2015 - Day Out 13: London

Its time for our annual weekend break in London staying at our old faithful Travelodge Docklands hotel, the weekend away will involve a musical and a visit to Whitehall for the Remembrance Day Parade.

I make my way into Wollaston where after getting refreshments for the coach journey, I make my way to the bus stop and at 09:00am, National Express West Midlands service 276 turns up which I board and send Mr UKBuses a text to say that I am on my way. Just over five minutes after, the bus is in Norton, where Mr UKBuses boards and takes his seat and as we arrive at Stourbridge Interchange and after a "fresh air break", we interchange onto the Stourbridge Shuttle and just get a seat as this 09:30am journey is quite a busy journey. After the short distance and three minutes, we arrive at Stourbridge Junction, where we alight and take a few steps to Platform 2, where after a few minutes wait, our London Midland train arrives and we board and take our seats, passing through Cradley Heath, Rowley Regis, Smethwick Galton Bridge, Jewellery Quarter and arrive at Birmingham Snow Hill, where we stay on the train as today we go one more stop to Birmingham Moor Street, where we alight and make our way out of the station and onto Moor Street Queensway, where we make our way to the bus stop and wait for our next mode of transport.

We don't have to wait to long as our National Express West Midlands Service 50 turns up promptly and we board and go a couple of stops before we alight, conveniently outside the Birmingham Coach Station on Rea Street in Digbeth, see picture above left. We have over half an hour to wait, so after a few photographs are taken we make our way inside and take a seat, see picture right We spot that our coach is going to be late, but Mr UKBuses was looking at the wrong screen, he was looking at Arrivals and not Departures. We don't have a lot longer to wait, so I make my way outside of the coach station to get some final "fresh air" before we board our coach. Mr UKBuses gets away without being hassled after wearing a National Express Jacket and has a bottle of water to keep him refreshed for the journey ahead, see picture below left. Just before 11:00am, our National Express coach pulls up and after showing our tickets and passing over the luggage, we board and take the seats behind the driver which gives more leg room for the journey ahead.

At approximately 11:10am, we finally leave Birmingham Coach Station and make our way through the City streets and as we approach the Stratford Road, we are held up for nearly half an hour as there are some temporary traffic lights ahead which is causing major tailbacks. Once we pass the temporary lights, and we are surprised that there were two men working and about five looking or as they may class it, supervising, we make our way towards the motorway and we join the M40 Motorway bypassing Banbury and Bicester along the way, Mr UKBuses would not have know this as he was fast asleep. We discreetly leave the M40 and head towards London on the A40 passing closely to the old BBC TV Centre in White City. We eventually arrive at Victoria Coach Station, pulling into the arrivals building at approximately 2:20pm. We have arrived in London and we make our way onto the streets of London, with Mr UKBuses forgetting his map allowance as we go the wrong way towards our bus stop.

After "fresh air", we make our way onto Buckingham Palace Road where after a few minutes wait, we board Abellio London's Service C10 making our first tap in of our OysterCards, alighting at Borough Underground Station. We make our way into Borough Underground Station, tapping in and with this tap, it is also topping up our OysterCards. We make our way down to platform level via the lift, and onto our first tube train today (and this year), on the Northern Line, where the first tube journey is short lived as we only have to go a couple of stops and alight at Bank, where we change onto the Docklands Light Railway which takes us to our destination of East India, where we alight and tap out and make our way to our hotel for the weekend, Travelodge Docklands. We have no problems checking in and I get the first floor room this year after the reception staff take pity and give Mr UKBuses the ground floor room this year. We go to our rooms where, we get settled in and also freshened up before we make our way out this evening.

We meet back in the hotel bar and sample a pint before making our way into Central London. After our drinks are finished we head to the DLR at East India and then head back onto the Jubilee Line at Canning Town alighting at Waterloo. With no Abba in sight, we head onto the Bakerloo Line and alight at Charing Cross and make our way out onto Trafalgar Square. We are feeling a bit peckish now, so we head to J D Wetherspoons "Lord Moon of The Mall", but upon entering and seeing that there were no tables and a lot of standing people we make our way across the road and have to do with a McDonalds to keep us fed. With the food over, we make our way towards Her Majesty's Theatre and decide we have time to have a pre-show drink next door at Riley's Sports Bar. Mr UKBuses has a Bells Whiskey, but nearly ends up with a Bailey's and we have a rest. Nearly time to go and time for a toilet visit before we leave and I spot Damon Hill's race winning Williams F1 car hanging from the roof, see picture right. Mr UKBuses declines a visit as I don't think he wanted his nails done!

We head next door and after some "fresh air", we make our way into the theatre and after purchasing a drink at the theatre bar, we make our way to the stalls and find our seat and what a view we had of the stage on this visit. The Phanton Of The Opera starts and after about 30 minutes I do have to make my way to the corridor for five minutes as I'm still suffering from a recent cold and felt like I was going to pass out as I was feeling rather hot. After cooling down and seeing what the theatre staff get up to during the show, they were playing a game of chess, I make my way back in and watch the rest of the first half. We have a break and I make my way out for some "fresh air" and a quick drink before taking our seats for the second half. At the end of the show, The Phantom disappears in a chair on stage and considering we were so close, we still can not work out how he disappears. With the show over, we make our way back onto the streets of London and board a London Central Service 12 bus from outside the theatre to Westminster where we alight and head back onto the Jubilee Line at Westminster Tube Station and change at Canning Town onto the DLR for one stop to East India, where upon arrival and feeling quite tired, I say goodnight and get a good nights sleep.

A good start to the weekend. A good and first ride was had on National Express with the coach journey not being as bad as I thought it would be.