Thursday June 9
The Airline had notified us that we needed to get pre-flight covid tests to get back into the USA. I have written about that before. Today was the day. Living in (near) Richmond Virginia seemed to make it fun visiting Richmond upon Thames, since we had to get that test anyway.
I had googled on it and Boots (where we had the appointments at 11:15 and 11:30 am) were in easy walking distance to the railroad station. Our train would leave Windsor & Eton Riversite at 9:53 am. Jane said she would enjoy coming too. Googling I found out that we get a group price for the tickets which were only about 27 pounds roundtrip for us three.
We were in good time and it all started out well. We sat in the train, it had pulled out and just before we came to the first stop ... I realized I didn't have my passport. James immediately said that he neither. OMG, we had said the night before that we should not forget them. Luckily we had realized just before the next station and jumped out. Oh, was I upset about myself. What now?
We were outside the railstation just in front of a barber shop debating how to get a taxi. We were a bit frantic. The door to the "First Class Barbers" was open and one young man came running with a taxi phone number business card. Of course James and I can't use our telephones so he wants to help and quickly dials and orders. They say 5 minutes ... but don't come. He calles them several times and the times keep changing. Jane has a phone (for emergency only) and actually uses it to call the Windsor Taxi but they say 20 minutes. The young barber sees how desperate we are. I see him come out of the shop with car keys in his hands and walks by us. I think "young man, please have a good idea" and after a moment he drives up with his car and says for a "tener" he would drive us. Windsor is only 10 minutes away. We jump in and off we go. I have only one 10 pound note left but Jane lends me another 5. Ali was so happy when I gave that to him. Well, not as happy as we were about his good dead.
In the car Jane had called Windsor Taxi (which we have used for many years). James and I run into the house to get the the passports which only took a minute and when we came out the taxi was there to bring us to Richmond. The driver was nice too and somehow was eager to know why we wanted to go there. I guess most people just use the train. We told him that we had an appointment and he hurried. He too was rewarded in cash. Pure chance that Jane had that amount in her backpack. He had not been keen on us using the card.
When he dropped us off in front of Boots Pharmacy we had 4 minutes until our appointment. The pharmacy part of the drugstore was upstairs, the testing in a tiny little hot room but everything went quite quickly. The pharmacist was friendly but could not give advice or results or anything. The results will be online. We are out soon on the street thinking what to do next.
Well, that was a hard story to tell. Who likes to admit that they did something very foolish? I had been quite upset with myself but after it was all done I decided I needed to get over it. Things happen and we dealt with it quite well and it turned out all right. We had to pay a price for stupidity but it was really quite small thinking about it.
Now we should make the best of the day. We decided to try to find the river. We had just come over a bridge. This part of the town really is cute with narrow streets which are mainly pedestrian. Pubs and cafes have seating outside. Lovely. We happened to run into a commotion. Some filming for a movie was going on. A girl with a huge camera could not tell us "because it is a big secret".
We find the river. A man who was painting suggests for us to go right.
An imitation paddlewheel just came by.
We found a map which showed us that there was a lock. If the weather would have been nicer we would have walked a bit more but the glooming clouds were making it a questionable decision.
The bridges and the lock were nice to see though.
Back the same way and a little further to the station.
Around the corner was a pub "inviting" us to lunch. We suggested to Jane that we should have a good one so she doesn't have to cook dinner in the evening and she was ok with that.
It was a nice place with nice people and the meat pies were great. Sorry I had already dug into mine. They always look so pretty.
Ha-ha, and then we actually used our train tickets for the way back.
In the front area of the station was a display of one photo of the Queen for every year she reigned. 70 years.
One reason for us not staying longer in Richmond was that we didn't bring our raincoats. But also ... we were really eager to get the results.
Well, we were happy and relieved when we saw the green dots. And then again ... figuring out how to get it uploaded to the airline for the boarding passes. Travelling used to be so much easier, but James and I did team work to get that online-stuff accomplished.
Jane ordered the taxi for tomorrow morning at 5:30 am. Oh yes, American Airlines had sent us emails that it was advisable to be there 3 hours before departure.
Yeah, and also the packing. One can't really go to bed earlier and
pre-sleep. Not me. Alarm set for 4:50 am. Not really a problem.
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