The great vacation of 2012 started with the parents' house FINALLY being finished. This meant that they moved out of my house right before the FPU and I left.
On the way to the airport, we stopped to see Grandma in Chambersburg and then had dinner with Mortal before the MPU dropped us off at Dulles. The drop off went fine, except he hit the FPU with the hatch door.
There were no lines for checking in nor were there lines for security. We made it safely to our gate and were some of the first ones there. One of the advantages of traveling with another person is that one person can stretch their legs while the other watches the bags. On one of my leg stretching strolls, I strolled down to the B&J stand and got both of us some. It was very good.
We finally got to board the flight. It wasn't full, which was nice. We were in the center section of 4 seats and there was an empty seat between us and the person on the other aisle. The only problem was that they served a hot meal almost immediately. The flight left around 11pm. Really don't need a meal then.
We were both able to get some sleep before we got to Heathrow. There was no circling of the airport this time! We met 2 of the other members of our group while we were in the line for customs. They had been on the same flight.
After clearing customs, we left the big bags at Left Luggage and took the tube down to the Victoria & Alexander Museum. They had an exhibt of Cecil Beeton's photographs of the Queen, but it was extra money, so we skipped that. We did look at various statues (it's supposed to be a dragon at her feet),
furniture items,
and miscellaneous metal objects (this is a collection of biscuit tins).
We couldn't see everything because we were getting tired, so we caught the tube back to Heathrow so we could get the bus to our hotel. We managed to get on the correct bus and made is safely to our hotel.
We were ready to have dinner when we got there, but the restaurant wasn't open yet as most people tend to eat later. We rested a little and then headed downstairs to the restaurant. It was an Italian restaurant and I had some very good fettuccini with flaked salmon and a cream sauce. I decided to pass on the dessert. On the way back to the room we passed a vending machine which had prawn cocktail crisps. Do those sound appetizing?
On the way to the airport, we stopped to see Grandma in Chambersburg and then had dinner with Mortal before the MPU dropped us off at Dulles. The drop off went fine, except he hit the FPU with the hatch door.
There were no lines for checking in nor were there lines for security. We made it safely to our gate and were some of the first ones there. One of the advantages of traveling with another person is that one person can stretch their legs while the other watches the bags. On one of my leg stretching strolls, I strolled down to the B&J stand and got both of us some. It was very good.
We finally got to board the flight. It wasn't full, which was nice. We were in the center section of 4 seats and there was an empty seat between us and the person on the other aisle. The only problem was that they served a hot meal almost immediately. The flight left around 11pm. Really don't need a meal then.
We were both able to get some sleep before we got to Heathrow. There was no circling of the airport this time! We met 2 of the other members of our group while we were in the line for customs. They had been on the same flight.
After clearing customs, we left the big bags at Left Luggage and took the tube down to the Victoria & Alexander Museum. They had an exhibt of Cecil Beeton's photographs of the Queen, but it was extra money, so we skipped that. We did look at various statues (it's supposed to be a dragon at her feet),
furniture items,
and miscellaneous metal objects (this is a collection of biscuit tins).
We couldn't see everything because we were getting tired, so we caught the tube back to Heathrow so we could get the bus to our hotel. We managed to get on the correct bus and made is safely to our hotel.
We were ready to have dinner when we got there, but the restaurant wasn't open yet as most people tend to eat later. We rested a little and then headed downstairs to the restaurant. It was an Italian restaurant and I had some very good fettuccini with flaked salmon and a cream sauce. I decided to pass on the dessert. On the way back to the room we passed a vending machine which had prawn cocktail crisps. Do those sound appetizing?