LONDON, ENGLAND

Sunday, June 28th– Day 17 (DUBLIN – CANADA? - LONDON)

The morning started off well. Bags were packed, had breakfast with Dave, Joan, Barbara, Don and Adam for one final day. Got on the bus to go to the airport at 9:00 with quite a few of the others – Richard, Ron, the fantastic 4, Dorothy and Maurice and Alabama (Betty). We were the last ones on the bus so Anna said we had to buy everyone drinks at the pub. Everyone laughed but no one called us on it. Humdallah.

Arrived at the airport and said our good byes to Anna and Eamonn. Anna loved us! She asked Lexi if she was interested in either Adam or little Daniel. Lexi said no. Anna made sure to tell her not to marry at Kuwaiti. Haha. Ritchie will be thanking her for that. We gave both Anna and Eamonn a tip. Eamonn had a fondness for Lexi…if only he wasn’t old enough to be her father!

Said our good byes to more people and made our way to our gate. Lexi slept for the entire flight. Krista rested her eyes. The flight landed safely and then our troubles began. We were no longer in Ireland and thus had lost the luck of the Irish.:(

We had to take a train to get to the KLM terminal..the walk to the train took a bit and then we had to wait 15 minutes for the train to arrive. The train ride itself was a good 10-15 minutes. We went to the self check ins. It didn’t work. So we went to a check in counter. They sent us to the ticket office. The guy took his sweet ass time checking and reported there was no problems with our tickets. Back to the self check ins only to find another error message. Again we went to the check in counter but were stopped by customs and questions. Finally we get to the counter only to be told that our check in closed TWO minutes ago and that we therefore have missed our flight. NOT HAPPY. The earliest flight out was not until tomorrow at 11:45 flying out of England –Amsterdam – Minneapolis – Winnipeg. Krista texted Patrick to tell him that we had missed our flight home and to call Lexi’s parents too. Patrick did not believe Krista but after awhile realized that she was serious. After multiples tears from both Krista and Lexi we were off to get their bags which had been pulled off the plane. Then we went to the hotel counter to find a place to stay for the night. We decided on one in Central London close to Buckingham Palace – The grade Lanham Court Hotel. It was a fairy nice place. No AC and all feather down filled blankets and pillows. It sure sucks to be Lexi because she is allergic to feathers.

After a couple of phone calls home to arrange things we set off for some dinner. We stopped a nearby restaurant for some traditional English Fish and Chips. They were pretty good.

Next we were off for our whirlwind tour of London. First stop: Buckingham Palace. Krista said she “had waited her whole life for this picture and looked like crap.” Haha. For a shitty situation we tried to make the most of it. We took many pictures along the way. We saw the Red Old English Telephones Booths, Big Ben, Parliament Buildings, Trafulgar Square, Hays Gallery, and the The London Eye. How could we forget the Prime Ministers House! “Excuse me, What is it that everyone is looking at? Which building is it?” Haha Of course this was a photo opt. Everyone was taking pictures of the street that would eventually lead to the prime ministers house which was to the right and nobody could see.

We also took pictures of a war memorial and a memorial for the women in WWII. There was a man in uniform outside of a military museum that we got pictures with and an old castle. We met a man outside of the bus stop that told us where to get off the bus to see the London Bridge, and Tower Bridge (Lexi’s favorite). Everyone was very helpful and nice. We picked a good day to miss a flight as it wasn’t too busy in London.


Monday, June 29th– Day 18 (LONDON - CANADA)

We took the underground train to the airport. Except we might have made an expensive mistake on one of the transfers and got on the Express train instead of the underground. There goes another 20 euro each! Ouch. We got on all the rest of our flights in Amsterdam, Minneapolis and arrived safetly in Winnipeg. Lexi’s parents and grandma greeted us with flowers. We went for supper at Boston Pizza. Lexi’s Parents drove Krista home as her parents were not able to be at the airport because Krista’s mom worked and then had graduation supper. At Shoal Lake Krista called home and told Patrick to meet her at Solsgirth Corner. Apparently there are 2 corners. Ritchie drove Krista to the farm thinking we might meet them along the way. Infact the Flynn’s were at Solsgirth waiting for Krista. All in all it is nice to be home.