September 14th, 2016 Cardiff Wales
On this day, we traveled from Cardiff to London. I left a note in my journal that I logged the day in my phone. However, I have not been able to locate the log on my phone. I will try to explain some of what we did that day, but I am sure we will miss most things. Maybe I will find the log on my phone another day.
We woke up in the morning and packed up our bags. Then we went across St. Mary to Coffee Heaven for coffees! We had all of our luggage with us and the girl at the cash register was a new so it took a while, but eventually we were off! We took the food to go and walked to the train station. We had to take a detour because there was some construction going on, but we didn't get lost!
We made it to the train station and I bought our tickets. Before we went through with our tickets a nice gentleman told us that we should take the elevator because we had all of our luggage. Which saved us from having to carry the luggage up the stairs! We had to wait on the platform for the train, but we were able to drink coffees. I believe Kelsi stopped to get something to eat and another coffee.
On the train, I caught up on my log, finished my book, watched the scenery and had a sandwhich. Kelsi read a little, took a nap and had some oatmeal.
September 14th, 2016 London, England
The train got off at Paddington Station. I was secretly really happy to see Paddington Station, they even have a little bear statue! We made our wait out of the station and then took a cab, at lunch time, which we learned was the slow way to go. I didn't mind the ride, I got to see a lot of sights. We had to walk around to get to the gate of the apartments. Our host was home, so he let us in and gave us a key.
We settled in before going out. We started walking towards the river, but we missed our street at one point, we had to go back, but luckily it was a quick fix. When we ran into the Tate, I was able to reorient, and get to the Globe Theatre which was where we wanted to be. I thought maybe we would see a show, but we didn't end up doing that. There wasn't a show so early, and we were getting hungry. So we walked around to look for a restaurant.
Guess what! We ran into Alex and John. We had planned to meet them and Kelsi had messaged them, but we were trying to eat before. Ah well! After meeting up we went around to a few restaurants to look at the menus finally we settled on an Italian place. We sat outside which was fine, until the sun started setting. Alex and I were in the sun for a while, but we didn't move the table until the Kelsi and John were in the sun too.
We all ordered food and had some drinks, except for John because he doesn't drink, much. Inside there was live music and drums which were very loud. Nice from outside, but I think it would be hard to talk if we had been inside.
After dinner we walked across Millennium Bridge and went over to the Blackfriar. Kelsi convinced John to have a beer stating that it was real ale. The Blackfriar was very busy with people just off of work, but we managed to squeeze in and have a drink. I am pretty sure we didn't have real ale at that bar. Which meant John had to have a real ale at the next place. I'm not sure he ever did! After our drink we walked over the Blackfriar bridge and ended up at Prince William Henry's Pub. We spent the rest of the night there drinking and chatting. It was really fun to just have a night out and not have to turn in early because of a tour!
When we left Prince William Henry's pub we continued down the same street. For all the times we were lost during this trip, I immediately recognized the underground that we had past to get to the river, we turned up the Cut. I was getting hungry again so I made everyone stop at Ristorante Olivelli and I think I ate a pizza. I think Alex also had pizza, but I'm not certain.
After dinner, I convinced Kelsi, Alex and John that I knew the way back to our room. So we said goodbye to the guys. They were going to Italy so we wouldn't see them for the rest of the trip. I got us back to the apartments without any trouble! Once we arrived the trouble began! We didn't realize that the key for the outside door worked on the gate. So we stood at the gate trying to figure out what to do. Kelsi, had to hop the fence and get us in!
