Grease is the Word...

We're here! It's Saturday night as I write this, and we are finally back in our hotel room after a great day. It's time to shower and sort out our suitcases, which pretty much exploded all over the hotel yesterday... but I'm ahead of myself.

Our trip started out at the airport on Thursday night, and being the Type A people Cheryl and I are, we were all there pretty early. No problem, as we had plenty of time to have a bite, wander duty free, and grab the necessary magazines and chocolate for the trip. I have started daring people to do crazy things (something my friend Chris does all the time) by trying to bribe them with "5 bucks". Usually there is no danger of the person following through, as it's something like "5 bucks to go up to that woman and tell her to get a haircut", or "5 bucks to burst into song". Well, I dared Marjie to run to the other end of the gate, climb on a statue of a lion, and let me take her picture, and... she did.

The flight was fine - no problems other than lack of sleep and the fact that I lost my blackberry. I'm pretty sure it fell out of my bag when I was sliding it under the seat in front of me, and I've written to Air Canada. For all I know it's on a flight to Singapore or something, but one can hope. After all, Air Canada has great customer service, right? Oh. Never mind.

So we arrived about 8:30 in London, to sunny and warm (not hot) skies. We had no trouble at all in customs, our bags were off quite quickly, and we immediately hailed a cab, driven by a Grumpy Old Man. The GOM informed us that there was a waterburst in Earls Court (where our hotel is) and he just didn't know what we were going to do. As he shook his head mournfully, he muttered to himself and stowed our bags. I said cheerfully "well, if anyone can get us there I'm sure it's you". GOM said, "not with the road like that. And with all this luggage. You must be staying a while." Little did he know how much of a challenge it was for all of us to pack in such a thrifty way!!! Anyway, GOM did indeed deliver us right to our door, with only a little bit of traffic to slow us down. Perhaps he appreciated our cheery chatter.

Our hotel is lovely. Owned by a German chain, K+K is definitely more continental than English. Our sink is Villeroy & Bosch, the door lock is something we still haven't figured out, and the counter is run with German efficiency, not to mention clipped tones. It's a great room and there's a gorgeous garden out back which I'm sure we'd enjoy if it wasn't so wet. 

Yes, the sunny day clouded over pretty quickly, but we still headed out to the Greyline bus tour of the city. We figured it was a good way to kill the few hours before our rooms would be ready. It was terrific and the rain held off till just about the end. Marjie fell asleep in my lap after about 20 minutes, and Jenn and I lasted a bit longer, and then we started to nod. We had a recording to listen to, and when it wasn't playing, we had trouble staying awake! It was, however, a great way to see a few introductory sites. It was so nice to be back in the city - I have been here so many times (even had the chance to stay for a month when Janet was living here for a year back in 1989) that I am very comfortable here.

We were in our rooms at 2:30, and asked for a wake-up call for 6pm (which never came, so thank goodness Jenn woke up at 7!! Cheryl called soon after and we went down to meet everyone and go for dinner around the corner at a fantastic Italian restaurant. The girls were still pretty much zombies, but they did a good job and tucked into a healthy meal. Still, we all collapsed at 11 and fell into a deep sleep until the alarm when at 7:30 the next morning.

We met at 8:30 and went to a rather grimy looking place for breakfast. We hoped that it would be that typical "hole that serves good food". Not so much. It was certainly ok, but we will choose somewhere different tomorrow I think!

It was a cool and sunny morning, with the promise of rain, so we were all in a bunch of layers, carrying our umbrellas and preparing for the worst. The Negative Nellys kept predicting a downpour any minute, but we didn't get one drop. The Royal Standard, indicating the Queen is in residence, was flying over the Palace (she didn't invite us for tea, which I thought was quite rude). Despite ominous clouds, we had a great time at the Changing of the Guard. We took the tube to Hyde Park Corner (the tube has no service on the District and Circle lines today, which I think is preposterous on a summer Saturday), wandered around and took a few pictures. 

From the corner we sauntered through Green Park and St. James Park, and found a spot on the stairs by the Victoria Monument. It was fun people and pigeon watching (Lexi named one of the pigeons "Joaquin". Not sure why, but it stuck. He stayed with us for a while, much to Cheryl's dismay thanks to her hatred/fear of all flying creatures!), and even the local copper, assigned to shoo people (not pigeons) off the monument seemed to be having a good time. At first we thought he was another GOM, but he started hamming it up for photos with tourists of all sizes and shapes. I can't imagine how sick he must be of tourists. Jenn put it well and said "he is probably saying, if you ask me another question I will shoot you". Perhaps a bit strong, but right on the money! Security was heavy, maybe because the Queen was nearby, with police carrying some rather frightening looking guns. I offered 5 bucks to Lexi to go ask if she could hold the gun for a photo. :)

From there we walked over to Harrods, which was crowded beyond belief, and also pretty tacky inside - they are having a one-time sale and there were huge red and white sale stickers everywhere, somewhat detracting from the ambiance, but oh well. We split up here, and Cheryl and her family went in search of ice cream, whereas we went in search of a cafe and a bit of lunch. We had a GREAT time with friendly waiters and a pretty little spot over the fruit & veg hall. We loved our food and especially our fruit beverages: Lilac Beauty, Citrus Tonic, and Tropical Revitalizer. After lunch we each picked out gowns in the expensive section, tried on shoes, sprayed perfume, and visited the Harrods Bear. Janet & Jean, you should know that Harry is coming to live with you. He's very polite, but has an eating disorder and is very skinny. Marjie picked him because he clearly has a disability. (Read: they were skimpy on the stuffing for this bear!)

We met up with Hazel, Kayla, and Joyce and then walked down the street for a beverage. Soon after the girls were fading, so we walked back to the hotel and had a little rest before heading out AGAIN to pick up our tickets for the theatre. Well, you'd think I'm pretty good with directions, but NO. We had a horrible stinky crowded tube ride, and then I had the girls running for 35 minutes as we tried to find the ticket office which closed at 6. We found it at 6:15, and the kind people there told us where the head office was, so we raced up there, and thank goodness, they had our tickets. So we rewarded ourselves with a little Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and headed to the theatre in Piccadilly Circus where we met up with Cheryl & Lexi.

The show, Grease, was great! Quite different from the movie, but fun and colourful, and I sang along quietly (most of the time). The girls seemed to have a great time, although Lexi said the movie was better. I promptly burst into song to reward her for saying that. Ahhh, so easy to embarrass teens.

So we're back, and it's just about time for bed. We are meeting at 8 for breakfast tomorrow, and then heading to Victoria Station to pick up our transfer to Dover to board the ship. We're all pretty excited!

And so for now, toodles.

PS - the internet connection here is not uploading my pictures, so I will fix that on the ship... I hope...