Overall, I think we were really pleased with our choices. We didn't stay anywhere that was dirty or felt unsafe, and we had a very enjoyable, adventurous (but not crazy-eventful) time on our three week whirlwind tour of Western Europe.
Upon our arrival (at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am) in London at Gatwick, we got our bags and our train tickets and made our way to the platform to catch the train to London proper. It's definitely a good thing that we started in another English speaking country, because the combination of jet-lag, the gross "I just got off of an airplane and all of my clothes are now stretched out" feeling, the new public transport system, and the unwieldy bags -- we thought we did suuuch a good job of limiting our packing...we were WRONG -- would have proved too much to handle had we been forced to translate, too.
Once we got to Victoria station, we switched to the Tube and took it to the Paddington station, walked about three blocks, and found our (rather sweet looking) hotel. We'd elected to stay at the Hyde Park Rooms Hotel in Sussex Gardens because of a multitude of factors: first and foremost, the price was right at 56 GBP per night for two twins, there was constant free wi-fi, it was in a GREAT location (very close to LOTS of things), breakfast was included, and it got really good reviews on TA. When we checked in it was around 9 am, far too early to actually check in and get our room, but I had arranged ahead of time to leave our bags in the office with Carol, the proprietor, while we went and explored until 2pm, check-in time.
After a bit of a delay (there was no one actually in the office), we were let in, greeted, payed for our room in cash, and dropped off our bags. Then we got some coffee at a nearby shop (reminiscent of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, but not as good, sadly) and picked up a day pass for the tube. We headed to Notting Hill and Portobello Road to take in some sights, get some food, and maybe do a little shopping. This reeeeeeally crazy guy came in to the kind of weird restaurant we stopped at - it reminded me of a restaurant you would see in Berkeley or something - and offered to do an aura reading for me. I paid for his smoothie, but really that was more in an effort to get him to leave than anything else.
(At the restaurant...pre-aura reading)
Unfortunately, the amount of Dramamine Ashley consumed on the plane partnered with a lack of sleep and far more grease on the food than we were used to caused Ashley to feel pretty darn sick after about two hours, so we hustled back to the hotel, where thankfully our room was ready a little early and we were able to settle in. Ashley, poor thing, slept for the rest of the day/night. I took a nap and then walked to a nearby store and got her some saltines and water. I also picked up some fish and chips for myself. Sadly, I was disappointed. The texture wasn't that great (Mossmans in Bakersfield was better, IMHO), and they just wrapped the fries/chips and fish in the same newspaper, causing the fries to get soggy and taste fishy.
Oh, well...at least I can say I tried it.
Throughout our stay in London we found the HPR hotel to be very nice, especially for the price. The breakfast was good, the wi-fi access was great, and the location couldn't be beat! We had a sink in our room but did have to walk down a short flight of stairs to get to the bathroom (no biggie), and there was only one working outlet in our room, so we couldn't both charge our phones at once.
The room was a LOT smaller than hotel rooms here, but I had read about that online and wasn't too worried...this turned out to be not just a "London" thing, but a "Europe" thing, apparently. Our room faced a lovely, tree-lined street, which was wonderful during the day, but unfortunately not so wonderful at night, when it tended to get a little noisy, what with the traffic and all.
A twin room at Hyde Park Rooms Hotel
Overall, I was really impressed with our first cheap European hotel experience. No bed bugs (which I had become paranoid about after reading all of the horror stories on TA), no thieves, no moldy carpets or falling ceiling -- just really nice people and a very elegantly appointed (if a little threadbare) bed and breakfast.
Next post: DAY 2 - Leicester Square, British Museum, Shopping, Mark & Spencer, and Avenue Q.
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