London at last!

A long day of travel today, leaving our Dublin apartment at 6.30am and arriving at our London apartment twelve hours later. Firstly we drove to the Port of Dublin and took the car on the ferry back to Holyhead. We enjoyed the three and a half hour trip in the Stena Plus lounge again, including smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for a late breakfast.

The drive from Holyhead to Liverpool took a couple of hours and, with the help of the Navigator app on my tablet, we managed to cross the Mersey via the Kingsway tunnel north-west of the city, rather than the Queensway tunnel which would have put us in the middle of Liverpool with all those one way streets again!

When we returned the car to Hertz, they kindly offered to drive us to Lime Street Station, which saved us quite a long walk with our cases. That meant we were early for our 3.48pm train so Ian used the time to take a few photos around the station.

Lime Street Station, Liverpool

Opposite the station 

A dashing General from the war in the Soudan

The  train trip to London was uneventful once we managed to squeeze our cases into the rather small luggage area in our carriage. We arrived around 6pm and set out to walk from Euston Station to our apartment in Charing Cross Road, pulling our cases through the rather crowded streets. Helen, an employee of the owners, had said she would meet us there at 6.30pm but, due to a detour around building works, we took a wrong turn and arrived somewhat late. Luckily she was quite relaxed about it!

Our apartment is at 132 Charing Cross Road, just over Oxford Street, on the fifth floor which we reach in a tiny Edwardian lift. It is almost opposite the Phoenix Theatre where we saw the musical 'Blood Brothers' on my birthday in 2004. 'We Will Rock You' is on at the theatre just around the corner and we are in a very lively part of Soho - a great location. The apartment is tiny with a kitchenette in a double cupboard and a tiny bathroom around a corner from the bedroom/living area, but the bed is fine, the TV works and there is a bookcase with London travel books and DVDs including '84 Charing Cross Road' and 'Notting Hill'. It's exciting just to be back in London again!