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London Trip Report - Day 10 - May 15, 2005
Today we got up around 10. We had the curtains drawn so it was dark in the room, plus both of us had taken sinus medication which knocked us out. I got up and went down to Starbucks for our breakfast while Linda showered and cleaned up. When I got back, I had to scramble to get everything packed up. We plunked out keys in the checkout box with just minutes to spare before the 12:00 PM checkout time. We checked out luggage at the luggage storage room. They don't call it a bell desk here and there are no bellhops...at least not at this hotel.
We meandered down Regent Street looking at all the shops. It reminds me a lot of what I'd think Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles must be like. There are many designer names on this street. We found the toystore Hamley's which claims to be the largest toystore in the world. I'm not so sure about that but it is a large store. There are seven floors! The coolest thing I saw that I would have died over as a kid was a wall of buckets full of lego pieces where you could buy pieces in bulk. You picked what you wanted and filled up your bag. I would hate to take a little kid in here because you'd never get them out of the store.
We walked down Regent Street until we hit Oxford Street. We followed it down to Old Compton Street and meandered back to our hotel to get our luggage. It was about 3PM when we got our luggage out of hock at the luggage storage room. We struggled to get our luggage back down into the Underground to head to the airport. There is no elevator and it is a very crowded station. We were both in pain by the time we got on the train. Luckily we both ended up having a seat.
We got to Heathrow just after 4PM and walked the long trek out of the Underground into the airport. We checked in at the American Airlines counter with no wait...there was only one person in front of us. We made our way up into the shopping area and looked around a bit, then proceeded to the gate. Heathrow is a huge airport so it was another long walk. We checked in and waited for the boarding call. They let us on around 5:15PM which is much earlier than I've ever gotten on a plane. Our plane wasn't to leave until 6:05PM. My guess is that it is a large plane so they figure it will take longer to get everyone settled.
Once again, we flew on a 777. What a great flight. There is plenty of room and they come around quite often asking if you need anything or want another drink. The only problem on this packed flight was that there were several screaming kids. One of them shut up quick though once his father put The Cartoon Network on the onboard video screen. Thank God for that! We finally made it to Boston just after 8 PM.
We sufferred through our 10 hour layover in Boston by sleeping while listening to a recording about the security procedures...over and over and over again. The actual gate area was closed until about 4:30AM so it was playing for nothing...how annoying. Our flight back to Norfolk left around 6AM and by about 7:30AM we arrived home. I couldn't wait to get into my bed for a nap.
What a great trip! It was a life changning experience. I'll never forget it. I can't wait to go again.
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