2011.06.20/21 – Ottawa – Sheffield (UK)
I spent most of Monday finishing to pack my travel bag. Jenny went to work for half a day. Victoria was attending her last school day of her last year at the same elementary school she had been attending since prekindergarten. She was very disappointed that our family vacation started before her 6th grade class graduation. Jenny came back home in time for both of us to pick up Victoria at school. The short farewell between friends was very emotional.
Back home, our friend, Gang, showed up at our doorstep promptly at 3:30pm – just as promised. The traffic was light for our drive to the airport. We thanked Gang and carried our few travel bags into the airport. We noted that we had much fewer bags this time than our last visit to China.
The flight with Thomas Cook left and arrived on-time. Everything went well but their on-board entertainment system was clearly not as elaborate as the one from Air Continental. Snacks and headphones were being sold to passengers – no freebie here!
Upon our arrival at London’s Gatwick airport, we queued at immigration for 30 minutes. The immigration officer was a bit inquisitive about our Sheffield destination. We expected our baggage to be already on the carousel after immigration but unfortunately this was not the case. The luggage belt had apparently broken and had to be fixed. We waited another 30 minutes before leaving the airport on the train. Using our Brit Rail pass for the fist time, we made our way to the St Pancras International train station. At the station, Jenny purchased a SIM card for her new Iphone4. Jenny called Jessica along the train ride to Sheffield.
Jessica greeted us at the train station. We took the taxi to her flat and started to explore the town that she spent the last few years in studying of her law degree. We had Pad Thai at a local restaurant after which we walked around the neighborhood and the university campus. Back at the flat, we had a few hours of sleep to recover a bit from our long journey from Ottawa. We met a few of Jessica’s friends before heading out for an evening meal to celebrate Jessica’s last minute news about a job offer she received from a law firm. Jessica was totally ecstatic about her job offer as she finally started to see the hard work paying off (with a bit of luck!). Exhausted from the day’s travel and events, we were all happy to hit the beds.
2011.06.22 – Sheffield (UK) – London (UK)
After a good, but still short, night of rest, we headed out to a local Pub for a traditional English breakfast, including flat mushroom, baked beans and black pudding. We continued to take a few pictures of Jessica surroundings. It was another high emotional day as Jessica said goodbye to her friends in Sheffield, a place filled with memories. We took the taxi back to the Sheffield train station to catch our train back to London. Upon our arrival at the St Pancras International station, we took another taxi to our modest hotel – the Travelodge City Road. Our room was fairly small but everyone managed to sleep comfortably.
We got initiated to London’s underground subway system aptly nickname the Tube. After purchasing our Oyster card, we set out to visit a few neighborhoods in the city. We stopped for our evening meal in London’s Chinatown. We attended a street entertainer’s show before returning to our hotel. Our first impression of the Tube was that it was small and not very modern compared to several subways we had experienced in Asia (Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taiwan). Nonetheless it appeared to get the job done! Victoria was deemed to remember this Europe trip as she entered a new stage of her womanhood! Also concerning for all of us was Jessica’s bad headaches she was experiencing early into her sleep.
2011.06.23 – London (UK)
Although we had been concerned that our hotel was going to be noisy throughout the night, this was not the case. Early morning, I surprised everyone by getting some croissants and lattes to get the day started.
We took the Tube again today and started our London visit with a stop at Buckingham Palace where we attended a changing of the guard ceremony. We walked by Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament including the tower housing the Big Ben bell. We enjoyed a boat cruise on the Thames river down to the Tower Bridge. We walked back along the Thames and stopped at different sites such as St Paul’s Cathedral. We had an early supper of fish and chip at a riverside Pub. We made our way to London’s Eye (Millennium Ferris Wheel) where we queued for 30 minutes before taking the 30 minutes ride on the Eye. Great views and pictures! We took a break from our long walk by jumping on a double-Decker bus for a short ride. We stopped at a chain restaurant of Cafe Rouge for some small snacks. Unfortunately the experience was not great as the service was very rude and the food value was very poor. We took the Tube back to our hotel.
