About 4:15 pm on Thursday, October 5th, Ken, Lonica, and Effie dropped me at Sea-Tac airport for my 6:50 pm flight to London on British Airways on Flit. # 48. As soon as I got in line to check-in, I saw my flight had been delayed until 7:10. It didn’t actually leave until about 7:45 pm—so I arrived in London about one hour later than I was expecting to arrive.
The flight was uneventful. I cat-napped but didn’t really get much sleep. I had the second seat from the aisle in the center section and there is just no way someone with long legs can fit very comfortably in those seats.
While in line at Heathrow to go through customs, I heard someone calling “Bee”. Only people who knew me the first seventeen years of my life call me that. I turned and there was my girl friend, Nadine, in line about three spaces behind me. Her flight from Denver, Colorado had been due about an hour after mine—since mine was late, we arrived at about the same time. And this was a nice stroke of luck. It meant we had over three hours together before our flight to Spain—and having two people together makes checking the board for our boarding gate and then finding the gate easier. Since we could read the language in England, reading the signs was not a problem. But the time is another matter. There is an eight hour change—that is Seattle time is eight hours earlier than London time. Nadine was smart. She took an extra watch and left it on Denver time the whole trip.
The flight to Malaga, Spain was uneventful. It was about two hours long and there was one more time change. In Spain the time was nine hours different than Seattle. In Malaga we had a few tense moments when we couldn’t find our luggage—but finally found it on a second carousel.
We took a taxi from Malaga Airport to our condo (Club Mirabella in Calahonda). It costed us 25 Euros each (total of 50 Euros) and a Euro is worth about .70 USA—I think that comes out to about $35 USA.
The condo is clean, secure, and fairly convenient in this little town of Calahonda. It is a large and fairly old place (about 25 to 30 years old). The whole area along the southern coast of Spain has been built up with various types of vacation properties. We each have a bedroom and there is a kitchen, dining area, deck, living room. A television—but not many English stations—later in London, we had fewer stations, but all of them were in English. Since Nadine smokes, we spent a good part of our condo time on the deck.
Saturday morning (Oct. 7th) we went to a presentation on what was available in the area. We passed on the jet boats and hot air balloons and dolphin viewing, but signed up for three bus tours. Monday to Gibraltar; Tuesday to Granada; and Wednesday to Morocco. Then Thursday we were brave enough and had our bearings enough to take the local bus to Mijas.
Saturday afternoon we took the condo shuttle to the supermarket and got some groceries. The rest of the day was spent resting or going for walks around the town to get our bearings.
Sunday Oct. 8th
We slept in then went to the restaurant on the grounds here for breakfast. It was a fairly relaxing day—we napped, went to the pool, and spent a lot of time on the deck catching up on 50 years worth of unshared history. It was fun to reminisce, and since we knew so many of the same people because the community was so small—we found plenty to talk about.
One thing we discovered by accident was that our deck door seemed to lock if you closed it behind you. If one of us was still in the condo, there was no problem. The inside person could unlock it. But one time I went out onto the deck and Nadine was already there and the door locked. Our unit was on the second floor, and the gate to the swimming pool was within sight; so Nadine jumped down (skinned her elbow, but was O.K. otherwise) and went to the gate. Guess what? It was locked. So she went to the other end of this walkway and there was another gate, but it too was locked. Since that plan didn’t work, we needed to get Nadine back up on the deck and come up with plan two. I passed down two plastic deck chairs, and she figured out how to stack them so she could get herself up high enough to climb up over the rail. (Before she did this she looped a water hose through one of the chairs so we could pull it up.) She finally climbed back up and we pulled the one chair up—then just before we left she saw the swimming pool gate unlock and ran down and got the second chair and carried it around and in the front door of our condo. Nadine was always more agile than I –but watching her deal with that situation made me realize how much further that gap in our abilities has become. No way could I even think of jumping off a second floor balcony; and I would have been yelling for help, not trying to solve the problem on my own. You are probably wondering how we got into our condo after she got back up on the deck. This is the ironic part. After fiddling with the door more, we got it opened. Apparently it wasn’t truly locked—just stuck this time.
We went down to the “circle” where there are many shops and restaurants and had dinner. Then—since it was dark—we took a taxi back to our condo. It was 2.5 Euros and we had been tipping the shuttle driver 1Euro for each shuttle ride so the taxi wasn’t that much more.
Monday Oct. 9th
We started this long day with a wake-up call at 8 am. We took the bus tour “with rock tour” to Gibraltar for 34 Euros. It was about a one to one and a half hour bus ride with one stop for a break. As we approached Gibraltar, I snapped a picture through the window. I had always pictured the rock as much larger than it really is, and also I thought it was granite. It is not granite; it is limestone and instead of being “solid” it is full of caves and tunnels (13 miles of them according to our guide) It has quite a political history because of it’s position. It belongs to Great Britain currently and there are about 30,000 British citizens living on Gibraltar. These people speak “Spanglish”—a combination of English and Spanish. Most of the services (as police and emergency and maintenance services) are done by Spain through contracts with Britain. The only currency they accept is the English pound or the Gibraltar pound. (As compared to Morocco two days later, where you could use almost any currency.) There is an old Moorish Palace on Gibraltar which we toured. There are also several cathedrals and four synagogues for the large Jewish population. We walked through St. Michaels’ Cave , but did not go through the WW 11 Tunnels—there was a charge for going in the WW11 ones and I think the St. Michaels was free. I took a few other notes but will add them at the end of this. The other well known sight on Gibraltar are the Barbian Apes. They were brought here from Africa many years ago and are now an important part of the local history.
Tuesday Oct. 10th
This was another long day on a bus tour. We left our condo at 7 am and didn’t return until after 7 pm. It was about a two hour drive each way. This trip cost us 50 Euros and the main attraction in Granada is the Alhambra Palace. I’ll make some notes about this palace at the end of this journal. After our tour of the palace, we were dropped off in downtown Granada near a shopping area for two hours to have lunch and shop. The lunch was fine—we found a little outside restaurant and had a leisurely lunch. But the shopping was a farce. All the businesses close between 2 pm and 5 pm and we were there 2 pm to 4 pm. Seems like the tour companies and the businesses could get together and do a better job of scheduling to enhance both of their businesses. We were tired when we got home, so just relaxed and I went to the internet center for my second try at using the e-mail account to e-mail my kids. I never did figure out how to do this.
Wednesday Oct. 11th
We had a 5 am wake-up call for this long day of going to Morocco. It was a 2 ½ hour bus ride to Tarifa, Gibraltar where we caught a boat for a 45 minute ride to Tangier, Morocco. The tour information said we would have time for breakfast on the boat. There was a snack bar on the boat and so theoretically that was possible; but the customer service was so bad, I think I could have spent the entire time standing at the counter trying to pay for what I wanted. (I finally just pushed myself at the clerk and insisted she wait on me.) Our tour package included a bus tour of the city of Tangiers with a local guide (dressed in what looked like a brown hooded nightshirt). We drove around the city, and stopped for a photo op with some camels, then a walking tour of the old fortress city, a rug factory, a pharmacy demo and shop, snake charmers, and then an included lunch in a Moroccan restaurant. The street vendors come at you the minute you get off the tour bus—like any third world country, I guess. What shopping I planned to do on this trip, I was planning to do here, but I ended up getting things I hadn’t planned on—just to get rid of the vendors and their persistence.
Thursday Oct. 12th
No wake up call this morning. I met with a RCI representative and had a free breakfast (if giving up two hours of one’s time can be called “free”). Nadine was not feeling real well so she opted not to go.
One place I still wanted to see based on what I had heard about it was Mijas, a quaint little Andalusia town back from the seashore. After talking to some other people and the staff at the desk, we decided we could take the local bus and make one transfer and get there. Oct. 12 is a national holiday in Spain, so the buses were on weekend and holiday schedules. You either pay the driver as you enter, or at the bigger terminals you buy a ticket at a corner kiosk. It was 1,05 Euros each segment—and since there were two segments each way, it cost us each 4.20 Euros to go by public bus and it would have cost us each about 25 Euros to take a taxi (about 25 Euros each way).
We walked to the bus stop in Calahonda, took the bus to Fuengirola, then transferred to another bus to Mijas. We were surprised that the shops were all open in Mijas—but they were. We both enjoyed walking around this quaint city –(it is several levels as it is on a hillside) with it’s cobblestone , narrow streets and it’s donkeys and donkey carts. And we felt quite empowered by finding our way on the public transportation!
We had talked to people who told us how we could take the train to Malaga, and we were definitely considering trying to do that. But in the end we decided lugging our big suitcases and carry-ons would be just too hard. Also, we had no idea how close or far away the train station and the airport were from each other. So we took a taxi from our condo to the Malaga Airport when we left.
Friday Oct. 13th
This whole day was spent traveling. We left our condo about 9:30 am and arrived in London about 3:30 pm and to our hotel about 5 pm. We had directions for taking the TUBE from Heathrow to our hotel, but it would have been rush hour traffic and we had our big suitcases, so we took a taxi and spent 25 pounds each on a taxi instead. I called and talked to Greg after we landed. He had arrived in London on Wednesday and was visiting the War Museums this day. We decided he would continue his sight-seeing and Nadine and I would go to the hotel and rest and when he got back we would get together. Nadine was not feeling well and did not want anything to eat so when Greg returned, he and I went out for dinner and had a good visit.
Nadine and I arrived at Heathrow Airport about 3:30 pm on Friday October 13th on British Airways Flt. #6983. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel (the Cranley at 8 12 Bina Gardens, South Kensington, London). The cost was 43 pounds—we each gave him 25 pounds. We got to the hotel about 5 pm and since Nadine was not feeling well we just rested for awhile. Greg (who had arrived in London on the 11th) was at the War Museum) didn’t get home until about 7 pm. Nadine did not want anything to eat so Greg and I walked to a nearby pub and had dinner and caught up on what each had been doing.
A word about the Cranley: It is actually three large old homes that have been linked together to form this hotel, but it still has the feel of an old English home with servants available. Our rooms were on the Lower Ground floor but each had windows and an outdoor area, so you didn’t feel you were in a basement. It is about six blocks from the nearest “Tube” or “Underground” station—a route we all became very familiar with before we left.
Saturday October 14th
We had ordered room service for breakfast and had it delivered to Greg’s room where he had an outdoor patio with a table and chairs. Since the weather was nice and it was unseasonably warm in London, we ate out there.
After breakfast we had the hotel concierge get us tickets to a play, “The Donkey Years” for tonight. Then we walked to the Gloucester Court Tube Station and caught the train to King’s Road where there is a big Harley Davidson shop. Nadine wanted to get souvenir T-shirts for two of her sons and her grandsons—and every one said that was the place to get them. Nadine was feeling a little better today, but I was beginning to not feel good, so we decided to go back to the hotel and rest. Greg spent the afternoon at museums.
At 4 pm we took the Tube to Piccadilly and walked around. The plan was to look around Piccadilly, and then have something to eat and go to the play—which we thought was at the Piccadilly Theater. But we walked and walked and walked –until both Nadine and I were worn out, and we still hadn’t found the theater. Finally we took a taxi—and guess what? It wasn’t at that theater after all. Greg found out which theater it was at and we went there. We just had a quick sandwich dinner in order to get to the play on time. The play was more slapstick that we had expected (that translates into “not as good as we had expected it would be”) because the reviews in the paper made it sound very funny. After the play we had something at a Pub and then took the Tube home. But there was some regret that we hadn’t chosen “Guys and Dolls” with Patrick Swayze—which was what was playing at the Piccadilly Theater.
Sunday October 15th
We went out for breakfast at a near-by café, and then bought a one day pass on The Big Red Bus. We took a driving tour of the city –we drove around Kensington Gardens, Royal Albert Hall, Science and Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Harrods’s Dept. Store, Kensington Palace, and the Marble Arch. Then we transferred to another bus and continued our drive—past 10 Downing St., Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings,, the BA London Eye, Royal Court of Justice, St. Paul’s Cathedral, down to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.
Greg and I went into the Tower of London and took a walking tour of it. Nadine said she had been there before so she opted to stay outside and shop and explore. We were in there about 3 hours and really enjoyed it. I’ll make some notes on things we saw and were told elsewhere.
When we left the Tower we took the boat back—our pass included a boat trip on the Thames. We got off the boat at Westminster and took the Tube to Gloucester Court Station. On our walk back to our hotel, we stopped at a pub for a drink. Nadine still wasn’t feeling 100% and she didn’t want dinner, so she walked back alone, and Greg and I stopped at the Green Door Steak House for dinner.
Monday October 16th
We all went for breakfast (same near-by café as yesterday), then returned to the hotel and Nadine finished packing as she is going home today. We walked to the Gloucester Court Station (a route that is becoming fairly familiar by now) and said good-bye to Nadine. She is taking the Tube to Heathrow and feels totally comfortable doing it alone.
Greg and I took another train and went to Westminster Abbey and bought a ticket and went inside. We just walked through on our own with hand held audio guides.
Our next stop was The Globe Theater—and what an interesting stop it was! Not only do you get to go into this theater that is a replica of what was there in Shakespeare’s time and hear how different theater was then; but while we were there, a school group entered and re-enacted a scene from Macbeth. I’ll add some notes on the Globe elsewhere too.
Next we went to Piccadilly and Greg did some shopping. Then we went to a very nice Italian Restaurant. The food was delicious, but it was a very small family owned place that could be easily missed if you didn’t know what you were looking for. If one of the staff had not been at the door so we could question him, we may have missed it.
Tuesday October 17th
The first thing Greg did this morning was to try and get us roomier seats on the flight home. He became quite disenchanted with British Airways customer service. They don’t deviate from their policy, I guess. He spent a lot of time trying to do this—but in the end we stood in line at the airport for two hours to get our seat assignments—and they were the same type of cramped coach seats I’d flown over in.
Then we caught the Tube and went to the Churchill Museum War Rooms and spent about 3 hours there. It was very worthwhile.
We were going to take a “Walking Tour” that we had seen advertised in a brochure at Starbucks this morning. But when Greg gave the leader a 50 pound note to pay for us, she wouldn’t take it. Apparently there are a lot of 50 pound counterfeit notes being distributed and only businesses that have a scanner to check them will risk taking them.
So we went walking on our own. This was probably better anyway because we have done so much walking we would have just seen more of where we have been. One of the places we passed on this walk was a pub called “The Speaker”, and even though there was a note on the door saying it was temporarily closed because they had had a flood, there were placards on the outside with bits of trivia. Apparently it gets its name because the head of the House of Commons frequently stops here for a drink. It sounds like his job is similar to our Speaker of the House. He cannot vote, cannot speak to an issue, is to keep order in the chamber, is to call on various members so they can speak (they are not to speak until recognized by the Speaker), and is not allowed to leave the chamber while Parliament is in session. Some of these rules have created problems for some past speakers. One past speaker had vision problems and squinted so badly no one could tell who he was looking at. One time two members stood up at the same time and began to speak and both insisted he had recognized them. The rules were changed so thereafter the speaker had to recognize them by saying their name (which meant he had to memorize 650 names.) Then there was an Irish Speaker who liked to sip his ale all during the sessions—but this meant he had to relieve himself frequently. He solved this dilemma by having curtains installed around his chair and whenever he needed to urinate would have the curtains closed, relief himself, then have them opened—and he never left the chamber. See what we would have missed if that walking tour leader would have accepted Greg’s 50 pound note?
We found a Lloyd’s Bank and Greg got his money reviewed so it is all acceptable. He had changed money in Spokane before he left on this trip, and then several times couldn’t use some of it because it was too old. Some of it he was told was actually worth more than its face value. I still had 6 Euros, so I changed them to pounds here. We continued walking and came to St. James Park, which we walked through. We sat on a park bench and had water and a snack.
Then we walked around Buckingham Palace. There was a posted sign saying there was no changing of the guard today. (We were there at the wrong time anyway.) There are tours of the Queen’s Stables and we were going to go, but by the time we found where to buy the tickets we were 15 minutes late—it was closed for the day. There was a lot of activity on the grounds –planting fall flowers, etc. Greg commented on the fact that the tractors were green John Deere ones.
We returned to the hotel for a short rest and planned to see the movie “The Queen” in the evening. The first theater we went to did not have it playing at the time we had been told, but we found another theater and had time to get there so we did see it. It was a nice way to spend our last night in London and especially since we had walked around Buckingham Palace earlier today. It is a good character study of Queen Elizabeth after Princess Diana’s death; and also a good depiction of the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Monarchy. It had excellent reviews.
Wednesday October 18th
We got up and left our hotel about 8 am and took the Tube to the South Kensington station and from there walked to and through Kensington Gardens. We saw and walked around the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It is a large loop of continually circulating water- with some rough spots and some serene spots—so I suppose that is a depiction of her life. We took a taxi home from here and then finished packing and checked out of the Cranley. We walked to the Tube station, pulling our big suitcases and took the train to Heathrow. We had to buy a ticket extension to go as far as Heathrow, but when we got off we didn’t have to use it—so we wondered if we really needed to buy it.
We stood in line over two hours to get checked in and clear security—but finally were on our way (in our cramped coach seats). The flight was uneventful. Greg was prepared with ear plugs and Jet Lag medication—which I used too—and I think it helped. We both slept some, and he read and I worked Sudoku puzzles. We were late arriving at Sea Tac and by the time we cleared customs, Greg missed his 6pm connection to Spokane. But he called me later and said he had gotten on a 7 pm flight.
All in all it was a special trip, and I think one all three of us will remember fondly for years.
