Happy Landing!

On the morning of the 17^th of October we safely returned to earth in London, England, UK!  The flight had been fine because a non-stop ATL to LHR (Heathrow) is not a very long in terms of international flight.  Since it lasts only about 7 hours and most people sleep most of the way it is a painless first intercontinental flight if you are thinking of trying out world travel.

We waiting at the door of the plane for the attendant to bring a wheelchair.  It took about 8 minutes.  After the long ramp ride while the lady pushed both Elva and an elderly gentleman at the same time, and really, I can’t even remember how she managed that, we then sat on a bench for about 10 minutes while she drove the other people in the cart to passport control.  She came back for us and delivered Elva to a gentleman who wheeled her to the head of the Control line as I dutifully carried our carry-on bags.  

A quick stop there and another man, quite old seeming, wheeled her round and down, round and down, round and down a ramp to baggage claim.  Good thing about the delays in exiting is that our bags were off the carousel and waiting for us.  Also waiting for us was our friend Carol!  She had nicely picked up my bag because the large red suitcase with Minnie Mouse white polka dots is not easy to miss and is easy to identify!  Carol had flown from Miami and arrived about the same time.

Dominic rolled us out to the cab stand and away we went to begin our London, NYC, Bermuda adventure.  Our plans had been to use the National Express for a quick and inexpensive transit from the airport to Paddington Station, 2 blocks from the hotel.  With Elva having difficulty managing walking with her new cane and lifting and schlepping bags we decided on a very expensive but convenient cab ride.  But safety and convenience and the splitting of the 80GBP was a much better option!

Now, normally a cab ride wouldn’t be quite that much but our weekend was doomed to be plagued by extenuating circumstances!  These in the name of exceptional protests!  Traffic was a real nightmare since our plans diverted from using the tubes and trains.  I booked the hotel in the heart of Paddington to do so but after one try, with no luggage, we opted against that mostly!

Elva, Carol and I in a Black Cab after a long travel day.

 We arrived safely after a long ride round the Ring Road as a lot of the internal streets were under diversion.  Just glad we had not rented a car!  The Hotel Alexandra is not describable as quaint but it is an old building turned into a hotel.  It did have an elevator which saved us as our rooms were on the fourth floor which, in England and most of Europe, is the fifth floor by American standards.  The dorm sized room did have an en suite bath with tub which unfortunately had very high sides!  Luckily the hand held shower allowed Elva to lean over to wash her hair as the high step in was dangerous for her.

Carol wanted to change her old pounds for new since the cab driver wouldn’t take them.  We set out to find a bank and after a successful exchange we went to a small sandwich shop.  There were so many right there near the station so we randomly selected Sandro’s.  We each had a ‘toastie’ of ham and cheese on a croissant that was placed through the Panini machine.  I had of course hot tea while they enjoyed ‘a coffee’.  We walked around a little and then returned to the hotel.

Elva opted for a nap while Carol and I went for a walk across Hyde Park.  Before we even made it to the Serpentine we were getting drenched by the London sunshine – rain!  Blowing, cold, and hard.  We had thought to walk across toward Exhibition Road and the museums which I had scheduled for arrival day.  That is to at least walk about in Kensington and perhaps take in the Gardens or Palace.  But we didn’t want to do those without Elva.  I complicated things by looking at my watch wrong and thinking it was an hour later than it was.  We turned around and got our backsides wet on the return.

I knew we had a deadline because we had theater tickets and wanted to get to the West End in time for dinner first.  

We heard the hour chime musically at this Swiss watch multi-action clock near Charing Cross.  Quite the display!

After we cleaned up a little we set our and took the tube to Charing Cross which is the stop the man at the desk recommended.  Like in a NYC subway the train was crowded at the time of day we set out. We lurched Elva into the car and several people immediately offered her a seat, so that was okay.  The amount of walking on the zigzag streets and through numerous squares was a bit too much for her. It would have been the best choice because it required no change of trains but as it turned out was not the one we should have taken.  It was a lot of walking. Carol and I enjoyed it.

We passed through Trafalgar Square near the theater.  The police were out in full force all weekend and here was no different.

 

We stopped several times to rest.  The clock was ticking and we were still asking questions and directions.  The map I had did not have every street name so following along wasn’t as easy as it sometimes is but we finally found Aldwych Street and walked up it.  I left Carol and Elva and hurried ahead and found the theater.  By the time I started back they had found the same restaurant that I had thought would be good when I had rushed past it.  In we went knowing right where to go and that it would lonely take ten minutes to be in our seats.

We split a Four Cheese pizza in a very busy place that had lots of rushing theater goers in it.  The wait staff was practically running as almost all the curtains go up at precisely 7:30!  It was hot and the cheese made nice strings as we tore it from its delicious crispy thin crust. 

We soon made our way to the lights of TINA.  

 

Carol got the Golden ticket!  Tina was ours!

The Tina Turner story has not yet opened on Broadway and here we were about to enjoy it.  Our seats were way up in the top balcony and not very comfortable as there was limited leg room and they were relatively just straight side chairs.  The bottoms did not fold up when we rose to let people pass.  But we did have a good view from the center of the row.  The first act was a little slow and I think I even nodded off.  A rarity for me under any circumstances!  But then again we had only landed hours ago and I do not sleep on planes so I was well past 24 hours even allowing for the time change. The theater was dark, warm, and I was exhausted.  But the second act was lively.  After all by then we were Rollin' On The River and the star was sure good at the songs and it was all enjoyable.  Carol was very happy as this was her pick.

 

My opera glasses were ready to go hanging around my neck.  We needed them as we were pretty high up!

Leaving the show we caught a taxi and arrived to the hotel in good time.  So much zigging that it seemed that every block or two we changed direction.  Our hotel was ideally situated for use of the public transportation but a bit distant for some of the things we were doing. In general traffic, which was needing to follow all sorts of road diversions, was a nightmare!  Ii slept very well despite the sloping mattress on my twin bed!