Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2018 August Great Britain Day 1 & 2 - Travel Day, Welcome Wales, Tintern Abbey

Another trip has begun with the usual stand by travel stress. But in the end, we have found our way across the big pond landing in the London Heathrow airport at about 11:30 AM, August 3rd. The trip here was another stressful, wondering where we'll end up, stand by flying adventure. It started in the SLC airport....no actually at home the night before. With 4 airports to consider for arriving into (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London (Heathrows), the number of permutations to consider of flights from Slc was crazy. But the challenge was...do we get up really early to get on wide open flights to SFO, which was kind of going backwards, to just get out of SLC. The night before, our best option to get across the pond were Newark (lots of London flights), Chicago (last flight had 50 seats open) and then Houston (seemed to have enough seats open). Well, getting to Newark and Chicago seemed rough. But the 1:10 PM flight from SLC to IAH (Houston) looked great. 11 seats open the night before. And about 18 seats from IAH to LHR (Heathrow). The other 3 airports in the UK had few seats open. Anyway, we chose the 1:10 PM flight. Bottom line...it came down to 1 seat open and we let it go as this trip we will stay together. So we rolled to the next IAH flight. It looked oversold. But low and behold, we got seats on it. So off to Houston we went. Now arriving in Houston, we watched the available seats drop from the 18 down to 2 to get us to Heathrow and we were 8 and 9 on the list. We thought we were getting a hotel in Houston. But again, the seas part and dry seats appear. There were 10 standbys and they all got seats. Now the seating process was funny to watch as the folks ahead of us in the stand by list were a party of 3 and then a party of 4. But these people were scouring the seat options (which were few) to the point that the gate agent said choose or we shut the plane doors. Denise was saying, we don't care, just give us a seat. Anyway, we ended up with me getting a seat at the rear of the plane, but it was an aisle seat. Denise got a middle row seat but in Economy Plus. So she, wanting the aisle seat, swapped our seats. And then funny things began to happen. I get to my seat and a lady is sitting in it. She asks me if she can sit there and gave me her aisle seat. I said heck yes! Denise was in the economy section and just kept walking back. It was the last time I saw her until we got off the plane in Heathrow. But while sitting in my seat waiting for the plane to take off, my phone rings and it is Denise. She is furious. She gets back to her seat and a Senior Citizen (lady) is parked in her seat. They lady apparently did not speak English and would not look at Denise as she expressed her desire to have her seat. The flight attendant came over and sided with the old woman saying her family wants her by her and could Denise just sit in her WINDOW seat. This was like telling Denise that she was being put in prison. An aisle seat is desired due to bathroom access. Especially with a red eye flight as you don't want to wake up people to go use the toilet. Anyway, being standby you just don't feel like you can press any issues. So Denise apparently bit her tongue and settled into a Window seat. On the phone, I got an earful! I offered to swap with her. She would not hear it. So I wondered how she was doing the whole flight. But I did not go back as I'm afraid she might throw something at me.

The flight was the usual red eye flight...quick dinner, try to sleep after watching a movie, a lousy breakfast and then you arrive. It was a 9 hour flight from IAH to LHR. Upon arriving, getting through border patrol took about 45 minutes. But all good. We then got some money from an ATM and then went outside to get on the Hertz rental car bus. It was about 12:30 PM and that is the time I gave to get our rental car. Upon arriving to the lot, they have a 'ticket' system. So instead of standing in line, you get a ticket and then your number was called. I think we were about #13 in queue. It took about a half hour to get to a clerk. The process went pretty well there. We actually got a bigger car that has a GPS and everything...which kind of haunted us a bit as we began our journey from Heathrow to Wales.

Getting out of the airport and on to the M4 went well. Driving on the wrong side of the car and road is always a new adventure at first. But I did ok. Our first order of business was to drive to Tintern Abbey. One of the oldest Abbey's in Wales...first built in the 1100's. We thought the drive would only take 1.5 hours. But being a Friday with construction on the M4, it took us 3.5 hours to find the Abbey. And oh the driving once we left the M4 highway...well it was like being in Ireland again. Maybe worse. Such narrow roads. And we were racing time as the last entrance to the Abbey as at 5:30 PM. So I did my best Mario Andretti, even thought the two GPS's (car and phone) we had turned on confused us a few times, we arrived at 5:25 PM and was able to pay a few pounds to go in and walk around this old relic of a building. It was pretty amazing though to see and imagine what it was like all those years ago.

Anyway, we did our 30 minutes there as it closed at 6 PM and then headed back into Tintern to a pub that we had seen when passing through the very small Tintern town. Upon entering the pub, we asked if we should seat ourselves. The bar maid said, well, we only have one table available as the rest were all reserved. We said...OK...we'll take it. Now the service in these places over here is so different. You drive the process. They will do nothing unless you request it. But the bar maid took care of us making sure we had menus and such. Denise ordered some Haddock fish and chips. I had the Fisherman's Pie. Both were tasty...but a TON of food. Mine was the catch of the day, chopped up and mixed with mash potatoes, corn and cheese. The lady asked if I wanted anything else, as you get some sides for the price. So not thinking, I ordered chips too. Later I thought ...why did I do that? I'm getting mashed potatoes already! Another funny thing, the lady asked me if I wanted peas. I said no...that's ok. Now I was placing this order at the bar...not at the table. When I got back to the table, Denise said, 'Get the peas!'. Which was odd from a woman who does not eat peas. So I went back to the bar and requested the peas. I asked Denise why...she thought they did something special with the peas. Guess what...they were peas out of a can. Nothing special. Made me smile. But I love peas...so I ate every last one.

After dinner, we made our way to our hotel...the NewInn Motel. The only room they had left was a twin room. But being so tired, we took it. It could have had rocks for beds and I would have taken it. The room is very clean but a little warm. They have no air conditioning in the room. But they do have a fan and in the end it is quite comfortable. The first order of business in the room is to get showered. So I climb in the shower. While in there, I cannot figure out how to get cold water. Only scalding hot water can I get out of this shower. So I beg Denise to come in and with me standing ther buck naked, we're both trying to figure this handles out. We finally got it to be 'warm'...but never cold. I still don't get it. But it felt good.

We turned the lights off at about 10 PM after watching a bit of TV. I'm writing this now at 3:30 AM. Welcome to screwed up sleep schedules for the first bit of our trip. The country side that we drove through was stunning. We are looking forward to the remaining parts of our journey tomorrow and the 8 days ahead of us. But Day One is in the books.

Pictures:

Although Denise got a window seat, it did have its benefits. Great shots of downtown London. You can see Big Ben and the Parliment along with the 'Eye' wheel and so on in this pic.