Date: 2009-08-17 04:55 Subject: first real London post (the Wikipedia link edition) Security: Public Tags: friends, london 2009, travel

These next several trip posts will relate to the first bit of my 2009 trip, my 5 nights in London, before Germany. On this leg I stayed at the Gen with downtide and we met up with ainsoph15 for a lovely day out. This particular post is mostly details and lists, what I did my first day, and little observations.

So, when I stay in London by myself, or to meet people, I stay at the Generator Hostel. Its nearest Tube station is Russell Square which puts it, pretty much, at the outer border of Bloomsbury, as Tavistock Square is just down Tavistock Place. It's also near enough to Euston Square and St. Pancras/King's Cross tube station and the St. Pancras International Eurostar station to walk to them, too. Nearby are Friends House (with a lovely little bookshop/cafe, and a nice restaurant as well; the British Library, British Museum, Coram's Fields (admission for adults only with accompanying child), and Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Between the Generator and Russell Square, on Marchmont street, is Gay's the Word, another grand bookshop. Even if I'm not staying in the Gen I make sure to stop here each time I'm in London. There are a number of nice small restaurants: Indian, Italian, fish & chips, and a larger shopping center with a Waitrose market in it. While it's possible to spend a small fortune on food in London, it's equally possible to eat fresh good food for not so much. It's all in how you look for it. When I stay at the Gen, I go to Waitrose for things like water, milk, bread, fresh veg/fruit.

Unless I'm going to be able to get to Chinatown, behind Leicester Square, in Soho. Next time I go to London, my plan is to go to Chinatown my first day, for fresh food and for noodles and tea. I don't know if that'll work out, but I hope so! I've also been food shopping on Berwick Street Market and Borough Market but from the Gen Chinatown's just a bit easier, even though it's several tube stops away. (I, so far, really like the Tube. For all its faults, and it has them, it's never let me down yet.)

I've not yet taken the Gen's Free Walking Tour though I mean to every time. I did, as it turned out, walk a good bit of the Writers Walk this time, though not deliberately, and not with the information on this website at hand at the time. (Thanks to poetic_self for that site, the London for Free site.)

This trip (like last year) I flew British Airways. It's a nice flight, they seem to do a good job, I'm used to the planes now. And this year they threw in a hotel room, for the ticket holder, so I had my first night in London in the President Hotel, just behind Russell Square station. The room was clean, the bathroom (and HUGE tub) cleaner, the bed comfortable, and the breakfast very nice indeed. I got into Heathrow, through customs, took the Tube to Russell Square, and went round the corner to check in, and et voila! done. Plugged in the travel-cellie, had a bath, a snack, and crashed. It was grand.

Next day I got up, had breakfast, took a short walk, came back, put my luggage in the luggage store and checked out. Walked up to the Gen, checked myself and downtide in, then on round to Friends House (I was raised in Quaker Meeting, though I'm not a member, only a Friend of the Friends) and their little bookshop, then over to the British Library for their The Sound and the Fury: The Power of Public Speaking exhibit. I could live in the British Library- that's another place I want to take the tour of, to see as much as I can of it, but once again I only had a few hours, so I could only skim (last year I saw the Ramayana exhibit and the Royal Rhari Chau dancers there).

Then I went back down to the President, got my luggage, round to Russell Square, and waited for downtide. That was a happy meeting, I tell you. And there we will stop our tale for today. More soon.

Post A Comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend | Link