Monday 13th April 2009

Today we had a change over day, with checking out of the YHA, and transferring to the Hotel we were booked into prior to commencing our Globus Tour “The Best of the British Isles”.
I woke around 5.30am, and read a newspaper until around 6.30 when I had my shower and woke Deb up. I wanted to do the laundry so that all our clothes had been washed prior to the bus tour as I wasn’t sure what facilities we would have.
We went down to breakfast, and just missed the huge crowd of youngsters who were off to various places – there was a group of Aussie girls from an Adelaide school, who were on a European tour along with a group of French boys who were off to a football class at the David Beckham school for football.
We discovered that we were able to leave 2 of our bags at the YHA after all – the lovely woman on the reception desk obviously knew more than the woman we had consulted previously, as we loaded a case and carryon bag into a locker, and paid her the ₤51.00 it cost to leave the luggage for 17 days until we return at the end of the tour. It was such a Godsend, as now I knew we would be able to manage the luggage.
We checked out around 9.30am and had intended to catch a bus to Victoria Station and then get a taxi from the station to the hotel we had been advised (and confirmed with a phone call when we arrived in London) that was where the tour started from.
While waiting for a bus, a taxi came along, so we hailed it, and loaded up to head for the Novotel London West, it was quite a long drive, right across London to the western edge (near Earls Court). The taxi delivered us to the hotel alright, and we paid the fare ₤45.00. We took ourselves into the reception, waited in a very long queue and then was advised that the Globus tour no longer left from that hotel, and that we should have gone to the Hilton London Metropole on Edgware Road, near Paddington.
I could hardly believe my ears – all the documentation we had been given said the Novotel, and I had telephoned Globus on the 8th April on arrival to confirm our tour, and had been told that we were still to check in at the Novotel – however, the receptionist phoned a minicab for us who quoted ₤25.00 for the trip – I did remember to get a receipt from him as I was determined to get some sort of refund from the Globus Company for our costs.
However, that wasn’t the end of the saga – when we got to the Hilton Hotel it was massive, we were in the West Wing which was a long walk from the reception area. We managed to find our room on the 7th floor – no porters were available as the place was very busy checking in lots of people – when we tried to open the door with the swipe keys – neither of the 2 keys we were given worked – luckily for us the housemaid for the floor was nearby, and she opened the door for us, so Deb waited in the room while I went down to get replacement keys. Another long wait, before new keys were produced. Then I went to the Globus check in area to get the information about tomorrow, and a refund of the ₤25.00 the second taxi had cost. The Globus representative was a bit apologetic, but not overly so – I hope that we don’t have any further incidents like this.
Back to the room I go, and once again, neither of the keys worked – I was getting a bit peeved with all this, I can tell you. So, Deb and I decided to have the sandwiches we had made at the YHA for lunch, and then go back for new keys, and go shopping at the Marks and Spencers that we could see across the road from the hotel. Deb wanted to try to find some warm trousers to wear, as she is really feeling the cold despite wearing “long john thermals” under her slacks.
The staff at M&S were really helpful, but that store was only a small branch and only had their new spring clothes in stock, and they advised us to go to the larger store in Oxford Street, about 10 minutes away on the bus.
We took the bus, and got to Oxford Street OK, then found the store, but no luck with finding any track pants – so we ended up buying some more thermal underwear and hope that will do the trick at keeping Deb warm.
After that we walked back to the street where the hotel was, taking photos along the way, and found a Lebanese Coffee Shop, had a great Latte and some Baklava, then back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.
We had decided to have a Pub dinner at the pub across the road called The Green Man.
At 7.00pm we walked over and had a lovely dinner – Vegetable soup followed by traditional Fish and Chips and a salad.
After dinner back to the hotel to write the blog, and then some TV before bed.
Tomorrow we are off to Henry VIII’s Hampton Court, Oxford, and Stratford-Upon-Avon, then to Warwick for the night.