It seemed like we had just taken off when the flight attendants were suddenly offering us dinner. It's really kind of amazing how quickly they can get meals to the hundreds of people who are on a HUGE plane but they do. So as we eat we also browse through the multitude of movies, TV shows, and music that are available for us to enjoy during the flight (it is 5-1/2 hours long).
Dinner is over and it's getting late. Our seats are in the 2nd row in business class right by the bathroom for this area of the plane so it becomes very busy. Also, because we are in the 2nd row of business class, we can see into First Class. They each have individual pods similar to what you might see on the movie "Inception". Later in the night I would come to wish we were in First Class.
So, as I said, dinner is over, people are all taking their bathroom breaks, and everyone is watching movies until ready to try to sleep. Have you ever tried to sleep on a very large, very loud plane with hundreds of people on it? Even though the flight attendants turn down the lights in the cabin, many people are still watching their individual monitors as well as the large monitors in the front of the cabin that monitor the flight path. Thankfully, I brought along ear plugs as well as a sleeping mask to blackout the light. I also brought along a pair of socks to wear during the flight to keep my feet warm. It's always cold on airplanes!
I was amazed that I actually slept, even if it was for a short time. As soon as we woke up it was time for breakfast (didn't we just eat dinner?). We all quickly ate, people quickly used the restroom (there was a mass of people in our area), and then it was time to prepare for landing. Really?! Are we finally going to be landing in London? It is now Monday morning about 6:30 am London time - 8 hours ahead of home. We've missed a lot of sleep over the past 3 days and we missed some important tours. As I said, it is now Monday...we were supposed to have arrived here on Saturday morning. If we had arrived on Saturday as we had been planned, we would have traveled to Cottswald on Sunday and toured a quintessential English village. Monday's trip was the hardest one to miss. Again, if we had arrived on Saturday, we would now have been getting up and getting ready for our trip to Paris. We were going to take a train to Paris via the Chunnel (the tunnel under the English Channel). Not only would we have seen the Louvre, but also the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dam. Alas, we didn't. Maybe another trip.
We gather out things and file out of the plane (directly through First Class and see the small, yet much more comfortable than our regular seats, sleeping quarters they had with sheets and blankets. Then it was on to immigration, find out luggage, convert some of our money, and then on to find the express train from Heathrow to Paddington Station (yes, we went to Paddington Station!).
Once we got to the station it was just about 2-3 blocks we had to walk to get to the apartment where we would stay for 3 nights. We were tired. We were hungry (even though we had breakfast on the plane). We get to the apartment, in the front door, and begin climbing the stairs to our apartment. Little did we know that it was on the top floor, probably had been the attic area when these row houses were single family homes. Now they are split into multiple apartments. Anyway, we begin climbing and climbing and climbing. Finally, 96 steps later we reached it dragging our suitcase, weighted down by our 2 carry-ons, exhausted.
Inside we inspect the apartment, checkout the beds, determine who will sleep where, unpack some of our things, and decide we need to go get something to eat. So, we head back down the 96 steps to find food and get a few groceries as we planned to eat breakfast at the apartment each day. We walk back to Paddington Station, find a restaurant, sit down, and wait, and wait, and wait. No one comes to wait on us so Connie walked into the bar area and we find that it's kind of a self order and self serve place. Needless to say, we were too tired to do that. We decided to find a grocery store to pick up a few things for breakfast. Thankfully there was one within Paddington Station. Then we walked out onto the street to find a place to get a quick bite. You won't believe this, but our first meal in London was from McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds. We got it to go and went back to the apartment, once again walking up the 96 steps. We ate and then all took a well deserved nap.
Once we awoke from our nap, we sat around the apartment until around dinner time and then wandered down the steps once again to find someplace to eat dinner. We opted for an "American" style restaurant called Garfunkels for this first night. We decided we would become more Londonized tomorrow. Finishing our first dinner in London, we wearily walked back to the apartment (96 steps), spent a little bit of time unwinding, and then went to bed early. Even though we had all had a nice nap, we were still dragging.
Alarms were set (we had our first tour the next day to see the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral). As we settled in for the night we could finally rest easy and well as we had finally arrived...
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