Have you ever been to Heathrow? It's not an airport, it's a bloody city. We landed at Terminal 5 and had to go to the central bus station at Heathrow to get our bus into London. No problem finding the bus, storing the luggage and getting on. 20 minutes later we are still driving to the central bus station. I bet it was half an hour to get from T5 to the CBS. The driver was great, cracking jokes and having a good time.

The drive into London Victoria Coach Station took about 45 minutes. According to the web site of the hotel we were using, the hotel is a 7-minute walk from the bus station. It turns out Google maps was out of date. The hotel was the comfort inn when we booked it and it changed to a best western during the months after. Put comfort inn into google maps and off we go. After walking for 20 minutes we figured out something was wrong. (we are perceptive). We stopped at a store and a young girl dug out an old paper map book and showed us where the hotel was. You can literally see the hotel building from the bus station. That's not the first time or the last time.

Remember I said there was a surprise in London for us? Kitty's old roommate, Norene (from the 70's) was born in London and lived there. About 80 years ago she moved to Toronto. & she worked for British Airways for a long time (not my favourite airline). She & Kitty became friends and lived together. She told us she would leave something at the hotel for us to make our sightseeing easier.

We walked into the hotel and Kitty said I hope this is the right place and this familiar voice with an English accent piped up with "Yes, it is". It was great having someone that knew the city as a personal guide. It saved us countless hours of getting lost and missing stuff.

The first night, since we didn't get started until about 1600, it seems some people got lost, we just walked past some place we want to go back and see…..Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Canada House, Buckingham Palace, the Canada gate, Westminster Bridge, Big Ben & the Parliament Buildings. Big Ben is completely shrouded in scaffolding, there is a 3-year restoration project under way. For supper we went to a fish 7 chip shop (London, where else??). I think we all had plaice. The highlight of the meal was sticky toffee pudding with hot custard. OMG that's good.

Saturday morning Kitty and I were on our own, we were meeting Norene for lunch. We went to Westminster Abbey first thing in the morning…tourist site, Saturday likely means long line ups. It wasn't too bad, only took us about 20 minutes to get in. They have a free audio guide that you can use to follow where you are in the abbey.

Now it's time to start a debate. Kitty & I have been very fortunate to have been a lot of places and we have seen a number of ABCs.. Cologne, Florence, Sienna, Berlin, and a lot more. Nothing outdoes Westminster Abbey. I haven't seen the cathedral they have been building since the days of Adam and Eve in Barcelona but nothing can compare to the grandeur, the majesty and feeling of awe walking thru the Abbey. It is celebrating its 750th birthday this year or next. The marble floor in front of the man alter was laid n 1266. The number of dignitaries (politicians, kings, queens, authors etc.) that are buried in the abbey is staggering. We spent about 90 minutes there and then went back on Sunday night to hear an organ recital (I love pipe organs).

The best thing about the abbey, they have senior rates!

We strolled along the Thames past the London Eye and made our way thru Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square to meet Norene. She took us to Covent Gardens, a huge market (not fruits and veggies). We had lunch at a vegan restaurant and then took a river cruise to the tower bridge and the tower of London.

Had dinner in another pub that was famous for meat pies. Of course, we had sticky toffee pudding for dessert.

On Sunday, our last day in London, Kitty and I were trusted to be on our own. We managed to take the correct bus to St Paul's cathedral. No tourism today, it's Sunday. We were in time for a service so we sat thru a church service and no lightening struck me. If you have seen the dome at St Paul's, it is massive and used to be open to the public but a few weeks ago a teenage jumped, committing suicide so it is closed to the public now.

We walked across the millennium bridge to see the shard, a 72-story building with 3 floors of viewing on top. The washroom has to be seen; they call it the loo with a view. It's on the 68th floor and the entire wall beside the toilet is glass.

Next on the agenda was the Tower Bridge. Years ago, London was selling the London Bridge and the US bought it thinking it was the tower bridge. It wasn't the tower bridge is still on the Thames. I think the old London Bridge is in Nevada. We discovered you can actually go inside the bridge, they have a glass floor in one of the walkways, that's was kind of neat. The tower bridge opened in 1894.

We walked to the Tate Modern art gallery. Not to our taste, in and out in 30 minutes including a washroom stop.

Sept 30, last day in London, 5 weeks flew by. Have to check out of the hotel by noon. We went to see Westminster Cathedral, checked out a few stores and caught the bus to the airport.

If you read my rant on Facebook, British Airways changed our seats. We had booked 2 aisle seats in row 24. They moved us to row 36 in the middle section of seats. BA and I shared quite a bit of correspondence about this move. I finally got the name of one of their customer service reps (she made the mistake of signing her email). I told her I was going to write to the president of BA and tell him how uncooperative she was. That's the last I heard from BA. We had a very nice surprise at Heathrow, we printed our boarding passes and we were in row 21 BUSINESS CLASS. It was a very pleasant flight home.

Educational stuff

London is an amazing city; I envy the Brits living with all of the history there. Around every corner is some kind of historical building.

The new construction in London is outstanding. They have numerous uniquely designed buildings. You have likely seen the gherkin; it has been replaced as the tallest building. The new buildings are all glass but the shapes are incredible.

Gas in London is the equivalent of $1.31.9

I want a towel warmer

Not sure about London, but in Bulgaria and Serbia the stop lights go G Y R the R Y G

Seat belts are mandatory in buses

We should have spent 1 less day in Novi Sad and 1 more day in Subotica and we would have had time for a 1-day trip to my favourite city in the world, Budapest. It's only just over 100K.

If you are going to be in London for any length of time buy the Oyster card for their transportation system, it works on buses, the tube and the boats.

Walking on sidewalks is an experience. The Brits use the wrong side of the road for driving so they walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk. We were constantly bumping into people.

Crossing the road is terrifying. The city has painted on the road which way to look…look right, look left. It's life saving.

As we were walking to get in line at the Abbey, I had 46 pounds in my hand to buy the tickets. One of the security people told me to get the money out of sight.

In London you are on camera at least 20 times per minute.

I could go on with more stuff. The London I visited in 1972 is really different than the London of 2019. In '72 the abbey was free, you could walk on Downing street, I don't remember most stores having security guards.

So that's it, we are home gradually overcoming jet lag.

Thx for reading

Next year it looks like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Hippies over and out