Discovering London

London – it is quite a city.
I was invited into London for a charity luncheon at the Landmark Hotel on Friday, Dec 8th. This seemed like a great opportunity to stay for the weekend in London. I have not really spent any time in London since I arrived in England. This coincided with the return of the Scarborough sisters, Lindsay and Karina, from their travels through the rest of Europe. They willingly agreed to “hang out” in London with me. So the adventure began. I had two objectives, one, to begin exploring London and two, to learn how to use the underground and train system.

The Landmark hotel is a historical hotel located next to the Marleybone tube station in a busy area of the city. It is a beautiful old building built in the late 19th century. It is famous for it’s atrium center. It is a place where people have weddings, gala events, company parties and charity events. It is a five star accommodation.

Before the girls arrived, I accompanied one of my co-workers on a manic trip to the industrial area north of central London after the luncheon. She was in search of the perfect wedding dress for her second marriage. (so not white) A friend of hers had recommended a designer who sold dresses wholesale. Only glitch was that you had to go to the “factory” where they were produced to try one on. We left the hotel about 16:00 (4pm) for a 16:30 (4:30pm) appointment. We purchased our tickets for the underground, heading for the (Can't remember the name...)station. This meant two stops, a change of trains and then four more stops before we made it to our desired station. It is very similar to the New York system, only ten times more crowded! There is no crowd control, people just keep piling in until there is no room to breath!! I don’t think I could do that every day… Anyway, once we reached our stop, out of the ground we go, running up an escalator (yes running… we were late , of course) bringing us at least ten stories from what I think must be the bottom of the earth…( so far down…) Once above ground we notice a brass plaque proudly displayed at the entrance that stated something like, “… in memory of 143 women and children who were killed during WW11 by a bomb that hit this station as they were heading underground to the bomb shelter...” Makes you think…

We called for directions from there and were told to walk about six blocks on the right, turn at the water, go under a bridge and look for the iron gates with the number 43. We made it, in the dark and past questionable characters by 5pm. Unfortunately, the dress was not the “dream dress.” However … the adventure for me was well worth it. I got a good feel of what it was like to work and live every day in London. We made it back the same way we came, arriving back at the Marleybone station at 7:00pm. My friend took a cab to the Paddington station where she caught the train to Windsor, her stop for her home in Sunningdale. I checked into my hotel.

The girls arrived about 20:30 (8:30pm). Being the helpless (yeah, right) females that they are, a young bellman from the back door helped them up with their luggage. Our room was huge. It had a very nice bathroom, appreciated by the girls, who had been in a small apartment in Barcelona for a while. There was plenty of room for them to open their suitcases and show me all the “goodies” they had purchased in their travels. Shopping seemed to be a major part of each city they visited. They filled me in on all that had gone on since I last saw them which was in mid-October. Boy did they have a great trip. Day 1, part of objective achieved.. more to come...