In which PhysicsGirl, though jet-lagged, tries to find a cream tea

So here I am in London, again. I was very happy, this time, to not be lugging around a huge 26-kg suitcase. I managed to fit everything I need for the next two weeks into a small suitcase. In fact, if it weren't for Air Transat's bizarre carry-on limits to the UK^*, I would have been out of Gatwick in about 10 minutes. As it was, I had to wait about half an hour to claim my oddly-blue bag^** . As soon as I did, I was off to navigate the tube to my hotel.


I have to admit that I completely forgot the Olympics would be so close to happening when I booked this trip, but I am not allowed to forget it while I'm here. Signs like this are everywhere in the tube:


The last time I was in here, I stayed in hotel that claimed to be in Shoreditch but was really a bit further east and a good 25 minute walk to the nearest tube station. I swore that the next time I was here I would stay in a slightly more central location. It turns out central locations are really expensive. I wound up in a hotel that looked like it was even further from the centre of the city, but it's only a 15 minute walk to Bow Road station, which is served by 2 lines. Much better.

It's a lovely walk, too. The best part is that I get to pass under something called Tom Thumb's Arch. I love England.


After settling into my hotel room -- booked for the night before by mistake, but that turned out to be a good thing, what with arriving well before check-in and needing a nap -- I took myself off to the V&A museum, which I hadn't seen two years ago. Lots of inspiration for pretty clothing I'd love to wear:

Also lots of lovely medieval and renaissance design.

I spent about two hours wandering before my jet-lagged brain refused to take any more in (and the museum closed), so I went off in search of cream tea. Unfortunately, the museum's café (and £5 cream tea) were closing by the time I got there, so I wandered off to Hyde Park.

Bless the English. Tea and scones at a snack bar in the park wasn't exactly what I was looking for my first day in London, but it served the purpose.

I had my tea at the Serpentine Gallery 2012 Pavillion. Apparently they design and build a new one every year. It was actually really lovely to just sit and relax in the park, away from the incredible heat we'd been having in Toronto. Alas, I could not sit for long. I had barely finished my scone when a very polite man informed me that the pavillion was closing, so I finished my tea and went for a stroll.

It has been raining non-stop in London for the past few months, but I seem to have brought some dry weather with me. There were a lot of people out enjoying the lack of rain. Sadly, my camera battery died after I got a few shots in. What I wish I could have captured were the people coming into the park for the Madonna concert. Some of them had... interesting outfits on. Madge would have approved.


I wandered, eventually, down Brompton Road to Harrods. Let me just say: wow. You know the upmarketing has gotten to you when you start to think that £150 for a keychain is reasonable. I checked out the food court for canned clotted cream to bring back to Canada, but no joy. I did find some reasonably expensive damson plum jam for Aged P, and I got to sample a macaron before going back to Roman Market Road, grabbing some dinner^***, and falling into a coma for the night.

The rest of my first day pictures can be seen here (click on the title to go to the album):

From London July 2012

^*5 kg? Really? What's especially annoying about that is that my suitcase makes up 3 kg of that. I had to check my suitcase and foolishly also checked the sweater I had planned to wear on the plane. Thank heavens for the lovely red trench coat I carried onto the plane.

^**Here is a handy traveller's tip if you have a black suitcase: so does everyone else. Get a nice bright unusually-patterned ribbon to make it stand out. There were lots of false starts from people around me.

^***Not an easy task, since almost everything closes by 6pm in that neighbourhood. I managed to get some shepherd's pie, though. If only my hotel room had some kind of table!