London 2012

On Tuesday, January 31 we flew from Colorado Springs to London, and the company finally booked good tickets!! First of all, we were upgraded to first class on our flight from Colorado Springs to Houston! It was not a long flight, but first class is first class however you long or short you get to enjoy it! We landed in Houston and only had 45 minutes to get to our connection, which ended up being perfect...no waiting in airports, just flying!! Oh and the trip got even better when Kevin and I each had a row of 3 seats to ourselves from Houston to London! It was a perfect travel day!

Wednesday, February 1 - We landed in London around 7:15am and proceeded to customs where we waited for 70 minutes to get "admitted" into the country! The line was absolutely ridiculous!! We made it to the hotel around 9am and were able to get a room right away. We decided to take a nap before venturing into the city, however, our nap lasted until 4:30pm! We must have been tired! We weighed our options of going into the city or just going down to the bar at the hotel and the hotel won (we stayed at a hotel by the airport and it would have taken 45 minutes to an hour both directions just to get to the city and back, so we decided to take it easy and just stay at the hotel). We ate dinner at the bar and of course enjoyed some local beverages (Boddington's and Magner's Cider) and went back up to the room around 8pm. We took some sleep aids and slept until we were suddenly woken up by the fire alarm!! Fortunately the alarm was turned off before we made it outside, but not before we were awake and dressed. We went back to sleep around 1am and struggled to stay asleep for the rest of the morning - I was basically awake from 3:30 am on.

I didn't think we would ever make it through the line! 

Thursday, February 2 - We got rolling around 5:30am with showers and breakfast and were on our way to the ship at 7am. We took a city bus from the hotel to the airport and from there took an hour tube ride to Waterloo train station. From there we took an hour and a half national rail train ride to Southampton where the ship docks. We magically timed everything just right (very little waiting for trains or buses to arrive) and it still took us 3.5 hours to get to the ship!! From now on we will get the company to book us closer to the city! We got on the ship, one of the bigger ships in the fleet, and worked for about 2 hours – it was freezing! We were back at the train station at 12:57pm and magically caught the 1:00pm train back to Waterloo.  Being in the city without actually being able to explore killed me, so I decided we WOULD explore the city that night!! We had to drop the tool bag off at the hotel so we traveled for another hour to the hotel, dropped off the bag and changed and were back on our way. It took us another hour or so to get to Piccadilly Circus, but it was worth it! Our first stop was a new bookshop (are you surprised?) right near the West End. Kevin purchased a few books before I was ready to leave so he went to a nearby pub while I completed my purchase. We enjoyed the pub for a while and then sought out some dinner. We went to a diner that we ate at last summer and it was so yummy! We did a little more shopping before trekking back to the hotel. Kevin and I both fell asleep on the train, but fortunately work up just before our stop. We crashed almost immediately after getting back to our room.

A nice treat on the train back to the city. 

Waterloo Station

Out at a pub in Picadilly Circus. We always have a great time in the city! It was just too bad our hotel was SO far away this time! 

Friday February 3 - Our flight home left London around 12:00pm. The plane was relatively empty again so we were able to spread out again. We flew from London to Chicago, Chicago to Denver, and Denver to Colorado Springs. There was some crazy weather happening in Denver, but we lucked out and didn't have any problems getting home. Thank goodness!

It was another quick trip, but we made the best of it. I have to say London is probably one of my favorite places to visit. I feel like it is a part of my genes, which isn't too far from the truth as my Dad and his mother's side of the family are from England and still live there! It will always hold a special place in my heart! Definitely looking forward to our next visit.