April 1, 2019
We began our 4th day getting over to Trafalgar Square where a walking tour would begin at 10 AM. This was part of the Hop On\Off bus ticket that we purchase yesterday. The walking tour was basically for watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. And as usual, it was a lot of fun. We were fortunate to see the bands come out and play. And to watch them march so quickly amongst the throngs of people. Quite the pomp and circumstance. That took us to about noon where we started our journey back to the hotel to fetch our suit cases. On the way, we stopped at a corner Bistro and had a small lunch and watch the myriad of cars, buses and people cross at Victoria Street and Buckingham Palace street. And across from us was a small park too. Pretty nice.
We retrieved our luggage and headed to the Victoria Coach station. There we had a 2:30 PM bus booked to take us to Stanton Airport where we would go through our Ryan Air experience. The rid to get to the airport was to take about an hour and 50 minutes...which it did. It had to wind its way through the narrow streets of London to roughly 3 other stops where people could get on. Once we had made all the stops, it was probably another hour to get to the airport. I think it is a good 30 to 40 miles outside of London. But the bus was comfortable and we were tired from walking the past few days. So it kind of felt good.
Now...the luggage experience at Ryan Air....which was a bust. It was fun to watch Kim basically kicking his bag into the metal measuring device they had there. But he got it in. And in the end, they did not weigh or check our bag size at all. All my fretting for nothing. But then again, we’ve always been checked. At the check in desk, we did watch a Gate Agent get on a young man about the size of his back pack...which was similar to our back packs. So that heightened our fears a bit. But in the end, nothing was checked and we were able to get on the plane just fine.
The flight to Berlin ended up being delayed about 45 minutes. That caused me concern as we were scheduled to arrive at 10:10 PM and who knew how long Passport Control and everything would take. I had warned our host that we might not make his 12 AM deadline before I booked. But he obviously confirmed our booking and did not reply to my message months ago. So I assumed it was ok. Well, 45 minutes pushed us into the ‘close to midnight’ hour as it took a bit of time to get through Passport Control, walk to the point to hail a taxi and then make the journey to the apartment. I think we arrived a few minutes before midnight. I had sent a message to this host using AIRBNB and Ilene’s hot spot (for internet access) while sitting on the plane. And apparently while we were in route, he tried communicating with me via my phone. Upon arriving to the apartment building, it was not obvious which entrance might the one we wanted. It was dark and the street we were on was closed due to construction. We walked down it looking for the door that had a certain name on it as given to us. But as we walked and looked, a young man approached. As I reached out to him to ask if he could help us, he said, ‘Are you Tim?’. I said, ‘Yes...’ and started to ask a question. He then threw a key at me, said something and just headed down the street. Pretty rude fellow. It turns out that he had been messaging me and because I did not have cellular and internet access, must have become frustrated. And reading his notes to me in AIRBNB, I am CONVINCED that he was about to leave us out in the cold. I truly think that if we had not arrived before midnight, he would have left us out there. I’m not sure what we would have done. I learned a lesson here with this one! But the apartment is very nice. Very clean and we’ll see today what the area is like. I am writing this on April 1st. Too late of an arrival to write last night. You can tell, however, that this gentleman should not be a host. Comparing our stay in Dover versus here, wow, there is no food here to tie you over, nothing welcoming about being here. Just the basic bathroom stuff...that is it.
Lastly, one funny note. At the airport, we went into the lounge there to get food and rest a bit. It is nice having this capability on this credit card. Anyway, the food was quite good. It was pretty crowded however. And honestly, having been in other lounges, not the most comfortable. But the people were really nice and helpful. As we came out, I realized my coat was missing. I went back into the lounge to see if I had left it there. I had not. I came out wondering where my darn coat had been left. I figured it was long gone! Well as we walked down the corridor heading towards our gate, Denise asked me if that was my coat on my suitcase. Apparently somewhere along the way, I had folded it up and placed it between the top of my suitcase and my back pack...that was on top of it. It was hard to see. But this just shows the memory loss one gets as they get older. I have no recollection of having placed it there. Just crazy.
Well, now we get to explore Berlin a bit. We have two full days here. It looks like we will have nice weather to do it.
Pictures:
Our Hotel Entrance in London.
The Horse Brigade
In front of Buckingham Palace
The Guard and Band coming out.
The East Gate at Buckingham Palace
St. James Place where the Guard stays.
That is my croissant in my mouth...not a stogie.
The Nepalese Guard that will be part of the Guard for the next 24 hours.
Buckingham Palance
Lunch on our way back to hotel
Waiting for our bus
Denise wearing many layers of clothing
Denise in telephone booth
Denise repacking on the Tarmac before getting on the plane
The sun goes own on our day
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