Day 24

Our last meal on TCS is breakfast, and we made the best of it. We got Eggs Benedict and orange juice. It was very good. We tried to coordinate with my brother and his family and my father. In the end, though, Jan, Sam and I transferred to the Rubens Hotel before them. We got in a cab, and they got our luggage in with no problems at all. At the Rubens, we registered and were offered an upgraded room for a nominal charge, so we took them up on it. The upgraded room was ready, so we had our luggage moved up and we unloaded a few things and then headed out into London. Dave the Concierge here at the Rubens recommended we go to Portabello Road and see the antiques sale. It only happens on Saturday, so we decided to head there and see what they had. We bought a travel card that gives us access to the Underground and buses and we got on the number 52 to head to Notting Hill. What they had was a whole lot of people in small streets, and loads of junk. Anything that was a legitimate antique was overpriced. It's cold here (high in the forties) so Jan bought a wool scarf to put around her neck. That was our big buy in Notting Hill. Jan had heard about this restaurant called Wagamama and wanted to try it. We had seen it (one of many around London as it turns out) from the bus, so we went back to the bus stop to wait for the returning number 52. Every other number that came to that stop came by at least twice, and we gave up and started to walk toward an Underground station. Just as we turned the corner, our bus showed up so we ran back and jumped on and started watching for the restaurant. Shortly before we spotted it, a crazy woman got on the bus and took offense at the driver asking to see her travel card. She started shouting at him and he was shouting back thank you. I still don't know what she was so upset about. I guess a crazy person doesn't need a good reason. Thankfully, the restaurant was just past the next stop so we jumped off and went in. I was put off immediately. It was loud and chaotic. Everyone was sitting at long tables, and waiters and waitresses were running around like crazy people. Jan and Sam were not deterred, though, and we went in and got a seat. Our first encounter with our waiter was when he asked Sam to move down so another party could sit at our table (the tables were marginally divided at groups of four). He eventually came back to take our order, and Jan and Sam's food showed up pretty quickly. For some reason, mine took longer. The food was so-so, but after we finished, we couldn't get a check from the waiter. We walked over to the cashier, and they weren't there, and the lady showed up about the time our waiter noticed we had left and ran over to get us the check. Needless to say, he didn't get much of a tip.

Next up was the Tower of London. We headed to the closest Underground station, which was not as close as I had thought. We did get to walk past Kensington Gardens. There were some guys playing roller hockey in the park. It looked like they were having fun. We finally managed to find the station at South Kensington, and thought it would be a simple matter of getting to Tower Hill. Unfortunately, the Circle line was down completely and the District line was down from Earl's Court to Embankment, which means we couldn't just get on and ride where we were going. We had to go up to Picadilly Circus and change lines to get down to Embankment and then change again to go from Embankment to Tower Hill. By the time we got there, it was 3:30 in the afternoon and the tower was closing in an hour, so we just went into the gift shop and looked around the area a little, and then headed back to the hotel. We had to switch around Underground lines again on the way back, and when we got to Green Park, they said it was the stop for Buckingham Palace. That sounded like it should be our stop, so I said we should try to get off there. As it turned out, it's a lot further to the hotel from the Green Park station than it is from Victoria, and we took a very indirect route which made it even further. Jan and Sam said Victoria Station was right next to the hotel, and said it often as we walked through the cold and gathering darkness.

Dad wasn't up to going out to dinner and Lonnie's family wanted to go to Covent Garden, so Jan and Sam and I went looking for an Indian restaurant that Dave told us was nearby (Quilon). We found it pretty easily and went in and discovered quickly that we were under dressed. They were very nice to us, though. The place was empty when we got there, and thought it was funny that they asked if we had reservations. The food was excellent, and by the time we left, it was almost full. So the reservations question wasn't as silly as I thought.