A good start on our way to the Dordogne

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Monday, September 29, 2014

Flight to Heathrow at 6:15pm. TTA bus route 100 to RDU. Clay drove me & the bags and walked back. It opened up and poured rain right after we got on the bus. Lucky! We had a light meal at Bruegger’s/A&W and soon boarded AA 174. We are in seats 12 A&B. The flight was 7 hours and 20 minutes. We didn’t watch Rio 2 or Here Comes the Boom which were the 2 movies AA showed. Clay had chicken for dinner and I had cheese manicotti. His gave him the squirts, he claims. I tried to sleep for about 5 hours. AA served breakfast. It was orange juice, a croissant with butter and strawberry jam and a strawberry yogurt. We arrived on time. Everything went as smoothly as could be hoped.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

We both had enough on our Oyster cards to just get straight on the Piccadilly Underground train for London. We changed to the District Line for Victoria at Acton Town, just straight across the platform. Be warned there are lots of stairs and no handicap access at Victoria. There are some random escalators but we had take stairs each time we accessed the Underground at Victoria Station! We picked up our Gatwick Express train tickets at Victoria Station and then looked for the best exit to go to the intersection of St. Georges & Hugh Street for the Comfort Inn to drop our bags. We never did find the best exit, but took the second best and started walking. It was about 2 blocks this way. From the closest exit, it was a one block walk. It took us just at 2 hours to get from the gate at Heathrow to the Comfort Inn. We checked in after about a 10 minute wait and first being told we could drop our bags and come back at 2pm. That was lucky. We got room 511 which was a half-story up from the ground floor. It was a family room which was a complimentary upgrade. It had a double and 2 single beds. We used the lobby internet (complimentary for 10 minutes) to check in to our BA flight for tomorrow and to print our boarding passes (50p per page) and double check the Gatwick Express timetable. Clay had booked and prepaid this hotel online back in February and it was £84.15. This rate did not include the basic buffet breakfast but you could partake for an extra £6pp. We did not since we had an early departure before it started. The rooms all included an electric kettle with instant coffee, tea bars and sugar and creamer.

We walked back to Victoria Station and took the Circle Line Underground to Tower Hill to go to the Tower of London to see the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Blood ceramic poppies installation in the moat around the Tower. It is to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. It was amazing. They will hand make and install 888,246 red ceramic poppies to mark the number of British military fatalities. They have been installing them for months and the last one will be installed on 11/11/2014 at 11am and then after a period of silence they will start removing them. They will be sold and shipped. Some proceeds to charity. Obviously, this was a bit morbid. But, I was more interested in it as an art installation and I loved it while still being moved by the magnitude of the cost of war. 

The day had gotten cloudier and colder as we went on, but while we were walking around the Tower the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. We got sidetracked at the London Tower Bridge because there is an exhibition there. You can pay £7 and go inside the stone towers of the bridge. Clay's senior ticket was only £4.90. It was pretty amazing. I don’t know if that was always a possibility, but we never even thought of walking across before! Inside the pedestrian walkway they had the walls lined with photos of other famous or important bridge and we recognized the Eads Bridge! It still looked like an old ugly bridge. It was an interesting exhibit and I loved how beautiful they used to make the most utilitarian and hidden of equipment. The parts of the bridge that lever up and down are called bascules.

We walked back across to finish seeing the poppies and saw a map that showed a Brunel Museum. I assumed this was about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a historical figure with whom I have long been fascinated. We couldn’t really find anything out on Clay’s phone about it so we took 2 trains to go see. It was only 3 pounds to enter but it looked like a long line to enter and Clay was cranky to eat so we headed back to Victoria Station.

We got to the St. George’s about 3 pm and had lunch. I ordered from the £7 or more special menu. I had Old Spot sausages and mash with a Carling beer for Clay for £8. Clay ordered off the main menu to have £12 worth of fish and chips. He liked it. We walked across the street to Treats for dessert. Clay had pistachio gelato and I had a Nutella crepe. 

We walked back to the Comfort Inn. Clay had a shower and went to bed. I got repacked for tomorrow then took a shower and was in bed by 5pm. It was still light out but we were sleep starved from the overnight flight and we have to get up very early tomorrow to catch the 4:30am or 5am Gatwick Express train. Clay had pre-booked these online as well and we just picked up the tickets from a kiosk at Victoria Station earlier today. He paid £44.70 for both of our roundtrip tickets.

I did not pack the bathroom nightlight I normally take when traveling because I was thinking we would have 2 different kinds of electrical outlets on this trip and I wouldn't be able to use it. That was wrong. Bathrooms in both England and France had normal 110v 2 prong plugs for razors in the bathrooms that would have worked with the nightlight and we'd have been glad to have it. My mistake, your advice.

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