Photo Review April/May 2015: Disney, Eclipse TA, London

[Lisah101]

Do you mind sharing the name of your car service from Southhampton to London? Also cost and size of car for the 4 of you.

 

The shuttle company I used was Smith's for Airports out of Southampton. We had 2 quotes

 

4 people was 150 + 14.50 congestion charge due to the location of our hotel.

 

6 people was 180 + 14.50 congestion charge.

 

All in British Pounds.

[Lisah101]

So.... in London we were dropped off in front of the Waldorf and checked in. They brought the bags up to the room, I took a few photos, then we headed downstairs to ask directions to the Tower of London.

 

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

Call me crazy - but I was never so happy to see my own ironing board and iron!

 

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

The front of the hotel

 

[Lisah101]

We asked directions to the Tower of London and they offered to get us a cab. I declined and wanted to walk. I had mapped it out and knew it wasn't a bad walk, just had to get my bearings.

 

Loved the walk! But... about halfway there we both started lagging. Realizing it was 2 pm and we had forgotten to eat lunch, we did the sensible thing and stopped at a cupcake shop in a tube station somewhere. I could see it from the street and there was no way we were passing it by!

 

Salted Caramel Chocolate and no... I didn't share, Terry had to get his own.

 

[Lisah101]

Now fueled by sugar.... we had renewed focus and energy. Yeah - we found it!

 

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

Imposing gate!

 

[Lisah101]

Included in the admission price was a short guided tour. One had just started so we joined in. They indicated they had to have 20+ years in the military as a specific rank to qualify for to interview as a guide.

 

[Lisah101]

One of the famous ravens.

 

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

Great view of the Tower Bridge.

 

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

We had a great time, but were really tired. We ended up chatting with 2 different couples at length and asked one of them the easiest way to get back to the hotel - we were thinking of taking the tube. It turns out a taxi was faster and cheaper!

 

And...the taxi driver owned a Porsche 911 and a second home in Spain, so the guys talked Porsches the whole way back to the hotel.

 

I asked for dinner recommendations when we entered the lobby and they were happy to oblige. When we went to our room, I googled the restaurant (Yeah free internet!). The restaurant was very nice, upscale and we didn't feel like dressing so we went back downstairs and asked about a pub nearby for dinner. They sent us to the end of the street and we found our favorite place!

 

The Wellington

 

[Lisah101]

Dinner was a shared order of fish and chips with a side of mac and cheese. It was so good I forgot to take a photo. We did have salted caramel profiteroles for dessert and they were awesome!

 

[Lisah101]

Back to the room for bed - very tired. I tried to catch up on the Outlander series but even though I have the app on my IPad, it knew I was outside the US and wouldn't let me watch :(

[Lisah101]

I pulled the Le Havre port guide they gave us and there was no information on it about a shuttle. It did say the average cost of a cab to the town center was 10 Euros and the drivers only take cash.

 

Sorry - I wasn't paying attention to the shuttle option in France.

 

OK - helps if I read the whole thing - there is a blurb on the top that says the shuttle to down is free and runs every 30 minutes. I"ll try to scan it later and post for reference.

[Lisah101]

The next morning we head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. The continental breakfast was free since I stayed at Hilton enough this year to qualify for status.

 

Breakfast was very good - my first plate.

 

[Lisah101]

Terry's breakfast - he was happy to see tomato juice!