Rainy Edinburgh

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Arriving In Southampton and Our Ship

The Voyager in Southampton

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

London Saturday, Aug. 6-9, 2011

Our plane trip was uneventful even with 3 children under the age of 4 close by.  When we first got into our seats and I heard a sort of screaming baby, I cringed.  After everyone settled in, all was well.  Though I may have gotten around 2 hours of sleep and watched part of Arthur (the new version) on the plane, I felt ok.  We got off the plane, went through immigration, gathered our luggage, found our driver booked through - info@londonairporttransport.co.uk/, and were on our way into London. From the time our plane landed and stepping since our home for two nights at the Crown Plaza Kensington, it took 1 hr and 20 minutes.  Unbelievable!

Our driver was congenial and also brought our friends, Trish and Dave arriving later that day.  The receptionist, Daniella, was friendly and efficient.  We are paying with our room at the “Clown”” Plaza with Priority Points through my credit card…. Wonderful inventions!  Our room at the CP has two double beds, looks over a nice garden beside St. Stephens Church and worked nicely as our home base until we move to The Chesterfield Mayfair on Monday.  After settling in, we showered and immediately went to sleep for a few hours.

After waking up and taking showers, we headed to the lobby and reached our friends who had just arrived and gotten into their room.  We asked the concierge who was most helpful during our stay at the CP-K for restaurants, and they were only a few blocks up the road.  After lunch, we walked around Kensington and happened on a pub, The Stanford Arms, just a block from our hotel.  We all hoisted a local beer and enjoyed the setting.  When we returned to our hotel, we hit the bar, made friends with the bartender and found a nice little cove to enjoy talking and making plans for our next two days in London.

On Sunday morning the news on the TV was all about the fire in Tottenham the night before.  Throughout our stay in London we were not affected by the riots at all.  We were all well rested nap and a good breakfast at Garfinkels (2 breakfast for 10Ls) we got our Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) tickets, changing to a two day pass and hoped on the top of the bus and saw the sights.  The traffic was extremely heavy that morning as there was a marathon going on in the city.  We saw the biking segment later that afternoon around Buckingham Palace later that afternoon.  Around 1:00pm we were near Piccadilly Circus, and we had to be at the Palace for our 2:00pm ticket pick up, so we hopped off and walked down Piccadilly.  Having stayed at the Park Lane in London a few times, I was familiar with the area, so we walked as I looked for my markers.  We had a great stroll and we made it to the Palace with plenty of time to spare.  The queue to get into the Palace was long, we were moved quickly to our time. 

The Palace was opulent to say the least, but the queen is one of the richest women in the world.  The Palace is both a home and a work sight.  Kate’s wedding dress was on display and it was a draw for many.  It certainly was beautiful, but I liked the cake.  All the special flowers and decorations were intricate and looked good enough to eat!  We could also get closer to the cake than the dress.  As our tour ended onto a back lawn, it was pouring rain.  We walked to the gift shop and then the exit.  Along the way, we splashed through many mud puddles and my sneakers ended up with some Royal Mud on them…..  picture enclosed.

After a walk towards the next HOHO stop, we found a pub (imagine that!) and stopped for lunch/dinner and a beer.  We found our HOHO bus and headed back to Kensington, passing Harrods on the way.  We dropped our stuff in our rooms and found our special corner and our favorite bartender.  

On Monday, we got up, ate breakfast at Garfinkels again and checked out, leaving our luggage for later.  We found our HOHO bus and settled in for the day.  The Kensington area of London is serviced by the blue line, so we road to Marble Arch and changed to the red line.  On this route, we went through Trafalger Square, by Parliament and Big Ben, over to the London Eye, London Bridge, the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.  When we returned to Marble Arch, we got the blue line westbound and stopped at Harrods.  I have been in London a few times and my visit to Harrods was my first.  We walked slowly around ogling all the finery, through the food court, up the famous Egyptian Elevator to the third floor.  We found Florian’s Café and had lunch.  We made no purchases at Harrods, but headed back to the HOHO stop and caught our bus back to Kensington, gathered our luggage, hopped into a taxi and our next stop was the Chesterfield Mayfair, our included Regent hotel.

 The Chesterfield is a very nice, very English hotel with fabric wall coverings. 

Crystal and I were given our key and we told the bellman our room number.  Our key didn’t seem to work, so I left Crystal and went back to registration.  I was told I had gone to the wrong room.  With a smile on my face, I said, showing the young lady the number she had written on my card, “I went to the right room.”  She corrected herself and our keys were rekeyed for the room across the hall.  When I returned, Crystal was beginning to settle in our first room with our luggage.  We then noticed a nice plate of strawberries in our room….. hmmmmm.  Looking at the card, they were sent to someone else.  Darn!  We checked out our new room that was set up with a king bed.  That would not do, so I called reception and was told they would check on it.  After waiting 15 minutes, I called reception again and was told our beds would be switched out at turn down.  OK, got bags moved, settled in, found Trish and Dave and found a pub for some drinks.  We enjoyed the local flavor, I was on wine by this time.

More later……..

Off to Jolly Old England

Wednesday, I depart home to begin my England sojourn.  After spending two nights with Crystal in DC, we fly to Heathrow.  Crystal's friends, Trish and Dave will be joining us at the hotel and we'll hit the ground running.  We have tickets to tour Buckingham Palace  and would like to see a West End show.  Crystal and I want to take a whirl on The London Eye. 

Trish, Crystal and I have had such fun planning for this cruise.  Crystal and I have been to London before (my last time was in 1994, I think) so we will be enjoying the city through the eyes of new visitors!

Two nights we are staying in a hotel in the Kensington area and our final night we'll be in Mayfair.  Tuesday morning we'll take the ship's shuttle to Southampton and our home for 10 nights, the Regent Seven Seas Voyager.  Regent has named our cruise, Celtic Charms.  The itinerary is:

In true LCT fashion, I named our cruise CHARMS ( Cruising Heraldic Areas: Royals, Mansions and Scotch).  So from hence we will be called the CHARMerS.  Pictured above is our virtual pin.

A Trippy Summer

Well, with Memorial Day Weekend here, it's time for summer vacations.  I am taking three small trips in the US and two out of the country.

My short trips include a visit with my sister in Arizona.  It'll be nice to visit with her and her guy, my niece, nephews and meet my grand-nephew.  He's 5 so it's about time we get acquainted.  Another trip is to DC to visit my good buddy, Crystal and see Wicked for the first time.  I purchased the CD a few months ago and sing almost all the songs with no help.  Luckily I know most of the plot with the exceptions of two major points in the story, so there will be some excitement!  One more US trip might take me to New Jersey to have a mini reunion with my Aussie friend, Lee, her son, Michael and my other good cruise buddies from Cleveland, Kathy and Al.

Now for the out-of-country trips... to be continued.....

An OZing We Will Go

Crystal and I are sitting here twiddling our thumbs waiting, waiting, waiting to walk out the door.  With the time change last night, we got up earlier.  This just adding an extra hour to our wait.  Still need to close my suitcase and maybe take one or two more things out.  Just not sure. 

We booked this cruise in July 2009, so all our planning has been completed up to this point.  Some plans can change and that's ok, to a certain extent.  Lucky for us, we aren't on Qantas going over to Sydney.  Regent put us on United... this is my first UA flight, so the airmiles will have to go toward something else.  And I'm sitting here with over 100,000 Delta miles.  Such is life! 

Our travel companion, Betty flew over on Friday, so she is already in Sydney, sans luggage.  At least she has a few more days for her "mishandled" luggage to reach her before Wednesday when all we fly to Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef area.  Crystal and I both have GBR clothes and bathing suits in our carry-ons.

Not much else to say except, "I'M READY TO GET OUT OF HERE..... NOW!!"

Yes, I am excited.....

Left Home Today

Today, Friday, November 5, 2010, I began my journey to Australia and New Zealand.  I awoke around 2:30am with a sore throat.  Great, all I can see is the immigration employees in Sydney Airport excluding me from entering the country and Crystal leaving me alone, sick at the airport.  I then got up, took an Airborne and did a Zicam swab and went back to me.  Couldn't sleep, so watched TV for a bit.  Tried to sleep be had a bad dream.  Finally I got up at 7am, took a shower and did odd jobs around the house.  At 8:30am I was on the phone to my favorite nurse at the doctor's office telling her my dilemma .  She said, "Beth, you're leaving on your trip today, right?  Get in here, we'll give you a shot and meds."  Thank you, Kristy!!  What a doll.  That emergency elevated.

Went back home and finished my chores and my good buddy, Celia picked me up, took me to the Wilson Train Station.  A permanent passenger (on left with male friend) is seen sitting by the tracks each day.

more later.....