Ploughing through the snow in London - COMPLETED 3/15! About This Page:

[chezp]

Ploughing through the snow in London – part one: “they didn’t forecast snow today”

Date: Friday 25 February
Adventurers: Me, Cheryl and DH Mark, Jennifer, Dave and Alexander Marx
Event: Jennifer, Dave and Alexander are visiting London!

I always love meeting fellow PassPorters, not just at Disney or perhaps Philadelphia or the planned future meet in Boston but I also love being able to show people around London as well, whenever they come over here for a visit. So imagine my delight when I received an e-mail from Jennifer and Dave with the title of “Coming to London”. They would only be here for just over a day and knew that wouldn’t be nearly long enough to do the capital justice – as Dave put it “it’s like trying to do the Magic Kingdom in just 10 minutes”. They were due to arrive on Thursday afternoon and had to leave early on Saturday morning, so Mark and I quickly made arrangements to get the day off work and, as soon as that was confirmed, I went into planning mode!

I asked them what they wanted to see and took their ideas from there, devising something of a loose itinerary for the day, which would see us meeting at their hotel at 9.30, taking a flight on the London Eye at 11.00, then taking an open top tour bus (remember this bit – it will be significant later on ) via sights like St. Paul’s Cathedral, stopping at the Tower of London for a visit there. Then we’d take a river cruise back down to Westminster, look around there and then take the open top bus around various other sights again – such as Buckingham Palace, getting off at Hamley’s to allow them to explore the world’s premiere toy store, finishing off with dinner at a traditional English pub. Well, those were my plans anyway…

Fast forward to Friday 25 February. We’d had snow for much of the week and part of us did like the idea of seeing London with snow on the ground, but there was no snow forecast for the day, so we’d have to wait and see if everything had melted up there. It certainly had melted around our area, when we left our house at about 7.00 in the morning. However, we’d only gone a few miles and we found snow still on the ground:




Then it started to snow again – and that was it – panic time for just about every other driver on the motorway and we were down to 30 miles an hour. We crawled and then speeded up a bit, then slowed down and crawled again, then speeded up a bit – you get the picture – all the way up to North Greenwich, where we were due to catch the tube (subway) into London. On a good day, it should be a 45 minute trip from our house up there. This morning, it took an hour and 20 minutes. Never mind, I’d allowed an hour to get from there up to meet Jennifer and Dave and that should be plenty of time…. Or should it?

We stood on the platform, waiting for the train and when it turned up, it was obvious we wouldn’t stand a chance of squeezing on to it. The next train was about six minutes away and we had visions of the same thing happening again, so Mark came up with the brilliant idea of going the other way, getting off at the next station, where hopefully the train into London would be less crowded and we could get on.

Fortunately, the plan worked – even with a hairy moment when a woman slipped over on the platform and only just missed Mark. I really had visions of her knocking him on to the tracks at one point! We just about squeezed on to the train and then we sat there and waited… and waited… and waited and still we sat there. Eventually we got an announcement, saying we’d be moving once they’d spaced the trains back out to their usual two minute gap.

Finally we were off and, after a couple of stops, I was even able to bag myself a seat, although poor Mark was sandwiched up against the doors for the duration of the trip. We changed over at Westminster and finally got off the tube at around 9.20. Talk about cutting it fine – we were due to meet them in about 10 minutes. We walked down to the hotel and as we walked, it was snowing – a very surreal experience, as snow in central London isn’t a common thing. We found our way into the lobby of the Millennium Gloucester where we’d agreed to meet them and settled down to wait.

We didn’t have long to wait before Mark spotted them heading down to the lobby and we were finally able to personally meet the newest addition to the PassPorter family, appropriately kitted out in PassPorter gear, complete with Disney hat. How he looked and how happy as well. I have to say now that I have never met a baby that is so content and smiles so much. He’s a credit to Jennifer and Dave and obviously a very happy baby.

We gave them some presents we’d bought with us – a book about London and its history for Dave (as we figured they wouldn’t really have time for shopping!), some bath goodies from the Body Shop (as I’ve been told that their goods in the States are just stupidly priced) and a set for Alexander, which included a bib and a wipe and an Eeyore rattle. I tell you, the second I saw that, we just had to buy it for him. Jennifer immediately attached it to his arm and the “Eeyore-ification” of Alexander began. You won’t be surprised to learn that each of my nieces and nephews have been given lots of Eeyore gifts in an attempt to ensure that they grow up to love him later in life.

In return, I got my copy of PassPorter - personal delivery, how is that?! It was all I could do to put it in our bag and not to start reading it there and then, but we had lots to do. Jennifer took all the other presents (apart from Eeyore of course ) back to the room and then we were good to go.

Next: flying high in the London Eye in a snowstorm!

[DopeyGirl]

One of these days, if I can get my act (and a decent amount of money) together, I am going to HAVE to come to London . . . you guys seem to be THE BEST tour guides!!!

Looking forward to more!!!

[LizardCop]

Great Start, sardine ride and all...

MORE!!!!!

[JoanW]

I'm thinking the same thing, we need to seriously think about a trip across the Atlantic!

[GoofyMom]

Hurry, hurry! I can't wait to read more, Chez!!!

[Tara O'Hara]

Cheryl, what a wonderful start!! Hurry back with more!!

[HiddenMickey]

Yippie! I look forward to more! -HiddenMickey

[boBºoº]

Looking forward to more. loving it so far.

boBºoº

[MickeyMAC]

I'm so glad your sharing your day with all of us. Thanks!!!!!

[chezp]

Ploughing through the snow in London – part two: flying high in the London Eye in a snowstorm!

We came out of the lobby, turned left and realised the tube station was right in front of us! On the way there, we’d walked an extra two blocks to get to the hotel. Talk about taking the long route there! We grabbed some tickets for Jennifer and Dave and then had to negotiate getting the stroller into the station. I know where the gate is, but I’ve never actually had to use one before and it took me a moment to realise that it needed to be opened by a station guard. There was one around, so I managed to grab him and get him to open it up.

Fortunately, all the crowds had dispersed by now and Jennifer and I easily got a seat on the journey over to Westminster. We were there more quickly than I anticipated and had some time before we were due to board the London Eye for our 11.00 flight, so I decided some photo opportunities were in order! That was the lovely thing about Jennifer and Dave – they take about as many photos as I do, so it was three against one, as poor old Mark was the only one without a camera and he couldn’t moan at how many photos I was taking – and trust me, I got through a fair few!!


The London Eye

Portcullis House – the new home of our MP’s


The Houses of Parliament

Statue of Churchill – just opposite the Houses of Parliament

Big Ben

St. Margaret’s Church with Westminster Abbey behind

Jennifer and Dave by Parliament and the London Eye

Aren’t they adorable? Mark and Alexander together


Westminster Abbey

London 2012 banners were in evidence everywhere, promoting London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics

... continued in the next post

[chezp]

By now, it was getting near to our flight time on the Eye, so we headed over that way.



I knew we had to book in by 10.30 and I was conscious that it was now past that time, so I went ahead to secure our tickets and had no problem at all. There was barely any wait either – very different to the last time we were on the Eye with Maureen and Kevan in November 2003. That day, we’d waited for about 40 minutes in a queue resembling a wait for a Disney attraction. Today, we jumped straight in line and only waited for about 10 minutes.


Jennifer and Alexander in line

A quick (and I mean quick!) security check and we were boarding, a good 15 minutes ahead of our appointed time – and just as well! As you’ll see from these photos, the weather was beautiful when we boarded, with some great views, but it wasn’t to last…


Big Ben and another capsule on the London Eye

Alexander takes in the sights

Charing Cross station with the BT tower behind

Banqueting House

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Train heading into Charing Cross station over the River Thames

Aerial shot of the Houses of Parliament

Jennifer and Alexander flying the Eye

Houses of Parliament again – a lot murkier now!

The old County Hall building – the former seat of London government

Next: “are you sure that the bus will be along in a minute?”

[DopeyGirl]

GREAT pictures!!!

More please!!!

[LizardCop]

Super Pictures Cheryl!!! Looks like the weather is getting worse, but you're still having fun...

[Tara O'Hara]

Great pics and great update, Cheryl!!

[LorinMO]

Cheryl,

What a great treat. An awesome update. Your photos are so much better than my DH's. I'll send you out with him next time he is over on business!