Cannot believe that our trip to London and our Fiftieth Anniversary European Cruise is here already!! After a lot of preparation, packing and re-packing (LOL) we both feel we are ready.
Unfortunately, I woke this morning to significant pain in my right knee – not my replacement knee. I brushed it off and kept on moving. Not a good move on my part. I did begin taking anti-inflammatory meds, but so far no relief.
Earlier today we dropped Jewel off with our friends Ginny and Wes. They are keeping her while we are away. (We are lucky to have such good friends).She will be in good company with them and their doggy – Rylee.
At 6 pm Ginny & Wes brought us to Logan for our overnight flight to London’s Heathrow Airport. I packed three suitcases – first two fly free and the third a one –hundred dollar charge. YIKES! Upon arriving at baggage check I was waiting for the fee but when the agent looked at our passports she commented that our passport numbers were in sequence and she never saw that before - then commented that must mean we were meant to be. I said yes indeed, we are celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary. She then told me our third bag would be flying free as an anniversary gift from Virgin Atlantic. Nice! She tried to also upgrade our seats but because of the full flight was unable to do so. I thanked her and we were off to our gate.
The line through security was really LONG but eventually we made it to the gate.
Did I mention my knee was throbbing but I kept on plugging along hoping that once I sat for a while it would ease up.
Well, the flight was uneventful but very cramped and uncomfortable. We didn’t get much sleep and definitely could not stretch – even my very short legs.
We left Logan late because there was a problem with the cargo door right under our seats. Sure glad they fixed that!
We arrived in London about 30 minutes later then expected. Heathrow is enormous and it felt like we waked three miles to get through immigration, customs and then to baggage claim. My knee was still hurting but not too bad. We had pre-hired a private cab ( another story altogether) and after searching for the driver we finally connected.
The airport is about 15 miles from London , on a good highway system except we were freaked our driving on the opposite side of the road. Our driver was very interesting to say the least. He made us guess where he was from by his accent – of course we were wrong. He migrated or escaped here from Afghanistan. Ron asked why he left Afghanistan ( really Ron? ) and he readily told us because of the Taliban. He eluded to the fact that he had worked for both the Afghan and US military but was not specific about his role and we didn’t explore that avenue either. He took us for a scenic tour of some of the London neighborhoods all while telling us about his family both here,in the US and about his two sisters that are physicians in Afghanistan. He was extremely interesting and knowledgeable about world events. We enjoyed our time with him and would have liked to spend more time listening to his life story.
Once at our hotel, The Grosvenor on Buckingham Palace Road, we were anticipating having to wait to get into our room because check-in is not until 2 pm and it was 11:30 when we arrived. The receptionist asked what our plans were for our time here and Ron told him we were on our fiftieth anniversary trip. Well, we were then upgraded to a larger, better room to honor our anniversary. WOW, we are really getting special treatment.
The Grovesnor is quite beautiful and very old world and ornate, until you get to the room. The rooms have been recently redone and are very slick and modern.
There is quite a contrast from old world to modern world !
After a brief 30 minute nap we decided to get lunch and walk to Buckingham Palace to take a tour while the Queen is still at her summer home. London is quite beautiful with incredible architecture at every turn. We are located right on top of the Victoria Train Station and just a few steps from the Victoria Bus Station where we will be catching a bus to the cruise ship in Southampton on the 6th.
We ate at the Taylor Walker Shakespeare Restaurant, a few steps from our hotel. Ron got a meat pie and I fish and chips. The food was excellent and no we didn’t hold out for a McDonald’s lol!
Then it was on to Buckingham Palace. Cannot put into words what we saw and we were not allowed to take pictures so will try to get a few off the internet. The opulence is indescribable and a little intimidating – who really needs over 750 rooms anyway!!!!
Since we were unable to take pictures I purchased a book on the palace and Ron took photos of the photos in the book. Didn’t come out too bad!
The tour is a self-guide audio tour taking about 2 hours. By the end of the tour my right knee was throbbing – not sure if it is bursitis or a torn meniscus! What???? We planned to do a lot of walking but that may be out of the question if this pain (9 on the pain scale ) doesn’t ease up! Ron is having issues with his right knee as well and I caught him grimacing and limping a bit too. I’m glad we aren’t horses or we would be put down!
We stopped for a coffee and tea at Starbucks arriving back at the hotel by 4:15 pm. By 5 pm we could not longer keep our eyes open and had to lay down. We promptly fell asleep, waking at 9:30 pm thinking we had slept through the night. NOT!! So here I am with an ice pack on my knee doing the blog and praying that I will be able to do some walking in the morning. We may have to change our plans but I can assure you we will be doing more touring even if it kills us.
