Sunday, 17 August 2014
Photos: 1 Aug. - Tower of London
Second part of my photo entries will focus on The Tower of London. Photos from both outside and inside this massive, marvellous and amazing historical complex of buildings!
Photos: 1 Aug. - Tower Bridge
Okay, I took a LOT of photos this trip, so instead of - like last time - make one photo entry per day, I will make thematic photo entries instead.
This first part covers in and around Tower Bridge. Photos were taken when we went on the Tower Bridge Exhibition, on 1 August, but also include photos taken before and after the exhibition itself.
Enjoy! :)
Looking out from the East and West Walkways:
And one from inside the North Tower, going down and looking out and down at Tower Bridge!
The Engine Rooms:
Outside Tower Bridge again!
This first part covers in and around Tower Bridge. Photos were taken when we went on the Tower Bridge Exhibition, on 1 August, but also include photos taken before and after the exhibition itself.
Enjoy! :)
Looking out from the East and West Walkways:
And one from inside the North Tower, going down and looking out and down at Tower Bridge!
The Engine Rooms:
Outside Tower Bridge again!
Day 2 - 1 August 2014
First real day in London - yay! :)
We had a really nice tradition going during the entire trip, where I always met my Dad and his family in the breakfast room for breakfast every morning. It opened at 7.30 a.m., and even though I basically tried to leave my room at 7.29 or 7.30 every morning, they always beat me to it, and were there before me! *lol*
Anyway, I really liked that tradition, it was a great way of meeting, we could discuss what we had done the day before or what we were going to do on that day - and we started this tradition already the first day.
My plan was to use the London Pass during the first two real days in London, Friday (1 August) and Saturday (2 August). My Dad and his family had bought tickets to go to the Tower Bridge Exhibition from home, and even though I went there in 2012 it was really great, so I figured I'd do it again this year (since it didn't cost me anything, as it is included in the London Pass) and we could do this activity together.
We ended up deciding to go there first of all, do it together, and afterwards split up - and so we did.
Since we were done with breakfast around eight, and Tower Bridge Exhibition didn't open until ten, I figured we had time to do something else first, but I underestimated a number of things. First of all, during this trip I learned (which is obvious really, I know!) that it takes a lot longer for four people, including two children to "get ready" for a day a out, than it does for one adult! *lol* I also totally underestimated travel times, constantly, during the entire trip!!
We were there in the middle of summer and vacation and there were SO MUCH PEOPLE everywhere, which meant going anywhere by bus took a loooong time (nope, still not brave enough to try the underground *lol*)!
In the end we went straight from the hotel to Tower Bridge, had to change buses at St. Paul's, and the exhibition had opened when we got there!
Again, a great experience, I can really recommend it!! This time a bit different though - well, security checks first, which is quite common these days, and as usual it took a little while for the four of them, and their rather large backpack to go through, then I walked up, opened my bag and they sent me through! *lol*
The last time I was there we took an elevator up to the North Tower ... this time we walked!!!! In pretty much extreme heat ... Yeah, that was tough!! Okay, Tower Bridge is no London Eye or The Shard but when your walking up staircase after staircase and it's like 33 degrees Celsius, it sure feels high enough! :) When you get to the "top" of the North Tower (well, not technically the top, but as far as you're allowed to go) they show a pretty cool movie about how the bridge came about - quite educational, but a little difficult to explain and translate to the children. I think the younger accepted she wouldn't understand so much and didn't care a lot, but the older one is right now very inquisitive and quite upset about not understanding English (she's taken some in school already but not enough to follow conversations), so her mother tried to explain as much as possible to her.
After the movie you get to walk through the East Walkway to the South Tower, then through the West Walkway (but unfortunately you can't get through there, so you have to walk back the way you came to the North Tower again). It's really cool to be walking so high, pretty much inside and over Tower Bridge, and the view over the Thames is fantastic. They also have a lot of informative exhibitions in the walkways where you can read about a lot of different bridges, about Tower Bridge, this time they had this really cool 1960s exhibition on, where they mentioned my hero, Sean Connery! :)
When you're back in the North Tower you head down, and then follow painted arrows and signs to the Engine Rooms, you actually walk underneath the South Tower to where the actually engine rooms where that lifted the bridge. I don't understand much of the technical stuff but it's really cool to see it! :)
When we were done at Tower Bridge Exhibition we had a bit of a break and some water just outside, and then decided to split up.
The others wanted to check out London Eye, so I had a tip about a really nice bus, RV1, which departs from Tower Hill Gateway, goes across Tower Bridge and on the south side of the Thames all the way to London Eye, then goes over the Waterloo Bridge and ends at Aldwych, so the four of them set off in search of a bus stop.
I walked around Tower Bridge for a while and took a lot of photos (guess nobody is surprised about that!), and then went over to the Tower of London (and had to change my memory card on the way *lol*).
The London Pass is truly great, I could just walk passed all the ticket booths and all the queues and head straight for the entrance, a lady scanned my card and I was in. Amazing! :)
They have this absolutely fantastic installation going on at the Tower right now, which is called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red - The Tower remembers the First World War. This is what it says on the plaque describing it:
Teams of volunteers are installing 888,246 handmade ceramic poppies in the Tower moat. Each marks the death of a member of the British Forces in the First World War.
For more information on the project and how to volunteer, please visit hrp.org.uk
#Tower Poppies
It is just amazing the way the British care and about and respect their history!!
I had arrived just as a beefeater guide started a tour so I joined in back - and it was quite fun. The information on these tours are a bit too detailed for someone who is not that great at British History, but the beefeater, Billy Beefeater he was called, was hilarious and made the tour really nice and funny!!
I really couldn't go in anywhere as the lines were enormous!!!!!!!! Again, a loooot of people in London this time of year. The queues to see the Crown Jewels were almost unbelievable. They had these usual ropes out, forming lines covering almost half the entire courtyard outside the house hosting the Crown Jewels. All that space was crammed with people standing in line, and the queue even continued several hundred meters after the ropes ended.
It wasn't that bad at other places, but still bad enough.
Despite that I had a really good time, I haven't been to The Tower since I visited it with Annika and it was great to just be able to walk around in my own pace, taking photographs and just taking in the atmosphere and the history that surrounds the place.
The Tower Bridge Exhibition and the Tower of London were really great activities and everything worked out fine, after that however, things started to go not-quite-so-well ...
I had a hard time, during the entire trip but I think it was most evident on this day, to work out how long travelling would take, when I needed to get food, when I needed to get water etc., and that sometimes threw a spanner in the wheels for me.
As it was I was done at The Tower around 2 p.m. - and all I had to eat and drink since breakfast (at 7.30 a.m.) was a small cup of water and a small bun, and it was sunshine and around 30 degrees out ... not good!!
I was also unsure about what to do during the afternoon, I wanted to make use of my London Pass but hadn't really planned anything specific, time went by fast, I didn't know where I was going, I was really hungry and needed something to drink really bad ...
I have this favourite London McDonald's which is up at Marble Arch, they have this really large seating area downstairs and even when there's a lot of people it's usually feels pretty calm there, they have nice bathrooms etc. - I felt I needed some peace and quite, and food and drink, so I made my way up to Marble Arch ... which took quite a while!!!
Did get food and drink, and peace and quiet, and were able to think - which was very necessary!!
I wanted to visit the London Transport Museum (which was also included in London Pass), but when I started checking I was unsure if I'd really have the time. It was almost 3.30 p.m. and I hadn't quite finished my food, and the London Transport Museum is down by Covent Garden ... It didn't close until 6 p.m., but I don't see the point in getting there half an hour before they close and have to rush through it all ... I debated a lot with myself and didn't quite know what to do, but in the end I felt I didn't have it in me to stress, I don't do well when I have to stress, so instead I took a really long nice walk in Hyde Park, and crossed over into Kensington Gardens!
I entered Hyde Park a bit down Park Lane and came about this amazing monument, this one a tribute to animals killed in wars. The main text read THEY HAD NO CHOICE.
I was indeed very moved by this - not many people care to remember animals and certainly to to the extent of giving them their own memorial monument. Impressive!
The walk in the parks was really nice, even though I was quite tired and I got a tiny little bit of rain at one point - but I just love the London parks, they are amazing!!!
I ended up at the hotel a little earlier than expected due to the miscalculations in the afternoon, but I know these things happen and you can't stress yourself out about it. You can't make the right choices all the time and not everything will go according to plan - and despite the afternoon, I had a really really great first whole day in London! :)
We had a really nice tradition going during the entire trip, where I always met my Dad and his family in the breakfast room for breakfast every morning. It opened at 7.30 a.m., and even though I basically tried to leave my room at 7.29 or 7.30 every morning, they always beat me to it, and were there before me! *lol*
Anyway, I really liked that tradition, it was a great way of meeting, we could discuss what we had done the day before or what we were going to do on that day - and we started this tradition already the first day.
My plan was to use the London Pass during the first two real days in London, Friday (1 August) and Saturday (2 August). My Dad and his family had bought tickets to go to the Tower Bridge Exhibition from home, and even though I went there in 2012 it was really great, so I figured I'd do it again this year (since it didn't cost me anything, as it is included in the London Pass) and we could do this activity together.
We ended up deciding to go there first of all, do it together, and afterwards split up - and so we did.
Since we were done with breakfast around eight, and Tower Bridge Exhibition didn't open until ten, I figured we had time to do something else first, but I underestimated a number of things. First of all, during this trip I learned (which is obvious really, I know!) that it takes a lot longer for four people, including two children to "get ready" for a day a out, than it does for one adult! *lol* I also totally underestimated travel times, constantly, during the entire trip!!
We were there in the middle of summer and vacation and there were SO MUCH PEOPLE everywhere, which meant going anywhere by bus took a loooong time (nope, still not brave enough to try the underground *lol*)!
In the end we went straight from the hotel to Tower Bridge, had to change buses at St. Paul's, and the exhibition had opened when we got there!
Again, a great experience, I can really recommend it!! This time a bit different though - well, security checks first, which is quite common these days, and as usual it took a little while for the four of them, and their rather large backpack to go through, then I walked up, opened my bag and they sent me through! *lol*
The last time I was there we took an elevator up to the North Tower ... this time we walked!!!! In pretty much extreme heat ... Yeah, that was tough!! Okay, Tower Bridge is no London Eye or The Shard but when your walking up staircase after staircase and it's like 33 degrees Celsius, it sure feels high enough! :) When you get to the "top" of the North Tower (well, not technically the top, but as far as you're allowed to go) they show a pretty cool movie about how the bridge came about - quite educational, but a little difficult to explain and translate to the children. I think the younger accepted she wouldn't understand so much and didn't care a lot, but the older one is right now very inquisitive and quite upset about not understanding English (she's taken some in school already but not enough to follow conversations), so her mother tried to explain as much as possible to her.
After the movie you get to walk through the East Walkway to the South Tower, then through the West Walkway (but unfortunately you can't get through there, so you have to walk back the way you came to the North Tower again). It's really cool to be walking so high, pretty much inside and over Tower Bridge, and the view over the Thames is fantastic. They also have a lot of informative exhibitions in the walkways where you can read about a lot of different bridges, about Tower Bridge, this time they had this really cool 1960s exhibition on, where they mentioned my hero, Sean Connery! :)
When you're back in the North Tower you head down, and then follow painted arrows and signs to the Engine Rooms, you actually walk underneath the South Tower to where the actually engine rooms where that lifted the bridge. I don't understand much of the technical stuff but it's really cool to see it! :)
When we were done at Tower Bridge Exhibition we had a bit of a break and some water just outside, and then decided to split up.
The others wanted to check out London Eye, so I had a tip about a really nice bus, RV1, which departs from Tower Hill Gateway, goes across Tower Bridge and on the south side of the Thames all the way to London Eye, then goes over the Waterloo Bridge and ends at Aldwych, so the four of them set off in search of a bus stop.
I walked around Tower Bridge for a while and took a lot of photos (guess nobody is surprised about that!), and then went over to the Tower of London (and had to change my memory card on the way *lol*).
The London Pass is truly great, I could just walk passed all the ticket booths and all the queues and head straight for the entrance, a lady scanned my card and I was in. Amazing! :)
They have this absolutely fantastic installation going on at the Tower right now, which is called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red - The Tower remembers the First World War. This is what it says on the plaque describing it:
Teams of volunteers are installing 888,246 handmade ceramic poppies in the Tower moat. Each marks the death of a member of the British Forces in the First World War.
For more information on the project and how to volunteer, please visit hrp.org.uk
#Tower Poppies
It is just amazing the way the British care and about and respect their history!!
I had arrived just as a beefeater guide started a tour so I joined in back - and it was quite fun. The information on these tours are a bit too detailed for someone who is not that great at British History, but the beefeater, Billy Beefeater he was called, was hilarious and made the tour really nice and funny!!
I really couldn't go in anywhere as the lines were enormous!!!!!!!! Again, a loooot of people in London this time of year. The queues to see the Crown Jewels were almost unbelievable. They had these usual ropes out, forming lines covering almost half the entire courtyard outside the house hosting the Crown Jewels. All that space was crammed with people standing in line, and the queue even continued several hundred meters after the ropes ended.
It wasn't that bad at other places, but still bad enough.
Despite that I had a really good time, I haven't been to The Tower since I visited it with Annika and it was great to just be able to walk around in my own pace, taking photographs and just taking in the atmosphere and the history that surrounds the place.
The Tower Bridge Exhibition and the Tower of London were really great activities and everything worked out fine, after that however, things started to go not-quite-so-well ...
I had a hard time, during the entire trip but I think it was most evident on this day, to work out how long travelling would take, when I needed to get food, when I needed to get water etc., and that sometimes threw a spanner in the wheels for me.
As it was I was done at The Tower around 2 p.m. - and all I had to eat and drink since breakfast (at 7.30 a.m.) was a small cup of water and a small bun, and it was sunshine and around 30 degrees out ... not good!!
I was also unsure about what to do during the afternoon, I wanted to make use of my London Pass but hadn't really planned anything specific, time went by fast, I didn't know where I was going, I was really hungry and needed something to drink really bad ...
I have this favourite London McDonald's which is up at Marble Arch, they have this really large seating area downstairs and even when there's a lot of people it's usually feels pretty calm there, they have nice bathrooms etc. - I felt I needed some peace and quite, and food and drink, so I made my way up to Marble Arch ... which took quite a while!!!
Did get food and drink, and peace and quiet, and were able to think - which was very necessary!!
I wanted to visit the London Transport Museum (which was also included in London Pass), but when I started checking I was unsure if I'd really have the time. It was almost 3.30 p.m. and I hadn't quite finished my food, and the London Transport Museum is down by Covent Garden ... It didn't close until 6 p.m., but I don't see the point in getting there half an hour before they close and have to rush through it all ... I debated a lot with myself and didn't quite know what to do, but in the end I felt I didn't have it in me to stress, I don't do well when I have to stress, so instead I took a really long nice walk in Hyde Park, and crossed over into Kensington Gardens!
I entered Hyde Park a bit down Park Lane and came about this amazing monument, this one a tribute to animals killed in wars. The main text read THEY HAD NO CHOICE.
I was indeed very moved by this - not many people care to remember animals and certainly to to the extent of giving them their own memorial monument. Impressive!
The walk in the parks was really nice, even though I was quite tired and I got a tiny little bit of rain at one point - but I just love the London parks, they are amazing!!!
I ended up at the hotel a little earlier than expected due to the miscalculations in the afternoon, but I know these things happen and you can't stress yourself out about it. You can't make the right choices all the time and not everything will go according to plan - and despite the afternoon, I had a really really great first whole day in London! :)
Saturday, 16 August 2014
Day 1 - 31 July 2014
Thursday, 31 July, was the day of travel.
We had decided to fly from Rygge Airport, just south of Oslo, and went there by car from our summerhouse. The trip was pretty eventless, but I have to say I was very uptight and tense. The entire trip was ahead, and this was the first time I went with my Dad and his family on a joint trip.
I'm generally nervous about these things, and as I've learned to cope with that and my anxiety attacks alone, I tend to feel even more stressed when I am around other people ...
We arrived at the airport and found long-term parking without any problems, and had one bag to check in (we sort of shared it, which was a great solution, as we could all have shampoos and stuff in the checked-in bag, and didn't have to worry about that going through security.
There weren't even a line to the check-in so things certainly worked out smoothly. Through security without a hitch, and for me it was great seeing what it was like travelling with a family, with kids (my two little sisters are 10 and 7½ years old - they are very used to travelling and are just amazing!!). I usually think I have enough of a worry to take care of myself and my bags and my passport and my boarding cards - and here it's everything times four! Incredible!!
My Dad and his family travel a lot, so they have a routine and a familiarity with a lot of things that I don't have, but I still think it's amazing they make it work so effortless.
I think we timed everything exeptionally well actually. We waited maybe 15-20 minutes after having checked in the bag for the security checks, and then we had to wait maybe another 20 minutes before standing in line for the passport control, and I think that is great ... I'd like to have a little extra time, just in case something happens.
We did stand in line at the gate a bit early and had to wait, but not too long. I do love Ryanair's new seating system, which is fantastic and should mean that you don't have to wait in line at the gate at all (although people do anyway!). The seats are numbered, if you like you can pay an extra fee to get the exact seat you want, providing you check in online more than seven days before departure. If you don't do this you will simply be allocated a seat when you do your online check-in, without paying anything extra. As there were five of us travelling together, I know my Dad and his partner watched this very closely and logged in at midnight, seven days before our trip, both to and from London, to check in, and in doing so, we all got seats together!
But since, when you come to the gate, you already have your seat, there's no need to stand in line or board the plane early, nobody will occupy your seat, so why hurry?!
So, we did get seats together at the plane, meaning I sat with my little sisters on one side of the isle, and my Dad and his parter sat on the other side of the isle ... perfect! Although I was constantly on edge and very uptight and nervous. In retrospect, I know there were no real reason for it, but reason and sense don't quite come into it when you have problems with anxiety.
The flight was ok, almost had a hard time catching up with my sisters as they talked almost constantly, but it worked out really well. I'm not used to flying now, and I did think it was quite bumpy going up, and a lot worse going down - but I have a feeling I'm a bit oversensitive too ...;)
We landed at Stansted Airport about 20 minutes early, walked to Passport control, which worked very smoothly. I usually let my Dad and his family go before me in queues and such, as they are a whole family, they have kids etc., but usually I was done before them ... in Passport control, in various security checks - they had a lot to check when four people come up, but I am alone and they usually just waved me through! :)
Though I did make a fool of myself a little, when the officer at Passport control asked me where I flew in from and I replied: "Swede....um, Norway!!" *LOL!* Felt like an idiot not even knowing where I came from - but it didn't feel like we were in Norway! :)
Our bag came quickly and then we headed for the bathroom, before going down to Stansted Express. We decided not to stress or hurry, but still made it on the 2.15-train, and it was nice and quiet and not a lot of people at all.
At this point I was almost exhausted ... from being so nervous and dealing with anxiety the whole day (I could never really relax), and I also suffered from my usual after-flight-heading, which kept getting worse because of the anxiety ... *sigh*
We came to Liverpool Street Station and it took a little while to figure out exactly from where our bus was leaving - and there actually is a different to "just check on something" when you are alone with one or two bags, or if you are five people with seven or eight bags!! :)
It didn't take very long to find bus 23 and be on our way but I think all of us were tired and I know the kids were really hungry. We got off the bus at Charing Cross station, where we saw a McDonald's sign, and the others went on ahead to get food.
I was going to pick up my London Pass, as the place closed at 4.30, and even though I was nervous and it was extremely hot, I felt quite all right. I think it was partly because I knew where I was going and what I was going to do, as I had done this in 2012 as well, and also because this was the first time on this extremely intense day that I had some time to myself.
I know, it sounds horrible that I'm complaining so much about my Dad and his family, and trust me, it won't continue like this!! They are amazing and I love them to bits, but this particular day was very hard for me, and when I'm having difficulties dealing with things, being around other people makes it ten times worse.
So anyway, collecting my London Pass worked out really well - and I just love the place where you do it because it's almost unreal ... Maybe I'll even make a separate post about it later on! :)
I met the others at McDonald's, and believe it or not but they had just gotten their food when I got there. I hurried and ordered my meal and we were basically done at the same time.
Took another bus to Sussex Gardens, managed to get off at the right bus stop and it didn't take long to find Olympic House Hotel. Checking in was a bit ... weird... Again I let my Dad and the others go first, but we had a hard time speaking English, and the lady in the reception had a hard time speaking English (and I think she was hard of hearing as well) so it took a while before she realized we were travelling together but had booked two rooms! :)
Eventually it all worked out, the other had gotten a room on the ground floor while I was on the third floor, so I took the elevator up - and couldn't find my room! *slightly panicky!* It turned out I had my room out near one of the staircases (apparently most single rooms are situated like that, it was the same in 2012 at the Orchard Hotel). The room was quite nice, very small of course, but everything was clean and tidy and seemed to work out, with a really nice bathroom! And they had one normal EU electrical socket - meaning the adapter I had convinced everyone we needed to charge cellphones and batteries was completely unnecessary! *lol*
After a little while I heard a knock on my door and there were my Dad and my two little sisters, wanting to see how I was going to live! :) :) We decided we would get settled for a little while and that I would come down to their room in about half an hour and maybe we could go for a little walk or something.
I was completely exhausted and was afraid I'd fall asleep, so I tried not to relax too much, and managed to, after a bit of a wander, find my way to the "family room" (as I later on used the stairs, which were quite narrow, very steep and very uneven and felt like the were leading up to a tower, I came to call my room the Tower-room, with the Tower-staris leading up to it! *lol*).
We decided to go for a walk, and ended up at Paddington station. Before the trip I had read the story about Paddington to the girls and they were of course excited to be at the station where he was originally found. I didn't expect to find much there, but there's this gorgeous wonderful lovely Paddington statue (have tons of beautiful photos of the girls with Paddington, but for privacy reasons I won't publish them here) - and they also had the most amazing Paddington store!! Everything was superexpensive, of course, but it was fantastic just to go around and look at everything.
I didn't feel very well at all though, all the tension and anxiety and weariness caught up with me and after Paddington station we split up. My Dad and the girls went back to the hotel, the girls' mother went to buy something to eat and some water, and I really felt I needed to be on my own for a while, so I took a walk around the area for about half an hour. Went by the "family room" when I came back to collect some of my luggage from their bag, and then climbed up the stairs to my Tower Room! :)
I have to say that this day was the hardest. Everything worked out really well on a practical level, but emotionally it was really rough. I'm very grateful I had my own room at the hotel and that the room was so nice, because I could truly relax and unwind there, and I think I very much needed that!
We had decided to fly from Rygge Airport, just south of Oslo, and went there by car from our summerhouse. The trip was pretty eventless, but I have to say I was very uptight and tense. The entire trip was ahead, and this was the first time I went with my Dad and his family on a joint trip.
I'm generally nervous about these things, and as I've learned to cope with that and my anxiety attacks alone, I tend to feel even more stressed when I am around other people ...
We arrived at the airport and found long-term parking without any problems, and had one bag to check in (we sort of shared it, which was a great solution, as we could all have shampoos and stuff in the checked-in bag, and didn't have to worry about that going through security.
There weren't even a line to the check-in so things certainly worked out smoothly. Through security without a hitch, and for me it was great seeing what it was like travelling with a family, with kids (my two little sisters are 10 and 7½ years old - they are very used to travelling and are just amazing!!). I usually think I have enough of a worry to take care of myself and my bags and my passport and my boarding cards - and here it's everything times four! Incredible!!
My Dad and his family travel a lot, so they have a routine and a familiarity with a lot of things that I don't have, but I still think it's amazing they make it work so effortless.
I think we timed everything exeptionally well actually. We waited maybe 15-20 minutes after having checked in the bag for the security checks, and then we had to wait maybe another 20 minutes before standing in line for the passport control, and I think that is great ... I'd like to have a little extra time, just in case something happens.
We did stand in line at the gate a bit early and had to wait, but not too long. I do love Ryanair's new seating system, which is fantastic and should mean that you don't have to wait in line at the gate at all (although people do anyway!). The seats are numbered, if you like you can pay an extra fee to get the exact seat you want, providing you check in online more than seven days before departure. If you don't do this you will simply be allocated a seat when you do your online check-in, without paying anything extra. As there were five of us travelling together, I know my Dad and his partner watched this very closely and logged in at midnight, seven days before our trip, both to and from London, to check in, and in doing so, we all got seats together!
But since, when you come to the gate, you already have your seat, there's no need to stand in line or board the plane early, nobody will occupy your seat, so why hurry?!
So, we did get seats together at the plane, meaning I sat with my little sisters on one side of the isle, and my Dad and his parter sat on the other side of the isle ... perfect! Although I was constantly on edge and very uptight and nervous. In retrospect, I know there were no real reason for it, but reason and sense don't quite come into it when you have problems with anxiety.
The flight was ok, almost had a hard time catching up with my sisters as they talked almost constantly, but it worked out really well. I'm not used to flying now, and I did think it was quite bumpy going up, and a lot worse going down - but I have a feeling I'm a bit oversensitive too ...;)
We landed at Stansted Airport about 20 minutes early, walked to Passport control, which worked very smoothly. I usually let my Dad and his family go before me in queues and such, as they are a whole family, they have kids etc., but usually I was done before them ... in Passport control, in various security checks - they had a lot to check when four people come up, but I am alone and they usually just waved me through! :)
Though I did make a fool of myself a little, when the officer at Passport control asked me where I flew in from and I replied: "Swede....um, Norway!!" *LOL!* Felt like an idiot not even knowing where I came from - but it didn't feel like we were in Norway! :)
Our bag came quickly and then we headed for the bathroom, before going down to Stansted Express. We decided not to stress or hurry, but still made it on the 2.15-train, and it was nice and quiet and not a lot of people at all.
At this point I was almost exhausted ... from being so nervous and dealing with anxiety the whole day (I could never really relax), and I also suffered from my usual after-flight-heading, which kept getting worse because of the anxiety ... *sigh*
We came to Liverpool Street Station and it took a little while to figure out exactly from where our bus was leaving - and there actually is a different to "just check on something" when you are alone with one or two bags, or if you are five people with seven or eight bags!! :)
It didn't take very long to find bus 23 and be on our way but I think all of us were tired and I know the kids were really hungry. We got off the bus at Charing Cross station, where we saw a McDonald's sign, and the others went on ahead to get food.
I was going to pick up my London Pass, as the place closed at 4.30, and even though I was nervous and it was extremely hot, I felt quite all right. I think it was partly because I knew where I was going and what I was going to do, as I had done this in 2012 as well, and also because this was the first time on this extremely intense day that I had some time to myself.
I know, it sounds horrible that I'm complaining so much about my Dad and his family, and trust me, it won't continue like this!! They are amazing and I love them to bits, but this particular day was very hard for me, and when I'm having difficulties dealing with things, being around other people makes it ten times worse.
So anyway, collecting my London Pass worked out really well - and I just love the place where you do it because it's almost unreal ... Maybe I'll even make a separate post about it later on! :)
I met the others at McDonald's, and believe it or not but they had just gotten their food when I got there. I hurried and ordered my meal and we were basically done at the same time.
Took another bus to Sussex Gardens, managed to get off at the right bus stop and it didn't take long to find Olympic House Hotel. Checking in was a bit ... weird... Again I let my Dad and the others go first, but we had a hard time speaking English, and the lady in the reception had a hard time speaking English (and I think she was hard of hearing as well) so it took a while before she realized we were travelling together but had booked two rooms! :)
Eventually it all worked out, the other had gotten a room on the ground floor while I was on the third floor, so I took the elevator up - and couldn't find my room! *slightly panicky!* It turned out I had my room out near one of the staircases (apparently most single rooms are situated like that, it was the same in 2012 at the Orchard Hotel). The room was quite nice, very small of course, but everything was clean and tidy and seemed to work out, with a really nice bathroom! And they had one normal EU electrical socket - meaning the adapter I had convinced everyone we needed to charge cellphones and batteries was completely unnecessary! *lol*
After a little while I heard a knock on my door and there were my Dad and my two little sisters, wanting to see how I was going to live! :) :) We decided we would get settled for a little while and that I would come down to their room in about half an hour and maybe we could go for a little walk or something.
I was completely exhausted and was afraid I'd fall asleep, so I tried not to relax too much, and managed to, after a bit of a wander, find my way to the "family room" (as I later on used the stairs, which were quite narrow, very steep and very uneven and felt like the were leading up to a tower, I came to call my room the Tower-room, with the Tower-staris leading up to it! *lol*).
We decided to go for a walk, and ended up at Paddington station. Before the trip I had read the story about Paddington to the girls and they were of course excited to be at the station where he was originally found. I didn't expect to find much there, but there's this gorgeous wonderful lovely Paddington statue (have tons of beautiful photos of the girls with Paddington, but for privacy reasons I won't publish them here) - and they also had the most amazing Paddington store!! Everything was superexpensive, of course, but it was fantastic just to go around and look at everything.
I didn't feel very well at all though, all the tension and anxiety and weariness caught up with me and after Paddington station we split up. My Dad and the girls went back to the hotel, the girls' mother went to buy something to eat and some water, and I really felt I needed to be on my own for a while, so I took a walk around the area for about half an hour. Went by the "family room" when I came back to collect some of my luggage from their bag, and then climbed up the stairs to my Tower Room! :)
I have to say that this day was the hardest. Everything worked out really well on a practical level, but emotionally it was really rough. I'm very grateful I had my own room at the hotel and that the room was so nice, because I could truly relax and unwind there, and I think I very much needed that!
London 2014: General Info
Okay, since I didn't have the oportunity to blog about this trip in advance at all, I would like to tell you a little bit about this trip before I get into the day-to-day entries.
This trip to London was actually a gift from my families to me, as I earlier this year managed to get my Master's Degree, so I was given the trip, including airport transfers, hotel and various activies while in London (three musicals and a 2 Day London Pass, and a bit more!).
I was going with my Dad and his family, which was new for me - they travel a lot, but I have only ever travelled by myself or with a friend, or when I was young, with my Mum and Dad, but I've never travelled with an entire family (2 Adults, 2 Children ... and moi!). We did decide on London because I've been there several times before, and I love it, and also because that would mean we could both do things together, but also apart!! Had we visited someplace I had never been before, it wouldn't be so fun for me to go off on my own - but on the other hand, I'm used to being on my own, so we realized it would be a bit hard for me to be with them 24/7 on an entire trip.
My Dad and his family had started checking out London early on, bascially almost before I had finished my thesis and gotten my degree, and at that point I could not for the life of me focus on such a trip ... the entire spring went and when summer was closing in I realized I had to start checking out London for real. No sooner said than done, within a couple of days I think we had the trip booked! :)
We decided on flying from the Norweigan airport Rygge, as it was not too far to travel and the flight times to London were a lot better, and we also found a nice hotel in Paddington, on Sussex Gardens, not far from the hotel I stayed in, in 2012.
For me it was quite a big change to actually travel with "all these people" ...*lol* Well, I know there are only four of them, but for me they sometimes feel like an entire crowd, as I'm used to being on my own. I liked the fact that we'd booked different rooms in the same hotel, allowing for some privacy but at the same time making it possible to spend time together. I also like the fact that we tried to plan a few activities together, but also plan some things apart!
Like the last time, I debated on what to do with my cellphone. In the end I brought it (duh!), but decided to try to find free wifi at public places and only use the internet there - as it is hideously expensive eitherwise. Well, it turned out that was not so easy ... The hotel charged a daily fee for wifi, that I didn't want to pay, and as soon as I found spots with "free wifi" (such as Stansted Express, McDonald's etc.) you had to go through a lengthy registration process, and I did not want to do that with a cellphone that is not registered in England ... I ended up photographing a bit with my cellphone, but I never connected to the internet at all ...
I still have a few difficulties with somethings, I know I don't want to be too personal in this public blog (as I mentioned during the 2012-trip too), but I struggle with anxiety sometimes, and it did pop up a bit during this trip as well. But since that is who I am, I know I will have to accept, and try to do the best I can anyway! :)
This was, all in all, a trip that started out a bit shaky but ended up being the best London trip I've ever been on! :) I'm just hoping to go back - SOON!!!
This trip to London was actually a gift from my families to me, as I earlier this year managed to get my Master's Degree, so I was given the trip, including airport transfers, hotel and various activies while in London (three musicals and a 2 Day London Pass, and a bit more!).
I was going with my Dad and his family, which was new for me - they travel a lot, but I have only ever travelled by myself or with a friend, or when I was young, with my Mum and Dad, but I've never travelled with an entire family (2 Adults, 2 Children ... and moi!). We did decide on London because I've been there several times before, and I love it, and also because that would mean we could both do things together, but also apart!! Had we visited someplace I had never been before, it wouldn't be so fun for me to go off on my own - but on the other hand, I'm used to being on my own, so we realized it would be a bit hard for me to be with them 24/7 on an entire trip.
My Dad and his family had started checking out London early on, bascially almost before I had finished my thesis and gotten my degree, and at that point I could not for the life of me focus on such a trip ... the entire spring went and when summer was closing in I realized I had to start checking out London for real. No sooner said than done, within a couple of days I think we had the trip booked! :)
We decided on flying from the Norweigan airport Rygge, as it was not too far to travel and the flight times to London were a lot better, and we also found a nice hotel in Paddington, on Sussex Gardens, not far from the hotel I stayed in, in 2012.
For me it was quite a big change to actually travel with "all these people" ...*lol* Well, I know there are only four of them, but for me they sometimes feel like an entire crowd, as I'm used to being on my own. I liked the fact that we'd booked different rooms in the same hotel, allowing for some privacy but at the same time making it possible to spend time together. I also like the fact that we tried to plan a few activities together, but also plan some things apart!
Like the last time, I debated on what to do with my cellphone. In the end I brought it (duh!), but decided to try to find free wifi at public places and only use the internet there - as it is hideously expensive eitherwise. Well, it turned out that was not so easy ... The hotel charged a daily fee for wifi, that I didn't want to pay, and as soon as I found spots with "free wifi" (such as Stansted Express, McDonald's etc.) you had to go through a lengthy registration process, and I did not want to do that with a cellphone that is not registered in England ... I ended up photographing a bit with my cellphone, but I never connected to the internet at all ...
I still have a few difficulties with somethings, I know I don't want to be too personal in this public blog (as I mentioned during the 2012-trip too), but I struggle with anxiety sometimes, and it did pop up a bit during this trip as well. But since that is who I am, I know I will have to accept, and try to do the best I can anyway! :)
This was, all in all, a trip that started out a bit shaky but ended up being the best London trip I've ever been on! :) I'm just hoping to go back - SOON!!!
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
LONDON 2014
YES!!
This summer it was time for another trip to London! :)
Originally I designed this blog to be about my 2012-trip to London - then I expanded it to include my previous trips as well ... and now I'm expanding again! :)
The "blog"-part of this site will be about my London trips, from the 2012-trip and forward - and the pages will cover my previous trips (I am aware I'm still missing a few things from my earlier trips, but for now, I will try to focus on the latest one).
If you want to go back and read about my trip in 2012 that is fine, but I do believe some of the images won't work, I apologize for that but I won't spend too much time trying to fix them now, but instead focus on getting everything about this most recent trip up to date.
As the trip took place during the summer, I had no internet access before or immediately after, so there have been no introductory posts here. Instead I will try to start off with an entry describing this trip, how it came about and what preparations were made (circumstances were a bit special too) - and then I will continue with posts on the actual trip.
I like the idea of one blog entry per day on the trip, but I'm not sure I can follow my pattern from 2012 with one photo-post from each day - as I have saved 1011 photos from the trip (no, I won't post all of them - duh! - but I will have a hard time choosing, and I'm guessing there will be a lot of photos here!) ... but I'm thinking of doing thematic photo-posts instead, I think that will be easier.
I do have a lot of other things to do as well right now, so I'm not sure when, or how often, I will be able to add posts to this blog, but I'm still trying to remain in my London-state-of-minde (which is a great one!!), so hopefully I will be able to spend at least some time every day on this blog! :)
Seeya!
This summer it was time for another trip to London! :)
Originally I designed this blog to be about my 2012-trip to London - then I expanded it to include my previous trips as well ... and now I'm expanding again! :)
The "blog"-part of this site will be about my London trips, from the 2012-trip and forward - and the pages will cover my previous trips (I am aware I'm still missing a few things from my earlier trips, but for now, I will try to focus on the latest one).
If you want to go back and read about my trip in 2012 that is fine, but I do believe some of the images won't work, I apologize for that but I won't spend too much time trying to fix them now, but instead focus on getting everything about this most recent trip up to date.
As the trip took place during the summer, I had no internet access before or immediately after, so there have been no introductory posts here. Instead I will try to start off with an entry describing this trip, how it came about and what preparations were made (circumstances were a bit special too) - and then I will continue with posts on the actual trip.
I like the idea of one blog entry per day on the trip, but I'm not sure I can follow my pattern from 2012 with one photo-post from each day - as I have saved 1011 photos from the trip (no, I won't post all of them - duh! - but I will have a hard time choosing, and I'm guessing there will be a lot of photos here!) ... but I'm thinking of doing thematic photo-posts instead, I think that will be easier.
I do have a lot of other things to do as well right now, so I'm not sure when, or how often, I will be able to add posts to this blog, but I'm still trying to remain in my London-state-of-minde (which is a great one!!), so hopefully I will be able to spend at least some time every day on this blog! :)
Seeya!
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