More London

After checking into our hotel and unpacking a bit, we headed back into London to watch Hercules the Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Our seats weren’t the best, and the play is a little short, but we enjoyed it. It’s an adaptation of Disney’s Hercules, so it used all of the songs from the movie plus a few new ones.

While our hotel was reasonably priced, it wasn’t real convenient for going into London. We had to take a bus and then the underground to the theater, and then the underground and a bus to get back. Each trip took over an hour. 

Yesterday morning we slept in then took the bus and train into London again. We did some shopping and had lunch at a BrewDog. After lunch we walked to the Waterstones near Piccadilly Circus, then up to Oxford Street, and looked in more stores.

It was too early to head back to the hotel so we decided to head out to Greenwich to see the Ranger house, which was featured in the Bridgerton series. From there we took an Uber to Canary Wharf, where we bought some food, then took the Elizabeth line and a bus back to our hotel. 

This morning we checked out of our hotel and took an Uber to Heathrow Airport for our flight home. We were upgraded to Delta Comfort for our flight to Minneapolis, and first class for the flight from there to Orlando. We had a long layover between flights, but spent most of it in the Delta lounge.

More Manchester

For our second day in Manchester I had planned on riding a hop on hop off bus, but then found out they don’t run on Mondays and Tuesdays. However I also learned Manchester has free bus routes in the city center, so yesterday morning we caught one of those up to the Cathedral. 

We looked around inside the cathedral then walked down Deansgate to the Ryland Library, stopping at a Waterstones bookstore on the way. Unfortunately the library is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays too, so we continued on.

We ate a late lunch at a Brewdog, which was very good, then got back on the free bus to go back to our hotel. Manchester has a very nice city center - very little garbage and graffiti and lots of nice stores and restaurants. We hung out in our room and grabbed dinner from the lounge.

This morning we checked out of our hotel and took a train back to London Euston. We arrived in the afternoon, then took the Tube and an Uber to our hotel, a Courtyard out by Heathrow airport.

North Wales and Chester

This morning after breakfast we boarded a minibus and headed out on a Rabbies’s tour. As we left Manchester, the driver related some of the history of the city. Then, when we hit the Welsh border, he told some of the history of Wales, and especially of the castle building of Edward I. After about an hour and a half, we reached our first stop, Conwy Castle. 

We walked through the ruins of the castle for about 45 minutes. While it’s impressive, there wasn’t much signage about how castle defenses worked, or about life in a castle, and only one tower had a bit of its floors restored. Some of the towers had refurbished spiral stairs, and Jenn and I went up to walk the battlements, which had nice views of the town, nearby bay, and surrounding countryside. We then spent another 45 minutes or so walking down to the Quay and stopping in some shops for souvenirs and snacks.

Then it was back on the bus to drive into Snowdonia National Park. After a brief stop at Padarn Lake, we drove over the Llanberis Pass and a view of the mountains of Snowdonia. While we did the driven continued to tell us some of the history of the area. 

Another short drive brought us to the picturesque village of Betws-y-Coed, where we had a late lunch, did some more shopping, and enjoyed the views of the stream running through the village.

Then it was another hour plus ride back into England for our last stop, the city of Chester. This historic town, first founded by the Romans, has a lot of old buildings containing different types of shops, a cathedral, and Roman ruins. We wandered around for a little over an hour admiring the city center then grabbed a drink in a pub. Then it was back to Manchester where our tour ended. It was a long day - we left our hotel around 8:15 am and got back around 7:15 pm - but we enjoyed it.

Manchester

This morning we checked out of our hotel by the Excel and took the Underground to Euston Station, where we boarded a train to Manchester. About two and a half hours later, we arrived at Manchester Piccadilly. 

From the train station it was a short walk to our hotel, the Marriott Piccadilly. The hotel was a little dated and we didn’t get upgraded to a nice room or have a good view of anything, but we did have access to the lounge for breakfast and evening drinks and snacks. 

We checked in and rested a bit, then set off on a walk through Manchester. We walked by Piccadilly Gardens and then through a shopping mall, stopping at a couple of stores. Finally we made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe, where we had dinner.

The HRC was located in the Printworks, a building formerly housing a printing factory that had been converted to restaurants and entertainment. This was my 48th Hard Rock. After dinner we took an Uber back to our hotel.

Churchill’s War Rooms

This morning after breakfast I helped Jenn and Susan get ready to sign and sell books at the convention, then took the Tube to Westminster, and walked to Churchill’s War Rooms.

The War Rooms were set up in a basement beneath a government office building in the early months of World War II to provide those running the war effort some protection from German bombs. Over the years of the war the rooms were expanded and fortified, although largely kept secret.

After the war the rooms were largely abandoned, but 40 years later it was decided to open them to the public. I spent about three hours looking through the main rooms and the Churchill museum, which was set up in a large block of office that were the last constructed. Although it was fairly pricey at £33, it’s definitely worth the cost for those interested in the history of WWII.

Afterwards I wandered by some of the government buildings, including Downing Street. It was pretty crowded due to a “Pride” parade happening nearby, but I managed to avoid the worst of it, and had a late lunch in a nearby pub. 

I made my way back to the Excel on crowded Underground trains and waited a hour or so for Susan and Jenn to finish, then helped them pack up. They were both too tired to go anywhere for dinner and all the food places at the Excel closed with the convention, so we just went back to our hotel and had snacks for dinner, then hung out til bedtime.

Return to London

 

Wednesday night Susan, Jennifer, and I took a red-eye to London, so Jenn could attend a big book convention. The flight wasn’t the greatest - the boarding for the first leg, to Atlanta, was delayed almost an hour, then once boarded we waited around an hour until takeoff due to a storm. Luckily we had still had time to make our connector. On the second leg we were supposed to be upgraded to Delta Comfort, but then less than 24 hours before the flight we were downgraded back to main cabin, so we didn’t get much sleep.

Eventually though we made it to Heathrow, which is west of London, picked up all our bags, filled with many books, and took the Elizabeth line of the Underground to our hotel on the east side of London. We stayed in the Aloft next to the Excel, a huge exhibition hall. By then it was late afternoon, and we were exhausted from our flight and dragging multiple heavy suitcases through multiple stations, so we unpacked, cleaned up and went to sleep. 

Friday morning we headed to Oxford Street to do a little shopping, then walked through the Mayfair area so that Jennifer could attend an event with her publicist that afternoon, an English Tea.

While Jennifer attended the tea, Susan and I walked down Piccadilly and had lunch at the original Hard Rock Cafe. We had eaten here during our first trip to London back in December of 2014, but I went ahead and bought another shot glass because they had changed designs. 

After that we headed back to the Excel and checked in for the book convention Jenn and Susan will be attending tomorrow, attended an author meet and greet, then set up her table.