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Published: September 13th 2009
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Hello all, and thank you for visiting my blog.
Well we arrived! But it was not an easy feat.
We arrived at the airport at around 1pm PST and our flight was to take off at 4:05pm. Everything went as planned! Check-In was fine, goodbyes to family were fine, but then we went to through security! I didn't beep which was rather surprising (as I always do) but Dad did! When he went through the guy took out that wand and was tracing over his body listening to the random noises it made and of course it noticed his watch, necklace, gum wrapper (?) and such. Apparently the new rule at YVR security is that they don't make you take off your shoes unless you beep the first time.
So Dad took off his shoes, ever begrudgingly and was being snarky to the airport security guy who was being just as cheeky saying things like "may I see your wallet" and Dad was like "Must you?" ... "take off your belt sir" ..... ''why?"
At that point I was shooting him daggers as he is far too stubborn even against bloody national security! Long story short Dad
thought he wasn't being polite and with that, we got on our way. We went to our exit gate which was D54 and found out that aircrafts were changed. Meaning the prebooked seats we choose were no longer valid (now when we get back home we have to get reimbursed from the travel agency).
Anyways, we got on the plane, and were still sat next to one another which was good. The plane's configuration was 2,4,2. We were in the centre 4 which I'd never done. Kind of annoying as you couldn't see out the window or anything but we were in our seats (which had surprisingly good legroom) and were ready to depart! I always try to be positive, but Dad's a bit more of a realist and I would say "Oh the flights going okay" and he'd counter saying the opposite, and usually the truth Ha-ha!
Firstly, I know its been awhile for me, but my god that is a long flight! We were getting antsy! The headphones wouldn't work in our audio jacks, so we weren't able to watch (or at least hear) any of the films. Also they couldn't find my Veggie meal, so
I ate like 2 hours later then everyone else. And then the water broke on the plane (bathrooms and for drinks) so we weren't given much water and coffee etc because of that. It made washing your hands quite interesting! It was like a spouty mist!
After all that though, we finally saw land out of the window across the aisle and England, There she be! Upon landing we got out pretty quickly and actually arrived actually almost an hour early. We didn't sleep a wink on the flight so were tired and irritable but managed to get through arrivals with no issues. We met half of the country of Ghana who seemed to be immigrating into London! Then we went to baggage which I always find really scary as it would be such a damper on a holiday to not have all your belongings! Dad's came around after like 20 minutes of waiting, and then all tha baggage stopped and some alarm went off! Then some lady on the speaker mentioned how "Gatwick apologizes to the passengers from Vancouver but there are luggage issues and our engineers are working on it."
At that point I swore I
wouldn't see my luggage again! But wa-hey! At last! It came around the luggage carousel another 20 minutes later. From there, we went to the main level of the airport and met up with City Transfers who would be taking us (and some others from our flight) to the hotel. Firstly the parkade was hilarious as we got to see lots of tourists stall their rental vehicles while we waited for our vehicle to be brought around.
We got into a nice sleek Van and began on the M25 motorway which connects Gatwick with the city of London. The driver. was. insane. Seriously. I'm surprised we arrived in one piece but yes we made it! Majority of the drive in, was just freeway but when we started approaching the city it was neat to see how everything changed. London really is a beautiful city and has great architecture.
We arrived at the hotel, and managed to check-in right away and relaxed in our rooms as we unpacked for an hour or so. From there we immediately went out to see the city of London. We walk about 2 blocks and get to our nearest tube (underground) station which
is called, "Queensway." We got a bit turned around as some lines were canceled for the day as apparently "there was a body under one of the trains; that did not sound encouraging haha.
After finding our way, it became quite simple although the underground is boiling hot! I swear I thought I was going to pass out at one time! Funny side note: Dad even saw a mouse walking on the tracks! We got to our desired station which was Knightsbridge and went to legendary and luxurious department store Harrods. It was soooo packed inside! We went to the food halls, pet kingdom, HMV, furniture departments, and even saw the memorial for Diana and Dodi Fayed. We bought a few things and continued just walking around the surrounding areas.
From there we took a long (and I mean long walk) through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to get to our hotel as Dad didn't want to go back into the heat of the underground. We finally managed to get back to our hotel and grabbed a quick bite at some Pizza take-away called the pizza factory.
And well, that leads to now! We are back in
the hotel at 7pm London time and calling it a night.
Tomorrow is another day! It will be great after a sleep.
Thanks for commenting guys! Just so you know they don't publish right away (which is weird) so they don't show until I approve them when I sign on later.
Talk soon,
David
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Caileigh
non-member comment
eek!
it sounds like things went sort of smoothly!!!! i can't believe you were awake the whole way and then your headphones didn't work! aw! what did you do? next time, gravol! i'm tellin ya! i'm so happy it went well though! plus i hope you're taking TONS of picturesss! HAVE A SUPER DAY TODAY!!!!!