Wednesday 18 September
Out after David and Carlos having done a load of washing. We walked to Elephant and Castle and caught the train to Oxford Circus. We arrived at Liberty's four minutes before it was due to open. Luckily we waited under the clock which we watched as it chimed.
As soon as we entered the shop we both decided that we liked it much more than Harrods. It felt more homely and intiment, gentler and very English rather than the glitz and glamour of Harrods. We wandered all floors and stopped for a latte and cake at the cafe. The prices were way over the top but in the fabric section I did splurge on a few things for me - a small sewing box for the lounge room, a piece of Liberty's fabric and some cloth covered buttons for my England quilt.
After Liberty's we walked to Hamley's toy shop just to look but it was all too much to take. We really only looked at the puzzles and board games floor.
We walked down Regent St to Picadilly Circus where we were to meet David but had a text from him changing the plans. Elaine and I then went separate ways, Elaine to see a show with David (Ladykillers) and I to the Natural History Museum.
I spent the afternoon walking all around the museum including the new Darwin Centre which I thought was a huge wasted space. The displays in it were greate but there was just so much empty space around the coccoon.
I went out into the Wildlife Garden where there were sheep grazing a few small enclosures. As I left the museum later I noticed that there was a butterfly tent but I had not seen how to get to it.
By nearly 5pm I was exhausted so started heading out to the station to get to our designated meeting place at Bond St station. When I got there I was able to find a seat to wait on till the others arrived.
Once we all met up we walked up Marylebone Lane to the Golden Hind fish and chip cafe that David had booked for us. We all chose something different. Mine was calamari that was quite tender and tasty. This was followed by a walk back down to Regent St to catch a #12 bus back home where we all collapsed fairly early.
Thursday 19 September
Today was our day to see Westminster Abbey which was Elaine's list. This was another fantastically huge ornate church. We went through at our own pace but kept missing each other at the exit so were delayed by about half an hour which meant we were a bit late for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We did get to see a few things there though.
We then walked to Green Park station and caught the train to Kings Cross where we had lunch at one of the thousands of Pret a Manger food outlets in London. The food was actually OK and they checked on gluten free for Elaine.
We then walked around to the London Canal Museum. This was small but had a half canal boat you could get into and a working canal outside with real canal boats.
The building was an old ice store that imported ice from Norway to make ice cream. We went down into the ice pits where there was an art installation.
Home by bus the whole way and then we sat down to write our diaries. Panic!! The date was 19th but the day was Thursday!! Although we had both been keeping track of days and dates so well we both thought we were flying to Sweden on Friday 19th.
After 2 hours on the phone (mostly on hold) we were able to rebook our flights for Friday 20 September and to alert Pernilla to our mistake so she did not make a wasted trip to the airport to collect us. Luckily it will only cost us money and one less day in Sweden. It could have been a lot worse.
So our trip to England started with a cancelled train and ends with a missed flight but we now have had a good laugh about it and will blame David for not sending us on our way because we'd overstayed our welcome.
Friday 20 September
Not much sleep was had by either Elaine or I and at about midnight I wondered where my Australian sim card was. I got up to search but with no luck. That worry of course then disturbed the rest of my night.
The morning saw me emailing Graham and Mary as that was the only place I'd been fiddling with phones. AsDavid and Carlos were busy making cupcakes for a little girl's party Elaine and I packed then went in to strip our beds. There, between the sheets down at the feet level, was my lost sim card! I can only guess that when searching through the night while sitting on the floor it had fallen un-noticed and got caught up in my pyjamas then dropped out when I got back into bed.
David was wonderful when we left, carrying our bags onto the #12 bus to Holborn station and seeing us down onto the Picadilly line platform making sure we knew which train would stop at Heathrow Terminal 5. It was so much easier having someone to just pick up both our heavy bags and walk up and down flights of stairs.
Using the underground (3GBP) rather than the Heathrow Express (20GBP) is slow but much cheaper and we had plenty of time anyway having left home at 10am for a 4pm flight. It actually took us about 2 hours door to door to actually get there and find our way to a cup of coffee.
I then went to print out our boarding passes but it would not accept our number. Some time later, after going up 3 tiers of management our details were found and our boarding passes were printed (another half hour). This meant we could proceed to the security check.
After working our way along the slow queue I went through without a hitch but Elaine's bag was set aside for inspection. it took almost 20 minutes to even get her bag looked at. Then after taking everything out they found the offending article - a tube of vegemite she'd forgotten to put in her booked through luggage. So another half hour gone.
We then had an hour to wait till our gate was announced and soon we were actually in the air and on our way (a day late) to Goteborg where Pernilla met us and took us home to dinner - a magnificent feast of lanustines, crab and prawns.
Eventually we flopped into our assigned beds and were both asleep in minutes.
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