Pre-cruise, London; Aug. 26 Baltic; Constellation

[spearmint]

This has turned out much longer than I planned. Sorry about that, but it details what we did based on the assistance we got.

 

Thanks to so many of you posters for all the help you gave me prior to our trip, which included our 3-day pre-cruise stay in London. Thanks to Leela, Lyn Mc, UKtog, Princess Di, lionheart, chessbriar, Hosts Andy and Laura and so many more that I cannot list all of you .

 

From these boards I learned that no matter what, you should tailor your trip to your wants, needs and limitations. Good advice; and that's exactly what we did. We booked tours because we knew that we would be limited in our walking ability, and so did not do the trip on our own.

 

Our pre-cruise stay was booked along with air and cruise through Celebrity.

 

Holiday Inn Kensington Forum Hotel:

Listed as 97 Cromwell, but the main door is on the parallel street to Cromwell; the entrance to the hotel Tavern is on Cromwell, though. (Across from that entrance is Holiday Inn Kensington at 100 Cromwell.) Will stay here (97) again, should we go back to London. Very busy hotel; close to Gloucester Rd. which is at right angles to those two streets which bracket the hotel. The room was definitely larger than expected and also larger than the the stateroom. We only stayed in it to sleep, really, so did not need larger.

 

There are several places right in the neighborhood to find something to eat, including a Waitrose grocery store which is next to the tube and across the street from Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Stanhope Arms pub, among others. KFC has good food and good prices comparatively for London, but did not take credit cards, so we paid in cash. MacDonald's, just up the street, would take credit cards providing that you spent a minimum of 17 pounds. We did OK at KFC for less. The Stanhope Arms was fine, but it cost over 32$ Canadian for 2 beer, lasagna, and steak sandwich. This turned out to be average costs in London; spent about the same for lunch below Saint-Martins-in-the- Field. We decided that we just wanted to get something to eat at any time, rather than "dine" which we would be doing to excess on the ship anyway. The prices would have been horrendous in comparison to home.

 

We were into Heathrow a half-hour early, and through Immigration and collected our luggage in very short order. We actually were in the arrivals hall at about the same time that we were due to land! No sign of a Celebrity Representative, but saw other cruiseline reps though. Eventually, another unidentified company's rep came and asked us if we were from Celebrity, said he knew our man, and then told us that our rep was parking the vehicle. He was along shortly. (Meanwhile a Frenchwoman came up and asked the guy a question; my wife speaks French and was able to translate back and forth. She was looking for a departure direction as she was flying to Lebanon. This was on Aug. 22, and we certainly wondered why anyone would GO there, when everyone else was screaming at their respective governments to get them the hell out!:)) Our rep arrived shortly, and we eventually found out why he was delayed. He took us down a corridor, up an elevator to the normal parking deck. The commercial section was under construction and commercial vehicles had been told to use the the regular space. We waited momentarily while he went to get a minivan, while we watched the constant traffic in and out of parking spots around us. When the rep parked the van, it partially blocked the roadway, and, while he was loading our 3 suitcases into the van (thirty seconds perhaps?) we were all subjected to a vituperous tirade from a very angry Brit who honked his horn, and got out of his car screaming and swearing at our rep. Welcome to London!!:D

 

The hotel was busy, and would not have our room ready for us until about 12 noon -2:00. I had expected that from CC threads. The really friendly doormen simply took our bags and said they would deliver them to our room later. We went for a walk to scout out the neighborhood, and to find all the places close to the hotel that we had noted from these threads. The Big Bus stop was right at the corner in front of the Stanhope Arms. By 10:00 we decided to wait in the lobby, where I had a little nap, due to little sleep on the plane. Here's a tip: we had gotten up at 4:30/5:00 a.m. every morning and went to bed around 9:00 p.m. for 4 days prior to travelling, in order to try to minimize jet lag. It worked, in that none of the days in London were lost to sleep, although we were pretty tired quite early each night.

 

Once in our room, with luggage delivered soon thereafter, we settled in, went to KFC for lunch and at 1:50 boarded the Big Bus for a complete non-stop tour of London. This is a hop-on/hop-off bus, but if we visited any major stops, for a couple of hours each, we would never have gotten the whole trip done, and this includes the boat cruise from Tower of London to Parliament. Thread advice was right, again; just take the whole tour, on this first tiring day.

 

It was cloudy, and eventually we had very slight raindrops, but they gave all of us plastic rain ponchos if we stayed up on top. Rosemarie felt cold, and at the first sign of rain went below. I loved it up there; you see so much more than from inside any bus. We had thought that we might be able to drop in to the Victoria and Albert Museum which was not far from the hotel. No way. By the time that we got to the hotel area again, we were so tired that we simply went in to Waitrose and picked up some bread, cheese, cookies and sodapop to take back to the hotel for a snack. The room has a refrigerator for patron's use. We were too tired even to go for a drink in the hotel Tavern let alone out to find something to eat. The snacks were enough, and were dead asleep by 8:30!

 

Continental breakfast is included. For 3.5 extra pounds, one can have a full English breakfast, which we did only on the first day. We found that the continental was more than enough, surprisingly, on the other two days, and was very good, both in choice and quality. Lots of people ate in this room. You give the cashier your room number and charge the English breakfast to it, if desired, and she gives you a laminated card with the type of breakfast you will have, and then you wait to be seated. You leave the card on the table, while you help yourself to the appropriate self-serve section. Very convenient. We thought that the lobby restaurant was expensive; the bowl of soup of the day was over 5 pounds, which is over $11 Canadian. No way.

 

Our plan was to spend day 1 on the Big Bus. Did that. On Day 2 we would see the National Gallery and then have lunch across the street in the crypt below Saint-Martins-in-th-Field Church (recommended by Rick Steves), followed by the British Museum. UKtog had posted to us, that this year Buckingham Palace was also showing some of the Queen's gowns and jewellery in honor of her 80th birthday. When I told DW that, we both decided that we would like to make the visit and include the Royal Mews to see the carriages and state coach. Something else had to go, so we decided that we would leave out the British Museum.

We booked the tours online, and could pick up the tickets at the Royal Shop across the street from the Royal Mews on Buckinham Palace Road. As luck would have it we passed it all on the Big Bus the day before.

 

We took the tube to Victoria Train Station and had no trouble locating the shop for our tickets and finding the Ambassador's entrance to the Palace. The tour is a self-guided audio one, and is well done. Quite professional, and even includes a comment from Prince Charles. You reserve the time that you want, and we took the first timeslot at 9:45 a.m. It's a neat tour, and it was actually interesting to see the gowns worn by Her Majesty from 1947 onward. I was surprised to see that they were not dowdy, just somewhat conservative; they were all very classy, quite elegant and do not photograph nearly as well as when viewed in reality. They were grouped by color shades, rather than by year or designer. many of them incorporated designs, symbols etc. of the country or area that she would be visiting e.g. such as the California poppy embroidered on the top of a dress in colors and sparkles,for a state visit to the U.S. when Ronald Reagan was President. I was also surprised to see that the Queen is a rather small woman which does not show up on television or in photos. What a sport she must be! Not many women would allow everyone to see how much the waists of their dresses had increased over the years. And the jewellery. Whoa, the woman has diamonds of all sizes along with emeralds, and aquamarines which were on display! Rosemarie was so glad that we included the Palace in our plans.

The State Rooms of the Palace, despite some naysayers' opinions that we had read, were very impressive, and both of us were so pleased that we got to see them. After all, we have been watching the Queen all our lives, and like so many have seen the changing of the Guard outside the Palace. Why not see inside? You exit the back of the Palace into the gardens where there is a bathroom set-up located as well as a souvenir shop. The gardens which are really a park, are plain, compared to others we have seen, and the lawnd werr spotty and brown. We later learned that the Queen gave orders that if water had to be conserved by the people during an unusually hot summer, then the Palace would do the same.

 

The Royal Mews is within the grounds of the Palace, but there is a separate entrance. We had to leave the park and then walk all the way back to the same entrance again. The Palace and park are walled, and I was surprised to see that there were spikes, rolled barbed wire and electrified wiring all along the top of the walls, like those seen in old communist, Russian movies! But why not? The sidewalk is right up against the walls, and one cannot have just anyone deciding to hop over and pay Her Majesty a visit. The various carriages in the Mews are neat, including the one in which Diana rode to her wedding, and one of the older Rolls Royce limousines. But the piece de resistance is the State Coach. That is the one that the Queen is in during her coronation and for her 50th year in 2002. What a monster! It is four tons of carvings and gilt, built somewhere in the 1700's. Wow.

 

When we were finished, we still had time on our ticket to pick up the Big Bus again and to get off at Trafalgar Square. We exited in front of Canada House, and crossed over to Saint-Martin-in-the-Field. Downstairs is a cafeteria-style restaurant with good food. The MasterCard site would not work, so I had to dig around for some pounds to pay for the food. After lunch we went upstairs to look at the church, and to spend a few minutes listening to a chamber music group practicing down at the front of the church. Nice.

 

Then it was across the street to the National Gallery. We had run off Rick Steves' 30 best painting picks, and a map of their locations. Unfortunately, the book was out of date, and lots of the paintings had been moved or replaced. But, we followed his plan anyway, as it gave us a definite route to follow in this vast building. With so short a time, there was no way anyone could see everything, and, not knowing what was located where, this was as good a plan as any, and it worked. What we saw. Wow. By the time we exited later in the afternoon, we were beat. We had naively thought that if we had time after the National Gallery, that we might be able to get in an hour or so of the British Museum. Not a chance. It was back to the hotel by tube, into the hotel Tavern for a beer, up to the room to freshen up and over to the Stanhope Arms for supper. After that, it was another early night to bed.

 

On Day 3, we had pre-booked with Premium Tours (Magic of London full day tour) for Tower of London, another boat cruise, lunch on the southside, tour of Westminster Abbey and champagne, tea and scones at the Orangery at Kensington Palace. We were told to meet at the other Holiday Inn on Cromwell Rd. at 7:25 a.m. at the concierge desk, for pick up for the tour. I was getting antsy, and the nice young fellow at the concierge desk took it upon himself to call Premium Tours by 7:45. They had forgotten us. Oh, oh. A great start! We were told to take a cab to the Victoria Coach (bus, not train) Station, and we would be reimbursed. We did. I finally got to ride in one of the ubiquitous black London cabs.

 

At the bus station, we wound our way through the crowds to the the required bus exit, found a tour rep and a few other patrons amongst all the other bus users. With so many doors open to the buses massed outside, we got to see that other ubiquitous London sight up close, pigeons. They are everywhere in London, even flying in the doors and roosting up on the aluminium boxed columns which support the building inside. I would not have wanted to be seated or have my luggage placed next to those columns. They were covered up top with more than feathers! Gross.

 

The Tower of London is OK. The crown jewels are simply spectacular! Not one inch of metal shows, really. What is not ermine, velvet, ruby, emerald, pearl, amethyst or sapphire, are... diamonds, diamonds, diamonds. Some of them are the largest diamonds in the world. The gold plate from the 1600's is a showstopper as well. Fabulous.

 

After a visit to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, another quick boat ride to the other side of the river, a set lunch at our expense at a pub, adjacent to the replica of the Golden Hinde, Sir Francis Drake's ship, we were off to Westminster Abbey.

 

This was great. We did not expect so much was packed into the place; certainly not the final resting place for a known 3,300 people!. What is seen on television is what we expected. What is not shown is spectacular. Statuary, tombs of forgotten rich people, the famous -- like Elizabeth 1st, Mary Queen of Scots, various Henry's, Isaac Newton and many other of the famous boys and girls who fill our history books. We were suitably impressed. And awed, really. We were in the presence of almost 1,000 years of history, jammed into one building.

 

Next it was off to Kensington Palace for a quick, final lunch. So now I know what clotted cream is, and how it is put on top of jam on scones. I liked the tea and the champagne. We found out that we would have to walk to our hotel. Luckily I had noted before we left Canada, that Kensington Palace was only a few blocks from the hotel. Otherwise I would have been really pissed! First they forget to pick us up, and now they are not going to drop us off. What I really felt bad about was that the 6.2 pounds cash that the cab cost us in the morning was going to be reimbursed to my credit card; this seriously dented my pounds cash, and forced me to apologise to our guide. I gave him all the pounds I had left for a tip, but, in fact I had counted on those 6 pounds for exactly that. We walked back to where the bus had let us off near Kensington Palace, and a few blocks down and a block or so over, we came to Gloucester Rd. and eventually to the tube station, so it was no problem to find our way home. A couple of beer later at the hotel, lunch in the room and it was off to bed. Tomorrow it was transfer time to the ship.

[uktog]

Spearmint

So glad you enjoyed the Palace tour - you are so right about all of it -especially the Queens dresses and her more elderly shape. I just could not get over the State Coach even if they say it is a very uncomfortable ride for the Monarch in it