We arrived on Momday morning at 7 am along with several hundred other non-UK visitors to wind our way slowly along the path to the immigration officer. Our papers checked out and we cleared to customs. With nothing to declare we headed out to meet the driver our son Ted had kindly arranged to meet us. We are lucky we had a knowledgeable driver because it was long drive along narrow roads through boroughs for an hour until we pulled up to their house. We never could have found it on our own.
Bruce booked all of our rooms and travel online over the past several months. So I was surprised when we pulled up to a narrow drive leading up to an un impressive building. On our last visit we stayed up in a nicely posh part of London, within walking distance of Harrod's. The apartment was shabby chic Laura Ashley with comfy sofa and chairs, bedroom, kitchen. Well you get the picture. This time we were staying closer to Ted and Laura's who live in the "diverse, revitaling, urban pioneer southend. Our hotel which I am growing to like is in the Docklands across the Thames from Canary Row. It is a renovation of a shipping business. We are on the sixth floor, former offices, overlooking a docking area for a ship. By European standards it is a large room with one wall of glass that includes a door and two windows for wonderful breezes. The breezes are important because the "air conditioning" is a floor fan. Luckily the weather is quite temperate.
The hotel has a ferry that crosses the Thames dropping us off at Canary Wharf with some excellent restaurants, a Metro Tesco (grocery) and it has a Tube, Overground and light Rail hub. The first night we had a wonderful dinner at an Argentinian steakhouse. And as life is we were seated a table away from a couple who had just arrived from Hawaii and who had been to Charlotte on business just recently. Our hostess was thrilled when we told her where we were from because she had been there several as her parents used to mind an English antiques shop for a friend in South Charlotte. Our waiter was from Dublin with tips for where to go when we were there next week.
Tomorrow we head to Paris for a few days before coming back and going to Dover on the weekend with Ted and family. More to come.
Oh and Felix our four month old grandson is ever so cute.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Vanity the ultimate gotcha.
Vanity 1. Heels, shoes. They were my addiction. I loved being able to wear heels, sandals, cute shoes. Even if they were slightly uncomf...
No comments:
Post a Comment