DAY-04: London in Search of Nick's Early Home

Day - 04: Saturday, May 30, 2015

Starting Location: The Trafalgar Hotel, London, England, UK

Interim Location: Old Home, Harrods, Hyde Park
Ending Location: The Trafalgar Hotel, London, England, UK

Today we had a restful morning, I actually slept in until 0900, still haven't fully adjusted to BST. With no planned event we were able to take advantage of the "free" breakfast provided by the hotel. We dined on bacon, pancakes, fruit, bacon, pastries, cheese, did I mention the bacon. English bacon is great, actually more like  a cross between Canadian style bacon and thinly sliced pork chops.

Today was to be a day of ambling around London seeing anything that came to mind but with a specific mission of finding the area in London where I lived many years ago. With my Dad stationed in England my Mom and I cruised (more like an Army transport ship I suspect) from New York to Southampton in 1949 and we lived in London until returning to the U.S. in 1951. The clues we had were:

• Lived in Park West
• Could walk to Hyde Park
• Could walk to Selfridge's Department Store

We quickly immersed ourselves into the London Underground with the purchase of "Oyster" tickets, supposedly the best rates for a pass card available with residual balance refundable. We rode trains, changed trains shifted stations and thought ourselves to be fairly proficient by the end of the day. With our tickets we set off for Park West via:

• Piccadilly Circus on the Bakerloo Line
• Changing to the Central Line at Oxford Circus
• Exiting at Marble Arch

Bingo, we found them all and true enough they were all every walkable. The buildings we found were designated as Park West, a large apartment/condo/flat complex which clearly was old enough to have existed in 1950. Of course I have no idea where in the complex we lived, pictures of the buildings would be good enough.

With a walk of several blocks we had entered Hyde Park, so that was clearly doable. The park is huge with varied entries but notably near our street was the Marble Arch, surely a landmark for my Mom to recognize when she sees the pictures. Actually at the arch there was a lady feeding pigeons, perhaps a long ago neighbor at Park West.

As it turned out the British Vitality World Triathlon was being run this weekend so we saw runners, bikers, swimmers, boaters and horse riders. Okay so the swimmers were geese and swans and boating and horse riding are not triathlon events.

Biking

Running

Swimming

Boating

Swimming

Horseback Riding

With summer supposedly very near, the flowers are blooming, the English are known for gardens and we saw many examples, both large and small.

After crossing the park we found our way to Harrods and of course had to go in. I realized I hadn't found the other store Selfridge's so we split up, Sheila to experience each floor of Harrods while I returned to find Selfridge's, supposedly an easy walk from my home.

After departing Knightsbridge for another underground ride on the Piccadilly and Jubilee Lines, I was back across Hyde Park to the Bond Street station at Oxford Street in the area I should find the store.

Sure enough just as predicted, it was there in all of its glory, a store perhaps not as notable as Harrods but similar in size and local interests.

With the three clues in the bag, I was convinced that I had been near my boyhood home and stomping grounds; okay maybe not stomping, perhaps carriage riding and struggling to keep two feet firmly planted on the park grass.

I again walked across Hyde Park and met Sheila at the appointed time outside of Harrods, no big bags obvious, could this have been a low cost visit to Harrods?

We resumed our underground experience and returned to the Piccadilly Circus station for the short walk back to Trafalgar Square and our hotel.

It was still early so as we had done the night before we returned to the hotel's Vista Bar for replenishment of our Kir Royale and G&T body reserves along with a great looking and tasting appetizer plate. Great views from on high of the skyline including the London Eye and the Nelson Monument at Trafalgar Square were there for the taking.

Having had no real "pub" food we stepped next door to The Admiralty Pub where we shared an order of Cod & Chips washed down by a pint of London Pride and something similar to an Arnold Palmer, a drink basically unknown in the UK before Sheila's visit.

With darkness falling but still not too late I took an evening walk down by the river snapping off a few nights shots of the iconic landmarks of the area.

By 2200, I had returned and the day was soon over. Tomorrow would be another "early to rise" day to begin our tour of Stonehenge and Bath.