Lon-done: October 21st - 28th, 2023
We woke up on the ferry to Liverpool, well technically Birkenhead. Groggy, but stubbornly, we did not give into the on board coffee not wanting to give them any more of our money. At the "NOT border" border control office we had to reassemble our bikes. The officer conducting document checks (they never bothered checking ours) told us we should rethink our plans and hop on a train as everything was flooded. I asked him for an online resource we could use to check on closed roads, "we don't have anything like that, but if you get into trouble just hop on a train". "Sure thing boss". We rode away with mild concern over our future.
Our first stop off the boat in Birkenhead was following some bad google maps directions to some coffee. The coffee, thankfully, was very good and in a chill atmosphere so we could wake up fully from not a great night of rest. My back was feeling a little weird but I figured as long as I didn't need to push my bike too much that day I wouldn't really notice it. We found the online resource for closed roads that of course the UK has and it didn't look like our route was affected by any road closures so we didn't bother to change our plans. Also a bunch of the trains were closed because of flooding, so so much for that idea.
We headed south from Birkenhead along the river Mersey. We could see Liverpool across the river as the bike path dipped and dived around industrial areas and along reclaimed waterfront parks. We were grateful it wasn't raining as following the bike path was difficult and it helped a lot to have Ben watching our navigation. However, despite the lack of rain we couldn't stay totally dry. While crossing a big puddle in the road, Ben hit a pothole and he tipped over into the water. Curse you UK! Even when it is sunny we cannot stay dry!
We left the river Mersey and headed south near Ellesmere Port heading into the rolling English countryside roads. It was a surprisingly lovely day but the ride was longer than we wanted and had many surprisingly steep hills. We passed by waterlogged cars, grateful that we weren't on this road a day earlier as we would have also been under water. As it was, we could mostly skirt the puddles or ride through the puddles with our feet raised awkwardly to the sides and hope our momentum took us through.
We struggled up a hill which made my back hurt. I swear my bike was somehow heavier that day and it felt like I had to push harder on the uphills. We made it to a farm cafe (the British equivalent of Vala's pumpkin patch?) and had some really good food. We talked to a man who warned us about some roads being closed ahead of us. We checked the online map and again it wasn't showing anything so we continued with our plans, we were really close to the airbnb we had reserved for the night, if roads were closed to get to it we were gonna be kind of screwed but we figured we would get as close as possible and then contact them to ask them how to get there. We were comforted by the fact that THEY hadn't contacted us to tell us they had to cancel. So we rode on, following the Airbnb directions now with Ben in front navigating. I followed too closely, hoping that the ride would end soon as my body hurt. I ran into him when he stopped suddenly and we cranked at each other. Finally, our Airbnb appeared. No closed roads, no need to swim across a road. The weather held and we weren't soaking wet as we approached our nice housing for the night.
The Airbnb was at a working saddlery and we will refer to this place as "horse lady's place". It was classy! I had a lovely bath to help with my sore back, Ben's stomach was feeling weird. But we had dinner to a great sunset and breakfast with a great sunrise accompanied with interesting horse conversations!
The next morning, we left horse lady's place and biked to Crewe where we caught a train to London. The ride to Crewe was more idyllic English countryside ending with the cute town of Crewe. The train to London was easy and we reassembled our bikes with no problem in London Euston station. We walked the bikes as we exited the station until we got out of the congested area around the station. When we got to a quieter street we hopped on the bikes. 5 minutes in we hit Granary square, which is a square that just begs you to stop and drink a coffee, so we obliged and got a snack as well. After a lot of city biking we finally made it to our Airbnb in Wood Green. I was having a hard time with the city biking as my back hurt every time we stopped and had to get started again. But we made it and we met our host who was very welcoming despite being in the middle of an online teaching lesson, and being late to her job as an airline hostess.
Our first day in London we stayed in and cleaned our bikes and gear trying to prepare all of it for long term storage. Ben had to help me lift the bike as my back was complaining still, but we got everything scrubbed and cleaned. The airbnb we were staying at turned out to be less than ideal as we discovered just how many people were staying in this home. Everyone was very nice, but we were adding stress on the kitchen space and we weren't sure if anyone except the host knew of us coming beforehand.
Our second day in London we wanted to do some London stuff, but we were quickly getting sticker shock from many of the activities so we decided to spend the day in the British museum, which is thankfully free. We took the underground to the stop and immediately got some 2nd coffee. My back did NOT like the underground. Every step after that ride was painful. So in a park before we got to the museum I sat on a bench to recover and enjoy the coffee.
In the museum, we got to see some very cool items that the British have gathered over their years of showing up in other countries and saying "MINE". (Later in Turkey we went to some archeological museums who made it very clear that certain archeological sites were plundered by British and American teams until Turkey got their own archeological teams developed so they could tell them to "bugger off".) Even so, it was wild seeing the Rosetta Stone in person. We only had time for the Egyptian and Assyrian wings of the museum and it was awesome seeing their art and sculpture. You can certainly make an argument that having these items gathered in one place that is free to the public is pretty cool and allows for these "world heritage" items to be seen by the world. I just wish they acknowledged the issue at all, rather than naming these items after the British guy who managed to smuggle it out of the country he found it in.
While wandering the museum, my back was hurting and I had to stop any chance I could for a sit down. But there weren't a lot of chairs or benches. One time I sat down in the museum staff's chair and this young guy came up and immediately started to chew me out rather angrily and I said "I am standing up but I have to stand up slow I'm sorry" and as I got up he looked mortified and incredibly guilty that he had chewed me out...do I look that bad!? As an able bodied adult I was experiencing first hand how poorly the world is designed for anybody who is not an ABOD and I could still walk, and I know this is temporary. I nearly cried in the bathroom trying to lean forward to reach the soap dispenser! I was suddenly finding myself uncertain of stairs and was terrified of being run into as any time someone bumped me in the crowded museum my back flared in pain. The mental energy to navigate that space and manage the pain was EXHAUSTING. New depths of empathy unlocked.
When we got back from the museum we discovered that the cat in our AirBnB was peeing and pooping everywhere. Including on our newly cleaned bike bags and shoes. It was also raining… and our room was leaking… So even though we were paying to be inside for multiple days in a row everything was going to remain damp and since my back was out and the bed was too soft I was sleeping on the floor still. *sigh whine whine sigh
On our third day in London we spent the day re-cleaning some of our stuff. We then biked to our storage unit and dropped off some stuff and our bikes. We officially converted from bikepacking to backpacking. It was bittersweet leaving the bikes, we had had a great summer on them, but the fall had been rough and the upcoming winter would just be too difficult to keep them with us. We will pick you up in April dear bikes!
Our fourth day in London we spent at the Tower of London. The cost to enter was steep, but it was pretty cool to see. We managed to get there on the early side and went straight to the crown jewels which meant we didn't have to wait in line to see them. Again, not sure how I feel about paying money to "ooh and ahh" about how rich these people are...but on a craftsmanship and art level it was cool to see. The explanation on how they acquired some of the diamonds were laughably hand wavey. "It was a gift" just ignore that the gift came from the 11 year old ruler whose mom we had imprisoned.
We checked out the other areas of the tower. We saw the torture chambers (there really wasn't THAT much torture done here we swear). We saw where some prisoners were held, including Sir Thomas More. Having gone to St. Thomas More Grade School, I had always heard the story so seeing his carvings in the stone and where he was held was personally fascinating.
There is also a pretty cool exhibit of knights, horses, and kings in their armor. In the same exhibit they had a lot of weaponry on display and they had an entire dragon made out of weapons that was pretty cool looking.
The grounds of the Tower of London were decorated for Halloween and they had some actors wandering everywhere as ghosts of famous people from the Tower. Some kids were dressed up in batman outfits and some kids had some cool face paint. On the grounds we saw the lucky ravens and some fun statues of the exotic animals that used to be kept in the tower until they were moved to the zoo.
I had learned to not sit on the underground as standing didn't seem to jolt me around as badly so my back was doing better that day. But still I would often need to find a bench to sit on until Ben caught up to me in the exhibits.
Our fifth day in London we needed to go back to cheaper entertainments. So we started the day off in the Tate Modern art museum which is also free admission.
In the afternoon we took a break from the art museum and headed to the Globe Theater where we had 5 pound groundling tickets for the afternoon performance of "As You Like It" which was a Shakespeare comedy that neither of us knew much about. My theater nerd self super enjoyed experiencing Shakespeare at the Globe as a groundling. The actors broke the 4th wall expertly and it was just a really good time watching a very queer performance by actors that loved what they were doing.
After the performance we returned to the Tate Modern for a few more galleries and then in the evening we had tickets to a special exhibit of Yayoi Kusama. It had 3 main pieces. One was a piece you could walk all around and look in and see someone else or yourself from an angle you didn't expect as mirrors and glass refracted light in strange ways. The other two pieces were immersive infinity mirror rooms. Very fun experience.
After this exhibit it was time for dinner so we headed to a nice Indian restaurant nearby. We spent more than we probably should have, but it was really nice to have a sit down meal and a great way to finish a really good date...I guess this whole trip is a date. :)
Our final day in London we went to Camden Market. The best part of the Camden Market hands down was the Halloumi fries that were served with a pomegranate sauce. SO GOOD! Ben bought himself a hat as he had left his stylish hat behind in Omaha and had been wanting one. I bought a purse as my handlebar bag/purse broke. We also picked up some little monsters from this cute unique shop and then I spent most of the time resisting very pretty jewelry. The place became more and more PACKED. To the point where random queues formed for no reason as when someone gets in a line here other people just line up for funseys. When we decided to head out we had to find our way through some confusing crowd control measures. We also apparently chose to leave at the same time as a Palestinian solidarity protest was finishing up in another part of the city so the underground was just packed with an overwhelming amount of people.
We got back to our Airbnb and repacked for flying the next day. We were ready to be done with the UK's rain and London's expense. The next morning we lugged our awkwards bike bags on to a bus to the train to the airport. The bags were awkward to carry and my back wasn't very happy, but it was way easier than wrangling two giant bike boxes. We settled into our flight with dreams of a dry future ahead.
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