Honeymoon in Europe : Day 9

Route : Paris to London

It was en early day start for the journey back to London city. The coach depart on time at 7.30am. Enroute, the coach make its way to Charles De Gaulle airport to drop of some passengers, mainly the Americans and Canadians. Then, it continued its journey via Somme Valley to Calais again. We had breaks and lunch stop all along the highway.

We were actually earlier than our booked ferry schedule but unfortunately, the Tour Director couldn't get it change to an earlier one because the ferry company told him to respect his booking .

Soon, the coach (3rd one) was given to signal to move and our driver drove all the way up onto the ferry, with all of us onboard the coach !

But we don't actually stayed onboard the coach. After parking in line, all of us can disembark from the coach and make our way upstairs to enjoy our meal or snacks. When we heard an announcement to return to our vehicle, then we made our way back to the coach and it will drive off straight after arriving in Dover.

We drove through the countryside and arrived into The City of London. We were told this is the financial hub of London, just like our CBD. It was interesting. Very different from Oxford Street. The City is exactly like our Shenton Way or Raffles Place. Working people all around. And Oxford Street is just like our Orchard Road. Always packed with shoppers and tourists.

We finally arrived at Thistle Marble Arch at about 3.30pm. As we were not staying at Thistle Marble Arch, we had to take a taxi to our own hotel. As we were extending 3 nights of stay in London, we couldn't afford to pay for Thistle Marble Arch and had to lower our expectation and make do with a 2-star hotel at a much lower value. For your information, Thistle Marble Arch is 4-star.

Yen, Alvin's cousin who worked and stayed in London, was right. She told us that the taxi driver in London just know everywhere of the city, even if you can only produce the street name. So we hopped into a London cab, big and spacious....., and I just told the driver,

"Please send us to 25 London Street, near Paddington station. Thank you."

And off he went with a few turns here and there, he stopped and pointed to us.

" Here's 25 London Street."

And hey, he was absolutely correct, Stopping us right in front of our hotel.

The ride costs us 6.60 pounds which is considered reasonable in London and later on Yen told us the taxi driver never brought us go merry-go-round. Honest cabby, not like the one we had in Paris.

It was a 2-star hotel and it still uses keys to open the room door. The lifts was SO old and small that both of us had to squeeze into the lift with hardly any moving space and breathing space, together with our luggages. When we opened the door, you couldn't imagine our crestfallen faces.

After 7 nights of good stay at 4 & 5-star hotels, this room was SOOOOOO SMALL there is hardly any space for luggage. When I put the luggage on the floor, sorry, you can't actually walk. If you insist to compare, this room is definitely consider 'rundown' and some may even think this is not for human to stay (my boss !). We had a queen size bed, a little window to let the air in, as the room has no air-conditioned. As the weather in London was cool, no rain and no sun, mostly cloudly. So cool breeze came into the room and we still managed to have good might sleep daily. Temperature ranges about 14 to 17 degree celsius. We had a little TV that offers local TV channels, lucky there is BBC. We also managed to catch some good movies (quite dated) on TV on 2 nights. The window overlooks the train track of the Tube.

The toilet is worse ! It is the tinest toilet I've ever seen and used ! The standing area for shower is so tight that is I draw the shower curtain, I will be back - kissing the wall and front-kissing curtain and the same time. It's really a BIG problem especially for Alvin. Luckily our room was near to a shared toilet along the corridor and Alvin used that for his showers throughout the stay we were there. And this time, I had no choice but to wet the entire bathroom because there was no way not to do it. Trust me. I am one weird person that dislike the whole bathroom to be wet. But they still do provide basic amenities like glass for rinising, soap, and towels - 2 small and 2 big ! And they also have tea and coffee facilities in the room !

After a good 30 minutes 'after shock', we decided to take a walk back to Oxford Street to servey the shopping since we hasn't been doing any walking for today. So we walked along the main road following the map and arrived at busy Oxford Street in 20 minutes time.

There was this huge shopping outlet called PRIMARK and it was very crowded and the merchandise were all over the place. We thought there was a sale going on and so, wanted to take a look. But unfortunately, it was almost 6pm and the shop is closing. Almost all the shops closed at 6pm on Sunday and today is Sunday.

So nothing interesting for us and we decided to walk back to Paddington though we are tired. Because taking the tube today for one way is going to cost us 4.40 pounds per person. We decided to save that money and walked.

Avin decided to take the inner routes as he thought it will be shorter which turned out to be really shorter. Although her doesn't know the way, but he is more adventurous to try new route as compared to me. I am the more safe person and will stick to somethinf familiar at times. We walked passed Hyde Park route and saw pretty houses, much to my surprises ! The houses are decorated nicely and neatly and you can see these houses must be belonging to those middle class families in London. And staying so close to Oxford Street, like River Valley to Orchard Road, these houses must be expensive !

As we made the last stretch of road before turining into London Street, we came a cross line of small little houses turned into motels and 2 or 3-star hotels or B & Bs, on both side of the streets. The whole place was so tranquil, nested in a quiet enclave and the beauty of it is that it was only a 3-5 minutes walk away from our hotel. The place is called Sussex Garden when I screened through the map.

We liked the surrounding very much but the hotels or motels ther aren't cheap. Ours considered one of the best deals you can find in London with close proximity to Tube, eateries, city centre, etc etc.

We had dinner at a nearby eatery and turn in early for the evening. Despite the train running past almost every minute, it was like a lullaby and we fell asleep very quickly and dozed off for the night.