Up bright and early today as we are off to London.
First task of the day is to drop the motor home off to Mark at the
storage facility where it will be washed, waxed and put away until
next year. It still seems strange to me that the time has flown by so
quickly. I’m going to miss touring the UK – we’ve seen so many
wonderful things.
Mark has organised for a local identity, Doreen, to drive us to the
train station. Now Doreen is a classic. She’s 70, not short of an
opinion, has her hand in everything, and if she’s ever at a loss for
something to do, could no doubt take up rally driving and win
hands down. The woman is a speed demon and tears around the
local roads as if she’s on a mission. Consequently we arrive with
time to spare.
The train ride takes a little over 4 hours. It’s a pretty trip as it follows
the coast in a parts and there are quite a few ocean and river views.
The train starts off quite empty, but a few stops in, it’s virtually full.
It’s not a high speed train, but still zooms along, especially apparent
when it passes one going in the other direction.
The train stops in Paddington (like the bear :)) where we switch to
the underground to end up at Gloucester Road station.
It’s here that the fun starts. The bags are seriously heavy and there
are many flights of stairs to contend with. And we left quite a
number of things in the motorhome too!
Chris valiantly takes my larger, heavier case and lugs it up and then
down stairs, as I struggle with his. We both also have heavy hand
luggage. A nice man stops and offers to carry my bag, but I feel so
guilty watching Chris struggle with my bag that I tell him, thank you
but no….and then am really sorry that I said no.
Nevertheless, we finally make it through the train exchange and out
of the local station.
We are staying at the Ashburn Hotel in Kensington, and on arrival
we find they have upgraded us to large king room. Bonus! The room
is spacious, comfortable and nicely appointed.
We’ve made arrangement to have dinner with a couple of
Deloittians from Melbourne; Michael and Jeanette who are both
working in London. Michael has organised a Thai restaurant which is
delightful and we have a fun night catching up. Will be interesting
to see if they end up coming back home. They’ve both had a good
experience here and Jeanette, who’s been here longer has travelled
extensively.
Off home on the underground afterwards. It’s been a long day.
Miss Baci Travels 