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Our other friend Gill was already in London for a few days and is waiting at the Victory Services Club for Dee.
Gill is a member of this club as an ex British army employee. She held some impressive rank, well, at least that what she tells us.
Our place, which is only a few blocks away, is quite simple and a lot less expensive. We never expected having to haul our luggage up to four flights of stairs.
Since we arrive so late, I think they gave our room away. But we protested and were moved to a much better room on the street side the following day.
Gill has arranged for High Tea at Brown’s Hotel. Ramiro and I decide to walk and are able to walk straight through Hyde Park, along Buckingham Palace and other main attractions.
Some of the roads along our route are blocked as there are thousands of Tamals protesting for their rights. We figured, they are lucky that they live in this country and it seems that many Londoners agree as we overhear their conversations.
This is the first time for both of us, we’ve never had “tea”.
At first I did not think I should go as I am not a sandwich person, but Gill had arranged for a gluten free menu just for me, and I tell you, boy is this ever delicious. Not good for my waist line at all, but very good for the mouth and the taste. Especially the desserts, are so good, that the others are eating all my little Petit Fours, and squares.
The tea menu is larger than a four star dinner menu and we get to pick from all sorts of black tea, fruit tea, blossom tea, or rubber tire tea. (That’s what it smells like to me at least).
We each get our own tea pot and when our cup is empty, the cute little lady with the British, well practiced accent fills our cup again.
She is so proper and so polite, it almost makes you feel like you are the queen.
We talk and eat for over one and a half hour, then our time is up and we have to make room for the next sitting.
How are we very going to work all those calories off again? I guess we’ll have to walk home.
On our way back to the hotel we pick up some wine and cheese and visit Gill at her place for drinks, before we go downstairs for dinner.
Monday, June 15
I am up early and take a really long walk through Hyde Park all by myself. There are people on bicycles as well as runners, walkers, strollers, even people in suits on bikes on their way to work.
We spend the rest of the morning getting organized in our room and catch up on some e-mails.
I find a number of caches on the web in the area and we walk through Hyde Park again. This place is so big that you can walk every day for a week and discover different places.
Today, being Monday, there is not the crowd we saw yesterday, when there were families picnicking, people playing ball and horseback riders. Today is more a touristy day. We do fine a number of caches and discover Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens and many other monuments and fountains.
At the edge of Serpentine Lake we discover a nice place for an outdoor lunch.
On Edgeware street we look for a grocery store and stock up on fruit and Yogurt and pick up something easy for dinner, which does not need warming up.
It start to rain just as we are back in our room, and once it is dry again, we take a long walk and search for a few more Geocaches. What a great way to discover the neighborhood. We stumble on a small canal filled with little houseboats, hidden in an industrial area. So neat.
Tuesday, June 16
Gill is going to the Spa and we meet Dee at the Victoria Club and make plans for the evening.
Ramiro and I take the tube and visit London Bridge, Tower of London and find two more caches along the Thames.
We find a nice patio at an Italian restaurant where I enjoy one of the best salads ever. I take notice of all the ingredients and plan on making this same salad at home one day.
We take the bus to Tfalgalgar Square and Piccadilly Square before we walk back home again.
We’re having drinks at Gill’s room again and take a taxi to Paddington Rotary Club. It’s a small club, but there are plenty of out of the country guests, all in London on their way to the Rotary Convention in Birmingham. We make a presentation and have a wonderful dinner. We are so tired, we want to go home. But we let them twist our arms and go to the pub, where we are treated to drinks before we walk home again.
I go on line and book tickets for the London Eye for the next day.
Wednesday, June 17
We meet up with Dee at 9:00 am and take the Big Bus (Hop on, Hop Off)
We let ourselves be driven for quite some time and see a lot of the city before we get off at the Parliament buildings.
From there we take the boat tour and see even more of the city, including Greenwich.
We have just enough time for a quick lunch at Zen before we have to head for London Eye. At times this place is so busy that you can only go at scheduled times. We were lucky and were able to right away.
It felt a bit scary, standing in this large transparent ellipse shaped cube, but as long as you stay away from the walls and stay in the middle it is not so bad.
It is a great way to get a good view of the entire city.
Dee is ready to go back and Ramiro and I walk to Big Ben before we take the bus back.
It’s 6:00 pm before we’re back home. We quickly change clothes and after drinks at the Services Club Lounge we treat Dee to dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. Today is her birthday.
They have this weird salad idea. A bowl of uncut fresh veggies. Tkae your pick and cut them up on your plate. Makes it easy on the cook. The food is fantastic. The Lebanese wine so, so.
I don’t recall the last time I ate so much. At the tea on Sunday perhaps?
Thursday, June 18
Ramiro gets up early and meets up with Gill. They are going to pick up the rental cars.
When he returns I have the luggage ready. When he returns to the car to load the luggage he discovers that he is getting a parking ticket. 60 GB Pound. That’s about $ 125.00.
It’s not easy for Ramiro to drive, A, on the other side of the road, B, in a traffic system you’re not used to and C, with standard transmission. We follow Gill trying very hard not to exceed the speed limit, to avoid another ticket.
Our next destination is Bicester. This is where my aunty Coby lives.
We follow Gill and Dee to the Outlet Stores and make plans for a time to meet.
At Coby’s house the neighbour tells us, she is not home. “She’s gone to the store” he claims. So we walk through the neigbourhood and when we return we discover that she has been waiting for us all that time, worrying where we might be.
We chat over coffee and tea and laugh a lot.
Coby picks a restaurant where we can go for lunch.
It's cool and windy and not nearly as nice as the days in London.
Coby is so full of life with her 83 years and has also a great sense of humor.
After lunch we go to the outlet stores hoping to find some deals, but even the stuff with 70% discount is still out of our price range. We meet up with Dee and Gill and go for coffee at Starbucks.
Before we go to our cottage we need to stock up on groceries. Coby leads us to the store and we load our carts full with wine, snacks, fruit and veggies and meat.
The drive to Hipsley farms takes another 1.5 hours. It is a beautiful setting. An old historical farm with all the old buildings converted into little cottages. Dee and Gill have the one on one side of the yard, with a large sitting area, large kitchen with everything you need, including a dishwasher. Our cottage on the other side has a sitting room and small kitchen on the main floor and on the loft a cozy bedroom with nice size bathroom.
We invite our friends at our cottage, named Dugdale. We have all the goodies from the store and make it almost a complete meal.
It’s time to check our e-mails again so we retire early.
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