London: Day 7

We woke up a little earlier today (8:00) and got to the Euro dining room at 9:00, in time for their excellent breakfast (they serve until 10:00 on weekends). After breakfast we returned to the room to gather our day stuff and set out for another day in London.

The memory card reader I had brought to London with me had packed it in, so I needed to get a new one at Park Cameras (53-54 Rathbone Place), one of London’s big photography supply stores. On our way to Park Cameras we passed this breakfast place at 19 Percy Street:

From Park Cameras we found the closest Underground station and transferred on to the Piccadilly line. We wanted to see a West End show that night so we were bound for Leicester Square to see what the TKTS office had on offer. Upon arrival, we found Leicester Square at its usual bustling and lively self, just as I remembered it from previous visits. We had wanted to see The Mousetrap but it was sold out (the double seats were anyway), as it was Saturday night in London (the prime evening of the week for live theatre). Having no luck with Mousetrap tickets we settled on the 7:30 performance of The 39 Steps at the Trafalgar Theatre on Whitehall.

Trafalgar Square

After buying our tickets we walked down to Trafalgar Square to soak up the vibe (it’s such a short walk from Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square). It was a beautiful sunny and warm day, and it was so nice just to walk around Trafalgar Square and enjoy the time there. Lots of people out and about:

Bound For Greenwich

From Trafalgar Square we walked down Whitehall to the Westminster dock on the Thames. We took a short walk along the Thames, then found the ticket booth where we bought seats for the boat trip down the river to Greenwich:

We bought the tickets at Westminster but the ticket clerk said there was something wrong with the Westminster dock and we couldn’t board there (the dock was sinking, as our boat crew later told us!). We had to walk down to the Embankment pier to board our boat.

We finally boarded at Embankment Pier (it was a long queue to board a very full boat), and off down the Thames we went. We had such a good crew, and they provided a comprehensive, light-hearted commentary as we made our way from Embankment Pier to Greenwich, stopping at a couple more piers to pick up additional passengers:

Greenwich Arrival

We arrived at Greenwich after about 45 minutes on the Thames. To find a bathroom for Vince was the first order of business and, after finding none, we ended up at Starbucks (“any port in a storm”, as Mrs. Slocombe would say). We had a coffee there but it was NOT enjoyable – Vince’s Americano was weak as water and, because they were all out of ice tea (really ??!!), I was forced to order some foul concoction called Pumpkin Spice Latte (or some such nonsensical name). It was utterly disgusting: I could only manage a couple of sips before I dumped it, and Vince followed suit with his Americano – shame on you Starbucks for creating such over-priced garbage and fobbing it off on the public!

We cut our losses at Starbucks and made our way over to the Old Royal Naval College’s Painted Hall, and that’s where the fun began… wait for it…

Misadventure at The Painted Hall

We paid our entrance for the Old Royal Naval College’s Painted Hall (£16 each!!), which included entrance to the Royal Navel College Chapel across from the Painted Hall. We went in and looked around, getting our bearings. There was a tour group assembling, so I motioned to Vince that we should join the group at the bottom of the stairs. I was so anxious to get to the tour group, who were about to leave, that I wasn’t watching my step and fell down the hard marble stairs, landing HARD at the bottom on my knees and right side. Oh, the pain and embarrassment! The staff there were so good and got me to my feet – all the while I was feeling like I was going to vomit due to the pain in my knees – terrible sensation. I really wrenched my right knee and shocked the rest of my body, so I had to sit down for another half hour before I could get my thoughts together enough to make a move. The staff were so good and were checking in with me periodically (they were probably trying to avoid a lawsuit!). Luckily, I had brought a knee tensor with me from home – while not very good at least it was something. Somehow, Vince got me on my feet. I could now only hobble and was in extreme pain.

[Fast forwarding a few weeks: once I got back to Toronto and started to receive medical attention for this injury, it turned out I had torn the meniscus of my knee and had damaged the remaining cartilage. What fun.]

We eventually left the Old Royal Naval College Painted Hall and Chapel, and went through the (very crowded) Greenwich Market (at least I think it was the Greenwich Market… things were a little hazy by this point). We found a Boots (UK chain drugstore) where I bought a better knee tensor/brace, Paracetamol (the British equivalent of Tylenol) and some Ibuprofen for my knee inflammation (which was turning into the size of a small basketball by this point).

From Boots we went to the restaurant Franco Manca, home of Sourdough pizza crust – delicious!. It was getting near 5:00, so we needed to get back to central London to make our show (The 39 Steps) at 7:30 (we had to be at the theatre at 7:00).

We took the massively crowded DLR (Docklands Light Rail) which connected to the Underground at Bank station – so unbelievably packed, what a fiasco. I was in incredible pain at this point but we were jammed in to this car like sardines with these loud, annoying, drunken party yobs. There was nowhere to sit down so I clung on to a pole, enduring this seemingly endless, torturous, excruciating journey back to central London. We changed trains at Bank (oh, those stairs!) and returned to Euston station (the Piccadilly line was not running that day). Returning to the Euro Hotel, we rested for a while.

It was time to leave the hotel for the theatre, so we set out. I used the GETT app on my phone to order a London Black Cab (I harbour a love for those cabs), which came in due time. GETT is an awesome app, by the way – try it out if you’re ever in London and need a Black Cab. Our driver was Steve, who left us in awe of his navigational and driving skills, snaking through the jammed up Saturday night theatre traffic in central London. We arrived at the Trafalgar Theatre and waited in the lower lobby/bar for the doors to open at 7:00. They finally did, and in we went and got seated (had great seats in the Stalls).

It was a fantastic production, and the cast was truly brilliant (“4 actors! 139 characters! 100 Hilarious Minutes!”). We thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was very glad for the distraction from the pain in my knees due to my earlier tumble down the stairs.

We left the theatre at about 9:30 and made our way to Trafalgar Square to see how things were on this Saturday night – it was jumping to say the least. It was getting late and the pain from that afternoon’s tumble down the stairs was intensifying, so we opted to get on the Underground at Leicester Square, disembarking at Euston station. I had wanted to go to Piccadilly Circus but that was not in the cards due to my escalating knee pain and Vince’s nasty cold – yes, to add to the fun and mayhem he had developed a chronic hacking, coughing (hello, Haworth Parsonage), sneezing cold, most likely from our hotel room’s AC being set too low at night.

We returned to the Euro at about 11:00PM and stayed up for a while just to decompress from this eventful day. Off to bed at about 11:30; we both fell asleep instantly. What a day it had been…. one I’ll never forget.

Today’s step count: 20,133

Footnote: Due to my fall at Greenwich we only managed to get a couple of shots for the entire afternoon. To compensate, and to give you a sense of the buildings at Greenwich, here are a few shots of Greenwich from an earlier trip: