One of the gardens at Hampton Court.
When I awoke, I realized that it was time for me to experience that honored British tradition - the full breakfast. Normally, my breakfast is a couple of bowls of Lucky Charms. The full British breakfast starts with cereal and is then followed by eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, tomatoes, and sometimes black pudding. All of this food (except for the cereal) is fried and is dripping with cholesterol. I can handle sugar overload, but not fat overload. But, when in England, one does as the English do. So, I had the "full fry" (as I call it). After I had ordered it, I was made aware of the fact that the Garden Court Hotel also serves a fruit and yogurt breakfast for us "health conscious" Americans. While my California instincts were telling me to change my order, the culturally sensitive side of me said "You've survived the full fry before. You can do it again."
After breakfast, it was off to Waterloo station for a train trip to the day's sight, Hampton Court Palace. Cost for a round trip train ticket was £4.10. The trip takes about 35 minutes each way.
Once I got back to London, I went out for a little shopping. I also bought some tickets at the Globe Theatre for the August 12 performance of Thomas Dekker's "The Honest Whore." They had seats available at center stage, which I was happy to claim.
Then it was back to the hotel to work the phones to find a place to stay
in Cardiff the next night. You might be wondering why I didn't make reservations
for someplace in Cardiff before I left.
Well, what's the fun in that kind of traveling? The only places in which
I had reservations were London (I learned my lesson with Princess Diana's
funeral), Dublin (I planned to be there on a bank holiday weekend), and
Edinburgh (always book a room in Edinburgh if you are staying there in August). The rest of
the trip was plan as you go. The only problem was that the plan wasn't coming
together. It turned out that there was an Amway convention in Cardiff that
weekend and all the places were filled up. Just my luck...I fly 5,500 miles
only to be thwarted by the ultimate perversion of the American capitalist
ideal. Just when it looked like I'd be in London for another night, I discovered the B&B grapevine.
It seems that if one B&B is filled up, the owner is usually happy to
refer you to someone else. They are willing to perform this service because they figure that they'll get business from the grapevine someday. I found this grapevine existing in both Great
Britain and Ireland. I was passed along the Cardiff grapevine several
times before I found a place. The experience taught me to ask for a
reference if one's first choice of accomodation is taken.
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