We landed safely in London! The 7 hour flight from Dubai was on a large Airbus 380 and was therefore much more comfortable. Alex was very happy to be in a big machine.
The relentless crying baby was a bit of a trial for most of the trip, however. Oh well, no use grumbling, we're travelling and not in first class. In fact on the Airbus 380 we riff-raff never see first and business class customers, they're in the top storey of the plane!
Alex read an early Hammond Innes novel, "Wreckers Must Breathe" which was about a secret German submarine base off the coast of Cornwall during WWII. And of course he was sitting next to a couple of Germans ... "Don't mention the war."
We were met at London airport by the Queen and Prince Charles - Sian and her boyfriend Owen wearing masks! We then braved travelling a packed underground with three changes of train (we were so exhausted that it actually might have been three hundred changes of train) lugging our suitcases. Do you think we cared about the baggage? - no sirree!
Our hotel was the Ibis at Greenwich, which would do for a couple of nights, after which Julie had planned a road trip out of London with Sian and Owen to visit Owen's parents in Norwich.
Julie at the Ibis.
Greenwich is where all time is measured from! So Alex is looking forward to visiting Greenwich Observatory to see if he can time travel.
After we settled in, we met with Sian and Owen and had a great fish and chips and real ale dinner in a cosy English pub called the Gipsy Moth, right next to the Cutty Sark, which was sitting mounted above ground. (We can't tell you about the ship yet as we haven't done the obligatory tour.)
The weather - HOOOOTTTTT! In fact very muggy. As a consequence the brits were fairly skimpily dressed. Obligatory wear for barmaids is very short denim shorts with torn bottoms (the denims, not the barmaids!). London is definitely a young person's town!
And finally ... sleeeep in a real bed. With the window open - no air conditioning!
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