London to Singapore: Monday 8 August

The alarm was set for 6am but, unusually for me, I was awake from 4am. Nevertheless, that had been a 7 hour sleep. We headed down to breakfast at 6:30am, and it was one of the better ones. The service was excellent and quick, and I had my GF toast within 5 minutes.

Our booked 8am taxi was ready 10 minutes early, and we were at the airport within 10 minutes. The journey reminded me of when we had been picked up at Rome Airport with the Barrows in 2013, and the driver took us on a wild ride, super fast, swerving around other cars and changing lanes within the blink of an eye. I also noticed that there was no taxi meter (it was a smarter-looking vehicle than the usual taxi, and the driver was in a suit), and tucked into the driver's sun visor was a piece of paper with something about Uber). So, I asked him, was this a Uber vehicle (no, he said). When we arrived at the airport, he rushed off to get us a bag trolley, and when he came back, David asked him how much the journey was (knowing the person at the hotel reception who'd booked us had said around £10 for the fare). An unbelievable answer was given.... However much we wanted - obviously NOT a taxi! So, David gave him £13. Very interesting... and leaving us remembering the supposed official tour of Dubai we had back in 2009, which turned out to be by a family member who could hardly speak English!
We had a relaxing start at the airport, and later chatted with a Kiwi couple from Auckland, returning from nearly 3 months overseas, including staying with their son in Cambridge and a week-long Insight Vacations tour of Ireland (seeing many of the things we had seen, and also singing high praises of the tour and their tour guide). They had sailed to the UK from Sydney on Sea Princess, a 55 day journey that they highly recommended as far superior to plane and bus travel!
The flight got away on time, and lunch was served shortly after - a reasonable GF meal for me, with a nice chicken dish. I also enjoyed the popcorn icecream that was handed out to everyone from the regular menu (I carefully checked the ingredients before indulging). I had the pleasure of a spare seat between me and the next passenger and we shared the space and spare table. This meant it was quite easy to set up my CPAP machine. However, settling down to sleep was another matter entirely. We ended up getting no sleep, thanks to a high-pitched squealing little kid (when she was happy, and when she was tired and when she was sad). One of those young ages that no one can help, you just have to accept it. It affected our whole section in the plane - and that was life. I think that people who fly with very young children are very brave!

  

London: Sunday 7 August

We both slept well last night, and were up early to look at partially packing. We were to check out of the hotel at 1pm and had booked a 3pm transfer to the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Heathrow.

We were out the door at 9:15am, and on the Tube to Barbican station, and then doing the short walk down the road to the Museum of London. It was another hot day (26C) and it wasn't easy to keep cool, even in the Museum. Entry was free, but our London Pass gave us a free copy of their Museum Highlights book (really interesting). We only had about an hour and a half at the museum and could easily have spend a day there. It wasn't too busy, the displays were well organised and interesting. We missed a lot but skipped through the main exhibits that managed to pull together a lot of the history, people and places we had been visiting and hearing about on our travels.

  

  

Then we had a good trip on the Tube (ie - not crowded and both of us with a seat) back to Victoria Station, queued up to cash in what was left on our Oyster Cards, and returned to the hotel to check out by 1pm. Even though we'd organised the 1 hour delayed checkout the night before, with two keys extended till that time, we found ourselves locked out of our room yet again, with David having to traipse back through the long corridors and back down to reception.

When it came to checkout time, we were asked if we'd enjoyed our stay, and so I said that I reckoned they owed us a couple of drinks for three lots of hassle over being locked out during our 8 day stay, and also supposedly not having a credit card listed to our room when we'd left the restaurant the first night we went there and as a result having someone pounding on our door shortly after. Plus the terrible noise all night, every night in our 'quiet room' from the concrete drill outside (except Fridays and Saturdays). Other than that, it had been great! So, ask and thou shalt receive - we got a drink each and I enjoyed another White Russian, on the house, at a value of £9.75!

We had a nice, relaxing couple of hours in the bar, all to ourselves, with excellent service and lunch (a really excellent GF mushroom risotto for me - eat your heart out, Jamie's Italian Victoria). I got slightly sozzled after my second White Russian... I hope Ross can make me these when he's home for Christmas!

Just before 3pm, our transfer car was ready and we were off to the Crowne Plaza at Heathrow. It was actually only just over half an hour - no traffic jams, no crowds! Excellent. Much better than trying to get suitcases on the Tube with the stairs and crowds, or even using the Heathrow Express and a shuttle as originally intended!

Check-in was very good and we got a huge room with two double beds, then headed down to the bar for a couple of hours relaxing, reading etc. We had to relax some time on this holiday! Dinner for me was a GF chicken burger, which they actually split in half using two small GF buns - I was impressed with their effort! An early night tonight, for an early morning tomorrow - we're flying to Singapore! More heat...

London: Saturday 6 August

After a 10 hour sleep, I thought I was feeling a little better and we walked the short distance along the road to see the Royal Mews at last. It was a very hot morning so we were lucky to get there before the crowds and the Mews seemed to be open a little earlier than we had expected. The audioguides were good and the carriages were very interesting. We seemed to get around everything in less than 45 minutes. We were disappointed not to see some action with the horses - only seeing two standing in stalls. Still, it was an interesting insight into royal life and history.

  

  

We sat and enjoyed a milkshake each in a cafe over the road (refreshing in the heat), and as I was beyond going further afield, we just wandered along Victoria Place and a little further, looking at shops. I decided to try out 'Leon' for an early lunch (extensive GF options) and really enjoyed their Moroccan meatballs. Then it was back to the hotel for a rest, after doing practically nothing! In the end, David headed off on his own to walk to and tour Apsley House (the Duke of Wellington's home on the corner of Hyde Park). He had also hoped to stroll through the parks on such a beautiful day, but I just needed to stay still with my box of tissues. A terrible waste of our last full day in London, but all I could manage.

David arrived back after an hour and a half outing, having enjoyed Apsley House, and carrying a souvenir book so I could enjoy it too. I was feeling a little better but not that keen to make the effort to go out for dinner. But, before we left NZ, I had already booked the two nights for dinner at Jamie's Italian in Victoria, and this was our second night... It had been so great the first night, we looked forward to a repeat... I nearly got us lost getting there, with making a wrong turn leaving Victoria Station...

Sadly, we had a particularly disappointing experience at Jamie's this time - I guess Tuesday's meal reached such a high level, we were on the cards to experience the opposite... We ordered identical meals and drinks to last time. It started with taking nearly 20 minutes just to get our drinks (David was worried that the meals would arrive well before the drinks). We got water right away when requested as we sat down, but it was not cold and had no ice in it (we saw other carafes later had ice in them...). Once the drinks arrived, I wondered what was happening when I kept sucking three giant lemon pips up the straw from my Amalfi Collins cocktail (9 big pips was the total count in my glass). Our meals arrived and right away didn't look as good or as well-presented. David's looked kind of 'flat' and he said the chicken seemed dry and over-cooked, and my pasta was only warm, grossly over cooked and squishy, and the sauce was tasteless and just a puddle in the plate rather than coating the pasta. I had to ask for the additional grating of fresh Parmesan that our waitress had offered last time. The meal was not good! Luckily, the waiter was back in a minute or two to enquire how our meals were, and I told him why mine was not good (and how it had no flavour either - it was very bland) and he said that he too could see it was overcooked. He offered to have another one done in 5 minutes, and that is pretty much what happened. Someone else delivered it, didn't offer the Parmesan, and it still didn't look the quality presentation (limp parsley and still only a puddle of sauce) or even the quantity of my main on Tuesday night - it was still a bit overcooked. But it was hot this time, and had some (slightly salty) flavour (David hoped the chef hadn't spat on it...). It certainly wasn't something I would have returned for if we'd had it the first night. After that, I flagged the idea of having my intended second cocktail and dessert there, and we just wanted to leave. We asked for the bill (which didn't arrive) so eventually stood up and started walking out towards the entrance counter. Whereby our waiter rushed to the till and made up the bill which, thankfully did not include a charge for my main, nor a service charge. He was apologetic, but his service hadn't been great either. He made comments about the barman being busy, trainees in the kitchen... Make your own comparison with my Tuesday post... And other reviews on TripAdvisor indicate very mixed experiences as well...

It was a balmy 23C and we had a pleasant walk back to our hotel. In spite of the disappointing dinner, I was feeling a lot better. 

London: Friday 5 August

It was rather a wasted day today, not only because I was full of a cold - I actually managed to pull myself together to a certain extent (thanks to the Otrivine last night and the blast of air from my CPAP machine, I had a reasonable night and woke up around 7:39am). I thought I'd be staying in bed for the day, but David suggested using our free Golden Tours hop on hop off bus option (through our London Pass). This turned out to be both a blessing and a disappointment. At least today I did very little walking, or multiple flights of stairs. We sat on the bus, or waited for a bus...

We obtained our tickets just along the road, and got straight on their blue line tour, and quickly found ourselves at the Churchill War Rooms and Museum for a couple of hours. So far so good! What a fascinating place - the War Rooms were very interesting (to think the British and Allies' war effort was run from these rooms). And the museum was excellent too! We learnt a lot about Winston Churchill, his childhood (his parents thought he would amount to nothing and ignored him), the difficulties he initially had with just speaking and then public speaking, and eventually his attention to detail which won many admirers as well as causing some frustration for others.

We had lunch at the cafe there (a GF frittata and salad for me, quite nice), and then we headed out around 2pm hoping to continue our circuit on the bus.... ... From about 2pm we waited 20 minutes and finally got on a red tour bus. Luckily, overhearing someone else, I realised that not all the red buses took us back to where we started - they had two circuits, and the one we were on did not return us to where we wanted to go - near our hotel and at The Royal Mews. So, we knew we'd need to change buses soon... ... Well, the next hour was spent on the bus, mainly stuck in traffic and it had no functioning commentary through our headphones. Eventually the driver offered to stop and have all of us wait to get put on a replacement bus because of this, or to carry on to the Tower of London with no commentary - the latter being the popular option amongst passengers. Eventually we arrived, and I enquired with a Golden Tours rep as to the timing of their next blue bus - 10-15 minutes later, we were told. Well, 50 minutes later we were STILL waiting, along with an English family with a wheelchair. Never again!! Apparently they are meant to come every 30 minutes, but not in that traffic, which was apparently unprecedented (Murray and Lorraine had struck it too), but we couldn't help but notice that there was a constant stream of the two other companies (Big Bus and Original) at a rate of around 10 to 1 as a comparison.

An hour later, we were deposited in front of our hotel, and we were far too late to get into The Royal Mews as we'd originally hoped. We'd have to look at doing it tomorrow (it's not open on a Sunday, and that's also the day we move out to a hotel near Heathrow).

We had a drink (I'm enjoying the White Russians) and dinner. I was glad to have had a 'quiet' day, and to have learnt more about Churchill - I had originally intended staying in our room all day! Nevertheless, I was tucked up in bed at 7pm, and was sound asleep just after 8pm!

London: Thursday 4 August

I was not feeling well today, the raw beginnings of a streaming head cold. But, there were things we needed to see, so after a slow start, we were off on the Tube to the Tower Bridge Exhibition. This had been closed when we wanted to see it in 2009. The queue wasn't too bad at all, and with my walking stick, I was also offered the use of an elevator on a couple of occasions. The displays were interesting, and the views from the middle of the bridge and along the Thames were spectacular, including the views through the glass floors in some parts of the walkways. Jan would have avoided those, and Steve would have marvelled at the construction and the engines that lifted the bridge for ships to pass under.

  

  

  

Next stop was for lunch at Pret a Manger, beside the Tower of London. I found the GF lemon chicken soup very tasty and also soothing.

Then we went into the Tower of London to view a couple of things we'd missed in 2009 - the Medieval Palace towers, and the walk along the walls, also passing through the section describing the wild animals that had once been kept at the Tower. It was all very interesting and we were glad to have visited again. 

  

  

From the grounds, we were able to see the Tower Bridge lifting to let a ship under - that was cool.

  

Next we walked from Blackfriars, across the bridge to the Tate Modern's cafe for a drink and a break from being on our feet. Then we went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, where we were disappointed to find that we wouldn't be able to see inside the theatre itself because a special event had just begun and was on until Sunday morning. We ended up just looking briefly around the separate exhibition with an audioguide. It was well done and quite interesting to find out how drama was presented in Shakespeare's times, and what life was like for the actors and others involved in productions.

After this, we went back to the Tate Modern and toured for a short time with an audioguide - very useful in helping us understand some of the bizarre art we were viewing. We were surprised at how busy this was, and what a huge place - a great use for an old power station.

  

  

We were both tired after all this - I think the crowds are exhausting in themselves. I walked 16,900 steps today. No wonder I collapsed into bed when we got back to the hotel, leaving David to wine and dine on his own - I was beyond it.

London to Hampton Court: Wednesday 3 August

We both had better sleeps last night and with a fine, warm day forecast we headed out to catch the 9:36am South Western train from Waterloo to Hampton Court. We arrived at the small town of Hampton Court just after 10am and walked the short distance from the Hampton Court Station, crossed over the Thames River (it seems to be everywhere we go), and in to Hampton Court Palace (free with London Passes). It was not at all crowded at this time and we picked up what turned out to be really excellent audioguides (I was offered headphones this time - really helpful when also trying to manoeuvre a walking stick, camera, and iPhone camera).

  

We ended up touring almost all sections of the palace: Henry VIII's Kitchens, Henry VIII's Apartments, Young Henry VIII's Story, William III's Apartments, and the Georgian Story. All were fascinating, but I especially enjoyed the kitchens and the Chapel. It was amazing to think of Henry, his wives, and his children (Mary, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI), Cardinal Wolsey... all wandering through these rooms. There was SO much to see, and all so well described in the audioguide and signage.

In amongst all of that we had a brief stop for lunch (baked potato for me, and sandwiches for David). Then we walked out in the gardens, checked out the interesting original indoor tennis court (where a game was in progress) and later had coffees (with a slice of GF Victorian Sponge for me) in the tilting yard cafe - an area where jousting used to take place. Next, we wandered over to the maze but didn't indulge - there were lots of children running around, and my feet had had enough.

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

   

We caught the 3:54pm train back to Waterloo, and by 5pm we were sitting in our hotel's bar with a drink, and later ordering dinner. We'd had a very enjoyable and interesting day. Unfortunately, I had begun to feel a bit off-colour during the last hour of the day - probably a result of the woman who'd been sitting opposite me on a tube train on Sunday, sounding unwell and coughing without covering her mouth (everyone had been eyeing her with annoyance)... Fingers crossed - I was all doped up and in bed by 7pm!

London to Greenwich: Tuesday 2 August

The awful noise seemed to stop at midnight, and started again at 7am this morning. As I wrote this blog post (8pm) it was going full tilt.

Nevertheless, today was a better day than yesterday - starting with a good lie-in this morning, with breakfast in bed courtesy of David (fruit, yoghurt, my GF cereal, and a coffee). In fact, the lie-in was a bit too long and we didn't get out the door until 10am, plans being delayed as we tried to work out the best way to spend our time, given the ever-changing weather forecast! It seemed to indicate just overcast weather, so we set off via the underground for Westminster and the pier where our London Passes gave us free rides with City Cruises for 24 hours.

No sooner had we come out of the underground at Westminster than the rain started. We carried on, with jackets and 'Blunt' umbrella and got on the 10:40am boat to Greenwich. We sat on the top deck, to get photos, but soon the rain forced everyone inside for the last hour of the 1.5 hour trip. It was an interesting commentary, and it was good to see further along the Thames River and know more of the history of this amazing river.

  

  

  

We docked in Greenwich at 12pm and decided to have lunch first, so ducked into an Italian chain restaurant called 'Zizzi'. I had a very mediocre GF Pizza Margarita, and David enjoyed lasagne. Then we attempted to follow Rick Steve's tour of Greenwich, in between rain showers. We first went in to the Cutty Sark (normally huge queues, but none in this weather). It was well-known as the fastest clipper (sailing ship) back in the 1800s, carrying cargoes of tea and wool. There were some parts of the ship I didn't look at because they were tricky to get to with narrow steps, slippery from the rain. The ship had been badly damaged by fire in 2006, just after renovations had began. They've put a huge effort into preserving it but I felt the Edwin Fox displays in Picton were more interesting. We spent around 45 minutes there.

  

Next we wandered through the Discover Greenwich Information Centre, into the Old Royal Naval College buildings of the Chapel of St Peter and Paul (another place badly damaged by fire just after the original building had been completed), and the Painted Hall (originally intended as a dining hall for 'pensioners', but with glorious religious paintings).

  

  

Time was running shorter than expected and the weather wasn't great so we bypassed the Queen's House and headed up the steep path to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, where I was determined to see the prime meridian 0 degrees longitude. I made it up the path (phew!) only to find huge crowds up the top (along with amazing views, even in the bleak weather). Our Passes allowed us to enter for free, and we did go in. But we were beyond enjoying it - it was too busy, and we had another case of the audioguide being hard to see and hear. We were both tired and running out of time, so we had a quick look at the meridian line and marvelled at what it represented, then took the steep walk back down the hill. 

  

  

We ducked through the ground floor of the National Maritime Museum (fascinating, and worth a return visit) and picked up a free copy (with London Pass) of a very interesting book about the museum and what it represents and its displays about all aspects of maritime life.

  

We had half an hour to wait for the 4pm boat back to Westminster Pier, so went back into 'Zizzi' for a seat, David having a beer and me a coffee. The return trip was only about an hour and a quarter, and was very relaxing, sitting comfortably inside and enjoying the views while the rain continued to come and go. Then we had a quick trip back on the underground to Victoria, and headed straight to our 6pm booking at 'Jamie's Italian Victoria' (Jamie Oliver).

We were early, after all that rushing! But we had really excellent service from our waitress, Gabriella, and a lovely relaxing dinner. I enjoyed a cocktail called 'Amalfi Collins': St Germain elderflower liqueur, limoncello, Bombay Sapphire gin and lemon juice with a dash of soda. David enjoyed his main, Gennaro's Chicken Primavera, and I had the best pasta of my life - just a pasta carbonara with GF penne ('smoky pancetta, sweet buttery leeks, lemon and a traditional carbonara sauce') - divine! I had a panna cotta for dessert and David enjoyed his first tiramisu. Apparently a GF tiramisu was no longer on the menu. A very pleasant ending to the day - my health app tells me I took 12,727 steps today!