Arriving in London!
For two middle aged people who had only been overseas a couple of times to Australia, this trip to England was indeed the adventure of a life time. We knew no-one there and were landing cold turkey as it were, having to find our way around from scratch. But we were well armed with maps, pre-paid tickets and a wealth of advice from those in the know.
From leaving New Zealand in autumn, it was a sudden jolt to be catapulted into spring with no winter! The blossoms were all out on the trees, and spring bulbs flowering in the gardens.
We arrived at Victoria Street station after flying all night from Singapore and then catching this bus into central London. We got out, collecting our luggage around us, looking and feeling totally bewildered and confused, to say nothing of tired and jet lagged! The map we had didn’t seem to make sense…there were so many streets going off at all angles, and we didn’t know which side of the station we were standing at!
Just then a bespectacled, top hatted, long black-coated and obviously very English looking gentleman came up and asked if he could help us. We showed him the map and asked in which direction the street we were looking for was. We must have shown every appearance of abject bewilderment because he took pity on us and said he would take us there in his car! Well! We were more confused than ever….people just didn’t do that to perfect strangers….was he really being helpful or was he going to hi-jack and rob us?
Before we knew it, we were being bundled into an old fashioned black car (the description of automobile suited it better!) and driven down one of the streets which went out like spokes from the station. It wasn’t very far before he pulled up at a wrought iron fence and gate outside one of the tall buildings. These buildings were all joined together to all the others in the street, and very different to what we were used to. He unloaded our bags, refused to take anything for his trouble and left us standing there. We looked at each other….was he an angel in disguise, we wondered out loud!
We found ourselves in a very narrow lobby of the boarding house, and checked ourselves in. We were given the key and instructions to get up to our room. It was quite difficult to navigate the narrow and windy stairs, but after a struggle we finally made it, and threw ourselves down on the bed to relax at last! We couldn’t help wondering if we had indeed been entertained by an angel unawares!
After a good rest and a short sleep, we ventured out and made our way back to Victoria station to look around, making sure this time that we had our bearings correct. Was this REALLY London? Were we really here at last? It all seemed so much like a dream, we could hardly believe that our big adventure of discovering England was about to begin! Little did we know that there were more miracles and angels unawares to come in the days ahead!
*** *** ***