Uber

If you recall, I was singing the praises of Uber just this morning.  We had scheduled our pick-up 8 am. As the rule runs, they can come five minutes before or five minutes after. At 7:19, my phone pinged.  ‘Your driver will arrive in 39 minutes’. Perfect. 👌 Just a few minutes later, my phone pinged again. ‘Your driver has arrived’. Well this was a first! 😂😂😂 We were ready, kind of 😂.  Still needed to do a walk-through, drop the keys in the mailbox, and deliver our rubbish (when in London…😏) to the bin in the basement. Nettie grabbed the rubbish while I ran out to our timely driver. 

“We won’t be long,” I assured. “Just dropping the trash!”

“No worries, “ he said. 

India. Love their accent! He was from Delhi but has been in the UK since 2010. Super nice, but a leftist mindset. He spoke a bit poorly of our commander-in-chief, so I was quick to change the subject. Just got him talking about India, Delhi, his family, etc,  He deposited us at Heathrow, Terminal 2, at 9:24 am 😂😂😂👏👏👏. 

And girls back at the airport! 

I am happy to report our luggage looks the same as when we arrived here!  And yet again, how grateful we are to be traveling with carry-on only!😆

Heathrow…

Longest escalators EVER 😱!

Heathrow has their own EMT team, and their own police department!

Upon going through security, I saw bags coming out of the x-ray machine and pausing in limbo for a time…some were pushed onto the ‘belt of shame’, and others down the ‘happy’ cue to their owners.  My green bag came to me with open arms.  Then my purple carry-on came out and sat there. I watched with baited breath…I had METICULOUSLY arranged EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. in that thing. And then WHAM! Pushed onto the ‘belt of shame’ 😱😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂!  The guy on the other side (aka, TSA😂) said, “Looks like I’ll have to take everything out.”

😱😱😱😬😬😬😱😱😱😬😬😬😱😱😱

I KNEW I was in the clear…nothing I shouldn’t have. I simply nodded, while wondering if showing my ’Global Entry’ card would earn me any grace 😂😂. I glanced over toward Nettie…we had been separated earlier, and her bag cruised the belt of shame too😂😂. Sooooo, I waited patiently (thank you Uber early bird!🤗) until I was deemed not a threat, picked up my TWO bins of completely unpacked stuff, and walkED my bins across the aisle to repack everything all over again 😂😂😂. 

“Would you like me to help?” the TSA guy offered. 

“No, but thank you,” I smiled, knowing he could never fit dad’s Belgian ‘flight’ in as well as I had!😆😂😂😂

And now, we are loaded and ready to taxi! Next blog coming to you from the good ole’ USA💕🤗. 

Vignettes Part III

The challenge in dual blogging is not remembering which blog I have said something in, so if I’m repeating myself, I apologize.😂😂 I hope to never dual  blog again!

The day we were to be on the north side of London, roughly an hour’s drive away from the hometel, for our Golden Tour (10-hour day tour we were VERY much looking forward to!) we had scheduled a Bolt the evening before. Bolt is similar to Uber, very common in Europe, and tends to be a little less costly. Nettie scheduled it this time around, and we didn’t received any confirmation, nor driver assignment after scheduling, which was very unusual.

“Let’s check before we go to bed,” I suggested. Still, nothing. “Let’s check first thing in the morning,” I said. Still, nothing. 

So, we reverified for the umpteenth time the date and time of pick up, which we’re both correct. Assuming Bolt’s reliability, and hoping for the best, we continued to get ready and make our way downstairs at 8 o’clock, well before the 8:15 am pick up time.  As is typical, we scheduled our ride so we could arrive well before the 10:15 departure time, hoping to get a coffee before we boarded the bus. At 8:10, there was still no driver notification. I automatically put in a request for an Uber, and wonder of wonders, there was one 11 minutes away! Thank you, Holy Spirit 🥹🙏💕🥹. I glanced at Nettie…”Shall I press confirm?” By now it was 8:12. 

“Yes,” she agreed. 

Done. We continued to wait at the same spot, and received consistent updates on exactly where our driver’s car was, what his name was, and what color and type of car he would be driving. I appreciate that safety factor with both Bolt and Uber. In the past, I’ve never had any trouble at all with Bolt, but promptly at 8:14, we received notification that our ride had been canceled 😱.  Perhaps we’ve been blacklisted in London because of the snafu upon our arrival. But I would hope not!

Anyhoo, as promised, our Uber arrived at about 8:28. We climbed into the car, thanked our driver profusely for coming for us, and set out for North London. This was a Tuesday morning, and the traffic was horrendous! He was the second to explain to us that three of the bridges in London are nonfunctioning because of faulty and needful repair. 

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“ On a tour with Golden Tours’” we told him. 

“And when do you need to be there?” he continued.

“By 10:15,” we answered. 

He then proceeded to chastise us in a very kind and respectful way, saying,  “When you need to be somewhere on the other side of the river in London, you really need to schedule extra time for yourselves. The traffic is always very heavy, and because of three bridges being down, everybody’s trying to get into London on the ones that are remaining.”

Nettie and I gave one another the ‘side glance’ and nearly burst into an uncontrolled fit of giggles. We had already agreed NOT to tell the UBER driver we had pre-rescheduled with BOLT, their competitor, because it was cheaper!  😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Every time we’ve gone somewhere where we’ve had little negotiation on arrival time, we’ve left with enough time to arrive 45-60 minutes prior to the scheduled time. And all three times, we’ve arrived at our destination with only 1 - 10 minutes to spare! 😂😂 For our ‘Golden Tour’ day, we arrived promptly at 10:14 😂😂😂🙏🙏💕. 

SO glad we didn’t miss THAT!

And today, our flight departs at 12:35 pm, boards at 11:30 am, and so we are planning to leave here at 8 o’clock, drive (technically RIDE😂) for the allocated 50 minutes, and hopefully arrive at Heathrow with plenty of time to wander around without any time/schedule-related stress.😂🙏

Vignettes Part II

One thing I will never quite adapt to when traveling abroad…the half shower door. 

Maybe I just am a splasher.😂😂  No matter how I adjust the nozzle, or the water pressure, I still manage to splash water well beyond the other half of the door that is persistently missing. Maybe I am not supposed to use water? 🤔

London, Covent Garden

If you recall, I had met a friend who lives in the UK while on my COSMOS Tour back in April.  He took a train down to London to meet us and spend the afternoon with us. We were supposed to meet him at 10:30 at the National Portrait Gallery in Covent Garden.  As is typical for us, we left early enough to get there thirty minutes early. However…🙄, the inconsistency with the London rail system reared its ugly head again 😂. We walked to our normal train station which is closest, East Putney (15 minutes), but there was a sign posted saying it was closed today and tomorrow for ‘maintenance’. The sign instructed us to proceed to Putney Bridge Station, about 15 minutes away from there, so off we went. Arriving there, somewhat out of breath, as now we were 15 minutes into our ‘grace period’, only to find this…

A sad thing to be sure, but now what to do…🤔

“Let’s go have some breakfast,” I suggested. “Then we can ask our nice people how to get to Covent Garden.” ‘Nice people’ being the same who helped us on our second day in London, when we wanted to ride the double decker bus into the city 🤓. 

And breakfast 😊

So, after bidding our new favorite friends farewell, we walked around the corner to our bus stop. Lo and behold! There was a bus there designated as ‘Rail Replacement’!  We hopped on at no charge, and proceeded directly up to the double deck😂😂👏👏. And LO and BEHOLD, we had the entire top floor all to ourselves!😱😆😂😂 This DAY is LOOKING UP! 

It took a mere 25 minutes to get us to Hammersmith Station, where we boarded the Picadilly Line, which took us to Leicester Square, and Alan. All that, and we still arrived just 45 minutes late 😂😂. Needless to say, we have scheduled an Uber to the airport tomorrow, as public transportation is too unpredictable and unreliable. 😣

Alan and I in the ‘Crypt’ 😆

Alan is such a chill guy. I remember how much I enjoyed wandering around with him in Prague, Budapest and Vienna. 😊
He took us to ‘The Crypt’…a cafe underneath an old church. It was such a surprise, and I’m sure not many tourists know about it!😂

The church above the ‘Crypt’. The stained glass windows were all blown out during WWII, and then replaced with these. Not as traditional, but lovely and unique in their own way.

And would you just look at those pipes?!😱

A tapestry of the church pre-WWII.

Still beautiful 💕.

This, just beyond the doors. 

Scenes in the neighborhood 😊.

Covent Garden 😊

This is the fourth or fifth ‘St. Paul’s Church’ in London 😂😂.

How beautiful is this? 🥹

This is a depiction of Saul (Paul) when he was struck blind. Loved this 💕.

…if I could have reached his head, I would have given him a cleaning! 🤓 

Glimpses of life in London!

Takes a lot to maintain a city nearly 2000 years old! 😂😂

Street performers…there were several out and about, and all drawing a crowd! 

This man was an opera performer. We were near the Royal Opera House, and he was just standing here singing. A hauntingly beautiful voice 😱.

And more scenes from Covent Garden 💕

The rooms in this hotel start at around $2000 per night. 😬

We decided to take the Uber Water Taxi home early, as our train lines were down, and there were THOUSANDS in downtown London for ‘Pro-Palestine’ demonstrations.  We were never so grateful to see our boat arrive as we were today! 

There was a heavy police presence preparing for the crowds…

The bridge to the east filled with marchers…

And the bridge to the west. I was shocked at how many there were!😱  

What a perfectly wonderful last-day-in-London 💕! In spite of the stressful bits, it has been relaxing, exhausting, memorable, and so very much fun.  While it is always hard to leave, it is so good to be going home.  I will be doing some more vignettes, but I have to finish my book before tomorrow’s 8:00 am Uber pick-up, so I’ll say goodnight for now 🤗.