Sean and Cherie's Trip to the UK 2001

In August 2001, Cherie and I flew to London to assist the wedding of my friend Ben Waymark & Bertie Bettie. We took the opportunity to visit the UK on a hop-on hop-off bus trip and I have posted the photos...(finally, sorry Rochelle.) I wrote the following email to my mother after the first week and it gives a good description of our time in London.

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Sean McAlpine"
>To:
>Cc:
>Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 11:27 AM
>Subject: Re: Got your voicemail
>
>
> > OK, here is what we have done so far:
> >
> > Thursday: Landed at Gatwick, then took the train to Victoria station. We
> > then grabbed the Tube to Earl's Court, (where we were staying). We
> > checked
> > in at the {removed} Hotel and could see right away that the hotel standards
> > here in London are a bit different then in Canada. The room was small and
> > the furniture seemed kind of used. Cherie gave me a look when we got in
> > the
> > room and I knew that she wasn't very impressed. We then went out for
> > supper
> > and "enjoyed" a meal at {removed} Fried Chicken (blechh!). We only spent
> > one night at the {removed} Hotel because we found that we weren't the only ones
> > spending the night in our room. It seems the cockroach population of
> > London
> > has found the accommodations satisfactory, so we let them have our room
> > to themselves. Lucky for us that a much better hotel was right across the
> > street (at an additional charge of course.) We started our day at the
> > British Museum and I know that Cherie enjoyed her tour there. We then
> > walked
> > around the main tourist spots on Friday, going to Piccadilly Circus,
> > Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and Buckingham Palace.
> > Saturday
> > was the wedding but I decided to take Cherie to Notting Hill for the
> > Portabello market before hand because I thought she would enjoy all of the
> > antiquarians (she did and she got herself an antique broach). The wedding
> > was quite nice and I enjoyed seeing all of our old friends together again.
> > I mentioned our impending nuptials to Ben & Bertie and they said that they
> > should be able to make them. Yesterday, we walked to the Royal Victioria
> > &
> > Albert Museum and we were both blown away by the amount of quality works
> > of
> > art that are stored there. After that we walked over to Harrod's but found
> > out that they are closed on Sundays! We then walked down here (Canada House) because I
> > wanted to check our email but again, this place was closed, oh well.
> > Finally, we decided to take the tube to the Tower Hill station (the Tower
> > Bridge & Tower of London are there), and then we came back along the
> > Thames
> > on one of the boat tours to take in the beautiful view of the city from
> > the
> > water. Today, we returned to the Tower Hill to take the Tower of London
> > tour, which was quite interesting, and we just finished walking from
> > Oxford
> > Circus to Canada House, while stopping at a couple of book stores.
> > Tomorrow
> > morning we begin our 6 day tour of the UK, so you probably won't get
> > another
> > email for a week.
> >
> > Talk to you soon,
> >
> > Sean.


Trip Itinerary & photos