An Olympic Day Out in London

With the eyes of the world on London, I thought it was about time that I jumped on the Olympic bandwagon with my own Mrs Lighty Olympic blog.   A slight departure from my normal travel warblings, but I couldn’t miss out on the brilliant two weeks our fair capital city has had! Usually, our view of London (as London commuters) is tarred by the day-in-day-out trudge of crowded trains, pushy people, the hustle and bustle.  But all of a sudden, the streets of London seemed to be paved with gold – quite literally, if our medal count was anything to go by – as the buzz of the games came to town.  If you were lucky enough to experience it, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  If you weren’t, read on for my take on the best Olympic Games the world has ever seen: London 2012!

Audience Participation

Our first experience of the games (other than the torch relay, which we were also lucky enough to have witnessed) was the women’s marathon.  Not having tickets at this point, we decided to brave the weather and line the route.  We’re British, after all, so how much could a little drop of rain hurt?  Quite a bit, actually, as we got soaked to the skin!  But it didn’t dampen our spirits: we waved our Union Jacks at Team GB, and I even had mine wrapped round me like a rain shield; flag is the new black, after all!  We stood in a picturesque spot by St. Paul’s Cathedral and saw the athletes pass us three times (the sun had come out by the third lap too, hurrah!) – and all for free!  For the millions of people that missed out on tickets, the many free-to-watch sports were a fantastic alternative!

Lining the route of the Olympic Marathon, millions of people were able to watch for free

Flag is the new black!

London calling!

One of the things that London has shown us during the games is just how well it does ‘new’.  There’s been a plethora of free exhibitions taking place, and coupled with other aspects of the games such as the Wenlock and Mandeville trails (plotted routes which take in the various statues of the London 2012 mascots), you can really make a day of it in London, which is exactly what we decided to do after the marathon.  We wandered down to the Tower (which is where Beefeater Wenlock is located!), passed under Tower Bridge and through to St. Katherine’s Dock.  Here we took in the Imagination Denmark exhibition, which included a Lego Olympic Park!  After a bite to eat in the Dickens Inn, we continued our journey on the DLR from Tower Hill to the newly constructed Emirates Air-Line cable car at Royal Victoria Dock.  What a fantastic addition to our city!  The views are spectacular across the City and Docklands, and at £3.20pp on an Oyster Card, it doesn’t break the bank either!

On the Wenlock trail!

Tickets at last!

After the fun of the Marathon, and two weeks spent hammering the London 2012 website, we were then lucky enough to get tickets (“for the wrestling”, she adds, in a quieter voice!).  Yes, I’ll admit, it wasn’t my first choice of sport, but actually, it turned out to be great fun!  Held at the ExCel Centre, we had a scenic walk through the Docklands from the DLR station Silvertown, passing under the cable car again, and to this arena which is usually used for conferencing.  It’s absolutely huge, and the organisation was incredible – we collected our tickets in less than five minutes, security was quick and efficient, and there were plenty of Games Makers (or ‘Purple People’ as I had nicknamed them before I knew their official title!) on hand to help with any queries.  It was a great day out, I wore my flag with pride (again) despite the fact that there weren’t any Team GB members in the Men’s wrestling, and it’s something that I’m proud to say I was a part of: London 2012 is the making of stories we’ll tell our grandchildren about.

The fantastic Emirates Air-Line Cable Car

 ExCel London

The Pride of Britain

I have to say, as many have already said before me, that we were all proud to be British during the games.  Despite the lack of tickets, despite the warnings of travel chaos, it couldn’t have been better organised and many of those unlucky enough not to get tickets enjoyed the games on the many big screens around the city.  Overall it appears to have been a massive success.  The fantastic electric atmosphere and extra buzz created by the Olympics coming to town couldn’t be manufactured, and that is testament to the success of the games.  I’m hopeful that, if maintained nicely, the various new venues and the cable car will add an additional layer of architectural legacy to the city, as well as the much publicised sporting legacy.  Now that it's over, all that remains to be said is: you did us proud London, you did us proud!

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas!

Stepping off the plane and into Las Vegas for the first time is quite an experience.  Even before you get to baggage reclaim, just after stepping out of the aircraft tunnel, you will come across slot machines.  Yes, welcome to Las Vegas, home of fun and frivolity in excess!  For the first-time visitor Vegas can certainly be a little daunting.  But it’s also a place to relish and enjoy; a bucket-list destination that should be on everyone’s list.  Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas!

Surviving the perils of the local taxi drivers

Although it’s illegal for taxi drivers in the state of Nevada to take you on a longer trip than necessary, we discovered to our peril that that doesn’t mean that they’ll always take you on the shortest route.  On arrival in Vegas, we took a taxi to our hotel on the Strip, the Monte Carlo.  Upon pulling up at the hotel forecourt, our driver told us that the fare was $27.00, despite the meter showing $22.00.  We paid up the $27.00, and added a tip, rounding the fare up to $30.00. 

It wasn’t until we were in the queue at reception, waiting to check in, that we heard some American guests in front of us talking about how they had been “ripped off” having been charged a $16.00 fare – clearly we had been stung, with our taxi driver not only taking us on a longer route, but also adding his own tip on before we then added a tip on top of this!  Our hotel concierge later advised us that on our return journey we needed to ask the driver to take the shortest route, avoiding the freeway.  Indeed, our return journey to the airport cost us only $12.00 plus tip – and we discovered that you can see the strip from the terminal at the airport, it’s that close!

View of the Strip from the airport - yes it's that close!!

All-important first impressions

After the initial shock of slot machines in the airport terminal and getting royally ripped-off by our taxi driver, it was time to start exploring.  Vegas is an assault on the senses – our room was a haven of peace and quiet away from the plinkety-plonkety noises of the slot machines, the strangely up-tempo, funky elevator music and general hubbub that is Vegas.  After checking in, we headed out, and it was this noise and just the general bizarreness of Vegas that hit us immediately.  Firstly, it took us about 15 minutes to work out how to get out of our hotel – we ended up walking from the Monte Carlo through to the Aria before we worked out how to get out! – and headed to New York, New York for lunch.  I think it was after lunch, as we walked from the bright light of day into the dimly-lit light of yet another casino, that I declared to my husband, “Vegas is mental!”!  It’s the only way I could describe it at that point – the rows upon rows of slot machines, the over the top themes of the hotels, the bars offering margaritas and foot-long beers at any time of day. And this was just the day time – I’m sure if you arrived on your first trip at night time, you wouldn’t know what had hit you!  But the first-time visitor will soon get swept up in the fun of Las Vegas, and I think the sounds of the place are what will really stick with me as a memory from our trip.

A giant slot machine - one of my favourite things about Vegas! 

Get your walking shoes on!

One thing you’ll quickly discover about Las Vegas is that it is vast.  To walk from one end of the strip to the other can easily take hours, not least because you’ll probably stop often to look at various things.  As much as you really get to experience Vegas by exploring it on foot, there are times when you just need to get somewhere quickly.  And there are ways to do this: some of the hotels are connected by monorails – our hotel was one of these, and it’s always worth asking if they are free for hotel residents or just free generally; unusually, we felt, for a hotel, we didn’t have an information pack in our room on the hotel services, and therefore found out on our last day that we could use the tram between the Monte Carlo and the Bellagio for free. 

A good tip that we did pick up from our hotel concierge was regarding the bus travel in Vegas.  For $7.00, you can get a 24hr bus pass – we therefore were able to use this to go to the Freemont Street Experience in Downtown Vegas one evening, and then use the same pass again the next morning to go to the outlet shopping centre at the south end of the strip at no extra cost.

Hit the highlights

While we’re on the subject of the Freemont Street Experience, when visiting Vegas for the first time, there are certain things you’ll soon discover are must-sees and must-dos.  For us, along with the usual delights such as the fountains at the Bellagio and the Sirens of TI show at Treasure Island, our must-do was the Freemont Street Experience in Downtown Vegas.  Although the bus ride there is a bit hair-raising (your guide book will tell you not to step away from the bright lights of Freemont Street as it’s surrounded by high crime areas), once you’re there, you feel like you’re in the ‘authentic’ Las Vegas.  Home of Vegas Vic, the hitchhiking neon cowboy, this ‘mini-strip’ is where the gambling traditions of Las Vegas originated.  It’s not so in your face, it’s not so slick, but here you’ll find great street performances (we were lucky enough to be visiting during the ‘Rock of Vegas’ series) and the brilliant light displays every hour, on the hour, on the roof that covers the central boulevard.

Top: The light show at the Freemont Street Experience

Bottom: Vegas Vic!

Other highlights of our stay included the Sigfried and Roy Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage, home to not only gorgeous dolphins, but also beautiful white tigers and lions.  We also took in a show at Caesar’s Palace – no, not Celine Dion, who is one of the regulars there; we saw the extremely talented ventriloquist and comedian, Jeff Dunham – one of my husband’s favourite performers!

Cheesecake for lunch?  Burgers for breakfast?  And all gluten free!

Food is a massive part of our holidays (my mother-in-law recently commented whilst watching our slide show of Vegas pics that every single one seemed to feature food!), but Las Vegas surpassed even our holiday eating habits.  After a great Mexican breakfast at the La Salsa Cantina opposite our hotel for $4.00, we decided that we probably wouldn’t need a lunch that day as we’d had more than enough for breakfast.....that was until we came across the Cheesecake Factory in Caesar’s Palace....yes, we had cheesecake for lunch, and what’s more, with my wheat intolerance, I had gluten free cheesecake for lunch!  This is the only place in the world I’ve ever come across gluten free cheesecake (and trust me, I always keep an eye out!); America generally is great for allergy sufferers, and, despite an incident with flour-covered chips at Senor Frogs, I also had gluten free pasta at the Enoteca Otto Pizzeria in St. Marks Square in the Venetian, lots of choice and an excellent and extremely reasonably priced meal in the restaurant of the Four Queens Casino in Downtown Vegas, a very helpful server at Le Burger Brasserie in Paris who helped me to pick a gluten free option (burgers for breakfast!), and yet another great Margaritaville meal, as is always the case, including a wheat free burger bun!

Gluten free cheesecake!

The Vegas Experience

All in all, Vegas was an experience – the heat, the crowds, the noises, the neon lights of the strip, everything about it combined to create a brilliant few days.  It’s not for the faint hearted, that’s for sure, but it’s something everyone should experience once in a lifetime....and if you’re very lucky, maybe you’ll get to go back and experience it again!