2019 UK Trip – Day 9 (London, England)
(FYI – this was a long day of travel and finding our destination. We were tired and took virtually zero photos. Most of the photos in this post are royalty-free photos of the places we went, courtesy of the interwebs.)
I never in a million years thought I would be able to go to London. I guess I just dreamed too small or had not been dreaming at all… but here I am, standing on the streets of London! We had a long train ride from St. Andrews, Scotland to here. We are tired from nine days of travel and, honestly, I can’t even feel excited. I am quite frustrated with my emotions. The train ride here was beautiful but the busyness of this town is a bit much for me. We both have our eyes set on finding the flat, dinner, and rest. Well, rest for me. Eric has school work. His discipline blows me away. At this point, I would have thrown my books out of a train window. But not him! He just keeps doing what needs to be done. I, on the other hand, plan to eat and sleep.
Our last stop on the train was Kings Cross, a famous train station in London. This is the station where Harry Potter boards the Hogwarts Train at Platform 9 ¾. Eric and Holton have been reading the Harry Potter books for fun (aside from both of their assigned books for school), so he wanted to find the platform. Of course, they have a Harry Potter display, including a buggy with an owl cage disappearing into the brick wall. Folks are lined up to take pictures at it. We don’t stand in line, but we do get a photo of the display.
From Kings Cross, we find our way down to London’s famous Underground metro. We have to take the “tube” to Paddington Station (which is where another famous book character, Paddington Bear, gets his name!) and then to Notting Hill Gate (another tube station). Once we’re there, we have to find our flat in Notting Hill. You may be familiar with the Notting Hill neighborhood from the movie by that name with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.
including Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes lived.
The tube station is PACKED with people. It takes us a minute to figure out which train we’re supposed to be on. We’re both quite tired and our patience levels are low. We’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder with people waiting to get on a train. Finally, we find the right train and get on. Just like the platform, the tube is standing-room-only. We have our luggage in tow and we’re trying to figure out how to get where we’re going. Eric is studying the Underground map on the wall of the train and tries to tell me something. I can’t hear him well. A nice English man standing next to Eric says, “You’re not the only Americans who landed in London today!” He’s referring to President Trump. We had no clue we would be in London at the same time as the president. We’re not sure how English people feel about Trump, especially since there’s no telling how any given American feels about him. The nice English man confirms what Eric is trying to tell me; we need to get off this train at the next platform and get on another one, otherwise we’ll be on this very crowded train for a long time because it’s going the long way around to Paddington Station. We get off the train, cross the platform, and get on another one that’s heading the way we need to go. This train is much brighter, cleaner, and MUCH less crowded. We take a seat and a deep breath. This is better.
We didn’t have to go far before we’re at our stop. We climb up the stairs out of Notting Hill Gate and get our bearings. The flat is just around the corner from the tube station. It’s also right across the street from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and just a short walk from all the sightseeing we will do tomorrow. Eric chose this flat because it seemed nice on AirBnB and it was so close to the things we wanted to see.
We make it to the flat. The buildings in Notting Hill look just like they do in the movie, but the neighborhood feels kind of… well, Americans would say “sketchy” and the Brits would say “dodgy.” Either way, it’s not a good feeling. It is one of those apartments where you have to put in a code to open the front door and then climb three flights of stairs to get to your room. Yeah, that kind of place. We knew about the code and the stairs going into it but what we did not know just how run-down the inside of the building was. Our flat is a studio apartment and is really small. In his research, Eric found that small and expensive was the norm for flats in London. Once again, we were prepared for the small space, but really how do you prepare yourself for your bed to be four feet from your stove? No exaggeration. Our AirBnB experience has been mostly good, but it’s really like going on a dating site and a person showing you one-quarter of his good side and when you show up the other three-quarters he did not show is just too much to handle. (The dating thing has not happened to me… just guessing this is how it would have gone if I ever tried!)
Well, back to the flat… the three-quarters outweighs any one-quarter of good, but I am too hungry and tired to care tonight. We made our way down to a Mexican restaurant! Yes!!! Something normal to feel like home! Only at home, my Mexican restaurant gives me as much chips and salsa as I can eat and they taste yummy. Here, I got enough chips to feed one small squirrel and the salsa was straight-up fire. My drink was 6 ounces and not a drop more. (I’m so tired of tiny Coke bottles!) Just maybe, friends, if I was not on the verge of exhaustion I could have found a silver lining to tell you about… but that is a big fat “No.” The best part is that there were so few people there (first warning sign) that we were in and out quickly.
give me an American sized fountain drink, please!!!
We are now back at the flat. The original plan was to stay for two nights. I told Eric that if I had it my way we would leave this place in the morning and stay in a hotel near the airport (we fly out in two days), but we have already paid for this place and it just makes sense to stay here. So I am off to sleep while Eric burns the midnight oil to get his next assignments done. I am praying for a great day of sightseeing tomorrow.
Did I mention that the stairs get more and more narrow as they go up? And that there’s no elevator? And that there are “What To Do In Case of Fire” signs EVERYWHERE?!? After all the fire safety warning signs in this building, I am praying for no fire because there would be no getting out. We’d burn up before we made it to the front door, for sure. Pushing those thoughts down, I settle in to sleep and ask God to continue to show me His plan daily and help me walk in joy in the unknown.