Our voyage began in England. Regent Cruise Line booked their guests at The Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch the night before sailing. We checked in a day earlier to see the sights. Nice hotel, dodgy neighborhood with lots of tattoo parlors and bars. To herald our arrival on Friday night, the hounds were let loose to howl at the moon and the locals sang freely in the streets and swung from lamp posts.
We set out the next morning a little blurry eyed from a lack of sleep for a 25-minute walk to the Tower Bridge. From the bridge we could see Big Ben and the Eye. Loads of families and visitors accompanied us in spectacular summer weather. We decided to brave the underground late that afternoon for a close look at Ben.
The tube station was just a 9-miute walk from the hotel. Down into the underground we went. One just taps the gate with a credit card or apple pay and presto the gates part. You tap again when you exist. We studied a map and found with just three train changes we would exit at the base of Ben. The tube has no air conditioning. In just under 30-minutes we climbed the stairs to fresh air and Ben.
We entertained ourselves for several hours walking along the Thames and people watching. At dusk we decide to return to our hotel. Here’s where it gets interesting.
We dropped no bread crumbs or sapped any branches to determine the way home. Soon we would pay dearly for not paying attention to the direction from whence we came. There is a 50/50 chance to make the right decision. We chose to go in the opposite (wrong) direction upon exiting and turned right we should have turned left.
Our 9-minute walk turned into a 2-hour anxiety filled trudge through a maze of back streets and alleys not knowing where we were and regretting our decision to just wander the city. The Goth and Punk night dwellers were in high gear and music blasted from the open bar doors.
Finally, just before midnight we were able to lay our heads on our pillows to the loud lullaby of natives singing and ambulance sirens. Our dreams were filled with sailing to Norway in the morning.