Today decided to start off at Trafalgar Square and work our way via St James Park to Wellington Arch (another English Heritage site). A beautiful spring day, staring off coolish but warming up nicely.
At Trafalgar Square we pottered around marvelling at the number of tourists. Went across the road to a coffee shop to wait for the National Gallery to open at 10am, when we went in for about an hour — nowhere near enough time to do it justice. We spent our time dipping superficially into the later collections, 18th century and onwards, with some time spent with our favourite impressionists (Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne). There's not enough time to do it anything near justice, but we will be returning to London later on, and definitely will be giving the National Gallery a lot more time!
We then walked down to Victoria Station (finding a little shop with Cornish pasties on the way). Checked what we need for our journey to Preston. We were going to get Seniors Railcards, £30 each, which would give us 1/3 off any Brit-Rail journeys. Found however that there's a new card, a Two Together card, wherein you can get two rail tickets for the same 1/3 discount — not age restricted, and only one card required to get the two of us the benefit. Seeing we'll always be travelling together, this is better value for us than the Seniors Card! Little problem — it needs a passport photo of each participant, which I didn't have at the time. [Solved this by taking a couple of passport shots for ourselves in the room, which we will get printed by a photofinisher tomorrow, after which we can arrange our tickets!]
Wellington Arch
From the station, we walked about half a mile to Wellington Arch. Spectacular, and there's a little museum inside which had a display relating how the automobile has changed the British landscape. Fascinating! Marvellous views from the top — got a wonderful shot of the cars waiting at the traffic lights at the western end of Constitution Hill — because of the effects of the Congestion Tax (£8 per day for private vehicles), it was a cohort of taxis!
Went back to the Hostel, to find two workmen installing mirrors in our room. Looks like you only have to make a comment, and action is taken! We're also having trouble with the WiFi connectivity in our room — looks like an antenna is out of action — and the hostel has contacted the supplier for action. Hope it will be functional tomorrow!
Tonight's meal, courtesy of Marks and Spencer (and Susie's little trip down to the high street), was Chicken in red wine sauce for Warren and Lancashire hotpot for Susie. Non-frozen reheatable meals, tasty! (We have a microwave just outside our room — very convenient.) And to follow this, fresh fruit.
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