London City Walking Tour & Arrival
Introduction
I have to admit that arrival in London was a challenge after the highs were 60 in Edinburgh and we had air conditioned hotel rooms. London is experiencing another heatwave--not as bad as the one in June, but at 90 with no A/C in our student housing, it's definitely uncomfortable. After an early morning departure, 4-hour train ride, a transfer on a shuttle, and a long wait for check-in, we met the amazing Kavin, our London guide for the next three weeks. Unfortunately we only had a short time to get our stuff in our rooms before meeting back in the lobby for our city walking tour, and since many of us had not eaten since breakfast, we were a bit hungry and hot! I never did the dorm experience as I lived at home as a college student and certainly not internationally, so it was completely new to me to get a room that is pretty empty (though-we were given linen & kitchen packets--thank goodness). It’s all just fine, but the rooms with no A/C are really hot and London is so steamy right now. Believe me, we were all lining up in the lobby after returning from the tour to borrow fans.
City Walking Tour
Kavin guided us onto the tube where we were to meet our tour guide, Natalie, at St. James’s Park. Luckily there are many mature, shady trees here since the afternoon was scorching. Yes, I know, the heat shouldn’t bother me since I live in New Orleans. My trick is to never leave the A/C for long during the summer. My favorite part of St. James’s Park was standing on the Blue Bridge and capturing the photo of the swan (above), who posed perfectly, with Buckingham Palace peaking through the trees in the background. That and the ice cream cone some of us enjoyed during a short break. From the Blue Bridge we headed over to see Buckingham Palace and the statue of Queen Victoria. King Charles III was not in residence at the moment as Natalie pointed out that the Royal Standard flag was not being flown. When the Sovereign is away the Union Jack flag is in its place. An interesting fact is that King Charles does not actually reside at Buckingham Palace as his mother, Queen Elizabeth II had for a total of 84 years of her life, and instead lives with the Queen at Clarence House nearby.
The tour concluded with viewing Westminster Abbey and the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as "Big Ben" after the Great Bell in the tower. I had been to London before, but it was ages ago--therefore I have seen the popular sites before, so when the tour ended and it was so hot, that was fine with me.
After the tour the real action could begin back at Chapter Spitalfields, our student housing--a high-rise building in East London that has 33 stories. Some of us stopped off at a tiny grocery for supplies for our kitchenettes, like food and random things like dish soap and those other items you realize you need to function. I've since put in an order from Amazon UK for things you can't easily find nearby like a bathmat. When we got in our rooms they were still really hot and that's when we started our requests for fans. I did some sweaty unpacking and then met some classmates in the lobby, which does have A/C, where we hatched plans for dinner. Some of us ended up at Ottolenghi Spitalfields, Mediterranean food, where the sweet hostess was able to find us a spot at the bar as we had no reservation. The restaurant also has a store with amazing desserts (see the enormous meringues below that were each the size of a grapefruit).
After dinner the only thing I wanted to do was take a cool shower before climbing into my toasty bed with the fan placed on a chair rolled as close to my face as possible. I had tried a shower before dinner, but the water seemed to only have two settings: "extremely hot" or "hot as hell"! I thought that it was probably a user issue and I just was not operating the knob properly. So I tried again before bed and still scalding! The next day was the same issue and I was not imagining it. The fixture was actually malfunctioning and maintenance had to come and completely change it out with a new one. I found out that two other classmates needed their shower fixtures replaced too. Aw, so that was most of the rough part. Though figuring out how to do laundry in the basement the following day at 7:30 a.m. was also a chore--a couple of us went early to beat the queues! Next up is the British Library and a private tour of its Conservation Center. Below is a picture from the neighborhood on my solo walk back to the studio after the first night's dinner. I do love the neighborhood and can't wait for the highs around 80 that are coming!
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