It was a Monday, and I was so looking forward to Scotland the next day. But first things first, I had to do some last minute shopping in Portsmouth, of course. At 60% price off, I got a really nice dress for my brother’s wedding in October at Dorothy Perkins- good job!
Louie and I had brunch at Costa, then I went on to stuff back my things in my luggage, and then she dropped me off the train station. The SouthWest Train operates the Portsmouth-Central London line. I got the direct train to London Waterloo, which took close to 2 hours, and the train fare was around GBP13.
I did some research the night before so I could easily find my way to Paddington station, where my hotel is (I chose the Paddington area because it is where Heathrow Express is and it will be very easy for me to go to the airport). One useful tool for me is londondrum.com , which gives information of the tube line to take, the tube route, journey time, and fare zone. From Waterloo, Bakerloo line will take me to Paddington, I will get off at the 9th stop, which is the Paddington station, journey time is approximately 16 minutes and my fare zone is in zone 1 which means GBP2.40 will be deducted from my oyster card credit.
Knowing that Waterloo is the biggest and busiest station in UK, I also researched about where to find the platform for Bakerloo line:
- The first step would be to find out which direction to go by going to the london-tube-map.infolondon-tube-map.info : the northern terminus of Bakerloo is Harrow and Wealdston, and the southern terminus would be Elephant and Castle. From Waterloo, I were to go to the southbound platform to Harrow and Wealdstone direction and get off at the 9th stop, which is Paddington.
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| Image from Metrolodes.es |
- The second step was to find out the platform number of Bakerloo line in Waterloo station. I used describe-online.comdescribe-online.com to find out the platform number of southbound Bakerloo line. Platform 4 it is! (Tip. Describe-online.com is a good tool for directions on transfer from one platform to another.Try it here)
I was glad I did my research ahead of time-it was difficult enough having to carry around a luggage and a laptop backpack!
From Paddington station, the hotel was a few blocks away (2 blocks, taking the London Street). It, however took awhile for me to get oriented with the place (my first time there!) and I walked a few blocks further. I went back, saw a map on one of the posts, and found my way to Days Inn Hotel.
Days Inn Hyde Park Hotel is in Sussex Gardens street, which is a pretty nice and tranquil place , as opposed to the streets surrounding it, which I found chaotic. There are several hotels in the same building as Days Inn. The room size is typical of London (small) and it is expensive, but the room is clean and it is in a very good location.
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| The building along Sussex Gardens where Days Inn and other similar hotels are housed. |
After settling down and freshening up, I went for a walk at the nearby Kensington Gardens. It is a free park and a huge one. I went up to that area where I got a view of the Kensington Palace.
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| The Italian Garden at Kensington Gardens |
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| One of the water fountains at Kensington Gardens |
I went back to the hotel before 6:30, just in time for my reunion with my long lost friend, Herbie, who took me to a Persian restaurant , for some reason.(I kind of expected the fish-and-chips dinner haha!). It did felt good to catch up, though. And one thing about friendship is: no matter how long you have been apart, you’re still able to pick up where you have left off, even if it was decades ago.
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| 2 decades worth of catching up in London! |
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