Goodbye, Norway – Hello, England

Before we left Paradise Sauda, Norway and our gracious hosts…

…Russell was hard at work securing us lodging in London for that night. This is important to our story as you will find out later.

Notice the view from his “desk”.  So peaceful.

After successfully bidding on a room via Priceline for London that night, we left since we had a 3 hour drive to get to the airport.

Of course, the scenery along the drive was beautiful.

Vegetable Stand (rows of berries in the back)

Heather growing along the road.

 

We took a 30 minute ferry ride which was a novel experience for us.

 

It was quite windy.

 

 

 

 

Pretty luxurious seating for an airport!

We landed in London, England after a 1 hour flight, purchased tickets for the subway and started traveling towards Camden Town where our hotel was.

Oh the fun, oh the novelty of riding a subway. These girls were all smiles… but after stopping and starting a gazillion times at all the different subway station stops, we were all a little weary and only wanted to get to our room. After all it was now almost midnight.

But what a shock we received when we exited the subway. There were people everywhere. I saw a sign for MTV and thought, “Maybe they had a concert tonight and that’s why there are so many out and about.” I was wrong. Even though the MTV headquarters was on the next block, that was not the reason for the crowd.

We left the subway station and started walking with 5 suitcases. People everywhere, trash laying on the streets as well as in huge bags (the businesses on the street place their garbage on the sidewalks next to the street for pick-up). Prostitutes, people drunk, making out, homeless or begging. We saw it all. And here we were, 1 man with 3 ladies in skirts pulling suitcases for several blocks at the midnight hour. You know how much attention that would garner! 🙂 Thankfully, not one person made a remark. We were just ignored. But we wanted to get out of there and to our room fast.

What we didn’t know was that the area where we booked our hotel on Priceline is well-known for its pubs and clubs. Camden Town – a place where many would like to go for its party scene – but not us!

Here is just a sampling of what it looked like in the daytime. I can’t even show you all the pictures. It was just too awful and not something I like to think about considering we were staying in this area!

 

 

Note the writing on the awning – “Evil from the Needle”.

I’ve been to London before and really enjoyed it but this time it wasn’t the same. Maybe after the clean towns of Holland and the sparse population of Norway, the contrast was too much. London this time seemed crowded and dirty. And staying in Camden Town did not help! But we did see some amazing places and really enjoyed spending time with a family we’ve known for years. And it was so nice to have a local show us around. That’s always nice!

In central London you will find Trafalgar Square which was named after the Battle of Trafalgar in which the British naval fleet was victorious over Napoleon’s army. The battle took place on October 21, 1805  (270 years ago). And for another interesting tidbit, the battle was so named because it was fought just off of the coast of Cape Trafalgar, Spain.

I don’t have a very good picture of the square but it’s a large area. Instead of the square I took a picture of Nelson’s Column – the tall, narrow structure at the left.

Admiral Horatio Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Our guide.

I thought the cappuccino very artistic. Maybe they all look this way but since I don’t drink them, I wouldn’t know. 🙂

This is The Shard, the 2nd tallest freestanding building in the United Kingdom, with 87-storey’s.

 

We had the privilege of meeting , Christina, the girl on the far right, who is from Russia but was doing some studying in London.

I love the clouds in this picture.

 

The Tower Bridge that you can see in the background has an interesting story that goes with it. (Wikipedia says it’s a popular rumor – bus it is really 🙂 )

There were two bridges in London. One called the Tower Bridge and one called the London bridge.

(The picture below is looking at the Tower Bridge but is taken standing on what used to be the location of the London Bridge before it was sold.)

An American businessman came to London and was wanting to buy Tower Bridge because of its beauty but mistakenly thought it was called London Bridge. So when he was negotiating with the powers that be, he asked to purchase London Bridge.  No one believed that Tower Bridge would ever be sold and so it was quite a shock when he found out that yes, they would sell London Bridge (of course, he thought they were talking about Tower Bridge). It wasn’t till after the purchase was completed that he found out that he had bought the plain and simple London Bridge.  London Bridge was dismantled and shipped to the United States where it was rebuilt right here in Arizona!

 

Love the hanging flower baskets.

 

Southwark Cathedral – the oldest Gothic church building in London.

606 AD covent

1106 AD priory

1540 AD parish church

1905 AD cathedral

 

A replica of the The Golden Hinde – Sir Francis Drake’s warship

The remains of Winchester Palace built in the 12th century.

 

 

 

Along the River Thames there are street entertainers.  We saw several doing these large bubbles which entertained the kids. Of course, there are money boxes where you can drop coins into to show your appreciation.

 

The London Eye – Europe’s tallest ferris wheel whose height is 443′ tall.

The River Thames and The London Eye.

 

 

The Palace of Westminster – the meeting place for the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

After fire destroyed it in 1834, it was was rebuilt in 1840.

Notice at the very edge of the picture on the right-hand side, the tall structure. That is…

Big Ben

Isn’t it lovely? So many ornate filigree’s.

I just love Big Ben.

It stands at 315′ tall.

Other views of the city

 

 

 

 

The Palace of Westminster by night with our friends.

The next day we were on our own, as our guide had to work and we decided to visit Wesley’s Chapel which John Wesley built in 1778.

But that is next post. 🙂