Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Visiting London 4

After visiting museums, monuments, churches we were somewhat tired already, so took the tube to Picadilly Circus, another iconic place, and hung there. Then we decided on some shopping on Oxford Street.






I was looking for a big supermarket, but people in small stores didn't know of any. There is a Mark and Spencer but it is not a grocery but more of a department store. We used to have one in Montreal and I enjoyed shopping there. anyway we had fun seeing various stores and buying some souvenirs.

There was a lot of construction and crowds at the tube station were unbearable.

Then we returned to our hotel and decided to go to  Granary Square, not far from our hotel, and on a channel to relax. When we passed it I have seen a sign for a big Waitrose store, finally we fund a supermarket. I was curious to see food choices and if we could buy something from there to bring back home. What a surprise, almost all their products were the same as back home. I bought some mushy peas, which I didn't see home and baked beans, not the same as back home.










Tesco had actually more exotic items for us. We passed by the tube station and recovered remaining money from our Oyster cards, from a machine and in little change. Oh boy, 46 pounds. I tried to exchange at one of the stores, but they wanted us to buy something. We found a change office with best change rate and got it in Canadian dollars. Then back to our room for packing, our Eurostar to Paris was early next morning.

London visit was pleasant, but we will return one day to visit more. Food-wise it was better than expected, everything was good, although doesn't compare to France, and of course for us all was expensive because of exchange rate, but we have got a taste of London. I wouldn't live there I think because of so many crowds and buses some days just unable to run. It is a big city with several problems, but for visiting it was nice.

In the morning we checked out and just walked to St Pancras where we went through Security and Customs. Everything went well, except one mad woman who was rushing everyone and went with families and mixed up her family bags. She was really impatient, her husband and daughter didn't talk. Finally she was returned back as she forgot one bag. We like keeping our stuff together and go through detectors one after the other, so we don't leave our bags unattended. All other people were rather quiet.
A very polite man even helped us with our bags up to the train.


Visiting London 3

Next we took a red bus to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.



Walked around the Tower, there were may people walking and the fast foods around were full. The weather was nice for pictures and walking. Then on the bridge, there is a tourist information office. The views were lovely. From there it was possible to see also modern London buildings which are spectacular.