04/07/22 And they’re off…

on a new adventure. 

The vacation trip with Abby technically began at 7:30 pm in Las Vegas, but it was already the 7^th in London when we took off. It was, for the most part, an uneventful flight. It was a little bumpy during the approach to Heathrow, but that did not last too long. WE landed only a couple of minutes late.

After hiking a long way to get to border control, we tried to use the automated passport check function. I went up to the machine, presented my passport, and the machine said “wait.” So I did—but nothing happened. An attendant said start over and I did. Wait—nothing happened again. A supervisor came over and said start again.  I did. Wait—nothing happened. Now the line was backing up. Finally the supervisor came over and said ”It’s not you—really, it’s not” and sent us to a human being. But I noticed that other people went through the automated process after I tried and failed.

But that was the only glitch.

We caught the fast train to Paddington station and the Tube from there to Baker Street. We were even ahead of schedule!

We were met at the apartment. I should probably point out I thought we were staying at 7 Park Road, but our reservation was for 17 Park Road. That could have been bad, but no harm was done. We are located on Park Road, across from Regents Park and just a block from the end of Baker Street. [Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson lived there in the Doyle mysteries.]

We set up the apartment and went out for what we thought would be a quick meal at an Indian food restaurant. We ended up with enough take home to feed ourselves for several more days, but we enjoyed our time at the restaurant. AND we introduced Abby to Fanta Orange soda which is only worth drinking outside of the U.S. because for some unknown reason it tastes far better in Turkey, Spain, and England than it does at home.

We are all tired and it will be an early night for all of us. “Early night” for Abby seems to mean that she does her reading in the bedroom rather than in the living room. We’ll see how well that works for her tomorrow morning when we need to be out of the apartment by 8:30 to go to the Tower of London.