London September 10, 2015 Morning
Here we are in London! It’s our first time here and we can’t wait to see this incredible city.
There was one close call before we left. I broke a tooth right in half length-wise. Thank goodness it wasn’t while we were on vacation. I’m not sure I would trust an English dentist to fix my tooth! I had to have an extraction one week before leaving. Fortunately my oral surgeon removed the tooth easily and I did not have one second of pain afterwards. Now I must smile my Mona Lisa smile in our travel photos to not expose my “gap.” (Reconstructive work to begin when we get back home.)
We have no complaints about our flight to London on Virgin Atlantic. Our Premium Economy seats were very comfortable and roomy. The flight crew were helpful and nice. In the middle of the night as I was watching a movie, one of the flight attendants saw I was awake and asked if I’d ever seen the Northern Lights. Coincidentally Howard and I had just been looking at winter cruises along the Norwegian coast specifically to see the Aurora Borealis! The flight attendant showed me to a window in a little bar area. While I was able to see a faint green glow in the distance, by the time Howard woke up and looked he saw lots of intense colors. So now maybe we don’t need to take that expensive trip to Norway!
Of course it was a long flight. We arrived in London about noon and took the train from the airport to the train station nearest to the apartment. We were approached by a man asking if we needed a taxi. I was a little wary of going with him since he was not picking up people at the taxi stand. My wariness grew when I saw that he was not driving a commercial taxi. But he got us to the apartment and I do not think he charged us excessively.
The apartment is located in a very nice, quiet street just about a block from a major thoroughfare. It’s on the 4th floor and happily there is an elevator–although it’s a tiny, scary one. We mistakenly hit the basement button and honestly found ourselves at the back of someone’s closet. I’m not kidding! The doorway was completely blocked by clothing! But the apartment is bright and comfortable with a very nice kitchen. It was not cheap (about $275/night) but a hotel would have been just as much and we are in a very nice area of London (Notting Hill in the Kensington/Chelsea area) and a perfect location for sightseeing. And we have a beautiful kitchen.
A welcomed shower and clean clothes were the first priority. As much as I wanted to put my swollen and sore feet up and relax for the rest of the day, we knew we needed to get out, get some sun to counteract jet lag, and buy groceries and wine. So we make our way to the biggest Whole Foods Market we’ve ever seen!
The walk there is about a mile and it is a parade of quintessential English sights: quaint taxis, double decker buses, beautiful old buildings, ancient churches, and cute pubs (including The Churchill Arms which is COVERED roof to street level with gorgeous flowers). The children are walking home from school–boys in blazers and short-billed caps and girls in uniforms with straw boater hats.
The Whole Foods Market is truly incredible. It is 2 stories and one of the most amazing things to see is the grocery cart elevator! It’s next to the escalator and transports your cart between levels just like an escalator. Of course the market has everything you could need. We decide to get a roast chicken to minimize our dinner preparation. We, of course, need wine (badly). I try to convince Howard to find some English wine (there IS such a thing) but no go; French wine is the choice for the night. We fill our cart as much as we think is prudent since we need to schlep it back home, start to navigate the checkout stands. It appears that there are no checkouts where you can push the cart through; there are just closely spaced registers with small counters between. A very nice lady shows us the ropes. I say we are from California and her first question is: Does California have any Whole Foods Markets this big? Of course my answer is that I’ve never seen one this big! She is surprised because she is sure that the US only has big everythings. I must say the price-tag is a shock. London is NOT cheap…or even reasonable. Oh well, it’s only money.
Back we limp. We are so happy to arrive back home, grab a glass of wine with some nice bread and English cheeses, and finally prop up our feet to get the blood flowing from our toes back up to our brains.
We fight off sleep as long as possible–me more than Howard since I didn’t sleep a wink on the plane. As I read after dinner my head keeps falling back and I jerk up with a start! So at 8pm we both decide to call it a day.
I sleep soundly for 7 hours and then decide to get up rather than take a sleeping pill. Howard takes a pill a couple of hours after we turn in and sleeps in total a little more than 8 hours. So I think we’re ready for our first full day in London. I will make a run to the corner bakery about 7am and then we will be off for a day in Greenwich in southeast London.