London Day 1 – Disembarking The Viking Vela

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Today is the last day of our cruise, we disembark the Viking Vela this morning in Tilbury, UK, which is just outside of London.  Tilbury is the official Cruise Port for London.

It was foggy first thing this morning when I woke up to the alarm at 6:30 AM.   We are on a disembarkation schedule today, but it is not that strict for us since we are getting our own transportation from the ship into London.  We are what is classified as having “Independent Arrangements” in the Viking world, so we have the ability to get off the ship at any time before 9:00 AM, which is the latest published time to Disembark.  The only other restriction is that we need to be out of our room by 8:00 AM. 

Heading Back Out To Sea

The ship was scheduled to be at the dock by 6:00 AM, and it seemed like we were in the process of docking when I first got up.  I took a shower and got ready to wake Stephanie up when they made an announcement in the cabin, which is hardly ever done unless it is something really important.  Normal general announcements are not made directly in the cabin, and we usually have to open our cabin door so we can hear them from the hallway.

The Cruise Director informed us that due to tides and winds, we were unable to dock as scheduled, and we would now be docking at 11:00 AM instead of 6:00 AM.  Of course, that was going to significantly impact anyone who had travel plans for leaving London directly from the cruise, whether it was through Viking or on their own.  Luckily, we were staying in London for four days, so it did not impact us at all, it actually made it better, we would be closer to meeting the afternoon check-in time at our hotel which was 3:00 PM.

Now, with the changes, my plan was to go for breakfast by myself, as usual, letting Stephanie sleep in for a bit longer since we were trapped on the ship.  I was too awake to go back to sleep.  I headed to the World Cafe, ate a nice hot breakfast, and then took a fruit bowl and yogurt back to the room for Stephanie to eat later.

The ship headed back out to sea, it was probably safer than trying to maintain a position in the channel of the river.  From our balcony, we could see that the tide was really strong, there were long trails in the current after any of the floating channel marker buoys.  

It was actually more sunny back out in the North Sea, it had been much more foggy in the Thames River near Tilbury.  I do not think wind really had much to do with the inability to dock, there was too much fog for there to be much wind, and the seas were flat and calm.  What was perplexing was the inability to dock with the tides that were known ahead of time.  I do believe that the ship’s officers are still learning how to maneuver the ship in tight places with the rear pod propulsion system,  I would think that although they have more power than stern thrusters, they also act differently in any current passing by them, but that is just a guess.  Viking docks ships in Tilbury all the time, so certainly they would know the tides here.

Now we had some tie to kill.  I worked on the blog while Stephanie slept in.  At one point, I was trying to wake her up thinking it was 9:30 AM, but it was still just 8:30 AM, and we still had time.  The new time for us to be out of the room was announced as 10:00 AM.

Tug Boat Assisting Us To Dock

The Captain made an interim announcement that we were heading back to the dock and that we may be alongside the pier by 10:30 AM.  He had said it was a very tight fit at the pier and that was why they had abandoned the first attempt this morning with the strong tides. 

Eventually, we could see that we were stopped and now going sideways toward the pier.  From our balcony on the river side of the ship, we could see two tug boats alongside to help assist with the docking effort.  It was a tight fit, at least at the bow, there was a car ship already docked there and the off-loading ramp angled from the stern of that ship toward the area we needed to dock at.

Stephanie finally got up and ate her breakfast.  Afterward, we finished packing and promptly at 10:00 AM, we left the cabin and headed upstairs to the Explorer’s Bar area to wait until we could disembark the ship.  It was not terribly crowded, and we easily found some seats right at the front-facing windows so we could look outside.  

About ten minutes after we arrived, there was an announcement that they were going to segregate all of the colored and numbered disembarkation groups into two areas of the ship.  Some groups were told to go to the Star Theater, and the remaining color groups were told to wait in the Atrium on Decks 1-3.  We had black tags for disembarkation, and that meant we could go to any area we wanted to wait until we could leave the ship at our leisure, so we stayed in the Explorer’s Bar area along with about twenty other people.

Starting To Unload Luggage At The Pier

Occasionally, I went outside and could see that all of the luggage was being unloaded with forklifts and taken into the terminal building.  The ship was still waiting for clearance to let people off, but I guess it was more waiting for luggage unloading time than anything else, people can’t get off and depart without all of the luggage being off the ship first.

Tilbury Cruise Terminal

We did not hear any further announcements about any groups being called to disembark.  We knew from past disembarkation on Viking that these groups are usually called via local announcements in those areas, either in the atrium or the theatre.

It was about 11:45 AM and Stephanie was hungry, so we gathered up our gear and headed to see if we could find something to eat.  The pool grill was open and we saw other people eating there.  We checked the buffet and one side was open so we headed inside.  It was virtually empty, there had not been any announcement to tell people that food was available, we just had to find it on our own.  I suppose that was to keep people from leaving their designated areas to eat.  There were only about 8-10 people in the buffet, we virtually had it to ourselves.  Stephane asked the waitstaff if we could still order wine on our drink package, and she ordered Pinot Grigio.  He headed off to see if it was available and came back with a glass of wine for her,  I did not want any, we had too much to do to get to the hotel. I guess it was just free, he took no cabin number to charge it to, and it was probably past the time for the charges to work against our cruise card.

We ate a good lunch, and I am sure we ate more than we should have knowing we would have to do some work with all of the luggage once we got off the ship.  They had our favorite tempura shrimp and there was some carved roast and mashed potatoes,  I ate way too much, but it was good and the food was fresh and very warm.

After lunch, we thought we heard that the black color tag folks could now get off anytime, so we headed down to Deck A to disembark.  We were surprised at how easy it was to get an elevator, and no one was on the one that came for us.  There was no line at the ship’s security checkout area, groups were being called but we seemed to be in the middle of groups, there was only one couple ahead of us, but they were slow moving, trying to handle all of their large luggage to get off the ship.  We were glad we had just put our luggage out last night for the ship to handle.

We headed into the terminal and up a long steep ramp.  It was amazing that all of the luggage had to be transported on rolling carts up this ramp.  There was an electric car to pull the carts up the ramp into the terminal, it was heading down the opposite side of the ramp as we were walking up.

We headed to Immigration and again, there was no line. The security person asked us which of the three ladies we wanted to go to to be processed, it was sort of a joke, so we picked the first lady, and everyone laughed.  It was strange, they were all at a small desk and needed to see our passports.  I retrieved them from my camera backpack, and without looking, I tried to give them to her from the front of the glassed podium, but it was solid glass that I did not see, I had assumed there was an opening.  The opening was on the side in the corner.  She processed our passports and Stephanie asked her if we got immigration stamps, and she said she would do it for us since we asked, so our passports got stamped and she had to handwrite the date on the stamp.  I guess they just inspect them normally and don’t take the time to stamp them in order to quicken the time to do the immigration processing.  There also was no passport scanner or electronic processing.

From there, we headed into the terminal where all of the luggage was sorted by colored tags, and we were directed to the Black tag group and we found our luggage and headed out of the terminal.  There were several buses in the parking area and a few people with signs for people’s names for private transport.  I was not sure where we needed to go to catch the Uber ride we were going to call, so Stephanie asked one of the private drivers, and he said to tell the driver to pick us up in the cruise terminal bus parking area. 

I made our Uber request for a car through the App on my phone, and one was dispatched.  The Uber App said to meet the driver on the “lower road”, but we could not tell how to get there from the bus parking area, even with the Uber App Map.  We could see that there were several other people using car pick-up services in the same parking area as the buses.  I sent a text to the driver who was coming to pick us up that we were in the bus parking area. For some reason, that ride was canceled and then picked up by another driver.  I sent him the same text since we still could not figure out where Uber wanted us to go.  He called and I told him where we were.  

Shortly afterward, the app indicated the driver had arrived and we saw the car with our given license plate number from the main road where we were waiting, which was just a few feet from the parking area.  He drove into the parking area behind us, so we walked back there to meet him.  We verified the license plate number again and he had our names, so we knew it was our ride.  He was really nice and had over 10,000 rides listed in the Uber App.  We had ordered a “Comfort” class, which was just slightly more cost than the Uber X, we wanted to make sure the car was big enough for our luggage, and it was.

We got into the car and headed out.  As soon as we started, Stephanie let out a yell, she had forgotten that they drive on the other side of the road and she thought we were pulling out into some traffic and were going to be in a wreck, the driver laughed.

It was not far to drive to the hotel in distance, but the drive was slow and took about 50 minutes.  We arrived and were dropped off.  The fare was about 62.00 Pounds, which seemed high, but was the going rate here in London.  No more cheap transportation like we had gotten used to in China.

We headed into the hotel to check-in.  It was only about 1:30 PM, and the normal check-in time was 3:00 PM.  The lady checked us in and took our passports for identification, and processed the payment, and after that was done, went into a back room to check to see if a room was available now.  There was a room available so she made electronic keys and we headed to our room on the third floor.  The hotel had seven floors, so we wished we were higher, but the third floor was better than the first floor.

Our Small Kitchen Area

We got to the room and headed inside.  We had reserved a suite with a small kitchen, and the pictures had made it look larger.  At first, we thought it was the next room smaller, and were going to go back to the front desk to make sure,  Instead, we decided to look at the pictures on Booking.com, and found that the room was exactly as described and shown.  They had done a good job of making it look much larger, especially the area with the kitchen, couch, and small table.  The bedroom was large enough, but the bathroom sink area was small, there was not much room around the sink for placing toiletries.  There was a lot of room in the bathroom and some storage, just not by the sink.  There was a shower with both a rain shower head in the ceiling and a handheld nozzle.

We had a small balcony overlooking what was described as the “garden area”, but it was mostly a parking lot with some green turf and a few chairs stacked off to the side.  Obviously, the chairs were put away for the wintertime.  There was also a building across the street that was being renovated, there were some barriers between it and the small parking area by the garden deck.  For some reason, there was no way to open the glass doors to the balcony, the handle had been removed.  This might have also been a wintertime change, or maybe just permanently locked for air conditioning efficiency. 

Bedroom & Kitchen Pass Thorugh

The small kitchen had a sink on one side and a two-burner electric stove on the other side, with a microwave below it.  There was a decent-sized under-counter refrigerator in the middle, and a very small dishwasher under the sink.  Between the dishwasher and the fridge was a small clothes washer, all under the cabinet.

We found places for our suitcases after arranging the small desk area to make room for mine, and Stephanie put hers into a small area under a make-up desk in the bedroom.

We had a list of things we wanted to do.  We first wanted to renew our older Oyster Transportation cards from our last visit to London several years ago.  They were still valid for any remaining credit amounts on them but needed to be upgraded at a manned ticket desk.  We also wanted to find a grocery store for some supplies.

We headed downstairs and asked the concierge if there was a place to take care of the oyster card renewal at the nearby Tower Hill metro station.  He said yes, but we didn’t think he really understood what we were trying to do.  We headed to the station and found a person in a small information-only office and we asked him about the renewal.  He said there was no place here to do it here, we had to go two stops to the Liverpool Station and suggested we do it as part of our next travel instead of paying to go there now just for that purpose.  We agreed, but we did not know if we were ever going in that direction to see any of the sights we planned to visit, we would have to do some investigation. 

The Tower of London 

From there, we headed out to the area around the Tower of London just to take some photos,  We wandered down to the waterfront for more photos of the Thames River and the Tower Bridge and then headed back toward the hotel. Everything was downhill as we went toward the river.   

The Tower Bridge

We had tried to find a way to walk along the riverfront to get better pictures of the Tower Bridge, but we couldn’t see any access way, there was a station there for taking river boats for public transportation, and it blocked further access along the river.

On the way back, we saw a church and headed there.  It was called the All Hallows By The Tower.  We headed inside and looked around.  It was hard to tell what denomination the church was, some parts looked Catholic, others looked Protestant.  It was quite old, so it was most likely a Catholic Church originally, and then changed during the reformation to a Protestant Church.

There was an underground crypt area, but I elected just to wait upstairs while Stephanie explored that, I was tired of walking and we still needed to go to the grocery store next.

All Hallows By The Tower Church

Next, we headed to one of the small grocery stores we had located via Google Maps earlier while we were in the room, it was back up the hill near the hotel, but a few blocks to the west.  We found it easily using Google Maps to direct us and went inside.  It was more like a small market than a grocery store, but surprisingly, they had a lot of items. 

First on the list were some cold bottles of wine.  They only had a few refrigerated Pinot Grigios to select from, so we selected one we have had before, but not often.  They had other varietals of wine in the cold section from Barefoot, one of our default wine brands when we don’t recognize any others, but no Pinot Grigio.  Of course, wine is also expensive here, but not nearly as costly as in Scandinavian countries.

We were also after something quick and easy for breakfast, so we picked up some plain bagels, the only ones available, and some creme cheese spread.  We found some Baria Arribiatta Sauce, one of our favorites from Italy, so we decided we would cook pasta tonight in the room for dinner and relax.  We picked up some French bread and large rigatoni noodles for our pasta, a Diet Coke for Stephanie for the mornings, and a large bottled water.  We also got some potato chips for a snack.  We then picked up a roll of paper towels and dish detergent.

When we headed to the counter to check out and we saw an area where there was a much larger selection of wines, and the barefoot Pinot Grigio was available warm, but we went with our already selected cold bottles.

We packed up everything into the backpack and our large pouch packable bag we acquired at the Pig Grocery Store in Iceland last year.

Then we walked back to the hotel with our supplies in hand.

The Tower Of London At Night

We rested for a while enjoying some of the wine.  It was getting dark, and we wanted to get some photos of the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London at night, all lit up.  We grabbed the camera gear and tripod and headed out to walk to the bridge.  It was not a long walk but we were tired from all of the walking over the past few days.  We got to the bridge and headed out onto the span.  There were people everywhere, and surprisingly, we heard no one speaking any English.  The views of the Tower of London we just OK, it was not that lit up at night and there were some trees blocking the view from the bridge.  

On The Tower Bridge At Night

We took several photos and then headed to a stairway that appeared to go down to the riverfront.  We headed down the stairs only to find there was a locked gate to block anyone from going to the riverfront. 

We could see some construction being done nearby, so it may have been blocked because of that.  We headed across the street to go to that side of the riverfront and were able to see the bridge better, but it was also blocked a little by a boat boarding ramp for the hotel there on the river. 

Best View We Could Find

It was the best view we could get without walking all the way across the bridge to the other side, we were way too tired for that tonight.  We headed back toward the hotel, which of course was all uphill from the river. 

We passed by another small grocery and went inside to see if it had any more selection than the one we visited earlier, it was a different chain.  It was much smaller inside, and we just strolled through and headed back outside.

We made it back to the room and now started our dinner preparation.  There was only one pot so we had to use that to cook the pasta and use the microwave to heat the sauce.  There was a small frying pan that we heated up to toast our bread.  The biggest issue was that we had no sharp knife in the kitchen to cut the bread.  There were some cooking utensils, but no large knives, there were only two knives for tableware.  There was a pizza cutter, so Stephanie tried it, but all it did was smush our bread, it was too dull to cut anything.  Luckily the silverware knives had a little bit of serration on them, so we used one of those to mangle the bread into smaller pieces to toast in the frying pan.

It took a bit to figure out the stove burners, one was a combo small and large burner, I just had to find the correct button to make the larger part of the burner work to boil the pasta.  The microwave was a different story, it made no sense.  We could not get the time and the power settings to work together, so we just kept heating the sauce up in short increments.

Everything was finally ready, but we had a struggle straining the pasta, there was just a small fine mesh strainer, not nearly large enough for all of the pasta, so Stephanie had to hold the pot while I directed the pasta into the strainer, small portions at a time, and then dumped it into a serving bowl as we went.  

The meal was good, the sauce never got that hot but it was warm.  Of course, we had our wine with dinner.

Afterward, we just relaxed and watched TV, there were a couple of channels showing American shows, so we mostly watched those.

We were tired and it had been a long day, at least for me.

We did reserve some tickets online for tomorrow to visit Westminister Abbey at 10:30 AM.

We headed to sleep at about 11:00 PM

 

 

 

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