Keep Moving and Look Right

Maybe the toughest part of these trips is the first day.  Flying all night and arriving cranky doesn’t make for the best beginning.  Our flight was uneventful, and even though we upgraded to the seats with a bit more legroom, it’s hard to sleep and be comfortable.  But we’re here, so no whining!

Here’s a little travel tip: When you arrive in Heathrow, prepare yourself to walk a really long way.  It’s a huge airport and depending on where you come in, it can mean 15 or 20 minutes of walking with all the people you've spent the last hour with to the passport control area.  

We bought our Oyster cards with a 7-day travelcard on them plus 15 BPs for the extra days.  This is incredibly confusing when you read about it online, but I think this is the best travel plan for us.  We can use them on the tube and the busses, and we plan to use both.

Thanks to a few helpful folks on the TripAdvisor forum, we knew just how to get from Heathrow to our local tube stop, and it was a snap.  We sort of unpacked, showered, and headed out for food.  We had lunch not far from here at a bakery called Le Pain Quotidien.  Excellent French onion soup and sandwich.  We’ll be back there.

And then we determined that our goal needed to be - Stay Awake!  It has been a beautiful, sunny day, so whenever we sit down for a moment in the sun, one of us nods off.  So we had to keep moving. We walked through part of Hyde Park.  Gee, it looked so much smaller when I was looking at Google Maps!  We jumped on a bus and went to the Picadilly area. I’d read there was a market on Tuesdays at St. James Church, but it was worthless, so we sent to Fortnum and Mason which is amazing! Greg, who loves things in jars, was in heaven.  They had every kind of chutney, honey, and jam you can imagine.  (If any of you are reading this and hoping that we bought something for you that we’re bring home, forget it.  I don’t think you’ll get Greg to part with this stuff.)  And in the spirit of “keep moving” we walked around the Picadilly area and over to Bond Street finding every high-end name store under the sun.  Tiffany.  Cartier. Gucci.  But then I saw TJ Maxx so knew where the real people shop!  Oh and we stopped at Laudree for some macaroons which I know we’ll find in Paris too but they looked and tasted so wonderful.  How do they make those?  (JB, my baker friend, do you know?)

We bussed and then walked home stopping at a few antique shops along Kensington Church Street. And then there was this wine shop.  Just so fun to walk and discover great shops every time we turn around.  

We didn’t think we were hungry for dinner until we started reading about Mediterraneo.  Great little Italian restaurant in Notting Hill within easy walking distance.  Grilled calamari, wonderful pasta, sauteed spinach and lots of wine.  The owner sent limoncello to finish.  Suddenly we weren’t so tired! Liked it so much that we made a reservation for Saturday night.  (You see, BB?  You can find good food in London!)

Greg was too tired to even take his camera along today, but here are a few shots I took including some of tonight's dinner. I promise the photos will get better as the vacation progresses.

Later: I realize I forgot to explain the "look right" reference in the title. I'm sure you know that folks in England drive on the left side of the road.  So those of us here visiting need to keep remembering that cars and buses are coming from the right instead of the left. The helpful people of London have tried to save us by writing LOOK RIGHT in big white letters on the street at every intersection.  However, they must not realize that none of us are looking down.  We are all too busy looking at cell phones, maps, and the beauty of the city around us.