Introduction:
My
best girlfriend, Gloria, and I had known each other for most of our lives. We were both in our late 20’s. In early 1981, we started planning a trip to
Europe with our travel agent, a mutual friend of ours named Jillian. This “trip of a lifetime” was to take place
mostly in June of 1981, from May 30 till June 29. It took a lot of time to plan all the places
we wanted to visit in Europe, accumulate the amount of money we would need for
the bus tour, hotels and food (the tour package), and the extra money we would
need for our souvenirs, extra excursions, and our own travel. We left on May 30 from Toronto, Canada and
our exciting adventures were just beginning.
I wrote a daily journal during our trip so that we wouldn’t forget later
on what we’d experienced there. This is the
story of the experiences I wrote about in my journal. It’s broken down to day-by-day entries. Believe me, there is no better way than to
write about a “trip of a lifetime” that would serve as our memoirs of this most
memorable journey.
Day 1 – London, England – May 30,
1981:
Our
flight was a late start due to fuelling problems. Nevertheless, we finally left Toronto’s
Pearson International Airport and had to land in Montreal (at Mirabel
International Airport) for 45 minutes.
When we finally left Montreal, the flight over the Atlantic Ocean took 6
hours. We landed at London, England’s
Heathrow International Airport at approximately 10:05 am (5:05 am Toronto
time). Gloria and I then took a
double-decker bus and taxi to the Charmon Court Hotel. We, ourselves, had booked this part of the
trip, which started 4 days before the bus tour was to begin. But, we didn’t like our hotel very much, so
we went out for a pub lunch at the Prince Alfred Courage Ales Pub and then started
looking for a new hotel. Finally, we
found a nice one called the Garden Court Hotel, 30/31 Kensington Gardens
Square, W2 London, which was 16 pounds Sterling per night for a twin room. At this point, we were so tired, we flaked
out for about 6 hours.
Later, we went out for supper at about
9:30 or 10:00 pm (London time) to The Jagerhutte (a German restaurant). We stayed there for the evening and then came
back to the hotel at about 12 midnight to sleep. Tomorrow, we planned on getting up at 7:00 am
for an English breakfast provided by the hotel and wanted to put in a full day
of sight-seeing in London.
Hotels
in London are different from those in Canada.
The hotel has a bar, a TV room, and dining room downstairs. All rooms upstairs have one or two beds and a
private sink, but the shower and toilet are downstairs (at the bottom of the
stairs) and are shared by the guests.
Everything closes up around 11:00 pm in the hotel itself.
Day 2 – London, England – May 31, 1981:
Today,
we had our first bona fide English breakfast of one fried egg, sausage or back
bacon, cereal with milk, toast and marmalade, and lots of tea. We then showered and dressed and got
ourselves ready to go out for our first real English adventure. We left at about 11:00 am for Victoria Rail
Station by using a Red Bus Rover (1-day, unlimited) pass on London’s
double-decker buses. First, we went to
see Buckingham Palace (naturally!) with a man we had met at the hotel (named Gary). Because it was Sunday in London, many of the
attractions were closed. Also, due to
some kind of massive rally involving about 100,000 people, many bus tours were
being cancelled and traffic jams were rampant.
We finally got real tired of walking and/or waiting for buses that never
came, so we went back to our hotel eventually.
It took over an hour to get back because many of the buses had been
re-routed (around the rally). After
resting a while at our hotel, we had a nice dinner at a place called Le
Bistingo (a French restaurant). All in
all, this day was an exercise in fatigue and frustration. I hope that tomorrow will be a better day.
Day 3 – London, England – June 1, 1981:
Today,
we got up before 8:00 am, got dressed and had an early breakfast. Then, we left on the Underground (London’s subway)
to go to Victoria Rail Station to buy a ticket for the London Day Tour. This tour started at 10:00 am from further up
the road at the coach terminal, which we found only after doing some
searching. On the tour, we took a brief
trip around the city of London and saw Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and
Parliament House. After that, we saw the
Changing of the Guard, which started at St. James Palace and ended at
Buckingham Palace. Before our scheduled
lunch break, we also saw Westminster Abbey.
After lunch was done, we continued the tour and saw St. Paul’s Cathedral
and the Tower of London. Along the way,
we saw the Thames River, London Bridge, Hyde Park (which was close to our
hotel!) and Kensington Park. It was a
really excellent tour of London!
Later,
after we had gotten back by Underground, we each had a beer, relaxed for a
while at our hotel and then went for dinner to Huckleberry’s (like
McDonald’s). Later that evening, we sat
around in the living area of the hotel with other boarders and watched the
“teley” (TV), drinking rye and ginger ale until about 12 midnight. The hotel, which was more like a house to us,
was very comfortable to stay at. It was
more like a “bed-and-breakfast” than a hotel.
It was very informal and relaxing in our room, unlike the room we would
have had at the Charmon Hotel if we had stayed there instead. Because we had made a deposit on our old
reservation at the Charmon, we tried getting our 14 pounds Sterling back, but
the manager had left for the day, so we decided that we would try again
tomorrow.
Day 4 – London, England – June 2, 1981:
Today,
we got up at 8:45 am, got dressed and ate breakfast. Then, we went looking for an adapter for the
hair-dryer that Gloria had since the electrical outlets in Europe are all 220 V
and our appliances are 120 V, but we couldn’t find one. I guess that our hair will have to dry
naturally then. We decided to buy a
picnic lunch at a nearby grocery store and did some other shopping, as
well. Back at the hotel, we did some of
our laundry (one of the few times we would be able to find time to do
this!). Later, we went to visit nearby
Hyde Park.
While
in Hyde Park, we saw a helicopter land in the grounds of Kensington Palace. Some of the Royal family (of Queen Elizabeth)
boarded the helicopter and it took off.
We liked Hyde Park so much that we stayed there for a while and ate the
picnic lunch we had prepared for ourselves earlier. Our simple picnic consisted of French bread
and butter, cheese, meat, fresh fruit, and some beverages. After lunch, we went on a tour of the
Kensington Palace State Apartments (17 rooms) and that was pretty awesome.
We
had to drop by a hair dresser’s shop and ask about Gloria’s hair and how to
manage it. She has the weirdest
hair. If she cannot use a hair dryer to
dry it properly, it ends up being very frizzy, not like mine which dries
straight as a poker without the use of a hair dryer. (The only problem is – I cannot remember what
the hair dresser told us.) So, I guess
Gloria decided either to keep her hair fairly short or tie it up during the day
to minimize the frizziness.
After
this, we decided to go have a cup of tea, as all English people do during the
afternoons. And, of course, we had to do
some serious souvenir shopping while still in London! Our time here was running out fast. But, the best was yet to come to us in
London!
Back
at the hotel that evening, we shared two bottles of champagne with a man I will
call William Smith (not his real name).
He was one of the boarders at the hotel and very nice man. He was also a nuclear physicist who seemed to
be well off. He then asked us both out
to dinner, as, it was our last night in London.
We went to the Mayfair Hotel Restaurant for dinner (very ritzy!), then
on to the Soho District of the city to the exclusive Charlie Chester Casino, of
which William was a member. This was a
private casino for members and guests only.
Gloria
played blackjack and I played roulette and through the night I won a
substantial amount (about $400 in Canadian!), but then I started to lose and
finally withdrew with about the equivalent of $170.00. Gloria had to pull me out of there, I was
having so much fun gambling. I was
absolutely thrilled about winning money and I’m now looking forward to Monte
Carlo, during the bus tour. Thanks so
much, William!
copyright 2014, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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