Us at the Heathrow tube stationWe arrived at about 9 this morning after two good flights - not much turbulence on either flight and only one problem in the Indy airport...apparently, it is always best to check your bags to your FINAL final destination, rather than just to the final destination on your ticket if you have two tickets.
Okay, that sounded super confusing and in actuality, it WAS confusing! So, to clarify: our first flight was on Continental and the second flight was on Virgin Atlantic. I had had to book two reservations because of the two different airlines. SOOO, I figured that we would have to pick up our bags in Newark and re-check them to London. This, I presumed, would be no problem because I had planned in a more-than-three-hours layover, so no problem, right? uhhhh..... Well, after an initial delay of 1 hr in Indy, I began to panic. Enter Continental gate agent to the rescue!! Who knew that Continental and Virgin Atlantic have some partnership that allows them to check bags through each other?!? Well, they do! We got it straightened out (which included Dad and me running from the gate to the baggage carousel, finding our bags, dragging all 5 of them - each at 50 lbs - upstairs to the ticket counter, and sprinting back out to the gate! we made it JUST in time :) ) PS: Adrenaline really does help you run faster.
So anyway, we got here, were happy to collect our bags (however, we were a bit less happy to drag them (what felt like) ALL around London), took the Tube to our hotel, and hopped on a double decker bus to see the city. It was very gray, cold, and rainy most of the afternoon, hence the raincoats and hoods in the picture below.
Kinda a bummer that our day to see London had not-so-wonderful weather, but we still got to see Big Ben (and hear it too!), Parliament, the outside of Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, London Bridge, London Tower, and the National Gallery. Mom especially loved the Gallery. I wasn't so hyped up about going in (art museums are not especially my thing) but it actually was pretty neat!
Okay, so I am pretty tired (pushing 36 hours with only a 2 hr "nap" on the plane) but I have to tell you this quick story. For dinner, we stopped in at this little cutesy place near our hotel. The beginning of the meal was filled with questions: "what is 'Rocket'?" "what about something non-alcoholic to drink?" etc, so obviously our waiter knew we were not from around here. At the end of the meal he asked us about it. I replied that we were from America ("yes, I figured that, but where...."), specifically Indiana.
Waiter: "OH! That's in the west right?"
Me: "Wellll, the midwest, but close enough"
Waiter (very strong accent): "So do you have guns?"
Me: "Huh?" (thinking that I MUST have misheard him, because surely why would he immediately ask me about guns?)
Waiter (still very strong accent): "Guns!"
Me: "Uhh..."
Waiter: "You know..." (makes the shape of a gun with his thumb and index finger)
Me: "Guns?"
Waiter: "Yes!"
Me: "Uh, no. I don't have any guns." (why is he asking me this???)
Waiter: "Well, I have a friend who lived in Texas for a while to practice his English and he lived near a prison. When the prisoners would sometimes escape, they would ride around on their horses with rifles, searching for the bad guys. They never found anyone, but they had a lot of fun!"
Me: "Ohh, um, yeah!" (but why did that story have to do with me???)
Come to find out, he figured Indiana was pretty close to Texas (both in the "west" I guess?), so surely we would also have plenty of guns laying around. (Umm, no.) We pointed out to him that no, we don't have rattlesnakes, and therefore don't need guns for protection of that sort, and told him that Indiana is actually fairly far from Texas and that we grow a lot of corn.
Okay, it is bedtime for me. Tomorrow, we're off to see Buckingham Palace (hopefully) and go to Hillsong Church in London. Pretty sweet! Then, it's off to Berlin. "See" you in Germany!
