London Tips - Final Thoughts

I arrived home in the USA last night. It was a long flight home! But, I wanted to share some final thoughts before I close this chapter on my visit to London.

Overall, he people in London are very friendly and really wonderful to tourists! Even the cab driver who took me to the train station on my way to the airport to come home was going above and beyond to make sure I enjoyed London.  Hearing that I was an American, he asked how I enjoyed the trip and asked what sights I'd seen. When I told him that my touring was somewhat limited because I was visiting on business, he took the opportunity to make sure that I saw a few last things on the way out.

To the dismay of the traffic behind us, he drove very slowly past Buckingham Palace so I could get a few pictures. First he explained that one can tell if the Queen is home or away based on the flag that flying from the top of the Palace. If the Union Flag is flying, the Queen is not home. When she is home, her flag flies. As we passed, I saw hat the Union flag was flying, meaning that the Queen was not home. This explains why I never received my invitation to have tea with the Queen as I'd expected :).

He also told me some of the history of the surrounding area including how London was built out in various directions from the address Number 1, London which was the home of the Duke of Wellington called the Apsley House (or Wellington Museum today) and stands not far from Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the picture I got is very poor quality and not worth sharing (the car was moving and the pic is a mess).

As we drove a little further, we passed the location of the Tyburn Tree, which today is simply a circular stone plaque embedded into the pavement. Many executions by public hanging were carried from the 1100s through the late 1700s. According the the cab driver, it is from the executions at the Tyburn tree that we have the phrase today to "take one for the road" (getting one more of something to take with you when you leave a place). Apparently, when a prisoner was on the way to the gallows at that location, the captors would ask the prisoner if they wanted "to take one for the road". If the prisoner said yes, they would stop at a pub for a last beer "for the road" to the execution site. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of this, but I enjoyed hearing the history!

I simply cannot say enough about how friendly the English are. If you are looking for a vacation destination in Europe where they love tourists - London is the place. I was absolutely overwhelmed by how wonderfully Londoners treat Americans tourists.

Going backwards a little, I stayed at a discount hotel chain called the Premium Inn. Let me start out by explaining that I am a complete hotel snob. I consider it camping to stay at anything less than a 4 star hotel. I have been lucky enough to stay at some of NYC's finest hotels including the Ritz Carlton. While the Premium Inn didn't have the amenities of a Ritz Carlton, I was very pleased with this hotel. It was immaculately clean, modern, quite, and the service was excellent.

As with everything I experienced in London, the staff at the Premium went above and beyond. One night, coming in late from site seeing and not having eaten, I found that the hotel restaurant was just closing. Rather than turning me away, they reopened the restaurant just for me. Another night, I brought food at Harrods that needed to be heated. Despite the fact that I wasn't buying food from the hotel's restaurant, they heated my dinner for me, put it on a plate, provided utensils, napkins, condiments, and a glass of water. All I asked for was if they had a microwave I could use. And, when my hands were full, a person at check-in would rush ahead to push the elevator buttons for me. These aren't big things, I know - but little things make a HUGE difference in the quality of one's stay. I would definitely stay there again and recommend it to anyone looking for an affordable hotel in London.

I learned a lot about business in London too. The English are very direct and no where near as politically correct as American business people. This was refreshing. Rather than beating around the bush, the English get right down to business. They tell you like it is rather than trying to pad everything to avoid offence. This is certainly not meant to imply that they are impolite or mean. Rather, they recognize that time is valuable and get to the point. Business meetings were faster and more productive.

The English find American human resources and employment rules/regulation ridiculous. They sometimes make off-color jokes or use phrases that an American business person may find shocking. This, too, was refreshing! There is nothing that I hate more than constantly being on guard for fear of offending. to that end, some of their jokes were specifically at the expense of the American human resources. I particularly enjoyed those :).  The English openly wish you a merry Christmas rather than American's more inclusive but evasive "happy holidays". They will openly speak about going to church, religion, racial matters without concern that anyone will be offended. And the best part, the English are not so easily offended. Though nothing anyone said was truly offensive (or shouldn't have been, in my opinion) - just having such conversations above a whisper in the USA is completely taboo.

Overall, I loved the culture - from touring to business, England was wonderful and I am going to miss it! I have a couple more trips lined up. Next I am off to San Francisco in January and after that Oslo, Norway in February. I am sure Oslo will be another exciting adventure. February in Oslo (as I'v read) it will be very cold and very dark. That will be my first trip to a country where English is not the default language. It should be quite an exciting experience!

Videos from London - Update

I just learned that the videos from London I posted have no sound - eeeekkkk! The whole point of the videos was the sound - especially Big Ben!

With that, here are videos that have sound. Please note, the sound is not great because I recorded it from my phone and it was a busy street with a lot of background noise... but it is sound nonetheless.

Enjoy!

London Trip - Day 5 - Last Day in London

My adventure today started at lunch. Next to my office building in London, there were Christmas stands set up today. There were a variety of foods and knick-knacks for purchase at the stands. My team and I took a walk over to the stands for lunch. There were a lot of different kinds of foods, but I went with an English tradition called Bubble and Squeak. It is a fried mash up of potatoes, cabbage, leeks, and whatever other vegetables were left over from dinner the night before. The one I got came with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce on top. It was wonderful!

This evening was my company's Christmas Party. It was a lovely party. First, London has a tradition and even a charity associated with the Christmas jumper - better known in the USA as a tacky Christmas sweater. The company planned to have Christmas jumper day on the day of the London Christmas party. So, I picked up my jumper in the US before I came and got to wear it today. I was, however, very much out done by some of my coworkers who had much tackier jumpers than I did. Here is a pic of my lovely Christmas jumper.

The party started out with a secret Santa gift exchange. Since I am not part of this office location technically, I didn't expect to be included but I actually got 2 gifts! One was a full of beauty products and the other is a Christmas jumper coffee mug. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to take some of the beauty products home because of restrictions on the size of "liquids" with which one can travel. Still, the gifts were very thoughtful.

The party was a sit down dinner and at each seat there was a Christmas Cracker. Everyone holds one side of their own Christmas cracker and grabs an end of their neighbor's cracker and pulls until the crackers break open and a small toy, a paper crown (which everyone wore all throughout dinner), and a small card with a joke on it fall out.  Here was my Christmas cracker and the joke from inside it. Unfortunately, the toy went flying and I never found it - but apparently that's part of the fun! 

I really didn't understand the joke in my Christmas cracker (read the joke above). My coworkers thought it was a hilarious joke and tried to explain it to me. Finally, they determined that the problem is that I have never had mince pie.  So, after dinner - I had mince pie as my coworkers all looked on in anticipation waiting to see my reaction (fully expecting that I would love it). I'll admit - it was pretty good! Here is my mince pie -

Well, tomorrow morning I am off to the airport to come home to the USA. I  am definitely glad that I will see my family soon - but I am going to miss London! This was a wonderful trip and London is a wonderful place. The people here are very friendly, helpful, and very nice to tourists! Time and again, complete strangers took an extra few seconds to ask how I was enjoying London (restaurant workers, store clerks, police, cab drivers, etc.). When I would answer that I was loving London they became so proud of their home and would tell me stories, histories, and make recommendations on what to see next. It was so nice. People here are very proud of their city/country and they are extremely nice to tourists. 

Tomorrow, after I check out I will post again with any final notes on my first trip to London. 

London Trip - Day 4 - Exploring the Thames, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey

Today after work I took a 30 minute walk along the Thames to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. It was absolutely lovely. It rained last night and part of today bringing in unseasonably warm temperatures nearing 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit. There was a soft, fresh breeze coming off the Thames which made for a beautiful walk.  The Thames is lined by tons of restaurants and there were little holiday shops in little temporary house like structures set up all along the walking path. Though there were a lot of people it wasn't overly crowded. The view along the Thames is a sight to behold! There were even street performers. One was a violinist playing very beautifully. I got a few seconds of video of the violin - but videos upload very slowly on hotel WiFi - so I will have to wait to share the video of that.

And of course, I have plenty of pictures. I stopped worrying about being looked at as a tourist (whipping out my camera every few steps) on my first day here. With an American accent like mine, I stick out like a sore thumb and there is nothing I can (or want to) do about that. Though I was excited to get to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, I took my time walking. It was wonderful!

Here are the holiday shops along the Thames

This is called the London Eye

As I crossed a bridge over the Thames to get to Big Ben, I was able to finally see why it is named Big Ben. It is huge and the architecture is magnificent.

I took this standing at the base of Big Ben to show how huge it is!

I arrived at Big Ben at 7:55 PM London time and stood waiting the last 5 minutes to hear it chime 8:00 PM. The sound is as big as Big Ben. I video taped the chime but it is taking forever to upload on the hotel WiFi. So, I think I will have to share that tomorrow.

I come to find out that Big Ben is connected to the Parliament building. Parliament is the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen. It is so ornate. Unfortunately, by the time I got there hours for touring were over so I was not able to go in or even get as close to the building as I would have liked as it is completely surrounded with gates and barriers. Still, I got a special treat! As I was walking around taking hundreds of pictures and straining my neck to look up at these massive structures, I caught the interest of one of the Bobbies guarding the area. He politely nodded to me and I took the opportunity to ask if he could tell me what the beautiful building across the street was. He explained that the building across the way was Westminster Abbey. At first I had confused Parliament for Westminster Abbey.

Hearing my accent, the Bobby asked where I was from. I told him and a 30+ minute conversation followed. When I told him how beautiful London is, his sense of national pride kicked in and he told me all about London, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. I don't think any tour guide would have shared so much. It was wonderful. He explained that  the side of Parliament closest to Big Ben is the House of Commons and the other end (where he and I were talking) was the House of Lords. He told me all the most important people - Lords, Barrons, etc. came in through the entrance where he and I were chatting.

He went on to explain that the House of Lords contained records in scrolls dating back to Henry VIII and the most ornate entrance just beyond where he and I were talking was built at the request of and for Queen Victoria. He explained that the steps leading to that door were specially measured to accommodate the size of Queen Victoria's feet and her stride.

Noticing I had an empty coffee cup in hand, he asked if I needed a bin (garbage can). I said yes and he took the cup and threw it away for me in his watch post. He explained that almost all of the public bins were removed in the 1970s and 1980s because the IRA would place bombs in the bins to attack Parliament. He also told me that the barricades outside of the ornate iron gates were put up over the last 30 years also to protect against the IRA.

He told me that when he was a child, there were no barricades and one could walk right up to Parliament unobstructed as the gates were always open. That was, he continued, until the IRA planted a bomb in Parliament's parking garage. Today, Parliament and Big Ben are on complete lock down unless one attends one of the public sessions of Parliament. Unfortunately, with work hours such as they are (and the fact that Parliament just went on holiday break) I will not be able to attend one of those sessions or see the inside of the building. Maybe on my next visit, I will be luck enough to go inside. For now, I was very content hearing such interesting history from a London Bobby.

As interesting side notes, he tells me that no one in Parliament wears wigs anymore (yes, I asked) and the term Bobby is still in use today. He told me that the nick name Bobby came from the the first British Police officer Robert Peel back in the 1800. There is a big statue of Robert Peel in a park across the way from Parliament.

Here are my pics of Parliament.

Following my conversation with the Bobby, I walked over to Westminster Abbey. Sadly, it too was closed and there were no Bobbies immediately around to fill me with stories. Still, I got some excellent pictures. Westminster Abbey is very pretty - but I think it pales in comparison to Parliament. It's funny - looking at Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London, I find that I am most impressed by doors. It sounds strange and perhaps it is strange or shows some weirdness in my psyche - but I love big, old, wooden doors. That is certainly not meant to imply that I no longer love ornate stone architecture. Oh, I do! But there is something that really attracts me to old doors.

I love doors, strange but true

This is china from the Westminster Abbey shop

 This is a cool little bag from the Westminster Abbey shop

 This is the Westminster Abbey shop (closed when I got there)

I told you, I love doors!

Another door

Yet, another door

door :)

 surprise - its a door!

Over all, it was another wonderful day touring England! Tomorrow will be my last full day in London and I head home to NYC on Friday. I am looking forward to going home because I really miss my family. But, I am going to miss London. This is a wonderful place. I am so glad I have been able to visit and do some site seeing.

Here are a few other pictures that just didn't fit into my story but came from the same general area.

 Not sure who this is - but it was a nice statue

 This is a statue of Winston Churchill

Finally, an interesting observation about London....

Ordering Coffee in London is different. First, I have not found any coffee shops yet that allow you to add your own milk/cream to the coffee. With that, the server will often ask if you want black coffee or white coffee. White coffee has milk or cream in it. I don't know whether it is milk or cream because they don't offer the choice... black and white are the only options.

Next, when you say that you'd like your coffee white (with milk/cream), they will ask if you'd like it hot or cold. At first, I assumed that cold coffee was iced coffee and that was wrong. Hot or cold actually refers to the milk that they will put in your coffee. The formal interpretation of hot or cold when ordering coffee is "Do you want the milk in your coffee steamed (HOT) or right out of the milk container (cold)?

Just though you'd want to know that! Good night!