London Day 1 - A Lesson in Being Frugal, Kind Of

We were greeted by the sound of light rain this morning. I was listening to it, unable to sleep, from 2:30am until 4:00 am. Eventually, I nodded off again until just before 6:00. Sarah was up slightly later than that. 😉 We video called with the girls this morning. It was lovely to see and chat to them. Technology is great. 

Because of the rain, we decided over breakfast to focus on indoor sights today. Everyone will tell you how expensive London is, so you’ll notice a theme to our visit — and to our trip in general. It’s a lesson in how to enjoy affordable, or even free, yet memorable things. We are, as Karl would say, “self-employed” now! Not to be confused with “unemployed”… though in our case (not his), it’s not that different.

Before I forget, yesterday’s grocery shopping cost less than £9. I’m not sure of the exact amount as I didn’t get the receipt, but it converted to $20.64 NZD, as I mentioned. For that, we got:

– half a dozen eggs

– 1 litre of milk

– half a loaf of sourdough

– a jar of peanut butter

– a small packet of fruit muesli

Try buying all that in NZ for $20 — matter yet 9! Some things really aren't expensive here. Please remember this when I tell you what lunch and dinner cost us today. 😂

We set off for the station wearing our jackets, but the rain wasn't an issue. The walk felt easier and quicker than yesterday — not being physically exhausted helped! We took the District Line to South Kensington Station. By the way, the train from the airport yesterday cost us £7.50 each. You only find out the cost once your card gets charged overnight.

From the station, we had a 15-minute walk to our morning’s indoor activity: a self-guided, free tour of Harrods department store. Those of you who’ve been will know I’m not joking when I say the place is pure over-the-top opulence. It looked like there were three times as many employees as there were shoppers. With prices like theirs, I guess they can afford all the staff! We saw one watch on display priced at £33,500!

The food halls were the highlight for both of us — especially for Sarah, judging by the hundreds of photos she took. 😂 They seemed to have everything you could think of — and even a few things we could actually afford. Sarah noticed a single kiwifruit priced at £2.50! The toy section was also worth a wander. We spent quite a while just soaking in the decadence and admiring the building’s architecture.

Back outside, the rain had started to fall properly and our jackets and shorts got wet walking to the Natural History Museum — the one with the giant skeletons of whales, dinosaurs, and more. 

It definitely lived up to the hype, and we spent a couple of hours exploring it. There was much more than just skeletons — they also had rocks! 😉 More than that, though, there were minerals, gemstones, fossils, and plenty of other things. Once again, the building’s architecture was a standout. Check out the monkey. 🐒

After all that walking around, it was lunchtime and I was hungry. They must have known I'd say yes to their prices regardless. Hey — you’re only here once, and remember what we saved on groceries earlier! Lunch was a shared ham and cheese panini, a very strong (and bitter) small coffee, and a can of Coke. All that for the princely sum of £14.95 — about $33 NZD! Jeepers! 😱

After recovering from the shock, we tried (unsuccessfully) to find a geocache just outside the museum, and then headed for the nearest Tube station. To restore my faith in our budget-friendly ways, we stopped at a supermarket and bought a packet of McVitie’s dark chocolate digestives for £1.85. Yum — they’ll go perfectly with a coffee back at the flat.

We reversed our train ride back to Ealing Broadway and popped into a bank to exchange some money. Karl had generously given us £10 each to buy a beer — or something else — but at the museum, Sarah was told the notes were so old they were no longer legal tender. Luckily, the second bank we tried helpfully swapped them for new ones.

The afternoon was spent writing up the blog, enjoying coffee with biscuits, and downloading the video footage we recorded this morning. A nice relaxing afternoon. The forecast for tomorrow is looking better for an inner city walking tour. 🤞

At 6 pm we headed to the local pub for a pre-dinner drink. I had a pint of Camden Hells lager, and Sarah had a local cider — spelled cyder. The pint was £6.90 and the cider £3.20. I’d read online you could get a pint for under £5 in London, but perhaps this area is slightly upmarket. Thanks to Karl for shouting the beer and cider!

The pub was called The Village Inn. Of course, we’d hoped it would be something like The Cock and Whistle, but no such luck. We’ll have to keep an eye out for pubs with more interesting names later in the week.

Having enjoyed our drinks, we walked further along the lane for some classic English cuisine… a Turkish kebab! 😄 The only problem was, we didn’t really know the difference between a shish and a doner. Yes, we’ve had Turkish food at home plenty of times, but there they usually serve iskenders and kebabs — different terminology here.

So, we ordered one of each: a lamb doner and a chicken shish. There were size options: small, medium, large, and extra large. Since it was dinner, we went for large.

Big mistake! 😅

We probably should have worked out that medium would’ve been plenty — especially given the prices: £12 and £16 respectively. But as a general rule, we try not to double the prices in our heads. We try to think of $2 for a can of Coke being the same as £2 here. Therefore $28 for dinner didn't seem unreasonable. The rule is not always true.

Once prepared and paid for, we realised we had enough food for two nights! It weighed a tonne! There was so much lamb it was crazy. But both were very tasty — and will be almost as tasty tomorrow night when we enjoy the leftovers.