We're Home!!! March 31st...
We're home!
I'll tell you something, it is absolutely amazing to be away and see and do and experience far and away things, other cultures and languages and day to day life in another country. But it is so incredible to be back home!
There's nothing like seeing your father and brother waiting for you at the airport or getting a call from your sister even before you get home. Nothing like sleeping in your own bed after night after night of hotel mattresses and jumping from one place to another. No matter how incredible the place you're still on a creaky mattress in which you can feel the springs poking up into your back.
Jet lag is better this side of everything too. Not only because of the way the time changes for you but because you can sleep whenever you like and for however long you like without feeling guilty that you aren't out doing and experiencing the new and exciting places you're seeing. Plus, if you wake up in the middle of the night you know where everything is, you have all of your books and the TV at your fingertips not to mention snacks in the kitchen and a ready toilet that flushes paper.
But you haven't heard about London yet.
We got in at about eleven fifteen London time, meaning one o’clock in the morning Greece time where our brains still were. There's nothing open in the Luton airport at eleven thirty at night, especially not the information desk- if there even is one. They do have information kiosks which were of absolutely no help to us.
So we walked out to the bus station and started assessing the situation as best we could. We couldn't, but there was an English kid who seemed to know what he was talking about and told us to take the free shuttle to the train station, especially since it was the last shuttle of the night. So we did.
We were trying to get to Paddington station where our directions to our hotel began. But no, the Paddington station was already closed so they sent us to Kings Cross instead and told us to take a night bus. We got into Kings Cross around one forty five (two hours later for our brains) and they closed that station as we walked out. Fun! So there we were with boatloads of luggage trying to figure out the bus system in the middle of the night (morning, by now) and there was a guy who was really worried for us, he kept trying to get us to take the only taxi there and told us to keep a close eye on our luggage. To say the least this made us nervous so we took his advice and took the taxi. That was the best idea of the night, it took us half an hour as it was and the guy was driving around and around trying to find our hotel so imagining us trying to do it in the middle of the night in our state is just humorous. When we did finally get there and the driver had helped us get everything out and left, we collected ourselves for a minute before ringing the bell outside. Well, we rang and rang for at least five or ten minutes and no dice. Finally mom walked around the corner to the next hotel and asked if they had a room. They did, for eighty pounds. By this time we really weren't picky and decided to take it, as sleeping on the street next to our hotel didn't seem desirable.
Unfortunately hotels don't give discounts for only using the room for half a night. But use it we did and slept pretty soundly until our body alarm woke us up at eight thirty Greece time. We tried sleeping a little later but it didn't really work out for us so we went down to breakfast and to cancel our wake up call. We got a full English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and baked beans with toast, coffee and orange juice. And I got corn flakes.
It was nice to have a big, protein filled meal for our big day in London which we had to start out with walking over to our other hotel and making a stink. We asked the guy why they hadn't opened the door for us and he said they closed the door at eleven thirty and told everyone that, which was bogus because dad had specifically mentioned we weren't even getting into the airport until eleven and there was no way in the world we could have gotten to the hotel in half an hour. So we said we didn't want to be charged for either night as we would be staying next door, thankfully he said quite easily that they wouldn't charge us and we left.
That done we went in search of the Hop-on Hop-off Big Bus Tour that goes all around London. It's super expensive at twenty pounds per person but it was worth it for us so we could see and do everything in our one short day. The tour took us by tons of the important sights and with either a taped commentary or a live commentator telling us about each sight as we passed them. We got off at the Tower of London to take our "free" river cruise down the Thames that's included in your ticket. It was great fun to see London from a completely different point of view and to go under all the bridges instead of over them.
Then we took one of the bus lines up as close to the British Library as we could and asked directions several times to be able to find it. Find it we did and were very impressed. The Kings Library alone is staggering, it's housed in a glassed in room that starts at the first floor and goes up two or three floors- packed with bazillions of books that are all hundreds of years old! The funny thing was seeing that some of the books had bookmarks halfway through them- who is reading these books?!
We walked through the exhibition hall where we saw bibles from the 500 and 600's, there were probably over fifty bibles from all different time periods and in different conditions. The original Gutenberg and Tyndale bibles were both there as well as the very first Alice in Wonderland that Lewis Carrol wrote out and illustrated. We saw a couple of Jane Austen’s original works as well as a display on Chinese and Japanese works- some of the first people to make paper and discover printing. We would have seen the Magna Carta if it hadn't been removed temporarily for some reason or another. We saw a Qu'ran from 800AD in fancy book form with gold gilding and ornate designs. A book of days that was beautifully illustrated about each month of the year. We heard a guide tell about Shakespeare and how most of what he originally wrote was probably used to wrap fish in and whatnot as paper was a hot commodity so most of what they have of his is from at least fifty years after his death or so. They had a whole showcase of Mozart’s original works and you could listen to selections of his music- awesome to say the least. And last, but certainly not least they had a case full of the Beatles works, stuff they had sprawled on napkins and had ended up hit songs. They had an incredible computerized program that let you turn through all the pages of several different books, zoom in and see things in a different way. It was incredible and fun and we really enjoyed turning through The Book of Days and Lewis Carrols Alice in Wonderland, Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook and Jane Austen’s History of England. Out in the hall they had a whole display on Elizabeth Barret Browning that we found very interesting and amusing.
All in all we spent nearly two hours or so wandering the library. We got back on the bus tour and rode it all the way around the long way back to the stop just down the street from our hotel. So after showers and dressing in some of our warmer clothes we set out for a night in an English pub. We got the fish and chips that they're famous for and followed it up with apple and berry pie with custard. It was an expensive meal but then our whole time in London was incredibly expensive so we sucked it up and decided it was necessary and that we should enjoy it.
All in all our six hundred dollars for two nights and one day was probably as much as we spent in one week in Greece! We quickly emailed home to make sure they knew we were here safe and sound and to find out what times the train ran from Victoria station to Gatwick airport in the morning.
Wednesday morning we ate our breakfast in a hurry before loading up a taxi with all of our bags and drove to Victoria station, of course we had to turn around about quarter of the way there because I had left my credit card behind. Thank goodness we caught that one when we did! We got to the train in plenty of time and spent a nice half hour getting to the airport.
Gatwick, I've decided, is one of my least favorite airports in the world. At least from the ones I've been in. And Continental is my least favorite airline, all of that put together it was a fun time waiting in lines and then in waiting rooms and then on the airplane.
But we made it! With a stop in Houston Texas and everything we got in to Denver about five forty and were picked up by papas and Micah and taken to dinner at Good Times! We were on our way to PF Changs but it was a half hour wait and mom and I were fading fast since it was three am London time and five am Athens time where our brains still were.
Now we're home and can't wait to see you all and show off our pictures, hand out our gifts and tell you all of our stories.
Love you all and thank you for the prayers, Kristen Rose and Marty
I'll tell you something, it is absolutely amazing to be away and see and do and experience far and away things, other cultures and languages and day to day life in another country. But it is so incredible to be back home!
There's nothing like seeing your father and brother waiting for you at the airport or getting a call from your sister even before you get home. Nothing like sleeping in your own bed after night after night of hotel mattresses and jumping from one place to another. No matter how incredible the place you're still on a creaky mattress in which you can feel the springs poking up into your back.
Jet lag is better this side of everything too. Not only because of the way the time changes for you but because you can sleep whenever you like and for however long you like without feeling guilty that you aren't out doing and experiencing the new and exciting places you're seeing. Plus, if you wake up in the middle of the night you know where everything is, you have all of your books and the TV at your fingertips not to mention snacks in the kitchen and a ready toilet that flushes paper.
But you haven't heard about London yet.
We got in at about eleven fifteen London time, meaning one o’clock in the morning Greece time where our brains still were. There's nothing open in the Luton airport at eleven thirty at night, especially not the information desk- if there even is one. They do have information kiosks which were of absolutely no help to us.
So we walked out to the bus station and started assessing the situation as best we could. We couldn't, but there was an English kid who seemed to know what he was talking about and told us to take the free shuttle to the train station, especially since it was the last shuttle of the night. So we did.
We were trying to get to Paddington station where our directions to our hotel began. But no, the Paddington station was already closed so they sent us to Kings Cross instead and told us to take a night bus. We got into Kings Cross around one forty five (two hours later for our brains) and they closed that station as we walked out. Fun! So there we were with boatloads of luggage trying to figure out the bus system in the middle of the night (morning, by now) and there was a guy who was really worried for us, he kept trying to get us to take the only taxi there and told us to keep a close eye on our luggage. To say the least this made us nervous so we took his advice and took the taxi. That was the best idea of the night, it took us half an hour as it was and the guy was driving around and around trying to find our hotel so imagining us trying to do it in the middle of the night in our state is just humorous. When we did finally get there and the driver had helped us get everything out and left, we collected ourselves for a minute before ringing the bell outside. Well, we rang and rang for at least five or ten minutes and no dice. Finally mom walked around the corner to the next hotel and asked if they had a room. They did, for eighty pounds. By this time we really weren't picky and decided to take it, as sleeping on the street next to our hotel didn't seem desirable.
Unfortunately hotels don't give discounts for only using the room for half a night. But use it we did and slept pretty soundly until our body alarm woke us up at eight thirty Greece time. We tried sleeping a little later but it didn't really work out for us so we went down to breakfast and to cancel our wake up call. We got a full English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and baked beans with toast, coffee and orange juice. And I got corn flakes.
It was nice to have a big, protein filled meal for our big day in London which we had to start out with walking over to our other hotel and making a stink. We asked the guy why they hadn't opened the door for us and he said they closed the door at eleven thirty and told everyone that, which was bogus because dad had specifically mentioned we weren't even getting into the airport until eleven and there was no way in the world we could have gotten to the hotel in half an hour. So we said we didn't want to be charged for either night as we would be staying next door, thankfully he said quite easily that they wouldn't charge us and we left.
That done we went in search of the Hop-on Hop-off Big Bus Tour that goes all around London. It's super expensive at twenty pounds per person but it was worth it for us so we could see and do everything in our one short day. The tour took us by tons of the important sights and with either a taped commentary or a live commentator telling us about each sight as we passed them. We got off at the Tower of London to take our "free" river cruise down the Thames that's included in your ticket. It was great fun to see London from a completely different point of view and to go under all the bridges instead of over them.
Then we took one of the bus lines up as close to the British Library as we could and asked directions several times to be able to find it. Find it we did and were very impressed. The Kings Library alone is staggering, it's housed in a glassed in room that starts at the first floor and goes up two or three floors- packed with bazillions of books that are all hundreds of years old! The funny thing was seeing that some of the books had bookmarks halfway through them- who is reading these books?!
We walked through the exhibition hall where we saw bibles from the 500 and 600's, there were probably over fifty bibles from all different time periods and in different conditions. The original Gutenberg and Tyndale bibles were both there as well as the very first Alice in Wonderland that Lewis Carrol wrote out and illustrated. We saw a couple of Jane Austen’s original works as well as a display on Chinese and Japanese works- some of the first people to make paper and discover printing. We would have seen the Magna Carta if it hadn't been removed temporarily for some reason or another. We saw a Qu'ran from 800AD in fancy book form with gold gilding and ornate designs. A book of days that was beautifully illustrated about each month of the year. We heard a guide tell about Shakespeare and how most of what he originally wrote was probably used to wrap fish in and whatnot as paper was a hot commodity so most of what they have of his is from at least fifty years after his death or so. They had a whole showcase of Mozart’s original works and you could listen to selections of his music- awesome to say the least. And last, but certainly not least they had a case full of the Beatles works, stuff they had sprawled on napkins and had ended up hit songs. They had an incredible computerized program that let you turn through all the pages of several different books, zoom in and see things in a different way. It was incredible and fun and we really enjoyed turning through The Book of Days and Lewis Carrols Alice in Wonderland, Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook and Jane Austen’s History of England. Out in the hall they had a whole display on Elizabeth Barret Browning that we found very interesting and amusing.
All in all we spent nearly two hours or so wandering the library. We got back on the bus tour and rode it all the way around the long way back to the stop just down the street from our hotel. So after showers and dressing in some of our warmer clothes we set out for a night in an English pub. We got the fish and chips that they're famous for and followed it up with apple and berry pie with custard. It was an expensive meal but then our whole time in London was incredibly expensive so we sucked it up and decided it was necessary and that we should enjoy it.
All in all our six hundred dollars for two nights and one day was probably as much as we spent in one week in Greece! We quickly emailed home to make sure they knew we were here safe and sound and to find out what times the train ran from Victoria station to Gatwick airport in the morning.
Wednesday morning we ate our breakfast in a hurry before loading up a taxi with all of our bags and drove to Victoria station, of course we had to turn around about quarter of the way there because I had left my credit card behind. Thank goodness we caught that one when we did! We got to the train in plenty of time and spent a nice half hour getting to the airport.
Gatwick, I've decided, is one of my least favorite airports in the world. At least from the ones I've been in. And Continental is my least favorite airline, all of that put together it was a fun time waiting in lines and then in waiting rooms and then on the airplane.
But we made it! With a stop in Houston Texas and everything we got in to Denver about five forty and were picked up by papas and Micah and taken to dinner at Good Times! We were on our way to PF Changs but it was a half hour wait and mom and I were fading fast since it was three am London time and five am Athens time where our brains still were.
Now we're home and can't wait to see you all and show off our pictures, hand out our gifts and tell you all of our stories.
Love you all and thank you for the prayers, Kristen Rose and Marty
posted by Kristen Johnson | 9:19 AM
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