20240528 Tuesday, May 28, 2024; Back to London and out of the Car
The breakfast at the Edgar Townhouse did not disappoint. They had cereals, yogurt and juices out, and brought out coffee, tea and the hot breakfast made to order. The coffee may have been instant coffee. It just seems to be a thing in England.
Ben hiked back up the hill to fetch the car and on his way, he had to step over someone's electric car charger cord which ran out their front door and across the sidewalk.
We loaded up with the car at the Edgar Townhouse stopped along the curb at the corner of the road. Fortunately, that side road was a dead end without much traffic in or out.
The Nordic Visitor travel guide suggested visiting Stone Henge, Salisbury Abbey, and even the Sapphire Gin factory and then returning the car at Heathrow and taking a cab or subway to the hotel, but that was wildly unrealistic. We ended up making a beeline from Bath directly to the hotel, making only a brief stop at the Costco in Reading to fill up on diesel. It was pouring down rain most of the morning and traffic was terrible, even on the M4 Motorway due to stretches of construction work that bogged everything down. There were also a handful of nightmarish roundabouts with up to 4 lanes going every which way. We came close to getting into a dustup with a big van in one of those roundabouts, but fortunately avoided an actual collision. Thank goodness for Google maps auto rerouting when you miss the proper turn off on one of those roundabouts.
London also has some crazy taxes. If you drive into central London, they have a Ultra Low Emission Zone where if you don't have an electric car, you have to pay £17.55 online before entering the zone, or risk getting dinged a fine when the automated license plate readers, which are everywhere, catch you. That is in addition to the £5 fee to use the drop off and pick up lanes at Heathrow Airport as well.
Ben Dropped Janet and all our suitcases at the hotel lobby where they stored the bags. It was 1pm and the check in time wasn’t until 3pm. Ben then backtracked to Heathrow and returned the car. We were very fortunate and relieved not to have gotten into any collisions during this mad week of driving in the worst imaginable circumstances.
Ben then took the “Tube” or London subway system back from the Airport to the hotel. It was very nice that London’s underground can use tap to pay so all Ben had to do was tap his Apple Watch to the turnstile entering and exiting the underground. No messy tickets or zone calculations to worry about. The hotel is about 3/4 miles from the nearest Tube station, which is either the Baker Street or St. John’s Wood. The rain had stopped by the time Ben emerged from the Underground. Ben got back to the hotel around 4:30pm.
Janet had been able to get into the room by 3pm and found it modern but tight. The Edgar Townhouse had steps up and down everywhere, and no level or flat floor. Everything seemed to be sloping one way or another. The Danubius was more modern and conventional with nice tile and granite countertops, and level floors. They also have an elevator, which was nice since we have to lug our big suitcase around. This was the first hotel accommodation on this UK tour to have actual air conditioning.
After a spot of tea, we hit the pavement, even though it was after 5:30pm and Regents Park was closed. They actually chase people out of this enormous park and lock up the gates at 4:30PM- hard to imagine. Zombies must get loose in there after 4:30pm. But we did walk to the famous Abbey Road crosswalk where the Beatles shot their Abbey Road album cover. The motorists must find the incessant pedestrian traffic very annoying.
The neighborhoods south of St. John’s Wood have been gentrified and are very pleasant to walk through. There was little traffic, wide sidewalks and lots of shops and restaurants. We had dinner at the Duke of York Pub. This proved to be quite good. Their fish and chips and steak and ale pie were nearly as good as the Guy Fawkes Inn’s. The pub was very busy downstairs but they did have additional seating upstairs so we had no trouble getting served.
We then walked back to the hotel to turn in early. We did notice a few light posts with a small covered plug. These turned out to be pay electrical charger outlets where drivers BYOC (Bring your own connector cord).
We plan on hitting The British Museum tomorrow. Between bus and underground lines, it should take us about 30 minutes to get there.
