Our last day! We stayed close by the hotel today because we were still in the COVID-testing-before-flying-into-the-USA phase (which was dropped just weeks or even DAYS after we went back home). We had a virtual appointment for testing that afternoon and it hung over all we did that morning. We were concerned that somehow we would test positive and while it would be fun to stay longer, we would have had to quarantine, which meant we wouldn't actually have fun.
In order to stay close by our hotel, but still do tourtisty stuff, we indulged in the Portabello Road street market. It's BLOCKS long and way packed! There are food stands, trinkets, crafts, t-shirts, other clothes...everything.
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| I sent this picture to my brother, who has a thing for communism (he's not a communist, just likes to argue about it or just appreciate Soviet Industrial architecture or Soviet propaganda posters). I think I would take this tour, although my knowledge of Karl Marx is limited to the Monty Python game show sketch. |
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| I was waiting for my fried cheese sticks. I'm facing opposite the food stall. I just like all the vertical houses (although my knees might not) |
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| my fried cheese sticks with pink sauce |
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| Jim's German sausage |
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| Could I please live here? |
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| I love the movie Notting Hill so I was glad to spot this! |
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| And this! |
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| This was a sign across the street from our hotel window. |
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| earrings that I bought from a stall at the Portabello Road market |
After our market wanderings (we bought souvenirs for the kids and grandkids--shirts and socks), we went back to the hotel to attend our virtual COVID test. We had to wait for a while to get a monitor, but eventually, we got our tests done (the actual testing was the easy part) and we were negative. We had to wait for our letter, which was news to us, and it was a bit of a nerve-wracker because Jim was trying to check in with our flight and we NEEDED to have the letter from our testing stating that we were negative. We decided to have dinner while we waited for our letters. Fortunately all we had to do was go downstairs to the KPH pub.
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| deconstructed kebab |
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| Jim's fish and chips |
While we were eating, we got our letters and they were both incorrect. My letter stated I took the test on January 29, and Jim's birthyear was listed as 2022 (which would make him only a few months old!) We frantically emailed, messaged, called the testing company, who did get back to us within a couple of hours, but we were stressed because Jim had tried to upload the incorrect letters and Delta had rejected them. We explained our plight and crossed our fingers that everything would be ironed out.
In the meantime, we had to get to Heathrow. We were to spend our last night at a hotel right next to the terminal so that we could get up and go right to our flight. We got to Heathrow all right (taking the new Elizabeth line!) but getting to our hotel proved to be difficult. We couldn't find the shuttle stop that would get us from the airport (after emerging from the underground) to the hotel. After walking around a bit, we finally found a group of people who were waiting for hotel shuttles, but they had been waiting for over 45 minutes. One of them said they were giving up and finding their own transportation to whatever hotel they were needing to get to. Jim googled our hotel, found walking directions and determined it was within our power to get there by foot. We managed to pick up an old lady traveller as a companion because she was staying at the same hotel and didn't know how she was going to get there. So we all walked about a quarter of a mile through a parking garage, across some rough gravel, crossed a busy street and voila, we arrived.
In the middle of the night, we received our corrected letters and were able to make our flight. It all ended fine, but we hated feeling the panic.
And this ends my series of blog posts related to our London trip. I would love to go back!
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