Day 3..in which I engage The Mother Ship

It was yet another atypical gorgeous day today.  Sunny, warm, breezy...I hope it lasts!   I found the office for the rental and paid my bill...as well as complaining about the lack of WiFi and a hair dryer.  I was given the key code for the Internet...which is a weak signal...but it is a signal.  I was told they could arrange a hair dryer, but that has yet to appear.  No outlet in the bathroom anyway, and my hair dries fast naturally.
I tried to upload some photos when I posted the last two days worth of blogs and it was taking for freaking ever...so I do not know if we will actually have photos.  I will try again tonight.

So, I hopped on the tube and ended up in Kensington.  While walking toward Royal Albert Hall I looked ahead and there it was....The Mother Ship.  Did you know that there are Whole Foods Markets in the UK????  I had to go in!  It was wonderful...it was amazing and I want to go back and buy stuff.  I did buy my first Royal Wedding item there...they have commemorative canvas shopping bags!  I also got a drink and some stem ginger fudge (UK fudge is a bit different, but yummy).  I then hit the road again

I had not seen Royal Albert Hall or the Albert Memorial on my last trip, so this was a treat.  I briefly flirted with going to see Chris Deburg tonight (flashback to the 80s for me) then it was off to the Victoria and Albert museum.  It was as awesome as I remembered it and I think I found exhibits that we missed the last time (either that, or I forgot them). I still love the Asian stuff there best.  Of course, I had a blast in the gift shop. Half of the cast court was closed for renovation (of course, the Italian half), but you could still look in and see David.

After, I went to the cafe for something to eat.  I should have had the last enormous meringue and a pot of tea, but I decided to be good and have a sandwich.  It would have been awesome if I had remembered the Brits love of sweet pickle on sandwiches.  Lovely crusty seeded baguette with goat cheese, spinach, roasted red pepper and pickle.  Would have loved it without the pickle.  Even lovelier was the room where I sat to eat...big Victorian stained glass windows and tiled walls.

Then it was off to Harrods...where I started in the food court.  Got a lovely biscuit tin with purple irises on it filled with chocolate chip cookies.  Got tea for the tea loving Patti and headed out to get lost in the store.  I wandered aimlessly through the designer clothing departments where I could not be tempted by clothing that, even if I could afford it, you would have to cut me in halves...or thirds...to fit into any of it.  The shoe department was also amazing, but I restrained myself (even though there was a pair of gold toed Chanel pumps calling to me). I rode the Egyptian escalator a few times and found the Harrods shop where I got a espresso cup and saucer set (half price!) and a couple more wedding souvenirs.  Yes, more.  I got a toy taxicab royal wedding special edition and a copy of the official coin from the Royal Mint.  No tea towels or mugs for me (yet).

By this time, it was getting late so I headed back.  The walk was a lot longer than I remembered and my feet were starting to smart a bit.  Before it got too dark, I was back at the tube station, then back to Paddington.  I stopped back at Sainsburys for a bottle of wine and got some takeaway fish and chips on the way back to the flat.

My legs are killing me and I have a good sized blister on the bottom of my right foot.  Hope it's better tomorrow.  I did take a nice hot bath (yay for British bathtubs which are deeper than the modern American counterparts!  It is 11:30 at night here, so I will make some furtive attempts at uploading photos and go to sleep. 

The Albert Memorial

Royal Albert Hall 

(undergoing renovations - of course)

A Medieval St. George & the Dragon

(from the Victoria and Albert)

 David in the Plaster Cast Court
(evidence of renovations seen here too)

 One of the stained glass windows in the V&A Cafe

 Harrods

Day 2 - The Arrival (also late)

Speaking of missing wifi…I don’t seem to have wifi in my room.  I am definitely raising hell tomorrow when I go pay for my accommodations as I have neither wifi nor hairdryer (both of which appear on the listing)

Room is pretty much as expected  fairly tiny, but clean. I do not have the little balcony looking over the square, but I am looking over the square, which is lovely.

I slept a very little on the airplane, mostly because it is impossible to get comfortable in a Delta coach seat (I thought I was flying KLM, but I was misled.   I did get to see The King’s Speech and a good chunk of the most recent Harry potter movie, so that was good. 

It was a gorgeous day in the UK (which is an odd thing, because this is the land o rain). I made it to Padding ton without mishap…then I tried to call the maintenance guy so he could meet me with the keys only to find that the ten pounds I put on my SIM card was not there.  I did find a pay phone and I had a bit of change, so I was able to call. I need Internet access so I can give them a piece of my mind.

I got in around 2 and found that I am on the second floor, which, if you have ever been to Europe…is the 3^rd floor (they call the first floor the ground floor…then it is the first floor above that).  The nice maintenance man took pity on me and hauled my bags up. I was a sweaty, miserable mess by that time, so I took a nice refreshing shower in my teeny tiny bathroom.   I then headed out for groceries.  No Tesco that I could see, but there was a Sainsburys in Paddington station, so I got some staples there.  I forgot that the Brits don’t know from decent orange juice.  I will have to suffer with OJ out of a box. Yogurt was on sale and I bought two bizarre flavors…gooseberry and rhubarb.  Can’t wait to try them!

After putting the groceries away, I goofed around a bit, playing with the TV to familiarize myself with where my channels were.  I then set out on a walk.  There is a lovely church at the end of the street and I forgot to take a picture of it.  I ended up on Bayswater along the edge of Kensington Park where I checked out the street artists.  Some good some `hotel` paintings some I cant even tell you if it was really art. I then detoured into Kensington Gardens where I wandered about awhile, checking out the swans in Round Pond and the weird trees.  I saw some kids playing soccer….or football and a bunch of guys playing cricket.  Not that I understood what I was watching mind you…

I went all the way across the gardens and saw the Albert memorial in the distance.  This tells me that I can walk to the V&A  in the morning and visit Harrods as well.  After I stop at he rental office to pay my bill and inquire about my hairdryer and Internet….

I then stopped at a Lebanese place for dinner…yummO.  I have a vegetarian Mezzos platter and it was delish!  2 kinds of hummus and all kinds of things that I don’t know exactly what they are but they were awesome   I had a drink that was apple juice flavored with ginger and mint…it was a gross dirty pond green color but it was quite tasty!  Didn’t go to the pub tonight because I couldn’t go on the Internet for the address like I had planned.  Happy with what I did have and I will do fish and chips at some point I’m sure.

Jet lag is catching up with me  I have my window open and there is a college dorm across the square  not that they are really loud…but they are close and you can hear conversations kids are having on the street.  Lucky me, I remembered my earplugs hopefully I can post this tomorrow.

Some sort of Marker I found in Kensington Gardens

 A swan in Round Pond

Looking down toward Albert Memorial

Marker on the Diana Memorial walk

 A wonderful twisty tree

 Fountains at the head of The Long Water

 Detail of a fountain

 

Detail of a decorative urn

Day 1 a bit late

Well, the plan was to blog from the airport in Detroit during my unending layover (5 hours) but it looks like this bloody airport doesn’t have free WiFi.  Delta has places you can sit and plug in for power…but no free WiFi.  How irritating.

So, I’m composing on a word doc and will upload when I find free access.  Rumor has it that intercontinental flights now offer free WiFi, so I will test that our when I get on the plane.  Speaking of planes…I have already had a bit of an adventure today.  I got to the Roanoke airport to discover that their power was out. Now, they do have generator backup for important stuff, like the control tower…and that crazy revolving door that lets you in the joint, but not for the ticket kiosks.  Or the ramps that connect you to the airplanes.

On top of this, the same weather that had knocked out the power had caused massive flight delays.  I think I was the only one on my flight to Detroit who was not in danger of missing my connecting flight (some people had already rescheduled by cell phone for later connections).  Even now, sitting in the airport, I am bumping into people on my flight who are wandering about aimlessly until they can get another flight home. This is an auspicious start to my trip.

Still, thanks to my very long layover, I now had a 3.75 hour layover and time for dinner.  I had a nice black bean burger with swiss and mushrooms at Chili’s.  The server tried to tempt me with a margarita (am I that easy to read?) but I resisted and had tea.  Wondered if maybe I should have as I forgot my melatonin capsules…but, what the hell…it looks like The King’s Speech is the second movie on the flight.  So, if I can’t sleep, at least I’ll have that. 

It’s two hours before boarding and they’re already making announcements about seating.  Makes me think I should put this thing away and pay attention