(this narrative began from when I first landed in London on September 3, 2016)
Monday
September 5, 2016:
Well, today I kind of screwed up – again. For some unknown reason, I thought that today
we were starting the tour. I think I got
confused when Linda at Sears Travel had told me I would be spending only two
nights before the tour started, and I’ve already spent two here: Saturday and Sunday nights. But, today is actually the day when everyone
who signed up for this tour worldwide actually arrives in London and checks
into this hotel. That is, today is Day 1
of the tour and, therefore, tomorrow is Day 2 when we will tour the city of
London together. I must add that this
hotel is awesome. I am situated on the
nineteenth floor and have an incredible view of London from my window. Plus, the common areas of the hotel are
really lovely. To tell you the truth,
this hotel is a lot more upscale than I am used to, but I’ve gotten used to
being here very quickly.
So, again, I have the day to myself. I was thinking of riding the Underground from
Paddington station (not the train station).
Maybe I'll buy a subway map and try and find my way around the subway
system on my own, hopefully without getting lost. I thought I’d gotten lost yesterday while
coming back here after the tour bus dropped me off at, or close to, Hyde
Park. But, I guess my innate
navigational skills managed to kick in and, when I asked a cab driver who was
stopped on the road briefly where the Hilton London Metropole hotel was, he
said that I was only two minutes away from it and he pointed me in the
direction I’d been going already.
Whew! Relief!
Right now, I am watching the first pay-per-view
movie I’d ordered: “Everest” again. I thought it was an excellent movie the first
time I saw it, but did not see it to the very end due to having fallen
asleep. This time, I’ll watch the whole
thing and probably eventually buy a movie DVD for my collection. After the movie is over, I’ll do my thing
today on the Underground!
So, that is what I did today. I bought a one-day ticket (a day pass) and
rode the Underground for a good part of the afternoon. I didn’t even need a map. The Underground is
so well labeled that I had no problem finding out where I wanted to go and how
to get there. First, I rode the Bakerloo
line southbound and then northbound for the length of the line. After that, I got off at the Baker Street station
and switched to the Jubilee line, which goes northwest and southeast. I rode only on the southeast line to the end
and then came back to the Baker Street station.
Finally, I switched to the Metropolitan line at Baker Street, a line which
has several branches and corresponding platforms at which to board a
train. I ended up on platform One after
buying some lunch on that platform and rode the train northwest all the way to
Watford, then back again to Baker Street.
At this point, I was pretty tired and decided to navigate my way back to
Paddington Underground station and from there, I was going to walk back to my
hotel.
But, before I walked back, I
decided to go look for that lovely Lebanese man who helped me with my cell
phone yesterday, but I could not locate his store while walking down Praed
Street. I think the reason is that I
should have been walking toward Hyde Park instead of toward Paddington
Underground station. If I get time
tomorrow, I’ll try walking down to Hyde Park again and see if I can locate his
store. He was such a lovely man, I
wanted to see him again and perhaps give him my email address (assuming he’s
not married or in a committed relationship – with my luck, he is).
I had one more thing left to do this afternoon – to
tell the hotel guest relations guy in the lobby that I am now part of a Globus
tour as of today, and that I am still a registered guest here. I believe that the hotel thought (and so did
I) that I was only paying for two nights, and it’s true – I am paying for two
nights myself. But, what I didn’t know
(and neither did they) is that I needed to still be registered in order to be
part of our tour, which is about to start once all the registrants show up and
check in. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be
meeting some of them and I do hope that there will be fewer hassles for me from
now on. I still plan to be in the UK and
then in Europe for the next five weeks or so.
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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