcard |
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| Special exhibit |
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| Queen Elizabeth II Great Court-postcard |
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Picture of the stone which is behind glass
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Rosetta stone-postcard
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Ramesses II
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Nereid monument from Xanthos, Greece c. 390-380 B.C.
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| Heifer being led to sacrifice-postcard |
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Mummy and coffin of an unnamed priestess, Thebes Egypt 21st Dynasty c.1050 B.C.-postcard
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Mail box
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Another mail box
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Feeling hungry we decide to have our
dinner at the hotel cafe. Fish and chips, cheeseburger and fries, drinks. Cost £21.00 plus a service charge of £2.10 but I left an additional £1.90. Feeling too tired to do any more back to our room-a relaxing bubble bath and in bed by 7:30 pm!
