Day 1 - Arrival in London

April 28, 2023 The plan was to meet at the baggage carousels in Terminal 3 at Heathrow. Carl is flying non-stop from Boston. I am flying non-stop from Los Angeles. His plane is supposed to arrive 20 minutes before mine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

We made eye contact while in line, in Customs. The line went quickly as they were using e-readers for passports and taking our photo. Easy peasy!

We have several activities to complete before we board the Heathrowe Express to Paddington Station. We need to activate our UK SIM cards in our cellphones,  exchange dollars for pounds, and purchase Oyster Cards used to quickly use transportation throughout London.

Carl is having some trouble getting his SIM card to activate. We worked on that for a while, and gave up to go to the Exchange and convert money. Then on to find the Paddington Express. Found it! The train arrived at the Paddington Station 13 minutes. At the Paddington Station, we finally found the "Prearranged taxis" stop. Uber qualifies as one of these. An Uber car arrived in 8 minutes. About a half hour later (traffic held us up), we were at Grace House in Vauxhall. Our AirBnB host shouted out to us, and helped bring up our luggage. We are on track!

The apartment is on the second floor. Security appears to be pretty good. The place is clean, but it has maintenance issues. The problems are annoying, but won't affect our trip.

We quickly located a Lebanese restaurant with good, healthy options. We ordered a falafel salad, and moussaka with rice. Then we returned to the flat to organize our living spaces. Yes, we have separate rooms!

We walked up to the Tesco supermarket three blocks away for breakfast items and wine. Then realizing we were a bit hungry, we headed off to find a fish & chips place nearby. The Windmill Fish Bar has excellent fried fish (cod & halibut), but huge portions. In the future, we will ask about size of a "regular" order. One plate could easily feed two people.

At this point, we were worn out. We walked back to the flat, said good night, and crashed. Actually, I stayed up a while to start this blog. I got most of it done, but I knew it needed editing. I'm sorry to be late, but this will probably be a pattern.

Hugs, Barb

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 30, 2023 at 8:28 AM

    Fish and Chips won me over

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 4, 2023 at 9:34 AM

    How is it going!?! Good weather! ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 6, 2023 at 6:37 AM

    How is your trip going to date?? All good??

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 8, 2023 at 1:06 PM

    Good to hear you are there, having fun, etc. etc. Bonnie

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 9, 2023 at 8:14 PM

    Hi Barb, Dulce has been keeping me company while I work on our driveway. I wish I could post her pic. Cheers!
    Curt

    ReplyDelete

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