Day 113
After our summer in Costa Rica we did a whirlwind North American roadtrip to visit our families. We wanted to see everyone since we will be gone for a minimum of nine months. We left from Miami, went through New Orleans to Houston, then Chicago, Waterloo (Ontario), Pittsburgh, and finally flew out of Toronto. We saw our parents, siblings, and all but two of our nieces and nephews. Comprehensive. In Waterloo Paul worked long hours while the girls caught up with friends. We stayed with my sister which gave us lots of sister and cousin time. We also shopped for coats and boots and mailed a package of Canadian goodies to Kier. Most importantly I got my much-needed dose of Tim Horton’s (Old Fashioned Plain happiness).
With the comprehensive family tour complete and Paul’s business done, we were ready for the next leg of our trip. At the Toronto airport we all exhaled. We’d been pulled in so many directions seeing family and friends, it was nice to just sit. It had been a good kind of hectic, but we were all exhausted. The flight from Toronto to London was six and a half hours of welcome downtime. That’s a couple of good movies, two ok plane meals, and one vertical plane nap.
We landed in London at 10 am. I’d never seen such a line at immigration, 25 rows back and forth. We found our hotel with ease, but had trouble staying awake while waiting for our room. After our little family nap in the lobby, couldn’t be helped, and probably encouraged them to get our room ready faster.
Our room was spacious, by European standards. The time change however, was still taking it’s toll, and we all had to take another short nap of six hours, or so. Then Paul and I went out for food. It seemed fitting for our first British meal to be Cornish pastries and baguette sandwiches, so we opted to do those, takeaway. I ate a chicken Cornish pastry and Paul had a beef and wine. They were delicious, like little portable pot pies, which fill you up.
Stil tired from a combination of the past few weeks of jam-packed activities and jetlag, we went to sleep at 10:30pm and slept until the morning. This is our fifth time visiting London, and we always enjoy the city. We know where our favorite spots are and how to get around use the tube. Also, it’s one of the few European countries in which we understand the language…at least most of the time.