Tuesday 30 December 2008

London thus far ...

Flight from Ottawa to Heathrow was uneventful. Check-in and security and the trip to the gate are always so simple and short in Ottawa - we were at the gate 2 hours before the flight. We weren't sure the ginger sparklers were going to make it through security - the agent who inspected our bag looked awful hungry! We boarded on time but sat at the gate for nearly an hour. Don't know what the issue was, but the pilot made it quite clear that he was ready to go! We were, consequently, an hour late getting into London. It was very cloudy so there was no view of the city as we approached. As the jet swung around the city and back in to land, we could imagine the view below from our August trip, but there was nothing to see this time but clouds.

Noise was at Heathrow to meet us and had driven out in the 'StreetCar' - kind of a timeshare car rental parked in the neighbourhood that you can rent by the hour. A quick run in to the Greyhound flat where we had a bit of a 'recover-from-jet-lag' nap. We've learned that the best way to avoid jet-lag is to only power nap on that first day and stay up and active until bedtime in the new timezone. Then we drove out to Wimbledon to pick up PetDoc from work. We did the Christmas present exchange and had nibblies for supper. Then we went next door to the Queen's Arms for sticky toffee pudding.

PetDoc worked Sunday 'til 2 pm so we had a leisurely morning at the flat. Later we took the tube to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland - kind of an amusement park / German Christmas market. Just to make the experience authentic, we had a mug of gluhwein (mulled red wine) and made our way through the park. Treated ourselves to roasted chestnuts and candied nuts and watched the skaters (I guess you could call them that - mostly a lot of arm-flailing and splatting on the ice).







From Hyde Park we walked over to Harrods to see the store lit up for the holidays at night. From Harrods we took the tube to Leicester Square and walked from there to Trafalgar Square to see the Christmas Tree. Then we walked on to Somerset House, where another outdoor rink has been set up. People in this part of London are no better skaters than in Hyde Park.


This morning PetDoc and Noise headed back to work and we made our way over to Covent Garden. From there we walked through the Soho district of London and arrived at Trafalgar Square. We were too late for lunch in the crypt at St. Martin-in-the-Fields so we found a nearby pub and had lunch. Then we walked along Fleet Street and over to St. Paul's Cathedral. After a brief tour there (didn't bother with the dome this time) we caught the tube back home. Noise cooked us a delicious supper of chicken breasts with mushroom sauce and vegetables - we enjoyed a nice bottle of wine (even though Noise had to run next door to the pub and get them to open the bottle). Tomorrow we're thinking we'll go over to Oxford Street and Hamleys and maybe over to Fortnum and Mason. Then we're meeting Des and Dave on the train from Paris and we'll spend some time with them and have dinner somewhere nice.

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Gananoque, Ontario, Canada