Saturday & Sunday, April 27 & 28, 2013
AA’s direct flight to Heathrow was problem free. It was a
fairly full flight apparently because last night’s flight was canceled. There
were a lot of disgruntled people sitting around us complaining about how AA
handled things last night. But, we have no complaints. Luck of the draw, I
guess. We were pleased with the Economy Plus seats that we paid extra for, that
made the trip easier. We paid an extra $98pp for these seats coming over and
$88pp for the return flight. So, it was definitely worth the extra money. We
have seats 13 J & H both ways. But, frankly it is just under 7 hours and it
was fine. Of course, any red eye flight is stressful, but it was alright. They
showed Rise of the Guardians, a weird little animated film about Santa, Easter
Bunny, Sandman, Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Bogeyman in a battle between
good and evil for the hearts and minds of children. I watched it and Clay
watched his tablet with Pride & Prejudice again. I was looking forward to
The Big Year, a comedy with Jack Black and Steve Martin, but they waited until
about 3 am London time to start it and I couldn’t stay awake. Of course, then I
couldn’t really sleep either! About the time I was getting comfortable with
sleeping, they were delivering orange juice to wake everyone. Oh, for dinner
last night we had chicken with rice for Clay and I had cheese tortellini in
pesto. Both came with salad and white or red wine. Really awful wine, but they
were not charging extra for it either. This was served after sodas (or
whatever) and a small snack sack of pretzels, nuts and crunchy things. It was
all good. For breakfast, they served a croissant with butter and strawberry jam
and a raspberry yogurt. Coffee and juice, etc. Again, all good and no
complaints. We must have arrived early because we spent about an hour making 2
big loops over southern England before approaching London. Then the most
amazing thing happened, we flew directly over central London and then hooked a
turn right by the London Eye and flew down the Thames by all the major
landmarks! We spotted the Millenium Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster,
Buckingham Palace, St. James, Hyde Park, Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace,
I saw Kew Gardens after Clay quit looking and about 5 minutes before we
descended to land, I swear I saw Downton Abbey or Highclere Castle. We saw lots
more, but that hits the highlights. The
only hitch came as we tried to exit the plane. The jet bridge was not working
and it took about 30 minutes to get the door open after the Captain turned off
the seat belt sign. Then it was a very long walk to immigration and customs and
a very, very long line to be cleared to enter the UK. I guess this is true
everywhere anymore, but there were a lot of people queued for entry!
It was over an hour and a half after our luggage was removed
from the plane before we got cleared to go claim it. We were concerned that
they would leave it on the carousel that long, but I guess the luggage people
knew we were delayed a ½ hour getting off the plane and then had long lines in
immigration. We all just walked right through customs though.
Leaving Heathrow, we
bought an Oyster Card for me and put money on Clay’s and took the Piccadilly
Line of the Tube into London. It is
about an hour ride. You can get in faster on the Heathrow Express, but it is
much more expensive and we were in no rush since you usually can’t check in
that early anyway and you’re too tired to sightsee! As we neared Green Park
station and the Victoria Line we had intended to get off and switch to, the
conductor announced that Victoria Line was experiencing severe delays. We
stayed on 2 more stops and took the Northern Line to Euston and our home station
for the next 2 days. We failed to get a map from the station to the ibis Hotel
and wandered unnecessarily for a bit, but we got here alright. It is really
convenient now that we know the way. The room is typically small as one expects
in Europe. But, it is clean and quiet. Internet is not included. One bad thing
is that it has a very high tub with a shower in it. The tub floor must be 8 to
10 inches above the bathroom floor and while it is difficult to get in, it is nearly
impossible to get out of it and you are wet then. There are no grab bars
anywhere in there. Something for short or mobility challenged people to
consider. We both also dislike no tissues and only one trash can which is in
the bathroom. The other weird thing is there is no soap or shampoo. Just a tiny
bar by the sink and then a dispenser on the shower wall that is to be used as
both shower gel/shampoo. Yuck! Incredibly, this no soap for the bath/shower
held true for almost every hotel on this trip. I mean how much money are they
saving withholding that little bar of soap? We had booked online and prepaid £148.75
for 2 nights at the ibis London Euston St. Pancras at 3 Cardington Street.
We were able to check in at our 10 am arrival instead of the published noon. So that was good. We were both so exhausted that we couldn’t formulate a plan. I had hit a wall earlier after the change of Tube line caused us to have to haul our bags up a bunch of stairs and I really just wanted to go to bed for a while. Clay and I both knew if we did though the day would be completely lost. It was a sunny busy Sunday in Central London and we both were freezing! After a false start or 2 we headed out with a plan. Clay removed the sim card from his phone and our 1st order of business after unloading our luggage was buying a prepaid data sim card.
We returned to Euston
Station and used the Fast Ticket machines to collect all the train tickets we
had purchased from multiple sources over the Internet. It was amazingly easy. I
still claim it would be even easier, if you just got on your train with your
booking number and credit card and that sufficed without all the nonsense of
tickets at all.
Clay had found an O2 store that he thought was nearer than it
was. For me, we would go to King’s Cross Station where I had read they put a
Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter. Getting the sim card and getting it to access
the Internet took over 2 hours. It was not easy. But it is done and hopefully
worth the trouble. I think after a dozen or so attempts that we finally got an
email off to Mom to let her know we arrived safely. Clay wanted to walk to the
British Museum. We have both been before and he didn’t have anything in
particular he wanted to see. I argued it was too far and too big to cover
territory we already remembered seeing. I was for the British Library which we
had done in 1984. It was on our way and Clay did not remember it at all, plus
it would be a quick visit. Then Clay could get his fish and chips and we could
go to bed! We have an early start tomorrow to visit the Warner Brothers Harry
Potter film studios in Leavesden. We will use our Oyster Cards to get there and
back too. Watford Junction is where you catch the bus to the studios and that
is the last stop allowed on the Oyster Card. So, that is convenient.
Speaking about Oyster Cards, it turns out that when you pay
with an Oyster Card that you get about a 50% discount on your fare on average.
We did not realize this and used the Underground website to get fares for the
trips we knew we would take on the system to estimate the amount to put on the
Oysters. So we wound up with about twice the money loaded as we needed. I mention
this because you can’t get your money back. If we had loaded less than we
needed, we could have added more, but you can’t subtract from the amount except
by using the card. The turnstile shows how much they deduct from your balance
when you swipe your card as you exit the station at your destination. You have
to look quickly though!We were able to check in at our 10 am arrival instead of the published noon. So that was good. We were both so exhausted that we couldn’t formulate a plan. I had hit a wall earlier after the change of Tube line caused us to have to haul our bags up a bunch of stairs and I really just wanted to go to bed for a while. Clay and I both knew if we did though the day would be completely lost. It was a sunny busy Sunday in Central London and we both were freezing! After a false start or 2 we headed out with a plan. Clay removed the sim card from his phone and our 1st order of business after unloading our luggage was buying a prepaid data sim card.
The Platform 9 ¾ had turned into a genuine tourist attraction with a zigzag queue and a professional photographer and aide. It was very busy and a long wait, so just Bob and I posed and Clay took pictures. We did not buy the professional’s photo from the Harry Potter 9 ¾ gift shop that was about 20 feet away. I don’t think they probably had anything that you couldn’t get at the HP theme park at Universal Orlando or at the studio tour tomorrow, except that Platform 9 ¾ photo. But they had some nice stuff. Clay would have gotten a t-shirt if they had run a bit larger. Too bad. I kind of didn’t like that it wasn’t just in the station but had become a sales tool. On the other hand, they were providing school scarves as props and the aide was holding the end and flipping it up to give motion to the photos as well they were letting you take your own photos and there was not pressure to buy theirs, so I can’t complain about it too much. I just expected a half luggage cart sticking from the wall and a sign though.
Oh, I used my annual
Starbucks $10 gift card from Stuart Jones (our homebuilder) to buy a London
mug. Now I have to carry it for 24 days! They told me they didn’t have a box
for it after I coughed up the remaining 50 pence I needed to complete the sale.
I have bought a bunch of these mugs in my travels and never have they not boxed
it. It was priced at £6.75 and they took my whole $10 plus some change.
I meant to ask Clay if that was a fair exchange because it is one of the
features of US Starbucks cards that they are generally accepted at any store
almost anywhere without exchange fees.(I just checked online and £6.75
should have been worth $10.19 and should
have paid in full for that mug!) Anyway, we have learned the hard way in the
past that when you see something you want to buy because later you won’t find
it again. So we have the mug checked off our list, even if it is prematurely.
Thank you again Stuart Jones!
