Home

 We made it home.

Left the hotel this morning and went to the Tube station at St. James. We rode that until Hammersmith and changed trains there to head to Heathrow. It took just under an hour with our walk to the station. 

Early of course to the airport but we found plenty of shops to roam around in. They put our terminal number on the board a couple hours before the flight. To get there was another train ride across the airport. Settled in and waited until our boarding number got called. 

The flight was good. We had a full dinner within two hours of the flight; Chickpea curry, roll with butter, spring peas in some kind of cream sauce, and sticky toffee pudding. I watched movies for most of the flight. No sleep was coming to me on this flight. 

The person in front of me laid there chair all the way back on top of me. This is so rude. I don’t care if it’s allowed to be used that way. I wouldn’t do it unless there was nobody behind me. It is so confining, almost claustrophobic feeling. So this person got to feel every time I moved my knees. When I got up to use the bathroom they got a hip check to the back of the head. For five hours this person decided not to sleep of course but to just play on their phone. So I decided to take a leaf out of the Roman’s book and curse them to a lifetime of the same behavior on every flight they ever made again. Still not interested if they have the right to do it, if you get pleasure at the expense of others feelings there’s something wrong with you. 

Through to customs after the flight. I hadn’t even thought about this part. This is where global entry would come in handy. We were in line for about forty minutes because just like the DMV, there were twelve places where employees could be but only three people were there. When we landed in London customs was scan your passport at an unmanned kiosk, have your picture taken, and walk through the door that said “nothing to declare.” It took five minutes, and mostly only because I hadn’t taken my passport out of its sleeve before I tried to scan it. 

Then on to a tram that shuttled us over to the main part of the airport for arrivals and departures. Where we were picked up and driven home, by my FIL I think we chatted with the children for about an hour and were asleep by 8pm. Happy to be back in my own bed but not happy that this trip is over. Back to work and that life on Monday-heavy, sad sigh. 

Good intentions to keep it a low key day…

 But it’s our last day to see all the things because who knows if we’ll ever be back. 

We took the Tube around again today. Easy, peasy. Not too many people were up this morning. It also turns out to be Good Friday, so we think people might have been having a bit of a lie in. 

First stop tower hill to see the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and a piece of wall that the Roman’s had built around the city hundreds of years ago. 

Next, Dunstan in the East. A good old stone church turned into a garden, beautiful.

Then to Leadenhall market to look around. Not a lot was open but mostly it was still pretty early, cool building though. 

We tried to go up to the Sky Gardens but the attendant said it cost €11.50 to go up and that came with a hot beverage. The sign says free admission but you must purchase a ticket. That’s not free then.

We went in search of something that was on the maybe list, the stretcher railings. They were stretchers that had been used in WWII for the wounded. Then repurposed into railings, pretty neat. 

Then we found a little garden and sat down in the quiet for a little while.

On to the busiest part of our day, Borough market. So. Many. Cheeses! I wanted to try them all, a couple stalls had samples of them and they were so good! I also saw where you can wait in a really long line for viral chocolate covered strawberries, too much hype if you ask me but they were pretty. Hubby got a giant sourdough pretzel and I had a slice of bacon and cheese quiche. We sat on a curb outside the market and ate them like weirdo’s, they were wonderful. 

I think they’re trying to compensate for something.

Found a couple neat things in other passages and stopped at a pub for a drink to calm things down a bit. 

The next thing on our agenda was a tour we booked months ago for the Globe Theatre. We had made it for 2:30pm but found ourselves done with the things we had planned on seeing at 12:30pm. The desk attendant switched our time slot to 1pm no big deal, so kind. 

Then over the Millennium bridge to Saint Paul’s Cathedral. That place is huge and ornate. 

A walk to Black Friars Tube station and head back to our side of town. Although once we got there I decided I hadn’t seen all of Buckingham palace so we went and checked it out for a minute before ambling back to our hotel to put our feet up. 

Then a good pub dinner. 

Sad to say it has come to an end of touring around. It has been awesome. 

So many crisps, so little time

 Sainsbury’s has become a staple in our stay in the UK. We have found one everywhere we go, probably because they’re like a 7-11. They have a little bit of everything. 

I wanted to try so much of this wall of crisps but it was not to be. Le sigh. 

This little cake on the other hand is the best pre-made box cake I’ve ever had, delicious. 

To share, of course. 

I spy…

 I spy with my little eye something that starts with “F.”

This is the same place they were playing cricket at earlier. I wonder what other kinds of wildlife run around the city. We just have deer at home and the occasional cougar.

An evening walk after some downtime

We retraced some of our previous steps during the bus tour to get a closer look at a few things. The amount of people out and about around six was less than it had been earlier, that was nice. 

We found ourselves back by Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben, or the Elizabeth Tower that houses Big Ben. 

It has been a beautiful day. We walked across Westminster Bridge and watched an Uber boat go underneath. Walked down the Thames Path and saw the UK’s Covid memorial wall. Then back over the Lambeth bridge and found a quiet park to sit and relax for a while. 

We also caught a cricket match being played. 

Dinner was a restaurant around the corner from our hotel called the Tiffin Tree. It is the best Indian food I have ever had. I got a tiffin box that came with basmati rice, poppadums, choice of naan, choice of starter, choice of cooked in tandoor, choice of curry, and a dessert for about $30 after US conversion. I love Indian food, it is warm and spicy but not too hot.

This is a ten out of ten, would recommend.

 

A double decker bus high tea travel around London

 We had booked a tea with Brigit’s Bakery Afternoon Tea Bus that I had wanted to do because I had seen it on some persons Tik Tok. We reserved seats for this high tea on a double decker bus from the 60’s, which we did a few months ago and a good thing too because there were a lot of families also going on these tours. 

I had so much fun and hubby did as well, or as much as he could muster for me because I was loving it. Delicious foods, savories and sweets. As well as fresh baked scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, not pictured because we ate them so quickly. I had peppermint tea, hubby had hot chocolate because he doesn’t care for tea or coffee. There was an option to pre-order champagne which a couple groups did but we weren’t interested. It did have to be purchased before the date of the bus tour because, laws and such.

There was music, and singing, the waiters were wonderful and attentive, and the driver was awesome. Totally recommend if you want to have a tea and see some sights.