Much delayed post.... London!

Y'all, I have been agonizing about this blog post for far too long. I've written it several times, but each time too many parts sound like "lecturing," or like I'm just trying to cram as much info into it as I can. Truthfully, there's not much about these places that I can tell you that you're not already familiar with, and any attempt to post information just doesn't seem natural to me. I endeavor to make these blog posts entertaining first of all, with little tidbits of random information thrown in just for giggles. After weeks of kicking this post around, I'm going to have to do this one a bit differently. I've got a couple of stories to throw in, but after that I'll just post a quick bullet point or two about each place, then throw some pics up. Sorry in advance, but I just can't figure out any better way to do it!

I'm going to cut and paste my first few paragraphs (from an earlier iteration), just so you can get a taste of my normal writing, then I'll switch out to the bullets: 

The boss had a TAD ("Temporarily Assigned Duty," or "Traveling Around Drunk," whichever you prefer) to London for a week. I didn't take daily notes on everything we did, so I'm just going to regurgitate what I can remember.

For airfare, we traded in a bunch of points and we upgraded both of us to Business Class... which was nice. Unfortunately, the flight was only about an hour and 45 minutes, and on the little planes the Business Class is in the same kind of seats as coach, but the middle seat is left empty... so that was nice. We got real meals served to us on real plates... after seeing the menu where they were charging the plebes in coach $3 or $4 for a Coke, I was pretty impressed.

The big bonus with Business Class was access to the lounge on both ends. British Airways in Frankfurt doesn't have their own lounge, they partner with Air Japan. As a result, the toilets in the lounge are Japanese toilets, and they are nice. Different, but nice. I won't say any more, except that when we redo the master bathroom at the house, I'll be trying to talk the wife into getting one.

We eventually got out of the airport (Heathrow is absolutely HUGE), and headed for the taxi line. At this point (perhaps earlier, but this is when I heard about it), the wife decided that she was going to insist on a "black cab," because she'd heard so much about them. The first cab in the line was a grey Mercedes van. That wouldn't do at all, now, would it? We explained the predicament to the guy who was running the taxi line, and he didn't bat an eye, just walked us back to the second taxi, which happened to be a black one. 

We got our stuff loaded into the cab and hit the road toward our hotel. The boss explained her reasoning to the cabbie, and he shared with us that all the cabs in London are considered "black cabs." What makes "black cabs" so special? Let's talk about them for a moment...

London cabbies are pretty well known, worldwide, for knowing the most about their city. Before they get their license to transport people, they have to complete a course called the "Knowledge of London." Essentially, they have to know every single street in London, and the best ways to get to and from random destinations off the top of their head. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about "The Knowledge" - I will indent it, so if you want to skip all this, it'll be obvious:

The London taxicab driver is required to be able to decide routes immediately in response to a passenger's request or traffic conditions, rather than stopping to look at a map, relying on satellite navigation or asking a controller by radio. Consequently, the "Knowledge of London" is the in-depth study of a number of pre-set London street routes and all places of interest that taxicab drivers in that city must complete to obtain a license to operate a black cab. It was initiated in 1865, and hasn't really changed since.

It is the world's most demanding training course for taxicab drivers, and applicants will usually need to pass at least twelve "appearances" (periodical one-on-one oral examinations undertaken throughout the qualification process), with the whole process averaging 34 months to pass.

Three hundred and twenty standard routes through central London, or "runs." In all, some 25,000 streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross are covered, along with the major arterial routes through the rest of London.

A taxicab-driver must learn these routes, as well as the "points of interest" along and within 1⁄2 mile of each end of those routes including streets, squares, clubs, hospitals, hotels, theatres, etc.

The Knowledge includes details such as the order of theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, and the names and order of the side streets and traffic signals passed on a route.

I don't even know all of that about Knoxville. Or Austin. I was pretty impressed by our cabbie's abilities, his (for lack of a better term) knowledge of the streets, etc. The journey from the airport to our hotel was about an hour, and once we got into the city Peter (our driver) showed us all of the sites we were driving by, and told us the best ways to get around. He gave me a business card as he dropped us off, and told us to contact him if we wanted a ride back to the airport.

The hotel. Let's talk about the hotel for a moment. This was a NICE hotel. Thanks to the boss' Marriott status, our room was upgraded two tiers. Our concierge, Mustafa, was an absolute gem, and fell all over himself taking care of us. You'll read more about him later, but our first experience with him, he walked us up to the room and showed us how the switches worked, then asked if he could bring us some complementary wine. We didn't want to be a bother, so we both told him it wasn't necessary... he talked us into it, by telling us "It's included with your room, it's not a bother at all!" Very nice gentleman, who really enjoys his job (and it shows).

One thing about the location of our hotel... if you look at a map of London, the big tourist sites are all over town. Our hotel was literally right in the middle of all of them. However, because the city is so big (much bigger than we were expecting), it's a long walk to any of them. We had decided to buy tickets for the Tube, London's subway system. The hotel was about a ten minute walk to two different stations, or we could just keep walking to get to the attraction we wanted. Our first afternoon, we explored our way to the Tower Bridge. I didn't go through it, but the wife took the tour. I wandered around until I found an ATM, as we didn't have any Pounds with us, and I'd told Mustafa that I'd give him a tip the next time I saw him. On our way back toward the hotel, we passed through an area called Borough Market, which was closed (but was on my list, so I visited later in the week), and while walking along the Thames, we encountered a pub that happened to be on the wife's list, with a sign posted advertising trivia the next night (Monday). We ended up just walking back to the hotel and eating dinner at the restaurant in the hotel (which was actually quite good!). 

The next morning was February 26th. Some of you might know that that's the boss' birthday. She had to go to work (that was the whole reason we were in town), but her comfort level wasn't as high as she'd like, so I got up and rode the tube with her and helped her navigate her way to work. Then I headed back to the hotel until I was ready to take on the day. On the way into the hotel, I stopped to talk to the clerk at the front desk. I told her that the boss' birthday was that day, and asked her where I could buy some flowers. She walked me out onto the street and pointed out the store down the road. She asked if I was going down there right now; I told her that I'd be going up to the room for a while, then would go out and pick some up.

I went up to the room and was researching what I wanted to do that day and the doorbell rang. I answered it, and Leena (the front desk clerk) and Mustafa (from earlier in the blog) were standing there with a room service tray containing: a big bouquet of roses, a bottle of red wine with 2 glasses, a box of chocolates, and a birthday cake marked as being enough for 18 people. I was quite impressed with what they were able to put together on such short notice, and the wife was as well. At the end of our visit (as is our wont), we went to the supermarket just to look around at what kinds of products were available, and the wife pointed out all of the items that had been on the tray (the cake, the flowers, the chocolates)... I've seen posts online where hotel people talk about their management gives them an "allowance" to spend on their customers, I suspect that the folks at this hotel have some sort of arrangement like that. We added it up, and for less than around £50, Leena and Mustafa made such a huge impression on us - we're huge fans of that hotel, and will highly recommend that hotel, simply based on the customer service experience. Lemme know if you're traveling to London, and I'll give you their info!

I'd asked Mustafa for recommendations for a good restaurant to take to boss to on her birthday, but she decided that she wanted to go back to the pub (that was on her list) for the trivia night. We made a respectable showing, placing (I think) 4th out of about 10 teams. Some of the questions were specifically about British things, but there were enough general knowledge questions that we didn't do too bad. You had to pay 3 Pounds each to play trivia, and then were entered into a raffle drawing to play a game to win a jackpot. One of our numbers was chosen for the drawing, so I had to go up and play a game similar to the old game show "Card Sharks." There were some oversized novelty cards lines up across the mantle of the (unlit) fireplace, and I had to guess whether the next card would be higher or lower than my card. My first card was a 6, and I guessed higher. I don't remember what my next card was, but I got it wrong. They drew one more raffle ticket, and he got his second or third round wrong as well, so the jackpot rolled over. I think the jackpot would have been around £150 that night.

The Borough Market claims to have been around since 1014, and is just a massive 3 or 4 block area under some of the bridges, lined with dozens of storefronts catering to the general public. Most of the stores sell different specialty foods - butchers, fruit and vegetable stands, fishmongers, cheese vendors... there are a couple of different sections that sell prepared foods as well, so you can sit and have a full meal (as we did late Sunday morning), or wander around with a sandwich. My first visit, I got the boss a jar of candied jalapenos, since the homemade stash we brought from the states is nothing but a fond memory at this point.

Buckingham Palace was on the wife's list (but oddly enough, not on mine). Since it was off season, it was a different tour than is offered in the summer, with smaller groups, and a special guide. They evidently charged more than she cares to admit, but she swears it was a highlight for her.

Thus ends the narrative that I'd written and rewritten so many times. Below, please see all the pics!

The Thames River is a tidal river, with the water level rising and falling every six hours or so. You'll see it in other pics, but here are 3 pics to show you the high and low water, and a pic of the "beach" for scale - those are people in the third pic:

Elizabeth Tower / Big Ben: Didn't tour, just happened to be across the street from it wandering around one day:

Tower Bridge, with the HMS Belfast (museum ship) in the foreground of the top pic:

There's evidently a glass walkway in the top level of the bridge - the wife got a sticker that said that she'd walked on it.

The wife's birthday present from the hotel:

Borough Market:

We ate at a cheese restaurant... plates of cheese came by on a conveyer belt, and you selected what you wanted as it scrolled by. The plates were priced by color. They brought out a basket of crackers and whatever you wanted to drink. First time at a place like this.

One night, we took an authentic Black Cab over to Harrod's, just to say we did it... we walked back to the hotel and the wife found some picturesque buildings and sights:

Trivia Night - you can see me up there like a doofus, with the cards on the left hand side of the pic:

Westminster Abbey... there were two tombs I specifically wanted to see (Sir Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking), so you'll see those specific tombs, plus a bunch of other pics:

The actual Coronation Chair that's used to coronate a new ruler:

St Paul's Cathedral (where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married):

Tower of London:

Gotta throw this in about the ravens at the tower: according to a superstition, if there are ever fewer than six ravens at the Tower of London, "the Crown will fall, and Britain with it." There is a dedicated Raven Master at the Tower, currently caring for seven ravens. Once every three weeks, the feathers on their right wings are trimmed to prevent them from flying away. Here's one of the locals, recognizable from the band on his right leg:

Random pics around town: