England, here we come + Trip Day 2

It is Thursday. We had been anxious between “finally starting the trip” and “will we be ready for it”?

And we were very ready when our scheduled ride came at 11am to bring us to the airport. 

Check-in and luggage drop-off, security, all was quite efficient and easy. Soon we were near the gate and it was lunch time. The by now almost obligatory beer went down easily. 

The plane boarded on-time, may be even a bit earlier, but then the pilot announced that we were in a long waiting line for take-off because of the long line for landing in Newark. He was a bit cross about it, apologized about the delay and suggested we should write to our Representatives/Senators about the airport situations. He said he already had. Finally we took off. 

Soon after take-off we were in the clouds and stayed there most of the flight. 

At Newark we had to circle again and again until we finally could land.

We did have enough time until the next flight. It was quite a long walk to Gate 130 which felt very good though. A selfie before take-off!

Yes, airline food and 2 movies. Of course no sleeping. They were very skimpy with the wine and never came back.

Friday

England land in site and a nice view from the window.

We were supposed to land at London Heathrow at 6:55am but it was 7:54am actually.

Exiting the plane, walking to passport control and luggage ... it was all easy but we got a lot of steps. Jane had sent me a link to Windsor taxis. I downloaded the App (which was similar to Uber) and it told me a taxi would be there in 8 minutes. The problem was to figure out WHERE in this vast airport it would pick us up but we managed nicely and soon we were at Jane's house. We even saw James' brother Stephen before he had to go to work. 

Jane took us to the Airb&b she had arranged for us since it is a neighbor 2 doors down from her, had already the keys so we could bring our luggage there. We had a quick look what we might need for breakfast and James and I went up the town to Waitrose. It was only 10:30 am.

We could not help but just wander around a bit. Peascod Street from the bottom showed us right away that there was Christmas spirit already everywhere. A stall with German Sausages on the right and flowers for the festive season on the left. 

At the top of Peascod Street they were putting up a big Christmas tree next to the Statue of Queen Victoria. 

Turning around: A huge crown hanging above the street. 

Something has always changed from one of our visit to the next but Daniel's is still there and I knew that you can walk through it and walk out the other side close to Waitrose were we wanted to buy some things for breakfast. At the exit is a nice cafe and I stopped briefly to have a look (poor James but he is so patient with me). Mince pies! I just love looking at all the interesting things.

Of course we didn't bring a bag so had to buy a Waitrose bag for our 2 bananas, 1 avocado and instant oatmeal pots. 

Back at Jane we had a lovely time visiting with her and lunch and dinner. Yes, homemade shepherd's pie too. James and I had our card game and James won handsomely. Jane laughed about it.  I had a look at the "naked ladies" in her garden. Why don't mine bloom like this. I paid a lot for 5 bulbs several years ago and they have not bloomed ones. 

And then our bodies reminded us that we had "missed a night", we went to our airbnb and settled down very fast. The apartment is great!