London ~ home to the queen, great tea, terrible coffee, train delays and more tourist sites than are humanly possible in one day! We rolled into London at 5:50am on the 4th and with no sleep and empty stomachs we were planning on doing one of the largest cities in the world in 13 hours before catching a train back to Glasgow. So we threw our bags in a locker at Euston station, got our tickets sorted for our final leg and set off to find her majesty. There wasn’t much of a crowd at 7am so we got some great shots of Buckingham Palace and of the royal gardens. We found a pub that was open for breakfast and after the second worst cup of coffee of my life (second only to the paste I had in Paris) we found the WWII Airmen Memorial to those who died during the Battle of Britain. This was an amazing moment for me as I was able to find my Great Uncle Jack’s name carved into the wall, as well as his squadron crest. It is an amazing monument complete with an exceptional bronze statue of five airmen running to their planes. After taking a few moments there we made our way back to the palace as we were lucky enough to be in London on one of the days that the changing of the guards occurs. However, there were a few more people gathered at the front gates for this but after fighting our way through the crowd we ended up with a pretty decent view. The highlight of the demonstration was a Chinese woman getting “escorted” off the road by a Bobby. She decided it was a good idea to stand in the middle of the road where the band and guards march in and out and where the cops where very clearly telling everyone not to stand. After being asked once nicely, she was hauled off kicking and screaming by a Bobby that looked like he could have played linebacker for the Steelers. That’s not even the best part. After being placed with the rest of the crowd she started making faces at the cop and then proceeded to push her way through the crowd so that she could get right up to the fence. Her maneuvering included pushing an elderly couple that looked to be in their seventies and pushing over a small girl who could not have been any older than 4. All of this with no apology, but instead a broken “mowve, excuse me, mowve.” Unreal. Following the display we saw Big Ben, Westminster Abby, London Bridge, Tower Bridge (which we climbed), London Tower and
the giant Glass Egg. It is a gorgeous city although a little larger than my liking. After learning the underground system we did manage to cover a large portion of it in one day.To keep up with my “story-a-day” principal, I would like to introduce Tom, a wee British tyke that looks to be about 4 or so. Tom is with his Mother, Father and brother on the London Underground headed for a family outing. Tom is a very hyperactive little guy and is quite literally bouncing off the chairs, walls and poles of this particular train car. His brother, a few years to his elder, is sitting quietly next to their mom and watching Tom’s athletic display. Their Mother has twice told Tom to cut it out and sit still. Tom’s father simply grabs Tom from time to time and plunks him on the opposing seat. This position holds for approximately 11 seconds until Tom is on loose once more. During one of his more rambunctious bursts of energy, Tom stops suddenly. His face drops as he lets out a long sigh and says “Ohhh No” in his very proper English accent. “There is something terribly the matter with me” he proclaims. To which his Father replies, “We are aware of that Tom, but you will have to be more specific.” Toms Mother is trying to fight back her laughter as she tries to find out what Tom is referring to. “I have left my Magic Button at Christopher’s house” he states, while hanging his head and shuffling his feet. “It is only a button” his brother pipes, as the concerned mother explains “Don’t worry, we have plenty of buttons at home.” “Not MAGIC ones” Tom says. “They are all magic, and when we get home I will let you pick your own magic one out of my sowing box, ok?” Mother asks. “Yes thank you!” exclaims Tom as he continues to use the train as his jungle gym. We got off at the next stop and didn’t stop laughing until we were well clear of the station! Bill Cosby was right, “Kids say the darnedest things!”
That was the positive story, now for the other one… After our day of touring we headed back to the train station, looking forward to getting back to Glasgow and being able to relax for a full day and a bit before having to get Lisa on a plane back to Canada. Upon walking into Euston station we noticed there were a few more people than in the morning and nobody seemed to be moving anywhere. It took one glance at the arrivals and departures screen to find my answer to this one. Across all 20 boards was bold red lettering that read CANCELLED next to every single train. This included the 19:20 to Glasgow. I talked with one of the Virgin service reps and he informed me that a light aircraft had crashed next to the main tracks just north of the station. The plane had hit electrical wires on its way down which were now lying on the tracks and thus, all trains in or out of Euston were cancelled. This was a slight dilemma for us as we had nowhere in the city to spend the night and we were working on a fairly tight time frame of getting Lisa to an airport in another country 32 hours later. This brings in our heroes of the story, the Hopkinson kids. The same crew that we had spent Christmas with 2 weeks earlier actually live in London and were now our only hope of not spending a ridiculous amount on a hotel in the downtown of one of the world’s most expensive cities. The only number I had was for Chris who was still at his parent’s house and not to be found in the city. However, he was able to put me in touch with both Lucy and Josie as well as attempted to find any other way for us to get back to Glasgow. With no luck in the form of alternative transportation, I had Lucy on the phone and before I even finished explaining that we were stuck in London she was offering to kick her sister of the other room so we had a place to stay. We opted for a temporary bed in the living room which proved to be one of the most comfortable sleeps since the luxury hotel on New Years. As luck would have it, we were much better off sipping hot Ribina and sharing stories with Josie, Lucy and Joe (Lucy’s significant other) than we ever would have been stuck on a train! (If your reading this we both can’t thank you guys enough!! When you make it to Canada there is always a room for you where I am.)
We got the train the next day with no further difficulties and made it back to Glasgow on the night of the 5th.
