London 2023 - Day 11 / London

Steps today: 25 716 / 16.95km

Last Day!

Again a walk through the park and a pastry at the Italian Gardens Café for breakfast. I was craving their ginormo Raisin Danish, and since calories don't count on vacation I had to take full advantage!

The goal for this morning was to get to Regent's Park which I have never visited on my other visits to London; it was great! I have been missing out on the previous trips, but it's outside Central London so it's not something you would natural walk by on your way to somewhere else like Hyde Park for example...  well, for me anyway! I suppose if my hotel was out there I would see it more often...

It was beautiful, perhaps this just looks like the same picture over and over, but I just loved it!

I especially loved Queen Mary's Rose Garden with so many flowers still in bloom! I couldn't get enough - so beautiful!

One of the troubles with Regent Park is that's it's also not that close to busy, touristy, popular places so finding a pub after this was not easy! I wanted to visit the Charles Dickens Museum next, so we wandered towards it but not only was the walk to find a place to stop long-ish, it was also not very pleasant. Not as bad as the one in Greenwich, but close. Although there were a few beautiful buildings to admire along the way:

Poor Frank was getting increasingly grumpy because he had to pee and there were NO services around at all. By about 11:45 we reached Russel Square where there was a very nice Italian Café, and we stopped for espressos so he could use the bathroom.  I could tell he really wanted to stay for lunch, but it was our last day and I really REALLY wanted to go to a pub for the last time. If this was not the last day I would have stayed, because I liked it too and the menu looked good, but I wanted more of the London experience. He gave in and 3 minutes away we found a pub so I could have my last Pink G&T of the trip.

The service was not good and the guys were rude. They originally told us the kitchen would open at 12:30 when we got our drinks (just after noon) but then another guy told us 1PM!  Frank was NOT amused, he was fed up and starting a little cold. He wanted to sit, eat, rest. I get it.  I saw thanks to Google that there was an Italian restaurant near by so we went there for lunch arriving just before 1PM.

Turns out it was Frank's best meal of the trip so he was ultimately rewarded for his endurance.

It was a nice place, very lively and authentically Italian. It must have been a family restaurant because the staff spoke Italian amongst themselves.

Funny story: I ordered a glass of wine that was somewhat small and would not be enough. I asked Frank if he wanted the rest of my half-glass and I would order another one for myself. Knowing now that the staff is Italian, I told the waitress in Italian that I would like another glass please... HA! Now, if you ever go to this restaurant in London, you know how to order your wine! Skimpy English size versus generous Italian size.

The meal was great!

So delicious that I even ordered dessert! Lemon Tartuffo which by the time I got to the center looked like an egg.

After this delicious meal, as I stood up to leave and my back spasmed again. Thank God we were next to a wall.  The waitress came over when she saw the look on my face wondering what on Earth was happening, Frank told her it was my back.  I just said: sono vecchia! LOL

We made it to the Charles Dickens museum by about 2:15, I enjoyed it!

The plan after this was to eventually make it to the south side of the Thames to meet up with a friend of mine who was also visiting London and our trips overlapped for a few days.

We just slowly meandered around, saying good-bye to London, but we were both zonked. I think mentally knowing it was the end, the adrenaline of vacation fun evaporates.

We strolled along the Strand for a bit...

This building made me laugh, I joked that I still owed them 11.99 for 20 audio cassettes I bought in 80s! ha!

By 4PM we were saying good-bye to St Paul's

Then we wanted to cross over the river via the Millennium Bridge, but it was closed for maintenance.

We finally met up with my friend around 5, but by then Frank was FINISHED and I was not far behind. It was fun to see her, but it was far from the fun, party-like "how cool is this, we are both in London at the same time" vibe I was hoping for.

To give you an idea: I didn't take a picture of the place, didn't order a drink with dinner, and only ate a small appetizer.

After supper, surprisingly, my back was ok when I stood up!!  But it was not to last, as we were walking towards the Tube, I had another spasm and the only thing that was close enough for me to grasp was my poor friend's arm! I hope I didn't leave bruises. She was having her own problems with a sore lower back, and Frank was a ghost of his usual self... what a pathetic trio we were.

It was an unceremonious end to a great vacation!

Day 11 Map:

London 2023 - Day 10 / York & London

Steps today: 22 376 / 14.75km

This is the morning I apparently lost my mind.

We were off to York today, and the train leaves from King's Cross Station. I knew this. Don't ask me why but for some reason I had Paddington Station in my head. We arrived at our home Tube Station bright and early (we had set our alarms that morning to get an early start to the day) and I see that the Circle Line which would bring us directly to Paddington is not running due to maintenance, and the entrance to the District Line is closed too. Ok fine, let's get on the Piccadilly Line for one stop, and transfer onto the branch of District Line that also goes to Paddington from there (the 3 lines run together for 3 stops). So we do that, get on the suspiciously deserted platform for the District Line at the next stop and wait.... until finally a message: no District Line service all weekend due to maintenance. I am SURE there was a sign at our station too that I just didn't notice.  Ok fine, on to Plan C. Back on the Piccadilly Line again for a few more stops where we can change to the Hammersmith Line that will also take us to Paddington Station.  Off we go! about 45 minutes into this detour, when we were sitting in the Tube counting the amount of stops to go, THAT was when I realized we were supposed to be going to King's Cross!!! Thank GOD the Hammersmith Line that we were on now also went to King's Cross because if we had to change one more time, I think Frank would have strangled me - he was not impressed. I on the other hand was laughing about it because the most ironic part of all this was that we could have taken the Piccadilly Line from the start at our home station with no detours whatsoever.  Ahhhhh  travel.

We finally made it to King's Cross, alive and well by about 8ish and were soon on our way on the 8:30 train.  Beautiful station!

We arrived around 11, and it was COLD. We knew it would be and dressed appropriately, but the transition from the train to the outside made me start to shiver which brought on more back spasms so it was a slow walk from the station to the Old Town.

We fell in love right away as soon as we saw the City Walls.

We lined up to visit the Minster, but when we learned the price we passed. I am SURE it was beautiful, no doubt, but I have seen so many beautiful interiors in my travels that I felt ok about not adding one more.

Our time was pretty much just spent wandering, and it was really nice! Lots to see even if you are not planning to see the inside of anything, and the little streets are very quaint.

Around 11:45 we stopped for a drink and lunch. I was afraid to sit down because my back seemed to be acting up the most when I went from sitting to standing (not to mention laying down at night! Torture!) so we picked a high table where Frank could sit and I could eat standing up.

After lunch, we explored "The Shambles" which is a street full of preserved medieval buildings, some as old as the 1300s!

I saw almost none of it, here is the one picture I got. It was so unbelievably crowded I felt like a salmon trying to swim upstream to get through all the people. It was NUTS!

At one point, we passed by a shop with an insanely long line of people waiting to get in. It just went on and on and on, and at one point I heard the lady controlling the line say that the wait was about THREE TO FOUR HOURS!! What the Hell goes on in there???  Turns out it was a shop called "The York Ghost Merchants" and it blew up on tictoc. Had I known I would have taken a picture, but I was not in the mood to get back into the mosh pit of people.

A little further out from the Old Town, we saw Clifford's Tower, a surviving bit of the Castle.

Then we walked along the city walls for a bit....

But by 2PM I was fed up of the crowds and we decided to head back to London. We caught the 3PM train and were back in London by 5. Perfect.

I was glad we arrived at King's Cross because it meant I could see San Pancras Station which is just next to it. It's so beautiful that I think it's worth the detour if you've never seen it. It's really hard to get a picture of it without obstacles in the way!

Another beautiful building to admire is the Kimpton Fitroy. The details are amazing. My pictures are a bit too crooked so one day I'll have to go back and get nice ones!

For supper we made our way to Irving Street which is a row of Italian restaurants just off Leicester Square. For a fast, touristy meal, I was impressed! it was quite tasty! (it was around 6:30)

Feeling good, from there we walked about an hour to another Caffé Concerto for what was now my favourite dessert. It after 8PM after we left, such a late night for us!

We bussed it home after this, back in the room by 9 - late for us!

Day 10 Map - York:

Day 10 Map - London: