London

LONDON -The Final Day

It seems strange to come to an end to our Europe trip. But it meant we had to fill our last day as full as we could. We packed our suitcases last night in preparation for this day. We left the apartment about 9:00 and walked to the Tube. We wanted to ride the underground for the thrill of it all!

It was above ground at the station so it just seemed like any other commuter. As soon as we got on, it dove underground, resurfacing at every stop, then going back down again, like some kind of worm or something! Well, that was fun.

We made our way to a Hop On Hop Off station and hopped on a tour bus. We got off down around Hyde Park and went to he largest, most expensive department store I've ever seen......HARROD's. I would like to say that we bought all of our friends and relatives Christmas gifts here.....but I can't. The prices were so high we couldn't even afford the free catalog! I was looking at a cool looking plastic, hard shell roll around carry-on suitcase? I turned over the tag and looked the £349 price tag right square in the eye! The American exchange rate is $0.60 the British Pound! You do the math! Okay, I'll do it for you. $558.75!!! For a dinky CARRY-ON??? Most plane tickets are cheaper than that!

Debby was looking at some purses there. She couldn't decide. Finally she figured if she bought one she wouldn't have anything left to out IN it! We did buy a Christmas ornament. We can't afford to get a tree until 2013.

We made our way over to a Cafe for lunch. I had a mystery meat club sandwich and potato chips. Have you ever thought about something to eat, thought about it and in your mind, it looks and smells fantastic? And your mouth is watering just thinking about it? Well, don't do that in Europe because it never works out! It's NEVER what you think! I had the Smoked Salmon club. It had a Pesto spread on it, shaved cucumbers, bitter lettuce and Salmon that actually looked like it had never been close to a smoker......unless it was the Fisherman cleaning it!!

We made our way to the Tube, again and popped up near the Abbey....no, THE Abbey. Westminster Abbey. Remember in the song? "....Westminster Abbey, the Tower of Big Ben...the rosy red cheeks of the little chil-dren". (Now don't keep singing that inside your head all day like me and Ron did!)

The Abbey was pretty cool. It was where Kate and what's his name got married. It was not as impressive as I thought it would be; what with unlimited funds, slave labor and all, one would think it would be very gaudy! It was done up in Gothic style, built over several centuries. They don't allow photographs to be taken inside the main Abbey so I can't show you much. There were many crypts inside the Abbey. All the dead Kings, Queens, Royal Ladies, etc. even William Wilbur Force , the man whom the movie, AMAZING GRACE was based upon; the man who lobbied Parlament for years to abolish the African slave trade, and finally won. He is buried there and has a memorial statue there, as well.

Afterwards, we headed for the Thames River and had a boat ride from the London Eye to the Tower of London. The river appears to be running a bit high; very brown and trashy. But the boat ride was fun!

We grabbed a taxi and headed back to the apartment. It was about 5:00 or so. We called for a 5:30 taxi to take us tithe airport. Our little old man taxi driver was from Bangladesh and had been driving since the late 60's. It was a long ride to the Airport hotel where we wanted to be in order to get to the airport by 5:30 AM. The old timer had a GPS and hotel address, yet still managed to drop us off at the wrong Ibis Airport Hotel. We had to get another taxi to take us to the right place! Hey! It's all good, right?

We made our flight okay. British TSA turned out to be fun, too. They thoroughly checked her bag and confiscated a small metal cheese slicer from Debby.....yes, again! This one was a legal size and all, but the TSA clutz cut his finger on it while digging around inside Debby's bag! So he condemned it as a dangerous weapon and hauled it off to the pokey!

Anyway, we are towards the tail end of our 8 hour plane ride to Newark NJ, anxious to step foot on American soil!

We landed in Newark NJ at 12:05! Yea!!!