The next several posts are going to be a bit of backtracking to catch us all up to date so that we'll have a complete set of experiences for our online journal! Now travel with me back in time...
We left Atlanta on October 21st and after the 8+ hour trip we landed at Heathrow airport in London with 8 suitcases! To make things easy, we hired a private car to pick us up. Typically we take the Heathrow Express or tube into London, but with 8 bags to manage we didn’t think that would be feasible. We found our driver without too much trouble and he led us to our van. The van was HUGE for just the two of us but I guess they were trying to make sure our 8 bags could be accommodated in the trunk. We had not yet received the keys to our flat so we had to make a slight detour by the London Relocation office to pick up the keys. Once we had the keys in hand we proceeded on to our flat in central London. The whole process of getting the bags to the airport and from the airport to our flat was actually not very difficult thanks to good friends on the Atlanta end and the private car on the London end. By this time it was about 2:30 PM or so.
Once in our flat Mo took a short nap while I began unpacking and cleaning. Even though we had been up all night with just some napping on the flight over I was feeling pretty awake and decided that I should make use of the energy I had. Plus, I knew if I napped too much it would be difficult to get to sleep that evening. Even though the flat had been professionally cleaned, I prefer to know that rooms like the bathroom and kitchen really are clean. I suppose it was more of a disinfecting wipe down rather than a full on cleaning.
Late in the afternoon, we headed out and walked around a little trying to get a feel for the area since our visit to this particular area had been so brief when we went flat hunting. Also during the unpacking, I realized that though I had planned to bring a set of towels, I had packed them away back in Atlanta instead of in the suitcases to go to London, so we knew we needed to go and buy some towels before the stores closed. We tried a number of stores and I wasn’t really pleased with the quality for the price I was finding. (Now that we’ve been in London a while I know exactly where to go to get good quality at a fair price, but that day it was like finding a needle in a haystack.) We ended up settling on some pretty decent towels for an almost fair price and headed back to the flat. That whole search took longer than I would like to admit.
Around 7 PM we decided it was time to go get some dinner so that we could get home and pack for Madrid and get some decent sleep before our 8:20 AM Ryanair flight. We went to a Thai restaurant close to home and after sitting and waiting for service for about 15 minutes, decided we didn't feel like waiting any longer. By now I was starting to crash and I just knew that I couldn’t make it through a long dinner. We decided to go get a quick bite at one of the sidewalk cafes in Leicester Square--a much better choice! We probably ordered, ate and paid in 30 minutes or less and were headed back to the flat. After packing for Madrid we set our alarm clock and settled in for a good night’s sleep.
It was a long day, but a good one. One we won't soon forget which I'm sure will be a theme during our time in London!
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