The guy at the hotel really put the hard word on us to do a Tripadvisor review. I'm torn about this; although it was still pretty good value none of the irritating things from last time have been dealt with - eg although they're all very pretty, none of the wet areas are in the slightest bit practical - and to be honest the room we were in at least was in need of a bit of maintenance. I'm not sure they'd be happy about an honest review.
I booked our train tickets in advance; they were for that specific train and Virgin Trains claimed we were getting a bargain at £38 each for a first class ticket. So, while we were waiting, I did a check to see how much a first class would have cost if we just rocked up to the station today. The answer - £229.50. Each!! So, either we really did get a bargain booking in advance, or the 'same day' ticket prices really are a total ripoff!
We got off the train at London Euston and started off to our hotel - apartment block actually. It's only a couple of minutes from the station but when we got to the street we couldn't find the place - there's actually no number 182 in this street. I was beginning to have a panic that we had been ripped off although I was quite careful to check for legitimate sounding Tripadvisor reviews etc. Turns out it was totally my fault - if your apartment building is at number 192 then looking for number 182 isn't going to help!
Also, another lesson learned today; don't rely on horrified American / Australian Tripadvisor reviewers to tell you when a hotel doesn't have lifts! I expected the B&Bs earlier in the trip to be lift-free, but not an apartment hotel in London. The receptionist said that she didn't want to change our room because it would have to be to a lesser value one, so I dragged both our suitcases up three flights of really narrow stairs. I'm glad I did though, because of course, no air-conditioning. And, up here there is a nice breeze which we're going to need, I think. Between the breeze and the fan - which we had to ask for - we should be ok.
Also, don't ever book a room in England without checking that they'll be able to give you two room keys - it goes without saying at home that you'll be able to get two keys but here this wasn't the case (and this wasn't the first time this happened to us either). We had hoped to go our own separate way for one day on the weekend but that's really difficult to manage when only one of you has a key!
The room itself is tiny; probably smaller even than the B&B room in Hastings. However, we've managed to get ourselves and all of our stuff into it, so we should be ok.
Once we recovered from the unexpected cardio routine of getting ourselves and our bags upstairs, we went out for a walk. Basically we wanted to get an Oyster card each and try out the Tube, and also to check out the starting point for the open top bus tour we're doing tomorrow. This was mostly easy - they sell Oyster cards via vending machines and the stations are all really well sign-posted. The real trouble I had was before this, in finding which station to go, and which train to get. The 'planner' on the official website is just useless - it assumes you know which is the best station to go to but of course not knowing that was part of my problem! However, eventually I found an app for the iPad which told me exactly what station to go to, what train to catch, in what direction, and where to alight. Once I knew that, the rest was a doddle.
We had a quick look at Trafalgar Square and took some photos, and then we walked all the way back to our apartment - about 2.6 kilometres according to google maps. Paul's pedometer said we did more than 25000 steps today; one of our better days. Unless of course he forgot to reset it this morning in which case not so good :-)
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