London with Grandma

As promised, I am blogging about grandma's travels...if only to prove that she really did get on a plane and fly halfway around the earth. Each time she called us the week before, we were certain she was calling to say she had changed her mind, but in fact, it was only to ask a few more questions as she prepared for her adventures. I took Scott and grandma to the airport Saturday morning...and Scott has emailed and sent photos of their travels since that time. Here is his report.

Both flights were completely full without a single empty seat. We had a good exit row seat from SLC to JFK with that flight being on time and uneventful. JFK was crazy crowded. The connecting flight was only two gates away from our arriving flight, but it turned out to be a bus to a remote stand. We boarded the plane at 6:00 p.m and didn't take off until after 9:15 p.m. I was able to get Mom into an exit row again, but I ended up in a middle seat in the middle of the coach cabin next to a pungent woman that hadn't bathed in weeks. Then we circled London for an hour before they opened a slot for us to land. Only one runway was open at Heathrow. Passport control, baggage claim and customs went very well.

From there we took a taxi to our hotel and rested for a couple hours. After freshening up we bought tickets to the "Big Bus" and traveled for the next 3 1/2 hours around London, getting off at Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.

I'm not sure who was more tired, me or Mom, but I was sure impressed with her endurance. We did stop to rest while walking, but did a lot of walking considering how tired and jet-lagged we were. We arrived too late to catch Changing of the Guard, but we did get to see the palace.From the palace we took a London style Rickshaw to Hard Rock Cafe where we enjoyed a nice meal, then took a taxi back to the hotel.


The ride from Buckingham Palace to Hard Rock Cafe is up hill all the way. The cyclist was my age and weight. He sure earned his pay for that bike ride.

I went to a convenience store and bought mom some treats for the day tomorrow since I'll be in meetings all day and she'll probably spend the day resting at the hotel. I did show her the lounge which has snacks and drinks available all day long and left her some cash as well. The area around Grosvenor Square is beautiful and very comfortable and safe, so she might even venture out for a walk in the park next to the hotel.