World According to Pete

Wacky random ramblings about wacky random trips

June 23, 2024

Day in London

Call me a Boomer but I happen to love posh hotels! The fact that this one, the Langham, was free, somehow made the whole extravaganza that much better 😀

Such a grand old place! I guess I’m old-school: I totally fall for these lovely old foyers, and all the meaningless pomp of yesteryear

But sadly we’re done with the hotel now: checked out, luggage in hand, we trudge to Oxford Circus to grab the Underground to meet up with a potential future business partner for Sam’s free-lancing work. We debated taking a half-hour taxi but it’s literally a straight shot down the (Red) Central Line… sure it’s like sixteen stops, but we never need to change trains! It’s honestly a no-brainer.

Literally a block away, we passed a noisy and slightly scary demonstration scene, tons of cops everywhere

We figured Doctor Who’s whole family must be lurking about close by

Remember me saying this was a simple straight shot down the tube? We got this far when the train stopped and everyone got off… and we saw this notice lol

Check out this spaghetti-bowl of train tracks in front of us!

OK, so no more Central Line, no more easy straight shot…. the one day in our entire lives when it actually matters, is somehow the one single day that the subway stops working!!!

So we’re stranded at the (newly) terminal end of the Central Line, wondering what to do… our mysterious contact was to meet us at a stop we can no longer get to, and we’re off phone data so we can’t really communicate… so we make the momentous decision to turn on cell data 😢 thus bringing shame on our whole family. We did two weeks in Japan on airplane mode the entire time, same in Greece, but we lost our streak in England—where against all odds we actually share a common language! So yup, we were finally defeated by the London Underground.

So we gave up, called, and Ubered at that point, in red-faced shame, but we made it to their house finally (on the *second* Uber—when it rains it pours), and within moments of meeting them we found we had new friends.

We travel to a lot of places but seldom see residential areas so it was a ton of fun to see their London home.

Dinner was at a perfect neighborhood pub, so it was time for some beers on tap and the trusty English fish & chips!!

It was a very cosy local fish-and-chipsy type of pub!

After an amazing home-cooked English breakfast, the clouds had no choice but to fade away, leaving us with a beautiful fall day. Here’s the view just out the front door

The local town was very nice & English lol

We caught sight of the local cathedral and had to check it out

2023 was… let’s say, not the best year we’d ever had. My Mom had shockingly just passed in May, and my Dad dutifully followed in September. We had memorably lit a candle to my Mother in Athens (which she would have loved), and today we felt moved to do the same for my dear departed Father. He would have approved of us honoring his memory in this way, in England, birthplace of his entire family.