Tea and crumpets and finally a good old fashioned cowboy welcome!

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Well here I am- thankfully! The plane ride wasn’t bad, but was longer and more tedious than the way over… I think I knew what I was getting into this time…. 12 hours… Man am I glad to be off that plane!!! After standing in customs line for over an hour to get my passport stamped I had the pleasure of waiting for another half hour for my baggage and then I finally get to see my friend Ross.
Ross had to go into work on Friday, so I was left to take the tube into London and enjoy some of the sights on my own. I rode the tube down to Baker Street station and hopped off to check out Madame Tausads wax museum. It was pretty awesome! There was a ton to see, but man it was packed! From there I made a quick stop at the Sherlock Holmes museum to pick up the much desired and demanded souvenir for Todd.
I hopped on the tube again and rode down to the London Eye. It’s the gigantic Ferris wheel where you can check out all the scenic views of London. It was a pretty good view- I managed to grab a couple shot of the town . It was actually quite astounding how big London is! I think the coolest part is to see the old world integrate so beautifully with the new world.
The next day Ross and I headed back into London and checked out Covent Gardens and Leicester Square. We even enjoyed a CANADIAN BEER in a CANADIAN PUB! The pub was called “The Maple Leaf”- talk about the perfect Canadian name! Almost all of the servers and Bartenders are Canadian and the services is just like back home. The norm in England is to go to the bar and order your drink, pay for it and then go back to your table- there is no table service in England- crazy! From the pub we wandered through Soho and then went and watched the movie “Superbad”… it was pretty good. To finish the night off we grabbed some food down in pub near Soho and then went home and crashed.
Sunday Ross suggested we go to Henley, a town just outside of London and enjoy a real English Sunday roast, so we did. It was a nice drive through some country side to a very quintessential English town. The buildings were right out of my imagination, the pubs were so cute and quaint! It was a great way to wind down my last day. We walked along the river and watched the boats, grabbed a cone and took pictures of Canadian Geese in England! How awesome is that! Canada gets everywhere! 😊
Monday morning came too quickly and I had to pack my bags and grab my plane home… the ride was long and I was more than happy to get my feet back on the ground in Calgary. When I got off the plane the whole family was there- SO CUTE!!!
Mom attacked me with hugs; Kent and Todd were nice enough to suffer one hug each and were gentlemanly enough to carry my baggage. From the airport we stopped at a restaurant for some food and catching up. My passport was examined by all, the stamps were inspected and lots of questions were asked. When we got back to mom’s house I gave out a couple of souvenirs and then grabbed my bags and headed up to my place for some sleep. By the time I got home and ready for bed it was about 5 am my time, or London time, or the time I had been living on for the last 2 months and 10pm Calgary time. I managed to sleep through the night and get my schedule to follow Calgary’s, so I didn’t even suffer from jet leg at all.
It’s nice to be home, but I am already plotting and planning for the next trip….. 😊

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