UK – Saturday
Well, I’m back, just a few minutes later. Apparently there was a time change last night (in the US, too? Or only Europe? I’m not sure) … and I was unaware. So I was nealy an hour early for breakfast, rather than late. That means I can download some photos and fill in the Saturday details.
We (we being Linda – a book editor – and her husband Mike) got up for breakfast in the hotel. As I mentioned earlier, the “traditional breakfast” is a meatfest. So Linda asks for her breakfast without meat, and it arrives: eggs, tomato, beans … and a sausage. I’m not sure if they (a) don’t consider sausage meat here, or (b) figured she meant remove all the meat EXCEPT for the one sausage, or (c) couldn’t fathom a breakfast without meat, and therefore left the sausage as some kind of protest. It shall forever remain a mystery.
We sat next to this 78 year old lady who was staying at the hotel because the lift (“elevator” to you non-Queen’s English speakers) had gone out, and she was tired of climbing 18 flights of stairs (which she had been doing for the last 10 days.) She’d lived in East Grinstead for 72 years, ran the local store for 41 years, and was a kick … very interesting lady.
We jumped on the train at the local station, and a very comfortable and easy hour later were in Victoria Station, London. We walked over to Westminster Abbey, a huge cathedral that houses the remains of many Kings and Queens (i.e., Henry VII, Mary Queen of Scots, etc), a slew of the world’s top authors (i.e., Chaucer, Dickens), and even Sir Isaac Newton. This is also the site of all of the coronations in the England since 1300. It’s an amazingly historical location: the original translations of the bible were made there.
From there we walked around Big Ben (and heard it ring at high noon), took the Underground (smooth and efficent, but it’s a subway … what’s really to say about it?), had a fantastically tasty Scottish Pastie (meat pie) for lunch, walked over the Tower Bridge, stopped by the Tower of London (line was too long, and our time was too short), and finally took a double-decker bus tour for the remainder of our time in the city. (We didn’t have much, and although that sounds cheesy, it was a good way to get an overview -and- get back where we needed to go.)
We were nearly late by this time, and took the “Gatwick Express” back … a direct train that probably saved us 45 minutes overall. It — along with everything else in London — ended up extremely expensive when converted to US dollars. The train was $30 US, plus a $40 cab fare (split in half), making for a $50 trip into town, only 45 minutes away. Breakfast at our hotel (covered in the price) is a whopping $30 or more. Just getting around, into town, and some inexpensive eating … somehow I blew through $120 … it’s just unbelievably expensive for everything. Oh. And I figured out why they call the money “pounds.” If you load up your pocket with a few of the extremely thick, bulky 1 pound coins … you pretty much have “pounds” of weight tugging your pants down. The coins are ridiculously heavy…
Okay, time to wrap up. I’m going to summarize heavily … but the formal Ball at Saint Hill Manor was out-of-this-world. Catered by England’s top caterer, this 2000 person seated meal featured things like “potted foie gras” and a dessert that has to be seen to be believed (I’ll get a picture of it from the others and post it.) Furthermore, we were fortunate enough to be seated at a table right in the heart of all the action, which really was an unbelievable opportunity. The conversation was great: I was seated next to an intriguing award winner from France, and after the dinner the band played on while everyone danced … what a night.