Home - The "Lick Your Plate Tour" comes to an end
I've dubbed the trip the lick your plate tour since the food was so excellent morning, noon and night and those desserts !! Just all so good, I always managed to finish everything on my plate. It could have been called, "Drinking Around Europe" as well. I also managed to gain 11.5 pounds in 19 days doing it. I lost it before the trip, I can lose it again.
Last Day in London
I got up early sunday in London at 7AM after only a few hours sleep to walk Hyde Park. I walked North and South and East and West of this big park. Saw Kensington Palace and Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain and Prince Albert Hall and generally enjoyed a beautiful morning walk around the park. I then walked over to Harrods Department store. What a massive place that is. Too bad it was closed. Hopped on a open top tour bus and went back to the hotel, got dad and went for a full english breakfast. Really good.
Negotiated with a cab to take us to the airport - by meter it would have been $65 Pounds or ($132 CDN) to Heathrow - I got him to agree to a flat rate of 40 or $82CDN which saved us $50. Good deal. They have a high speed train that goes there but with our luggage, didn't want to deal with that.
Went to a pub (surprise surprise) at Heathrow and had an excellent 9.5 hour flight home. King Kong, Sleepless in Seattle and Rumor Has it were the movies. Only watched the last one. I brought an extra battery pack with me to use the laptop for 4 hours but somehow in my luggage it turned on and when I went to use it, it was drained. That was a drag.
Was great to see Linda and the kids at the airport - I missed them a lot.
London is a great city, big city but very very expensive city. Breakfast was $42 CDN, small ice cream at the airport was $6.50CDN, a juice from the corner store is $3.50CDN. I noticed just in my short time there that many of the service people aren't so good in the service department. Many were not the friendliest folks. The people in general are friendly though, just not the service levels. Also noticed that the city is quite dirty with litter. I heard that they don't like garbage cans since people put bombs in them so you just dump your trash on the street. They have cleaners out each night cleaning everything which is good but before they arrive, there is lots of crap around. Lot's of construction and dust as well. I noticed I sneezed a lot there. Having said that, I still love the city and can't wait to visit it again one day. The nightlife in London was way more than anything I have ever seen in any other city.
I really want to go back to Rome, London and Barcelona for a much longer time.
It was a trip of a lifetime - going with my dad and seeing Europe was such a privilege and I am so lucky to have experienced this. My dad was great, generous and patient.
Took Monday off, I wanted to go to work but just too much to do at home and settle in. Work as usual tomorrow.
Now I have to edit my pictures and videos. Took 2670 pictures (8.2Gb) and 3 hours of full length video. If I didn't edit, wouldn't that be an exciting evening to have people over. Hey, come watch 7 hours of pictures and videos. I'd be the only one to show up for that one.
And yes, the first place I stopped ont he way home was a 7-Eleven for a slurpee. Boy I needed that. My longest slurpee drought in over a decade.
I've dubbed the trip the lick your plate tour since the food was so excellent morning, noon and night and those desserts !! Just all so good, I always managed to finish everything on my plate. It could have been called, "Drinking Around Europe" as well. I also managed to gain 11.5 pounds in 19 days doing it. I lost it before the trip, I can lose it again.
Last Day in London
I got up early sunday in London at 7AM after only a few hours sleep to walk Hyde Park. I walked North and South and East and West of this big park. Saw Kensington Palace and Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain and Prince Albert Hall and generally enjoyed a beautiful morning walk around the park. I then walked over to Harrods Department store. What a massive place that is. Too bad it was closed. Hopped on a open top tour bus and went back to the hotel, got dad and went for a full english breakfast. Really good.
Negotiated with a cab to take us to the airport - by meter it would have been $65 Pounds or ($132 CDN) to Heathrow - I got him to agree to a flat rate of 40 or $82CDN which saved us $50. Good deal. They have a high speed train that goes there but with our luggage, didn't want to deal with that.
Went to a pub (surprise surprise) at Heathrow and had an excellent 9.5 hour flight home. King Kong, Sleepless in Seattle and Rumor Has it were the movies. Only watched the last one. I brought an extra battery pack with me to use the laptop for 4 hours but somehow in my luggage it turned on and when I went to use it, it was drained. That was a drag.
Was great to see Linda and the kids at the airport - I missed them a lot.
London is a great city, big city but very very expensive city. Breakfast was $42 CDN, small ice cream at the airport was $6.50CDN, a juice from the corner store is $3.50CDN. I noticed just in my short time there that many of the service people aren't so good in the service department. Many were not the friendliest folks. The people in general are friendly though, just not the service levels. Also noticed that the city is quite dirty with litter. I heard that they don't like garbage cans since people put bombs in them so you just dump your trash on the street. They have cleaners out each night cleaning everything which is good but before they arrive, there is lots of crap around. Lot's of construction and dust as well. I noticed I sneezed a lot there. Having said that, I still love the city and can't wait to visit it again one day. The nightlife in London was way more than anything I have ever seen in any other city.
I really want to go back to Rome, London and Barcelona for a much longer time.
It was a trip of a lifetime - going with my dad and seeing Europe was such a privilege and I am so lucky to have experienced this. My dad was great, generous and patient.
Took Monday off, I wanted to go to work but just too much to do at home and settle in. Work as usual tomorrow.
Now I have to edit my pictures and videos. Took 2670 pictures (8.2Gb) and 3 hours of full length video. If I didn't edit, wouldn't that be an exciting evening to have people over. Hey, come watch 7 hours of pictures and videos. I'd be the only one to show up for that one.
And yes, the first place I stopped ont he way home was a 7-Eleven for a slurpee. Boy I needed that. My longest slurpee drought in over a decade.
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