Deal--cute but glad we had other places to go!

Here's our place in Deal--honestly the lock for the door reminded me of something out of Harry Potter. On second glance, the place was busling with activity in the daytime and had a cute little library right behind us (along with three main grocery stores with free delivery, where do I sign up!) If it was cleaner/gave a better first impression, I could see myself living there. Pensioners/Disabled ride the buses for free snd they take you to all of the outlying towns. The bus seats are angled up (like movie theatre seats) and you can see from back to front in the bus. (Everyone knows everyone on a casual basis, and as soon as he saw me, the driver lowered the ramp and helped us in)

Such kindness throughout "Have a great holiday! Can I help you?" And the Marks and Spencer's in the town square is handy too!






Here's the link to more pics of the cottage, what she doesn't show is the steep/open staircase that was a nightmare and the step that went up to the toilet! Yup, a stair to climb up to a toilet...

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/132572

Here's the stairs...



crazy! Went down on my butt with Mom holding my ankles so I wouldn't slide sideways and fall down the side.



Medival key....These are all over London and for three pounds seventy ($3.70) you can get a "master" key from city hall that will open all disabled wadhrooms in the area! Great idea and the accessibility is awesome!



Waterfront







Cute pub we ate at....You aren't supposed to tip at pubs in the area. You order from the bar, and they bring the food out. Of course we discovered this fact AFTER hitting a few places so we'll know for next time!




Costa is on par with Starbucks there, and ALL of the UK places use whipping cream in coffee if you ask for cream. They don't even sell 10/18 percent cream in stores. If you ask for it, they'll have no idea what you are talking about. We were so glad to find a decent cup of coffee!

Deal/Dover picture link to photobucket

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/CindyM99/UK%20trip%202/Deal%20and%20Dover/

The (almost) Dealbreaker

So, after a two hour train ride out of London, we made it to Deal. We were loling at the guy who sauntered onto the train with a huge can of beer. He sat down, calmly popping off the top and finished the thing well before the end of his commute. Apparently, open containers aren't an issue in England. As we later found out, they sell wine/beer in supermarkets/corner stores for next to nothing after 12pm.

Anyway, this time our landlady did meet us right off but couldn't fit everything into her compact car so drove me/the lugguage to the cottage a couple of blocks, leaving Mom to walk.

I have to admit, I was really disappointed in the cottage. It was "cute" but smelled of mold/mildew and was just too "cottagey" for my taste. The staircase was a nightmare for me with one steep/open side with no railing (something her web pics never showed) so I was stuck sleeping upstairs because I couldn't get to the bathroom on my own. Our original plan had Mom upstairs, me on the couch downstairs.

Thank goodness we brought a few groceries from London because there was NOTHING in the place. Initially, the town looked like something out of the 50's and not in a charming way, in the fading light, it looked like a tired/sagging town in need of a good cleaning. We wanted out. We both wanted London and at one point, both of us wanted to go home. (This was in the middle of the night when we realized our alleyway backed on to the exit of a bar. Loud conversations at 2 am do not make good impressions. We got through our first night, heading over to the bus stop first thing in the morning...)

Things were looking up. We hopped on for next to nothing and found out the bus dropped us off right in the heart of Dover (Where we would catch the ship in five days)

Cute little place, and yes the cliffs are stunning. We tried to go up and explore the cliffwalks but trust me, it wasn't wheelchair friendly. We ended up waiting an hour to come right back down. It was soooo steep, we had no hope of making it back down on our own. Didn't go in to Dover castle but here's a pretty pic...





Another quaint little town, complete with the beautiful white cliffs. I actually think we got nicer images of the cliffs the day we boarded the ship because we were out on the water with the cliffs all around us.



They had the olmpics on in the town square...













Marine pictues in the tunnel dividing the town...London also had many of these tunnels with art/artists throughout



We hit an outdoor outlet mall and just kicked back finding a cute little place to eat and wandering around. It's so much like the 50's in the UK. I never feel rushed, it lets you catch your breath and take stock of what's around you.

Oxford Street--London

I'm going to put this little blurb here since I don't want to add on to the dreadfully long London post...

Believe it or not, things got quiet as we got back to our place. Mom went down to the waterfront on her own to see how busy it was, and it was dead. People were either in the pubs watching the opening ceremonies (likely) or at home with a big old bowl of popcorn. I was so disappointed by the fact that I didn't get to see the olympic torch when it was on the London Bridge, I mean we were right there! There were no listings of times/no hint that anything was even happening I was watching the tv saying "Hey, that's five minutes from here, give me the torch!" lol

We thought the opening ceremonies were pretty ho-hum but the next day heading to Oxford Street, we asked around, and the Brits seemed to enjoy it. A woman on the bus said it highlighted British history so wasn't surprised if most wouldn't "get it." She wasn't being uppity about it, just explaining why we might have been a little disappointed.

The newspapers raved about it the next day, so I'm glad that most seemed to get where they had been going with it all. I must say though, the sourpuss face on the queen really didn't help them out! :-)




Heading to Oxford street the next day...

So many stores/sites so little time...so incredibly busy and fun to watch...think busy New York (Of course I'm just guessing haven't made it there yet)

















Love these dars with the ads--my favourite was a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup car that was orange with the Peanut Butter Cup splashed across the doors, they just never sat still long enough!



Love seeing these guys on the street







Getting ready to head out of London...Boooooo!

Thanks London for the great memories. We want to go back just to finish what we started. Would love to see a play, FINALLY see ALL of the changing of the guard, go to Herrod's....Still so much to do. Such excitement/beauty with a kind of old fashioned charm. Miss you London, hope to see you again soon!

For the music lovers...

Had this forwarded to me...enjoy the musical interlude while I take forever to go on about my trip ..lol

 

 

First Three Days in London

So, when we last left the story, two bobbies were dragging our baggage through the streets of London...

Thanks to the gps on their phones, we found the place and they bid us farewell (I wish I could have captured this on film but it was at that moment that we figured out Mom had the wrong memory card in the camera so the thing came to a dead stop.)

After a quick knock on the door, Anne came out to greet us. We were all befuddled as to why the text from Mom's phone hadn't gone through as she indicated that she had been waiting to hear from us....

Anyway, she walked us over to a door in the fence. (The homes in this area are close to the sidewalk --think brownstones in Boston)

The door had a keypad for a code and a lock on it that needed a key to open it (the keys in England reminded me of those which you might need to open the heavy door of a castle--you'll see what I mean in later pics as the cottage we stayed at had a similiar key and I took a pic)

Anyway, this is what we opened the door to. I must admit, I was bitterly disappointed at first sight as I felt like I was going down into a dungeon. It's hard when you feel like you can't move/get out of a place and honestly, I felt really trapped. That said, it was the perfect location and at $110 Canadian a night during the olympics, we couldn't have done better.







After Mom had a bit of a nap, we ventured out. We wanted to get a feel for things, but we were also getting hungry and knew that we didn't want to go without something for much longer.

Immediately, you notice that the air is crisp/clean without the god-awful humidity that seems to be becoming the trademark of our summer here. As soon as the air hit me, I felt myself relaxing, the tension/stress was ebbing from my body as Mom pushed me along the sidewalk, pointing things out as we wemt. We just walked. We knew that we wanted to head toward the Thames, knew we were close, but didn't bother to ask directly, as we were happy getting the lay of the land on our own. Mom had gone on a mad hunt for another memory card for the camera, but couldn't find it, swearing up and down she had packed extras. I'm not going to lie. I was getting pretty annoyed as I was already minus my wheelchair cushion, I hadn't been able to sleep in the small/stuffy "dungeon" and now we had no camera. It turns out, when I travel for 20 hours straight I'm prone to mood swings:-) Happy for the cool/fresh air unhappy I can't get comfortable or take pics...

Then we found the waterfront again...instant recognition and pure joy from seeing my Big Ben standing there so regally, just waiting for me....big Ben and french fries on the waterfront with people milling around with bikes/kids and ice-cream...Some things are universal.

Fact: London likes garlic mayo on fries..wish I had tried it but Mom thought I wouldn't like it so didn't get any for me...We saw it in stores later but they were bottles and I didn't want to try that much, in case I didn't like it.

It turns out, we could cut through side streets for a faster route to the water. What took us an hour the first day, would take five minutes in later trips. We went home early that first night, knowing that we were both done, but it was a nice way to end the day. The one blight on the evening was the flying of the helicopters over the bridges. Later, a bobby would try to say it was for crowd control in the nearby olympic village/venue space, but we only saw them meticulously flying over the bridges in a repeat pattern. Looked to us like they were very worried about London Bridge falling down...

We could hear the planes flying overhead from our little place, that's how close the waterfront actually was. Every 15 minutes, all night. Not good for someone who is a light sleeper anyway:-) So, it was an adjustment coupled with me sleeping on the floor (yeah, I'll pass on sleeping with Mom --something I would later cave on and do in the name of getting some much needed sleep.)

The next day, we ended up buying a new memory card (after an extensive hunt for a store) So, here's pics of our first full day in London, yeah, we found the next Starbucks on our travel list...


Imax theatre with athlete pics on the side









St. Paul Cathedral---view from a mall...





Lunch in the park. Londoners were enjoying the outdoors as it was "only the second nice day in months" according to the locals..people were sprawled out everywhere with their "take-away."


Walking across Millennuim bridge...closer to St Paul's...




In front of the Modern Tate--honestly I thought this place was boring. Free entry but you had to pay for special exhibits so there isn't much to see if you don't want to pay.



This was hilarious. We literally stumbled in to London Borough Market. We planned on going the next day (if we could figure out where it was) and just found it as we walked along. Stuff was soooo cheap. Five peaches cost a pound, roughly 1.55 canadian. Here, one peach cost me $1.10 the other day. We went from stall to stall checking things out and again, literally stumbled into these people as we went along...We were asking the man in the apron (John) about the history of the market and the Scotsman who was selling peaches next to him, wandered over into this impromptu pic...It's so different there. People WANT to talk to you. They are proud of their history and where things come from. We'd known these people for five minutes yet look at their faces, look how happy they are...We didn't ask to have this pic taken, it happened in a flash as John said "you guys need a pic of the spirit of our market..." So cool and something I will always remember. Such warmth and simplicity, we need more of it.







Tower Bridge I'm sure Mom's feet where falling off by now as we wandered the city, but she never complained. Weather held out nicely and let's face it, looking at the olympic rings that closely wasn't bad either!



This is the other side of Tower Bridge..A former jail, where they now keep the crown jewels. We didn't go in, it's expensive and I really have no need to pay to see someone's excessive collection of jewels :-)



I have no idea why these images won't turn themselves upright in my posts as I did re-save them and turn them upright...<sigh> Anyway, beautiful Ben at twilight as we made our way back to the waterfront

Here's a link to Big Ben chiming at the end of the day...I tried to embed it but couldn't get it to work through photobucket. I'm laughing at the end because Mom got the date wrong..It was the 26th..and I threatened to make her re-shoot it.



Big Ben chiming at the end of the day...

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/CindyM99/?action=view&current=MVI_3611_1.mp4





The eye as night falls...

We didn't go on it, it's pretty expensive, and sitting in a stuffy glass bubble doesn't really apeal to either of us. They seemed very practiced at moving lines along so wait times were never an issue. I was so glad that this was on a Thursday, earlier in the day, we had had lunch at a pub overflowing with people. Thursday is their big pub day so you see business men spilling out onto the sidewalk in their pinstripe suits clutching a beer and having a good gab. It's a social right of passage as we saw it in all areas of the city as we walked throughout the day. It's in such stark contrast from here where even at rest people clutch their cell phones waiting for their next text...They seem to enjoy each other as friends/colleges and not worry about their phones.

The waterfront was busy but it wasn't overcrowded. Activity was the name of the day, but people weren't closing in around us.





High-flying swings...I almost got sick watching them. A new ride since last year, you couldn't pay me to go on this one. We got video, and you could hear people screaming like fiends. Again, sorry it's sideways--file keeps saying it's read only and won't let me turn it around.

LOL poor Mom has so much trouble figuring out when the vid feature was on/off on her camera as you had to push the button and keep your finger on it to keep the vid going. Anyway, here's a clip.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/CindyM99/?action=view&current=MVI_3618_1.mp4




"Ring of Fire" show in honour of the olympics..Very cool to see all of those torches in one place.

The next day, we were at loose ends. It was the day of the opening ceremonies so we weren't sure how crazy everything would be. I had wanted to see the changing of the guard but Mom thought it would be nuts...In the end, we decided to just start walking. So glad we did, what a great experience. We literally walked from our place to downtown London. On the one hand it was a ghosttown, on the other there was this vibrating energy in spots as you got closer to the centre of it all...



Waterloo station. A couple blocks from our place and a hub for getting to the olympic venues the day of. This was fairly early in the morning...you'd think it had been any other day. When we came back to it later in the afternoon, you could feel the tension in the air and the securty clampdown as Mom whizzed right past a security guy on our way in and he called us back. They were handing out free ice cream bars. It was cool to watch everyone rushing past gobbling down their treat.




A piper serenated us as we crossed over the bridge (honestly, I had a hard time keeping track of which bridges we crossed over at any given time.) It drove mom crazy as I would say "which bridge is this again?" everytime we crossed over one. The people use bridges over there like we use sidewalks.



In front of Hyde Park where the screens for the opening ceremony were being set up





We literally stumbled in to the Supreme Court building and they offered us a free tour of the courtrooms upstairs. We took the elevator up to find a security guy standing outside so we thought he was going to come in with us...Nope. I snapped this quickly not knowing if we were even supposed to take pics...Mom as a Supreme court justice...looks pretty comfortable up there! I object! :-)





Westminster Abbey--Love how people just sit outside and eat lunch. So nice to see it being appreciated in such a simple way.



We finally made it to Buckingham Palace --good thing as they were starting to shut it down for opening ceremony traffic (around 3:30 pm) These guys were kind enough to pose with me on the way in. They wear the same uniforms as Canadian soldiers (which is I guess where you can still see the connection to the monarchy.)









Sharp shooters on the roof of Buckingham Palace. While we were there, we also saw one of the gates open and out came the guards' guns. I give full credit to their police force, when they talked to you about the security they didn't make a big deal about it, but they were clearly there. Once again, the helicopter whirled overhead...

As we got closer to downtown, and they day progressed, you saw the bobbies spreading out, I remember saying to Mom "Look around us, they're on every corner." They did it so quietly you hardly noticed, but they were there.






Display of flags we found downtown...Where's Canada?





Ben from a different angle.