England · London

Day 8 | Taking it easy

Well, the day started out great. The dual-function washer/dryer is holding our socks and underwear hostage. The dryer function has been running for well over two hours, and it has said “0:01” left for the last half hour. Aaaand, if you think you can turn it off in hopes that you can over-ride the locking mechanism, well, you’re wrong. We figured we would deal with it later.

We walked to the other side of the block to the main hotel for a less-than-hearty breakfast (we may have been spoiled while we were at the Spires in Oxford). After breakfast, we came home and decided we would formulate some plans for the week. To start with, we needed to rescue our socks and underwear. Adam looked up the model number on google, and the top hit for searches associated with the model number is “model # won’t open.” So, apparently, this model is notorious for holding clothes hostage. We haven’t yet received a ransom note.

Motherforker.

Adam finally figured out how to rescue our clothes. However, now our socks look like they are for 5 year olds…

Today was a lazy day; we both needed a day off before we spend the next week on our feet again. We made some plans for the week, and took a nap (neither of us slept well last night). Once we woke up, we decided to take a slow stroll around our neighborhood and explore the Blue Plaques of London. These are located on the sides of buildings that hold some former relationship to significant individuals or events in society.

Sir Norman Lockyer lived from 1836-1920, and lived in this residence from 1876-1920. He was an astronomer, physicist, and the founder of Nature magazine.
We found another little colorful street today. Naturally, I had to take a picture.
We passed The Smoking Jacket on our walk. This is a liquor store, and it is conveniently located at the end of our street. (We may have stopped here on the way home.)
Sir Alfred Hitchcock lived here from 1926-1939. He was born in 1899 and died in 1980.

Additional homes we were able to discover:

  • Howard Carter lived from 1874-1939. He was an Egyptologist, and was actually the discoverer of King Tutankhamun’s tomb!
  • Sir W.S. Gilbert was a dramatist that lived from 1836-1911.
  • Field Marshal Viscount Allenby lived from 1861-1936, and lived in the residence we found from 1928-1936.
  • Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an actor and manager that lived from 1853-1917.
  • George Borrow was an author that lived from 1803-1881.
  • Charles Booth was a pioneer in social research, and lived from 1840-1916.

We finished our lazy day in a nearby pub, The Earls Court Tavern.

Earls Court Tavern is a small pub that it is at the end of our street.
Who doesn’t love a fancy mirror in their pub? By the way, Pornstar cocktails are quite popular on the menus around here.
This one’s for Gigi!

We have noticed that we live in a rather hoity toity neighborhood. There are a lot of cars from the following manufacturers: Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and there was a even a Ferrari down here! It is actually quite uncommon to see anything as “low” as a VW, Volvo, or Ford.

Tomorrow is a day-tour, so hopefully lots of pictures!

Total steps: 6,790

ttfn

Emily and Adam

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