Adventure 2012: We're all going on a summer holiday

14 June London 6am

One of the things that was striking about the MRT system in Singapore was that it was so tidy and everyone was so well-behaved, even though there were no staff to be seen on board the trains – no conductor, no driver…. We thought that if this system had been in NZ there would have been graffiti everywhere, teenage boys trying to push each other out the doors and generally behaving badly, but instead it was super clean and tidy, and everybody was so, well, sensible! And the trains run about every 4-6 minutes – a very efficient system for moving lots of people, not unexpected for Singapore I guess.

The flight to London was very long, about 13 ½ hours, and left at midnight local time. But we all managed to get a few zz’s, some more than others. Caelan found the buns he got delivered for his dinner to be a very comfortable place to rest his head for a wee while, until I had been entertained for long enough and poked him to move. Once again the food and service on Qantas was amazing – can’t recommend them highly enough.

Arriving in London at 6.30am I was immediately struck by the contrast in ‘feel’, compared with Cambodia. Temperature (a measly 11deg + a very chilly wind) aside, everyone basically ignores you. In Cambodia, everyone is so keen to help you, can’t do enough for you, and at the very least you are approached constantly by tuk-tuk drivers checking if you want a ride somewhere. In London, the opposite pretty much applies. (No tuk-tuk drivers!) The bus driver couldn’t change a 20 so we had to get off the bus, find change and catch the next one. Our early check-in at the hotel was for 12, and no you can’t have it any earlier, even though you’ve arrived 3 hours early. No sorry we don’t have luggage storage. No, although you booked two rooms on the same booking, they’re not adjacent, in fact they’re not even on the same floor. So we basically spent 3 hours loitering around the bar in the hotel, filling up the space with all our luggage, snoozing and using their free internet. But we did purchase their buffet breakfast so it wasn’t all one way J

But for all that, the hotel is quite comfortable, the rooms are large and the buffet breakfast (2 children eat free with every adult) is good food and a good price. And at 19 pounds per room per night we can’t exactly complain! Teddington is in towards London from the airport and has the look of a small English village, brick and stone buildings, terraced houses and narrow streets – quite attractive actually. The bus to/from the airport stops about 100m down the road, and the train station into London is about 100m the other way, so very convenient for us.

Once allowed into our room we showered and rested and then hit Teddington town looking for a Laundromat (no sorry we don’t have laundry facilities at the hotel). It was actually quite a nice walk, and in between cycles we wandered the streets, looked in shops, found the local Tesco and checked out the options for a cheap dinner. Tesco was a lot cheaper than I was expecting – in particular the Tesco-branded biscuits, cakes and lollies are ridiculously cheap. Even a 2 litre bottle of milk is only 2 quid. Fruit and veg and meat are quite expensive though.

We bought fish and chips for tea – Peter did the honourable thing and bought mushy peas to pour on (just like the people next to us). Evidently fear is not a factor for Peter. I can only say that it didn’t add to the experience for me and I’m at a bit of a loss to understand exactly how it has become the ‘delicacy’ it apparently is.

Yesterday we got up early (the sun comes up between 4 and 5 here!), had our big buffet breakfast, and headed down to the railway station to catch the 9.35am train to Waterloo. You can get an off-peak all-day pass on the train/bus/tube after 9.30 for about 26 pounds – not too bad value. We wandered through some of the main attractions in London – past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Privy Council building, then up towards the palace, passing by the Guard barracks just as they were forming up for the changing of the guard. Then we walked through St James Park, falling in love with the squirrels on the way (“daddy I want a squirrel” Veruca Salt springs to mind). We had our Tesco picnic on the lawn near the palace, then went to wave at the queen from a distance. Of course she waved back from one of the windows. There was quite a bit of fencing and wooden flooring all around, from the jubilee celebrations, so there were parts that looked a bit like a construction site as cranes and trucks were dismantling all this. Then we continued along through Green Park towards Hyde Park corner. It was quite a warm sunny day, so all entirely pleasant. Catching the tube round to Covent Garden I had a moment of panic (more like a quarter hour of panic) that I had not brought any ID with me to pick up the tickets for the Lion King which were being held at the Ticket Office. Luckily Peter had his driver’s licence and we were able to get them.

The Lion King show was just amazing. This was the first proper show the kids had been to and they were well impressed. We had watched the Lion King movie a week or two before leaving NZ so they knew the story, and in fact for the first half the show stuck pretty much word-for-word to the movie script - the second half was a bit more loosely copied. The costumes, props, use of puppets etc and the music were all just so so impressive, and the performance so tight – no slips or forgotten lines in evidence. We had aisle seats down on the bottom floor, so Katriel got a bit of a fright when an elephant appeared beside her without warning. It was absolutely brilliant, and we talked and talked about it afterwards. (The little hungry, thirsty, sitting-down-standing-up princess with ants in her pants and wet flannel parents sitting in front of us was unbearable, and lacking the guts to say something to her parents at half time, we spoke to the usher instead and got moved to the other side of the theatre J )

We had not booked to go on the London Eye, not knowing if we would all be up for it by that time of day, but we all were, so that was where we headed next. The queue looked really long, and we were almost ready to write it off, but Peter went to ask how long we would be waiting for and the lady assured us it was only 15 minutes. Dubious but willing to take a chance, we got tickets, and miraculously she wasn’t too far off. Each capsule fits 28 people and one comes round every minute, so the queue moves pretty quickly. It was very impressive, and went much much higher than we expected. But it moves very slowly and doesn’t bump or swing at all, so it wasn’t scary. The views were amazing, and it was good to have walked around a bit earlier in the day so we could point out some of the buildings, and give the queen another wave as well.

Then more cheap takeaways for tea and home to bed.

Next stop Turkey!