Our last morning. Sigh. We slept in a little, finished packing, and had our final breakfast at The Balcon. We were honestly still full from our tea and post-theatre pastries, so we opted for continental this morning. I do not really like to eat heavy, rich foods the day of travel, so it worked out well. The chef stopped by for a final good bye, and to ask how we enjoyed our tea time yesterday.

We had a couple hours to spare before leaving for the airport, so we decided to take a quick “London highlights” walk. Our hotel was so well-located that it was an easy one-hour loop. We started at Trafalgar Square and walked down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. The street leading up to the palace was lined with giant UK flags with massive gold tassels. We cut left through Saint James Park headed towards Westminster Abbey,. From the bridge in the park, there is an excellent view of the London Eye and Whitehall to the left, and Buckingham Palace to the right. We continued left out of the park down to Westminster Abbey and the Parliament area. The view of the abbey arriving from that direction down Tothill Street really is the best one! Big Ben chimed for us on the half hour. We noticed a mounted police officer, which made good footage, but what Courtney did not see behind this officer was a whole group of 20+ horse guards headed up the street! It was perfect timing! Pretty amazing to see them with their shiny gold helmets and armor-like breastplates. All the horses were black as well, which makes for a beautiful procession.

We hopped the tube back up to round out our mini-tour at Piccadilly Circus and walked the block back down to the Sofitel. We really needed one more day on London!! We gathered our bags and the porter hailed us a cab. We had him take us to the Green Park Underground station, where there is a lift down to the Piccadilly Line, which takes you all the way to the Heathrow terminals. We had purchased an Oyster Card ( a re-loadable subway card) our first day, so the trip to Heathrow only cost us 3 pounds. By far the best way to get in to and out of London.

The ease of the flight to London from Glasgow was not repeated at Heathrow flying out. It was a huge ordeal. Courtney’s bag was a little over the limit, so we had to repack a bunch of her stuff between my and her carry-ons. The baggage check people were very nice. They did let Courtney’s bag go on without charge even though it was over the weight limit and they even offered to check a second bag for us for free. Then security. I suppose we are glad when they are thorough, but not as much when it is your bags they are being thorough with! They pulled every other person’s carry-on bag today for a check, including both of Courtney’s. She had to lay out her bags with all the camera equipment, etc. So we had to repack those as well. The process took 2 hours. Travel sometimes goes smoothly, but not always! We did have just enough time to have lunch. (Courtney)We had not had a Pret A Manger since our arrival in the UK. We didn’t have time before we left to grab a take away lunch so we thought we had missed our Pret this trip. I was very bummed, then in the distance Heather spied the Pret Star! So we did get to eat Pret A Manger after all 5 minutes before we boarded in London!

The very first thing Heather did upon boarding was check the movie selection. We were both really hoping that The Hobbit would be showing. It has been over a week since we have seen a Richard Armitage movie, we needed a fix. And we were in luck! This flight really had a great selection of movies, music, games etc. It helped the 7 ½ hour flight go by a little quicker. The crew on United Flight 925 from London Heathrow were one of the best I have ever experienced. They were super attentive and they had a lot of personality. The male flight attendant from Nicaragua was especially kind and friendly. They literally came around to offer us water or juice every half hour at least. Kudos also to the captain who kept us either above or below the turbulence. This was one of the smoothest Trans-Atlantic flights we’ve ever experienced.

Back on US soil, Customs and Immigration took 10 minutes total. Then we had to re-check our bags and go through security again!!!! This time it was Heather’s turn to have her bags checked. So on this trip we both got a pat down (fun times) and both had our bags searched. Really, it is no big deal, just an inconvenience. Now we are sitting in the Washington airport delayed because the crew of our connecting flight is MIA. We decided to write the blog now in hopes that we can keep ourselves awake. We just treated ourselves to some good old-fashioned American food: Five Guys, pizza and a Dr. Pepper. Delays happen and in the grand scope of things this is a small price to pay for the amazing experience we’ve had over the last few weeks. You have to take the good with the bad when you travel.

Enjoying the journey in Dulles airport.

Courtney and Heather