It’s now Tuesday, our first full day back in London, after returning here from Swansea yesterday. We had a nice, chill time the rest of yesterday, including getting settled in our hotels, doing a bit of shopping, and having a nice dinner. But more on that later! For now, let’s wrap up the rest of the weekend in Wales. 🙂

Honestly, there isn’t a lot to report for the rest of our time in Wales because we spent most of it hanging with friends (the ones we came with and some others who were also visiting for the Doctor Who convention). The weather definitely LOOKED like it would be a lot worse, but it wasn’t too bad, as far as wet Welsh weather goes. It was cloudy for most of the day and we did get some rain, on and off, but it was thankfully pretty spotty, so we didn’t get soaked, which I very much appreciated (the wind was another matter, which was sometimes very calm and other times very NOT calm, but such is life). Thanks to the manageable weather though, I still got to start my day with another walk around the area, a bit longer than the previous day’s walk and this time in the right direction to walk along the ocean. There honestly isn’t anything unique or even hugely pretty about the beach/ocean in Swansea, but I always love walking near water, so I look forward to being able to do so every time I visit.

I got a few good photos on both my Sunday and Monday morning walks, so you can start with the Sunday photos below.

The area around the marina.

With my morning walk done and dusted, I showered and caught up with the rest of my group so we could make our way over to the Village for a day of Doctor Who fun. Well, I say that, but we (or at least I) did very little convention-related stuff. 🙂 I did stop into one panel and also had a look around the vendor area, but that was about it. I was having so much fun catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in person in several years that I just didn’t feel compelled to do anything else! And honestly, that’s a lot of what I do at US conventions as well, but in most other cases, I’m also volunteering at those cons, so I end up seeing at least parts of lots of panels and other stuff, but not so at Regen. And you know what? That was totally fine! A lot of what I’m doing on this trip is spending time with friends, so why should a Doctor Who convention get in the way of that?? As such, I there’s not much more to say about Sunday other than the fact that I’m so happy to have gotten the chance to see these friends again and I hope it doesn’t take years for us to see each other in person again!

Although only ~200 people attend Regenerations and the function space isn’t big, so things can feel crowded. So it was easier to just stay in the lobby/bar/restaurant. 🙂

I got to see my dear friend Sophie! This is a short series of photos Bill took as I was explaining how he could/should/must hold the camera higher to get the best angle.

After the convention wrapped up, we did stay at the Village for a bit longer, but one of our friends was very planful and booked a nice dinner for us for a bit later in the evening, so some of us went back to our hotel to chill and/or take a short walk (okay, I’m the only one who took the walk, but still), so I grabbed a couple more photos while I was out, though the wind was REALLY kicking up at times, so I didn’t stay out too long. We ended up having a tasty meal at The River House, which was conveniently located just a few minutes’ walk from our hotel (so, slightly further for our friends who came from the Village). The food was all really tasty (I was eyeing up the carbonara pasta, but ultimately went for a really tasty chicken dish that I didn’t even take a picture of), with everyone especially happy with the desserts. Worth a visit when you’re in Swansea!

Would you believe I wrapped up my time in Wales with yet another morning walk? No really, it’s true! And would you ALSO believe that the weather on Monday morning was pretty perfect? Although it rained and started to get very windy for about two minutes of my walk, the sun quickly starting breaking through the clouds to the point where it was mostly sunny by the time I finished. Our train back to London wasn’t leaving until nearly 1230p, so I’m really glad I got the chance to enjoy a nice, sunny walk. Some friends of ours who left earlier than we did warned us that Uber doesn’t work at all in Wales (which explains why I never got a driver when I tried on Saturday, though it DOESN’T explain why the Uber app doesn’t just tell users that it’s not a thing in Wales) and that cabs can take awhile to show up, so they ended up taking a bus to the station. Since we still had a good few hours before we needed to head out though, we were able to pre-schedule two cabs with the very helpful Premier Inn team, so we were good to go. 🙂 And those cabs showed up right on time, too. Result!

I won’t put you through yet another big batch of things I saw on my walk, but there are two good ones.

And what about the rest of our Monday? Well, it was more train time, taking the same route back to London that we’d taken to Swansea a few days earlier. And once again, the seat bookings were a bit out of whack, but it worked out fine (again!) as there were plenty of empty seats for all. One difference with this train is that it had a “formal” restaurant car, giving passengers a restaurant-type experience. It was definitely on the pricier side (£34 for a two-course meal), but it seemed like an interesting experience and if I had been hungry enough, I probably would have done it (I mean, when else am I going to have a sit-down meal on a train?). As it was, we had snacks and knew we’d end up going to dinner in London anyway, so we just chilled, conversed, and blogged back at our seats. I once again found myself appreciating the comforts of train travel and wishing I could do more of it at home!

With another pleasant train journey checked off the list, we were back at Paddington, from where we then caught the tube back to Earl’s Court. Thankfully, there was no repeat of the delays that forced us to take an Uber on Friday, so it was smooth sailing (well, training). Although the journey back to Earl’s Court was the same, only a few folks from the group headed back to the same Premier Inn as both Bill and I are staying in other nearby hotels for the rest of the trip. We both had enough Marriott points to cover our respective hotels and they’re each just a few minutes’ walk from the Premier Inn (in opposite directions from each other, but still not far), so it’s been working out just fine! For me, the new hotel has also provided a me with an alternate tube station as Gloucester Road is a bit closer to me now.

And what hotel is that? I’m glad you asked! I’m now ensconced in the Hotel Xenia, which is more of a boutique hotel for Marriott – smaller rooms, but very well-appointed and with very helpful staff. I do have Platinum status with Marriott, which I was hoping would give me some kind of upgrade. Thankfully it did, though not a large one – I went from a petite double to a classic double. The room certainly isn’t large (see below), so I’m not sure what the petite version would have been like! It has proven to be very comfortable thus far, so I’m glad I chose it!

The space on the left is the restaurant and main bar, while the space on the right is the late-night bar, which opens at 10p, when the other one closes.

Looking towards and away from the bed.

The rest of the evening was pretty chill. With nothing specific planned, but with all of us having geeky proclivities, we thought a bit of shopping at both Forbidden Planet and Fopp was in order, so that’s exactly what we did. I would have visited both places on my own anyway (as I do pretty much every time I’m here) and they’re so close to each other (literally down the street) that we didn’t even have to work hard to get to them. I did find a couple of things at Fopp (there really aren’t any physical media stores at home anymore, so I always appreciate visiting one), but didn’t see anything at Forbidden Planet. One of us did though, so as a group, we had success at both stores. Huzzah! And what better way to celebrate that success than with dinner? Regular readers of this blog will know how much I enjoy Pizza Express, so I had thrown that out as a suggestion earlier in the day (since I knew we could easily find one and that we’d never need a reservation) and everyone was in for it. And you know what? We all really enjoyed our food! It turned out the one we went to (on Coptic Street) was the second-ever Pizza Express and is built into a cool historical building, which I failed to get a photo of. No matter which one you go though, you’ll almost certainly enjoy the pizza.

It’s now Wednesday morning as I publish this post, taking us through Monday. So I’m now only running a day behind! We did have a good Tuesday, with some fun places visited, so watch out for yet another post soon. It’s hard to believe our time here is already winding down (nooooo!), but I’ll choose to ignore that fact for as long as possible. Onwards to more London fun!