The Tour of a Lifetime!
Early this summer my husband, Jack announced that we would be taking a dream trip to Great Britain. Surprised beyond belief, I agreeably nodded my approval and we quickly picked a travel agent. We were lucky, indeed when we met with Mary Kay Vicencia of Cerritos Travel. Her upbeat and professional manner added to the excitement and anticipation of our trip. Given brochures and brief information we went home and pored over the tours of London and the Scottish highlands. A trip to a site that was used in a Harry Potter movie cinched it for me.
After gathering all the necessary documents including passports we trekked down to the travel agency and pointed to our choice. With glee, we left the agency to await our travel documents. Buying luggage, a few clothes and necessary sundries we waited for the big departure day.
Monday1PM
We parked our car at a convenient off-site lot and were driven to the Airport. Checking in proved to be painless
no shoe removal, no wands. Then we proceeded to the McDonald restaurant to get our combo meal for who knew when we would eat again.
Boarding the British Airway plane was easy and surprising. Surprising because we got a bulkhead seat with four across. A lovely young women accompanied by a semi-precocious little girl of almost three years old and a five month old baby greeted us. The little girl had pretty blue mischievous eyes and the baby had equally large blue eyes. The mom was into breast feeding and had a long piece of cloth that she would fold and arrange on her body in maybe two hundred ways. She would hide the baby when she was feeding him. The little girl was extremely bright and intelligent. She had a sticker book that she arranged farm animals on. She also spoke German and English with her mother. The flight was ten hours. Within that time we were served dinner, juice, snacks, breakfast and other snacks. The mother hardly ever stopped attending her children. The baby cried a lot. The little girl needed to go to the bathroom. The mom asked me to watch her little one while she took the girl to the bathroom. Being a grandmother, I agreed. When she left the baby was laughing and cooing until he noticed that the mom was nowhere in site. My husband said that maybe she had jumped from the plane, but no, she returned and then it was nite-nite for everyone. Everyone, that is, except the mom, the little girl, the baby, my husband and me. Nearing the end of the flight I asked the mom if her husband was meeting her at the airport. She said no. He had to work. I, being a people person much to my husband’s consternation asked what her husband did for a living. I thought she told me that he was a baker. I volunteered that he must bring home samples to her. She looked funny at me. Finally, she said that he was a banker. I said that would account for him not bringing any sample home to her. Oh, well she was sweet and understanding about all the noise on the plane and that would account for my mistake. Whew!
It's Tuesday!
We arrived in London and rode a minivan to our hotel. The hotel was geared towards a lot of business conventions and meetings and was located in the west part of London. We went into assigned hotel and were struck by how the beds were about six inches from the floor. However, the bathtub sides were three feet high and difficult to get in and out of. Assistance was needed to get in and out of the tub. Some people cried. Well, maybe I cried. I was very fearful and falling in or out of the tub/shower.
My husband bounded up to the room and announced that we had three tours lined up. That evening we took a “Taste of London” tour which culminated into a dinner at Chez Gerard ( a French restaurant? Don’t ask. And then a boat tour down the Thames where we spotted The Tower Bridge and The Wheel. More about that later. Off to our room we went to arise the next day to pick up the The Eurostar train to
.Paris France.
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