Sorry about missing Friday’s retirement travel blog (and Sunday’s retro blog) for those of you who care about such things. But we’re home now and, subject to another Lateral Flow Test, we’ve survived the trip I’m going to report on below, in the form of a blog about our retirement travels.
You can see why retired people sometimes pull the bed covers over their heads and refuse to go out. I’m writing this from our hotel in central London. It’s our first visit to that London for about two years and I have to say, having travelled down on the train yesterday, I’ve got some mixed feelings about trips away from home.
We nearly cancelled it altogether. The thing is we booked it all – hotel, train, restaurant – a couple of months ago when all seemed set fair Covid-wise, but not now. The government possibly advised against it, so on those grounds alone we thought we’d do it. And here we are and, as I say, with mixed feelings.
So far after just a day our impressions have been as follows – almost everybody on the train was wearing a mask, except one person and of course this exception annoyed me tremendously, I didn’t feel positive towards the majority who had complied with the rules on travelling on public transport and the request over the tanoy to do so, which I should have done, just annoyed at the wanker who wasn’t wearing one and even more irritated at myself for not saying anything.
Relax we’re supposed to be having fun, So we get to that London. The first impression is that the traffic is slower but that has nothing to do with Covid our taxi driver tells us just some politician with an obsession with bike lanes. So, much slower, but remarkably about the same fare if I remember from two years ago.
So we check in and the hotel feels different. Emptier, the usual guys not on the door or working behind the concierge desk and fewer guests (mainly Americans?), at least I think so. For a hotel that’s even more expensive that usual and that’s expensive, there’s no bath robe in the room and the clock apparently hasn’t been reset from British Summertime, Little things but as I say it’s expensive. We’re on the 9th floor so we have a view over the roof tops which is a first.
We head off to the National Gallery as it’s the closest of our cultural visits. We fail to get into the Durer exhibition because we can’t book the tickets on my phone don’t ask why we can’t just buy them at the desk. Mrs Summerhouse walks around the old masters and interrupts a tour guide telling his group about Joseph Wright of Derby. He’d asked if anybody in the group knew where Derby was and she said yes me, I went to the school in Derby named after him. They were impressed, she told me even though technically the guide wasn’t asking her. But it was her moment in the limelight so she had to take it.
Later, a nice pizza in an uncrowded restaurant near the hotel then back to our room via the South Bank. Noted the absence of masks which was OK except for a busker inviting a member of his audience to join him at the microphone, their mouths inches apart belting out the song and possibly swapping microbobes. If either of them had Covid then the other will certainly have it now.
We avoided paying £68 to go on The Eye because the machine wouldn’t take my credit card. Thank you God or whoever. It was a moment of madness cost-wise which fortunately we avoided. After that, we got our times wrong and ended up in bed at such a ridiculously early hour that I’m not even going to tell you. We had to laugh, our first exciting trip to the capital for ages and here we were tucked up in bed. What a class act we are.
Next day we had breakfast in Trafalgar Square, not actually in the square but in a cafe just off it. Quick visit to The National Gallery to buy two Durer prints. We might not have made the exhibition but we’d got the souvenirs. Something not quite right there but hey ho.
And then we walked along the embankment to Tate Modern. It was nice and although I felt a bit weary even that early in the morning, we did our best. So ‘light’ on the viewings but again success on the souvenir front. Although it was bought from a gallery next to The Tate. Bigger and better souvenir this time. I’m so pleased with it I’ve even placed it at the top of this retirement blog. yes, it’s a lino cut of a tube train / Underground and it was expensive. It’s our joint Christmas present.
We walked back along the river clutching our present with visions of it being blown from our grasp and £360’s worth of soggy art floating down the Thames, to meet daughter and son-in-law in The Ship and Shovell a nice old pub ( but busy), you need to go at the right time.
The last part of the day was to eat at our favourite Indian restaurant, Veeraswamy, on Regent street. It had a slightly Covid precautionary air about it but still enjoyable and worth every penny especially as our son-in-law paid. Yep, well worth the money.
Retirement travel summary
So the 5 things which I haven’t really written about, it was just a ruse to see what it did to the Google ranking – the place itself, the train (mostly), free ride on the bus, the galleries (including buying some actual art), the pubs and our favourite Indian restaurant. And that’s actually six. Do they fit with your favourites? Glad to be back home, still Covid-free I think.
And below a couple of ‘bonus’ photos – view from Tate Modern cafe and view of yours truly..
