We had decided to go to London for the
day. Fui Ling dropped us off at West
Byfleet train station after breakfast. We got excursion tickets that included
the South West train into London and all 6 zones of the underground and bus
service in London. It only cost about 13
GBP return per person. The train was on
time and it was the express train so it only stopped at 2 stations, Surbiton
and Clapham Junction, before pulling into Waterloo station. At Waterloo, we saw lots of people all
dressed up for a day at Ascot. There
were men in morning coats and women with hats and fascinators and high
heels. I cannot imagine walking on soft
grass in someof the spikey heels that we saw.
We went into a M&S Food Hall and bought sandwiches and juices for
lunch. From Waterloo, we walked towards Westminster bridge and then decided to
take one of the double decker bus tours.
We got tickets for the Big Bus Tours from a hotel concierge, found the
bus stop and hopped on the bus when it arrived.
The bus took us across the Waterloo Bridge and past the Royal Courts of
Justice, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Bank Street, the Monument and across London
Bridge, past the Shard, City Hall and over the Tower Bridge to the Tower of
London. We got off the bust at the Tower
of London to take the Thames River Cruise. We made our way under the numerous
bridges across the Thames, from London Bridge, Southwark Bridge, Mellennium
Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Golden Jubilee Bridge to
Westminster Pier. Along the way, we
passed Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, the
OXO Tower, HMS Wellington, the Royal National Theatre and the London Eye. We got off the cruise boat at Westminster
Pier, admired the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey before
boarding the bus again. This time, the
bus took us past New Scotland Yard, St. James’s Park, the Royal Mews, Belgrave
Square, Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Gloucester Place, Baker
Street, Regent’s Park and over to Oxford Circus, where we got off the bus. We went into few stores, including Marks
& Spencer before deciding that we had to go our separate ways – Florine and
Petros to do some shopping, and Irene and me to the yarn store. Angel was the closest tube station to the
yarn store, Loop and unfortunately, it was part of the Northern Line which was
closed for maintenance that weekend. We
made our way to King’s Cross and decided to walk from there. We could have taken a bus, but it was a nice
day for a walk, not too warm and with a gentle breeze. Also, we were not sure where we had to get
off, and walking would ensure that we did not miss our street.
After a half hour of walking, we found
the street that we wanted – Camden Passage.
There was an antique market and we browsed the stalls as we walked along
the street. We walked right to the end
of Camden Passage without seeing Loop.
We doubled back, Irene checked the address and lo and behold, we had
passed right by it not long after we got to Camden Passage. I think we were too busy looking at a stall
across from the store. Irene had a great
time in the store, feeling the various yarns that were available. She finally settled on a few different skeins
and a book and I picked some pretty pink yarn.
At the checkout counter, we picked up a couple of shawl pins. Irene got a bright pink bag for the
purchases.
After that, we decided to take the bus
back to King’s Cross station. We did not
have to wait too long for a bus to arrive – many of the buses from the bus stop
went to King’s Cross station. From
King’s Cross station, I called Petros and we arranged to meet in a whisky shop
in front of the Ritz Hotel. Green Park was the station that we needed to exit
at. We got to Green Park, headed to the
Ritz Hotel and were about to cross the street to the whisky shop when Florine
and Petros caught up with us from behind.
We had not heard them calling us, not surprising as London is rather
noisy. We decided to have dinner in
London before heading back to Mutiara.
WE found an Italian and seafood restaurant, Pescatori, in Mayfair and
had our dinner there. The food was very
good, and we had a nice bottle of red wine to go with our lamb, steak and fish
dishes. Dessert was a tiramisu and a
pannacotta.
After that, we found an underground
station and made our way back to Waterloo station to catch our South West train
back to West Byfleet. We were fortunate
to catch another express train, which got us into West Byfleet in about 20
minutes. We walked along the village
stores and found a barber that Petros could visit on Monday to get his hair cut
before leaving for Athens. Most of the
stores were not open on Sunday. The
village is not far from Mutiara and Irene had the remote so we were able to get
in the grounds without having to buzz Tristram or Ming Yee. Fui Ling and Stephen were at The Killers
concert in Wembley Station when we got back.
Fui Ling said the concert was okay when
she and Stephen finally got home.
Stephen thought it was great, but then, unlike Stephen, Fui Ling was not
a fan. It had been a long day for us so
we did not linger for too long before heading off to bed.
Where we stayed: Mutiara
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