Usually we do that at the end but due to the schedule we have and the length of this trip, we decided it was better to have our fun on the front end, even though we will need it more on the back end. By that time, we will be so tired and so ready to go home that we wouldn’t enjoy it at all so instead of stopping in London on the way home, we stopped there first.
Years ago, we used to fly to Bulgaria on British Airways all the time and we always stopped for a couple of days in London.We haven’t done that for several years. It does help to adjust to the time change a little more slowly. So, along with our 350 pounds of luggage (200 of which we will give away while there) we boarded BA 216 at Dulles airport on Sunday evening, October 12 and off we went.
We are not big city people. Generally, we don’t even care to visit them. But there is just something special about London. We came here over 20 years ago for the first time and just fell in love with it. We wouldn’t want to live here but to visit is a special treat for us. I think it is the ease with which we can navigate all over the city via the underground (the tube), coupled with the cultural diversity. When we are here, we feel very comfortable and it really is the crossroads of the world.
We landed about 7:00 am on October 13, at Heathrow’s new terminal five (quite nice now that they have worked out the bugs). Getting through passport control was slow but getting luggage (all six bags plus computer bags and carry-ons) was a breeze and we left all of it except our carry-ons in the left baggage storage area and headed in to the city on the Piccadilly Line to our stop at South Kensington station which is in Knightsbridge. From there we walked to our hotel, the Rembrandt, which is across from the British Museum. As you can tell, we know this drill!
We arrived in time to eat their terrific breakfast buffet. Although it was early, our room was ready so we dumped our small bags and went down to the dining room. After breakfast, we decided to sleep for a couple of hours before setting out. Our plan was to do very little except rest and start the process of changing our body clocks to European time.
We got up, cleaned up and walked about three blocks down to Harrods, our favorite window shopping store on the planet!If you have ever been there, you know that Harrods is absolutely huge. The store covers an entire block and is five stories tall. I think they sell every conceivable retail item. Of course, their merchandise is terribly expensive and tends to be the top quality brands in every category. We rarely ever buy anything there but it is a lot of fun to browse (even for me and I am NOT a shopper.) When I get tired of browsing, I find one of the many specialty restaurants and park while Pat continues to roam. This time it was the chocolate bar where I consumed way too much very expensive chocolate. But it was soooo good!
After burning up a couple of hours in Harrods, we took a long walk. This section of the city is beautiful and pretty much what you see on postcards of London street scenes. It was busy and bustling and the weather was cool and sunny; a great way to begin. After a light dinner in the little Italian restaurant next to the hotel, we turned in early.
On Tuesday we started out with the buffet again. We love this hotel due to its terrific location. It is not cheap (no hotel in London is) but the breakfast is included and we eat enough so that we don’t need to eat lunch. Food here is quite expensive so that saves us quite a bit. We went to the tube station and bought a day pass and headed over to Leicester Square to the cheap ticket vendors to buy theatre tickets for tonight. That too is one of our favorite things to do; go to the theatre in London. Some of the theaters are quite nice and modern. Others are over 100 years old. We tend to prefer the latter but either is always a lot of fun. We have seen a lot of musicals here over the years (we always do musicals.)
The rest of the day was pretty quite. We rode the tube to several different areas of the city and just walked, probably about five miles or more. Then in the evening we went to the theatre and hit the bed early.
Tomorrow, we fly to Sofia early. Goodbye to London for now, but we’ll be back. Maybe some of you will go with us!
We will have one more quite day on Thursday which we will spend connecting and planning with our Bulgarian teammates. We will travel on Friday and the real fun begins on Saturday.
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