By London calling!!!
2024 was the inaugural trip for our quartet of traveling ladies. We had a fabulous time touring the Austrian and German Christmas markets. It’s great when you find a group that travels well together (I’m probably the moodiest of the bunch, but that isn’t anything new or a surprise to anyone). We had such fun that we decided to travel together again – this time it is off to London for a week!
London is beautiful at Christmas time. The lights are pretty and the stores are bustling with energy. Our fearless foursome left immediately after our church Christmas performance on Sunday afternoon. If I had to do it over, I’d suggest flying out the next day to allow for a smidge of downtime. But as my mother succinctly said,”I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”. With enough caffeine and excitement, anything is possible.
Sadly (for me), I couldn’t convince anyone to fly Delta One. We did book far enough in advance that we had bulkhead in the main (aka, loser) cabin. Plenty of legroom, but no silverware or lay-flat bed or fancy meals. Ruth, the most awesome organizer of this journey, had some SkyClub passes so we enjoyed the SkyClub before our late flight (leaving ATL at 10:50).
Of course I had some drama…because it is me!
The first drama was my luggage problem. I have three roller bag suitcases: teeny weeny (for a day trip or weekender), small 21″ (fits overhead and I’ve used for a week-long trip before) and Big Bertha 31″ (used to move a bunch of stuff to London a few years back). Where is the medium size? I guess I never got around to buying it. Now I’m staring at the clothes on the bed and staring at my 21-incher and just know that not all of it will fit. Plus I have to allot for the gifts that I plan to purchase. I pride myself on my packing, but in this battle, I had to throw in the towel and commit to Bertha. My sister came over with her suitcase as an alternative, but it was the exact size as my small bag. Here’s Bertha, with plenty of room to spare (and yes that is a duffel bag in the corner, just in case I find a LOT of great gifts). Side note – I did come home with unworn clothes.
The second drama occurred during the brilliant plan to have my sister drop me off at the concert. We’re more than halfway to the church, with luggage and backpack in the trunk when I screamed out a not appropriate word (especially when heading to church). I use my iPad for singing in concert and I had left it at home. We get to church and text my sister’s husband and my neighbor to look for the iPad while I scrambled to re-create a concert folder. Luckily my fervent prayers were answered! My friend found the iPad in the car and handed it off to Frank who drove slightly above the speed limit to deliver it to me.
Phew!
Concert went off without a hitch and then we were off to the airport. Our driver (a loving spouse) got a little lost along the way but we arrived with plenty of time. The flight was uneventful. The flight attendants were very chatty which I enjoy. I skipped the main dinner (it was served probably at midnight) and settled in to not sleep. I was traveling in my brand new Grinch outfit, which was swelteringly hot but perfect for the flight which was rather frigid). Breakfast was non-descript (I’ve already forgotten it)…and we landed. Here’s where being in main cabin stinks. At this point, everyone wants off the plane…but we are at the back of the bus, so it takes forever. Not to worry, we had additional drama. My friend couldn’t find her passport! Egad! That is problematic. We knew she got on the plane with it…so it had to be with her. Luckily, she did find it (after we dumped the entire contents of her carry-on out onto a table) so that disaster was averted.
We load into a taxi for Sanctuary House Hotel in Westminster. Rooms on the same floor weren’t ready yet, so we split up (Floor 3 and Floor 4) and took a short nap to energize for the rest of the day’s activities. Yes I typed that right! There are two things planned on our first day in town. First up is a 4:30pm double-decker bus tour of Christmas lights. London is dark by this time, so we hauled our rears up to the top open-deck bus and enjoyed the lights for an hour or so. Then it was off to St.Martin on the Fields for a performance by Ex Cathedra. We had a light dinner at the cafe before hand (in the Crypt) and did some shopping in their gift shop before settling in. Now…going to a concert where the lights are dimmed and the music is soothing is NOT a good combo with having just arrived from the US. I totally had the head nods and struggled with keeping my eyes open (even chewing gum in desperation to stay awake). It was a lovely concert, but a bit of a challenge.
Thus concludes the first day in London. Here are just a few of the pictures.
