London: Occurrences of a Unusual Kind

July 8-14, 2013

                                                 


I must start by saying that we knew that we would run into some trouble on this journey.  To be honest we are rather surprised no glitches in our plans have happened yet; until we drove to London that is. It could be because we really limit the amount of time we spend planning. We are traveling by the seat of our pants. For example when we have spent enough time in one place we both feel it, mention it briefly, and search on the Tom Tom in the Kangoo or the web for the closest place that interest us.

Harrods Department Store: $45,000 TV

Sun kissed and  ready for a change of scenery we began looking for a place to stay while touring London. Being big fans of AirBnB we tried them first but were having limited luck because of the constraints of our budget per day.  We ran across a similar website called Wimdu and it was loaded with places we could afford. After doing the necessary research: how far from the city is it? Is there public transportation? and so forth we chose a place, booked it with our debit card, and headed that way.

Big Ben! Peter Pan take  me to Never Never Land

The hosts name was Alex, a stereotypical looking white young business man from his profile picture at least. Before leaving the coast we called the contact number left a message and emailed him detailing our arrival time.  The drive was about 3 and a half hours which put us in greater London by 3pm.  Then the goose chase began.....the address was difficult to find, we went to three different houses, with the same address, before arriving at the correct place.  We rang the door bell a number of times with no answer, so we headed to the closest place with internet to contact Wimdu. I told them the problem and they had someone call me back.  "Hello, I just received a call from Wimdu and they said you are trying to check in," the man on the phone said to me.  "Yes am I speaking to Alex?" I responded. I was told that Alex was away and that I was speaking to his business partner.  He told us to meet someone else at a different address to get the keys to the place we booked.  Once we arrived at the new address we waited 10 minutes before being greeted by a young disheveled Indian man, who then laid on the story even thicker.

Ross & Buddha at the British Museum

Apsley House next to Hyde Park

Westminster Abbey 

 First he told us that the landlord to our original booking was away with the keys and would not return until tomorrow so we had to stay at another property until then. He took us inside a Arabic frat house, with 15 people living there.  The room we were to stay in had crayon on the walls, no balcony, no TV, and tattered bedding.... the bathroom was shared between all 15 people living in the house and when we walked into it there was a huge puddle of piss on the  floor.  Basically it was the exact opposite of what the pictures looked like of the space we booked.  He tried to reassure us that the cleaning lady was on her way....yeah right!!! We struggled with his accent while he tried to swindle a deal with us. We politely explained that there was no way we could or would ever stay in this house. Then the story changed again, the plumbing in the space we first booked is broken and wont be fixed till tomorrow.  How could we have booked a reservation, the money debited from our account, and us not have a suitable place to stay for the night.  I was livid!!

Parliament 

 We are in London where parking is non existent, we cannot afford even a shitty hotel or hostel at 100 pounds a night, and now had to find the cheapest parking lot that would allow over night parking, which cost us 18 pounds to stay at a service station. Needless to say this website got an ear full and as many terrible reviews as we could write. We demanded a refund and when I asked to speak to the manager, I was told it is company policy for them not to get on the phone. It took 5 days to get the money back as well.

Red Wood Tree in Natural History Museum 

 Basically having our Kangoo saved us because this website prays on people who have no other option and must take whatever they are offered. Imagine if we flew in to London, took the bus or a cab to the property, and the same scenario went down....we would have been at the mercy of their crap offer and would have received no refund. The next day we found a more than suitable place to stay on AirBnB. It looked exactly like it did in the pictures online, our host was delightful, and we could come and go freely with no issues.

Entrance to Natural History Museum

Tower Bridge 

Now for the highlights to our London visit! I could tell you about each tourist attraction we visited but that is what google is for.  I want to tell you about the experiences we had and layer in our pictures with detailed captions.   On our first trip into the city we headed to Tower Bridge, more iconic than the famous London Bridge which it is usually confused with.

Fergie stupidly made her music video
 for London Bridge on Tower Bridge. The British had a good
 laugh at her

Ross outside Courage Brewery pointing to his fathers name 

Just across the Thames River was the old Courage Brewery, which now has been turned into loft apartments. My husbands dimples were deeper than ever as he smiled with pride at a large metal plaque with his fathers name on it as well as some history of the brewery.

The Pub attached to Courage Brewery,
 still serving pints to this day

We headed for the Anchor Tap Room, where we got quiet the history lesson from a local pub goer that grew up on Courage Ale.  He noticed the tee shirt Ross was wearing which said Courage on the back and we started chatting.  He told us that the brewery closed down the year Ross was born in 1978, but before that it was synonymous with London beer brewing. He told us that the brewery took up 12 square blocks located directly off the Thames River.  We thanked him for the history lesson but were disappointed to learn that finding a Courage Ale today was nearly impossible.

Crossing Abbey Road

                                                             









Aside from the hiccup we had with Wimdu, our trip really has been a series of blessings and lucky moments.  Have you ever experienced a streak of positive occurrences that leads you to believe you are doing exactly what you are suppose to be doing with your life? Well if you are skeptical about the reality of things like this happening let me tell you another story about our London trip. First a brief back story, my mother is one of 12 children. My family is so large that at 26 years old I am still meeting first cousins for the first time. It just so happens that my cousin Gabrielle is in London for the summer with her boyfriend Oscar, who lives here, and has an apartment in the city. We met up with them one afternoon for a lovely picnic in the park.  We hit it off rather well and spent the whole afternoon with them.  Oscar told us we could park at his apartment for free during the day while we went sightseeing, which saved us money and time on the metro system.

Buckingham Palace

       

The changing of the guards

                                                                 

Gabrielle & Oscar 

 We made plans with them for later in the week to go to dinner our treat because we wanted to thank them for the kind gesture of free parking. We enjoyed a scrumptious Italian meal with them and to our surprise Oscar was headed out of town for the weekend with work and Gabrielle was going to visit his extended family. Our last night at the AirBnB place was Thursday so we would be leaving London Friday morning.  They offered us the chance to tour London a bit more by staying for free in Oscar's room at the flat he shares with two other guys.  Taken back by the kind offer we thought about it and said why the hell not, even though we had never met his roommates we were assured they were cool guys and would have no problem with it.

Canary Wharf near Oscar's flat

                                     

Velociraptor at the Natural History Museum

                                   



On Friday night we were watching TV in Oscar's living room when one of his flatmates showed up with a young lady. First we thought we were intruding, then we learned that he invited her up because she lives nearby and was locked out of her house. "She was sitting in her drive and normally I would not have stopped but something told me too," he explained to us.  We all sat and laughed about the situation, talked about dialect differences, and joked that she need not feel odd because we also were strangers in his home for the night.  As the conversation rolled on we learned that Emma was from Cornwall and moved to London to become a theater actress. She had lived in the city for 8 months and currently works as the hospitality manager and guest relations director of the Raddison Hotel in London.

Me & Charles Darwin 

 Here is when the stoke of luck happened...we were chatting about our journey and explaining that we are wild camping all over Europe out of our Kangoo.  She asked me to get my phone or a piece of paper for her, she wanted to give us her contact information because she could hook us up anywhere in Europe with a hotel room either at the Raddison or one of their affiliate hotels for 35 pounds per night if we ever needed a break from sleeping in the Kangoo.


                                   





                                             

Scepter's won during battles,
held today in the Apsley House 

Gate around Buckingham Palace

 Never on this trip have we asked to be put up or given anything free but somehow offers keep coming our way.  Perhaps we look desperate....LOL or maybe people are intrigued with our story and want to help us along the way.  For whatever reason Ross and I take every coincidence, lucky moment, and/or kind offer as if it is a sign that we are doing exactly what we should be at the given moment.  We choose action instead of shying away from these events which ultimately leads us to another situation where we are given another beautiful opportunity, indirectly making each person or sign of good faith apart of our on going story.