VACATION ~ LONDON ~ PART FOURTEEN

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Thursday June 30, 2011

Britain Museum & Covent Gardens

Mark had the day off and since he hadn't really been to places like I had it was suggested that he would like the Britain Museum. We didn't get there early in the day because we had to switch from Gatwick airport Marriott to Heathrow Marriott for our flight out on Friday. Wow we did change hotels often and it's a lot of work. We were lucky that Phil was staying on in England and rented a car the night before when they came in from Scotland. Mark said that what he saw of Scotland that day was absolutely beautiful and they was able to have some free time to drive along the coast. Anyway Phil had the car so he was nice enough to drive us to the hotel at Heathrow which saved us a lot of time and money.

So we were able to check in early, it was around noon, and got to our room and it smelled horrible from smoke that wasn't going to go away any time soon. It was like 20 smokers just had a party in our room.So we called for a room change, took our bags outside in the hallway and waited for the porter to bring the new key. So we are standing there and about six rooms down a maid was cleaning a room. We had watched several people go by hoping they were bringing our key but it wasn't happening.

So this man who we thought was maybe the guy, he actually had something in his hand that looked like another key holder, had stopped to talk to the maid. They were speaking a foreign language and he stood there for at least 10 minutes talking. It felt like a lot more but when you are waiting you think it's forever! We kind of wondered if he was the guy. Well he was and boy did Mark lay into him. It's not like we were in the room where we couldn't see him, he could see us in the hallway! Mark asked him who comes first and isn't it always about the customer. He apologized but we didn't give in. He was definitely in the wrong here. So he takes our bags and tries to help us to our next room being extra nice. Mark said should I tip him and I said "ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! "

So we took the shuttle to the airport and did the Underground today which took us to Russell Court where walked over the the Britain Museum. Lots of construction going on around there so we actually had to walk further then normal :( They had two special exhibits going on that didn't interest Mark so we didn't buy entries into them. The museum itself was free. Before we got there we ate at the cutest little place called Munchkins. I had my last fish 'n chips for the trip. Also, maybe because of the strikes that were going on Thursday in the UK, they had other floors closed so we could only do the main floor. We did see things that we had never seen before so it was well worth our time. Mark loved it.

Mark was really impressed with the hieroglyphics, they had rooms of them.

I was fascinated with these headless statues.

So we left the museum and headed back towards Russell Square when it started to drizzle a little bit. We sat on a park bench under huge trees for awhile. Then we decided to start up again and it started to rain more so we went into a little eating area in the park that was so charming and had coffee, hot chocolate along with some pastries. It was a nice break.

Then we went back to the Piccadilly Underground station and got on the train getting off two stops later at Covent Place. That was so much fun. The whole area was shops and places to eat. It was filled with people. It was a very interesting place and some areas were kind of hippie like. That was actually the area of the main Neil's Yard Remedies store. Mark wasn't thrilled with the shopping but he managed to find a shirt at Fat Face. I mentioned shopping at one in Worcester. You should be able to find them on the internet. It was the first time I had ever seen a Crocs store and I was thrilled to find a Penguin store. It's one of my sons favorite brands to wear.

We stopped and had a nice cold beer before we headed back to the Underground to take us back to the airport, so we could get the shuttle to the hotel and get ourselves ready to leave for home on Friday. The train was so crowded with people we actually had to stand for awhile. We were on the Underground Piccadilly line that ends at Cockfosters and I couldn't help but giggle. Every stop the voice would say this train ends at Cockfosters and Mind the Gap! I am really glad we went there and checked it out!

So we headed back to the airport to get the shuttle to the hotel and it was maybe after 8pm. We went up to the lounge that Mark gets into (Marriott Club) to get some tidbits and wine. Well it was pretty low on snacks and no wine was out. The Club Lounge was really beautiful. I had never been in on before and I was impressed. Then a woman came in and got more wine out so we had some wine. I was actually hungry so we ended up going down in eat in the restaurant and I had some wonderful risotto while Mark had some rib eye steak.

I knew I had to get my bag ready for morning. Mark insisted that I try to get all the souvenirs into my suitcase. I was perfectly willing to carry them onto the plane being that our bags were within 4 pounds of what we were allowed. We put all dirty laundry in Marks bag and filled mine with some clean items, toiletries and gifts. So when we got to the airport were able to check the bags and had to move things around because they were too heavy. I knew I needed to just leave it as I had it and carry it on. I did that for our flight to Italy and it worked out well. So basically we ended up carrying most of the items anyway so I wasted a bunch of time packing the stuff into my bag when it was already arranged nicely in a carry-on bag!

So we were at the airport early and I have never seen anything like this terminal with duty free shopping everywhere. If I had know this I would have just done my shopping there. Actually that is not true because actually buying it at Harrods is different then buying it at the airport!

So finally they opened up our gate and we headed over to get on the plane. As it turned out we were delayed on the ground for almost 1 hour and the flight going home is longer then the flight heading there because of the wind currents. We ended up being on the plane for 12 hours. I watched 4 movies and was up walking around a lot. I just couldn't stand sitting that long which reminded me why I wouldn't make that trip often yet I would love to go back.

I am thankful I was able to go on this trip. It was a trip of a lifetime for me and I would go back in an instance. I am now a World Traveler! This is me before we left for the airport. That's my scarf I bought in Italy.