England Diaries - Conclusion

I think it's about time to wrap this travel blog up and start writing again about the important things in life. Namely, my cats.

So. It's Tuesday, May 23rd and we've spent close to 7 hours hiking that day but it's still only 5 pm. We go back to the hotel to shower and decide to see a movie. The Da Vinci Code has just come out and is playing at the small little theatre in Keswick. The doors opened at twenty till 8 for the 8 o'clock showing and you paid at the snack counter for both your tickets and your snacks to the same kindly man who owned the place. On his advice, we shelled out the extra money for the balcony tickets. We also bought a large popcorn but--alas--English popcorn is sweet, not buttered. Less need for napkins, though.

The theatre was packed.  Some seats were reserved in advance and had 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper taped to them, marking them as such. The owner closed down the snack area and turned on the projector. After 15 minutes of straight commercials, no previews, the lights came back on. This was so everyone had a chance to buy ice-cream from the girl who had magically appeared in the balcony with a full tray of ice-cream. I'm telling you, it was like chow in the water.

So everyone is fed and the 8pm movie finally starts at 8:22. (Good movie, btw. Go see it).

The next day, Blair is sick. (This is the day I popped in on the blog to say hello to you all). He skipped breakfast and stayed in bed until 10:30 checkout. He rallied though, and pulled through it. We grabbed the train back to London  and just missed getting inside our hotel with all our luggage before the rain started.

The next day, Thursday, was our last in London. We went to Hamleys Toys where the staff is encouraged to play with as many toys as possible and which is MUCH fun.  Blair wanted to visit the Sherlock Holmes museum which explains the accompanying photo.  I was frankly sick of touring at this point and was being a big poop and refused to get in the picture and be Watson. Shame on me.

We hit Harrods, looking for gifts for people and as so often happens when it finally comes down to buy things, found absolutely nothing  we wanted.

Here's where the benevolence of the Universe comes into play. I was tired and grumpy and wanted to go back to the hotel and nap. We went to our room--and by this time it was 2 o'clock--and room service hadn't come yet. I was already not happy with the accommodations as they'd placed us in a corridor with construction going on. I called the front desk and they sent someone immediately to come clean. Not wanting to be in the way, we left.

Blair wanted to ride a double decker bus and coaxed me along, which I'm glad he did. We sat in the front row up top and it was fun. We got off at a stop and noticed a large crowd of people around The Theatre Royal Haymarket, advertising the Noel Coward play "Hayfever," starring Dame Judi Dench and Peter Bowles.  The play started in 30 minutes. "Want to go?" said Blair.

I love Judi Dench. "Yes," I answered. But when we went to buy tickets, only first row side balcony seats were left. "They're pretty bad," said the ticket seller. We bought them anyway and are so glad we did.  All it took was leaning forward on the rail for the entire play for us to have a PERFECT view of the play. Dench was right in front of us for several scenes.  We immensely enjoyed the play and it was just the icing on the cake for our trip.

We went back to the hotel and I was done. I was ready to pack and go home. Blair had seen a steakhouse he wanted to eat in near the theatre, so we picked up some groceries for me for dinner in the hotel room, and he walked back out to the theatre district for dinner.

Friday morning we left in pouring rain to walk to the Underground. We were hauling the luggage and so couldn't carry umbrellas, so we just had the hoods of our jackets pulled over us and got thoroughly drenched.  I'm an early airport arrival person and thank God I am--the lines were huge both to drop off luggage and for security.  We had left almost 2 hours early and only had 35 minutes to wait before we boarded our flight.

Once back state side, our flight from New Jersey to GSO was cancelled and we had a 4-hour delay. I was almost numb by that time and both of us felt sick by the time we got to GSO, just because we'd been up almost 22 hours at that point. SO happy to be home.

And thus ends the adventures of Dena and Blair in the UK. Thank you for your patience in sticking with me through this. One thing we did decide is that a 2-week trip is too long for us. Future trips will only be 8-9 days. 

And what was the first thing I did when I walked in my front door? That's a no-brainer.  Kissed and cuddled the girls, of course.

Ah yes, all is now back to normal.