The Beginning of a New Chapter

On April 28, 09 I set sail and embarked on another journey. I arrived in London in the early morning hours of the 29th. After we went to the hotel to have breakfast and get freshened up, the first place I wanted to visit was Stamford Bridge. It was a beautiful stadium. I wish they would have let us in to see the pitch, but no you have to take the tour to see inside. Oh well, so we shopped at the Chelsea FC Megastore before heading off to find a park.

I decided to take the tube to High Street Kensington cause it didn’t look like it was very far from Kensington Park…but it was. It was about a five minute walk. So when we got the park instead of walking around and admiring the greenery we crashed on a park bench. By this time we had been up for 24 hours and had walked a few miles. So mom fell asleep and I read Northanger Abby and guarded the backpacks. After resting for a while we decided to walk further into the park. Sitting by the pond were two nice old ladies that let us share the bench with them and we had a lovely conversation.

On our way back to the hotel we got three Pastys, one for mom and two for me : ) By the time we got back to the room it was only somewhere between 5 and 6. We were dying, I had been ready to crash since 2! So I watched Columbo and tried to keep my eyes open for as long as I could.

Thursday on our way to the Library we decided to pop into Harrods and say hello to Bridget. I was so happy to see her that I could have cried. While there, mom played a $150,000 piano, and I bought a guitar pick just to get a bag that said Harrods on it.

After that, we headed to the Library so I could by a new journal to be the home of the written version of the next chapter in my life. Then on the way back to the underground we found a pub with great fish n chips. While there we had a nice chat with a local who told us about an awesome store on Oxford St. So we decided to go there next… word of the wise- never go to the Primark on Oxford St in the afternoon. It was worse than Disneyland on the biggest holiday of the year, or the grocery store the night before Thanksgiving when everyone is out at the same time buying their pickles and olives. (Ironically, later that night we discovered that there was a Primark on the same street as our hotel, and it was much less crowded.)

After barely making it out of Primark alive we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in Hyde Park eating Caramel Slices and watching the locals play football (aka soccer in the US).

Most of the day Friday was spent shopping. And once we had wore ourselves out we found a West Cornwall Pasty and ate it in The Rose Garden at Hyde Park. It was a lovely setting with wooden benches surrounded by flowers and vines.

Friday night we took a bus ride through central London. Even though it was just a bus ride I enjoyed it so much. We drove through parts of London we hadn’t been before and ended up in a very familiar place. London by night is so beautiful with all of the building spotlights reflecting on the river.

On Saturday we joined up with our dear friends. We met Bridget at Harrods with all of our luggage, it was quite a site. So then we began our journey North with three heavy suitcases plus our hand bags. Crossed busy streets while lugging our cases and bags, mom stepped on glass, lots and lots of stairs, heated tunnels and trains in the underground crowded with the evening rush, it was quite an experience.

This was the first half of the holiday, I’ll save Paris and Hatfield for its own post : )