London, Day 4
Today has been more about the journey than the destination. My plan was to wake up early, take the Elizabeth line train about 45 minutes west of London, so I'm far away from traffic, then rent a car and drive to Stonehenge, then south to the coast at Southampton. I haad to start this trip early in the morning because I have to be back in London, on Baker St, standing under the statue of Sherlock Holmes, by 5:15 tonight (more on that later).
All went to plan until I got off the Elizabeth line and tried to find a car rental place. The GPS showed about 5 within a 1-2 mile radius of the station, so I figurd it wouldn't be hard. But the first address I went to was just an apartment building; the second address led me to a parking garage, but it was all gated off, so I couldn't get in; and the third address led me to an Enterprise rental that I later found out "doesn't exist."
By now I'd spent about an hour wandering around this town, and I was getting desperate, so i went back to the parking garage (which did have an Enterprise rental that I could see through the gate) and found somebody who could show me the way in. I thought that now I had finally succeeded, but turns out they had no cars available. They could have given me a van, but I didn't want to try to navigate a van down a narrow English country road. Me trying to drive here would be sketchy enough without it also being in a van.
Anyway, the rental agent was super polite and helpful, and gave me the address of a a different Enterprise place about a 20-minute walk away. He suggested I call ahead, but my phone plan doesn't work here, so I couldn't. I also didn't want to walk a lot more if I could help it, so I figured out the bus system, and got to ride on a double-decker bus. But when I got to the other Enterprise place, turns out they had nothing available as well.
By now it was almost 11, and I didn't really have any time left to explore the English countryside and still make it back to Baker St anyway, even if I could find a car. But then I had a brilliant idea. Last night I had discovered that I could extend my trip here for an extra day at basically no cost. So, instead of coming home Thursday morning, I'll come home Friday morning. And because of that, I decided to just prebook a car for Thursday, and just do all of my English countryside plans then instead.
All excited, I rushed back to the parking garage Enterprise place and explained my plan. At first, the agent can only find an Audi G5, which would have been a bit rich for my blood. I would have taken it, but I'd have been scared to drive it (it also took a 500 pound deposit!) Not a great idea, and both the agent and I knew it. But then he found me a good basic car for cheap. Sweet! That is, until I showed him my driver's license. He already knew I was an American--that wasn't the issue. The issue was my age. Apparently, EEnterprise only rents to 25+ year olds. So, now I was back to square one.
I admitted defeat on this front for the day, and headed back into the city. I tried to re-find a monument I had stumbled upon yesterday, but instead found my way to Trafalgar Square. That place is impressive. It was surrounded by huge old buildings on three sides, with the National Portrait Gallery taking up the fourth. From the Gallery, you can look down at the Square, with the massive Nelson's Column standing in the center of it. Past his statue, you can see straight down Whitehall, with the Parliament building and Big Ben at the top of it. There was quite a crowd collected there, and the atmosphere felt a little like Times Square in NYC. But instead of caricature painters or people dressed like Mickey Mouse, there were dancers and a man who would write you a poem on a typewriter. In a word: refined.
I have a niggling in the back of my mind that tells me this Square is historically significant--and I instantly recognized the name--but alas, I do not remember why.
I continued my search for the monument of last night, and i eventually found it: Piccadilly Circus. It don't know why it's called a Circus (though I can tell you it was inside of a traffic circle), nor even what the statue on the monument was of. The atmosphere here was very touristy, and was even more like Times Square (in a bad way--the beautiful buildings were covered with massive flashing billboards), so I quickly left.
Next I headed back to Baker St. This station was one of the first underground railroad stations, opened in 1863, and they offer tours of some of the old now-unused passageways. So of course I had to go on it. I love tunnels, especially old, abandoned ones. It was very old and musty, and a little hard to believe that over 150 years ago, people were walking around this same station.
After the tour, it was getting to be supper time, and I knew I wanted to eat in Marylebone station. I could have taken the Bakerloo line one stop north and been there in about 2 minutes--indeed, I was on the platform waiting for the train--but then I looked at my pocket road atlas and saw it was only a half-mile or less, so I decided to walk instead. Let me tell you: it is trivially easy to navigate London by subway; it can be terribly difficult to navigate it by walking, even with a pocket atlas in hand. Almost 3 miles in to my half-mile journey, I stumbled into an entirely different Tube station, rode it back to Baker St, then rode the one hop over to Marylebone, where I ate a very late supper.
Like I said at the start of today, this day's been all about the journey, not the destination.