UK-trip, Day 3: Bristol - London: Wednesday 1 February
After yesterday's sightseeing in Bristol and our evening with Panic! At The Disco today T. and I traveled to London.


But not before we had another delicious breakfast in the Bed & Breakfast next to the hotel. (English breakfast muffins, mmmmmm:)


Look at that blue sky! It was still freezing cold, though.


Bristol Temple Mead Station.

We arrived in London about two hours later and took the Tube to the hotel to check in and leave our luggage. Then we went into town to see if we could get some theatre tickets for tonight. We really wanted to see Matilda The Musical, but the TKTS centre at Leicester Square didn't have any discount tickets, so they told us we should try at the theatre itself.


On the way there we passed this glorious façade of the Palace Theatre for Singin' In The Rain. Ooooh.
We walked on to the Cambridge Theatre though, where we managed to get magnificent seats for Matilda. YAY


Mission accomplished, we sat down for a snack at Pret a Manger. Steak Burrito Hot Wrap, baby.


Then we did some shopping before returning to the hotel for a break. This is the obligatory graphic design photo I always have to make underground; I love the use of the exclamationmark in the eye.


After freshening up, we had a quick dinner at The Friendly Inn in Chinatown. (Lemon Chicken with loads of rice (I ordered a bit too much, considering I had that wrap at Pret earlier, oops)


Chinatown London:)


Time for Matilda! Such a perfect musical, I loved it to bits and pieces.
(Song and vids in my LJ)


Today's loot: I bought ALL the shower stuff at Boots and scored two (2!) DVDs of Tim Minchin (He wrote the music and lyrics of Matilda, but these are of his own theatre shows).


Of course I ended the day soaking in the tub; with a fizzing ball I got from Silvia:)

UK-trip, Day 4: London: Thursday 2 February
Today we had a whole day in London. We had a proper sleep in before going into town.


Obviously the bath is my favorite thing about this hotel, but I love their slightly sloppy breakfast too, mmmm sausages.


Funky hedges in Russel Square. We are on our way to Forbidden Planet, overground this time as it's just a short walk from the hotel:)


Detail of building near Piccadilly Circus.


Look! Correct apostrophes! We both had to take a picture and apostrophe-flail. Because every new 2012 mail from Waterstone's makes me so sad (see insert). Let's enjoy this while we can :'-(


Dinner at Mother Mash before we parted ways: T. took a tube to Brixton Academy for Panic! At The Disco, I went to the theatre.


See how cold it is? This is me in front of the Vaudeville Theatre where I saw Masterclass, with Tyne Daly playing Maria Callas. Wonderful (I've loved her since Cagney and Lacey, such an awesome woman and actress)


When I got back to the hotel I realized I hadn't taken a photo of the room yet. The smallest twin I've ever seen here (and a bit disappointing after the glorious room in Bristol;). We still managed to make room for M, who came back from the concert with T because she couldn't get a train home.


Today's loot also includes a toy from Baby-Hamleys for nephew Ruben and a beautiful Harry Potter Film Wizardry book \o/


I spent the rest of the evening in a bubblebath with Alec and Seregil (Fine they're in a book, I'm rereading the Nightrunners series) until T. and M. arrived.

UK-trip, Day 5: London (UK) - Antwerpen (Belgium): Friday 3 February
Our train to Brussels didn't leave until the afternoon, so we had some more time to spend in London. After finding out that T. had never been to Harrod's before, I decided that would be our goal this morning. She agreed but said she wasn't gonna buy anything (since she'd already had done enough shopping). HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. *wipes tears from eyes*


The escalators at Harrod's are surrounded by Egyption artefacts. A 'little' over the top, but still very cool...


... even if it's a weird blend with the modern mannequins, it's hard not to be impressed.


This is the toys department, meet Hansa the Gorilla.


There is also a huge Harry Potter corner, decorated like the shops in the films. This is a portrait made out of Lego.


We found the perfect ending of our trip: high tea in the Harrod's Tea Room, where the waiting staff wears white gloves and everything is served in fancy silver. I had hot chocolate with crumpets, T. had a pot of tea and tea cake. Delightful, darlings.

With bags full of souvenirs from Harrod's (haha;) we took the tube to the hotel to collect our bags and we got on the Eurostar at 15.00. London still had a clear blue sky when we left. When the train got out of the Eurotunnel the weather turned earily foggy. A group of guys next to us whispered "Dementors!" Heehee! That's exactly what it felt like.


This is Brussel station, we're waiting for the train to Antwerp. Look: snow!

In Antwerp I wanted to get on the 20.00 train to The Hague, but while I was waiting in line for a ticket, that train was cancelled and when I finally got to the window I was told there were no more trains because of extreme weather in the Netherlands. Whut? The sign on the platform disagreed with that statement though, so I waited with T. to find out more. When the 21.00 train was announced to be delayed, just like the two trains before, I decided to give up and take T's offer of spending the night at her place.

UK-trip, Day 6: Antwerpen (Belgium) - The Hague (The Netherlands): Saturday 4 February

The next day we got on the tram to the station together, where I got off and waved T. goodbye as she traveled on to work.


Still snow at the tramstop, but the tram is still running at least.


No really, it did come and I got to the station with ten minutes to spare.


On my run to the platform I had seen that the train had a ten minute delay, so I had time to take a picture of this odd announcement for an artshow (not translating it, as it is probably only sort of funny in Dutch and possibly offensive, hence the photo)


Ten minutes delay turned into 15 and then 30 until finally it was announced that the train was cancelled. As was the 11.00 o'clock. Ahem.

After a lot of waiting and confusion travellers were told to get on the Thalys train to get to the Netherlands; that was still running, albeit with a lot of delay. In the mean time I had discovered a slow train to the border which I thought to be more dependable, so I got on that. It left ten minutes later than planned, but it did indeed get me to my own country eventually.


Snow!


More snow. Doesn't seem so evil, does it? It did however disrupt the whole train system in the Netherlands.
In bordertown Roosendaal I managed to get on a train that was supposed to run all the way up North, but only one town further, in Breda, passengers were told to get off. By that point I had decided to take whatever train was running, whether it would take me to a town with family or friends (Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht) or home to Z.


The most annoying thing was the lack of information; in Breda alone hundreds of people were waiting on the platform and from what I heard later it was even worse in the rest of the country. The first available train turned out to go to The Hague, although none of us believed it until it actually stopped in front of us, over thirty minutes late.
So I eventually arrived in The Hague, where I got on a tram that had to make an emergency stop two blocks from my brother's apartment. Luckily that was close enough to walk, even through the snow.


When I arrived there, we checked the news and found out there were no trains going beyond Utrecht, so I decided to spent the night.
Yay! Extended time with nephew Ruben, who sadly had a cold and couldn't play in the snow, but did enjoy our little walk:)

UK-trip, Day 7: The Hague - Home: Sunday 5 February
The next day public transport was still limited and trains were running on a special schedule which meant I had to change trains with a lot of waiting in between.


Normally I can get from The Hague to Z in one go. But I was glad I could at least travel home, even if it took me more than twice as long. I did have a beautiful view:)


Home at last! This is my bear in a bunny suit from Harrod's. (and a little bear in a pink hoodie that we call Brendonbear;)

The End.

Day 1: Amsterdam-Bristol-Cardiff
Day 2: Walking through Bristol
Concert Panic! at the Disco

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