We have arrived!!!

 Sharon and Glenn left their place at 3 pm to go pick up Kris and then to pick me up.  We left my place at 3:30. The traffic was slow in several areas but we did get to the airport a little after 4:30 pm. 

We had to check in at the ticket counter to show our passports and get luggage tags.  There were no lines.  Well, 3 people in front of us.  We headed down to the gate.  We had a couple of hours to spare before our flight so we sat at the Deschutes Brewery.

Me and Vic Atiyeh

Sharon ordered an Aperol Spritz, Kris had a gin & tonic and I ordered a Hugo.  I got the strangest Hugo.  I think that they gave me an Aperol Spritz.  Oh well.

Hummas plate to tide us over until the dinner on the plane.  We did not get dinner until nearly 10 pm.

I asked for a glass of white wine. So they gave me 2 glasses.  One for then and one for when dinner arrived.

I had the palak paneer.  It was tasty.

I watched 2 movies: You, Me & Tuscany and Holiday.  Both were light-hearted shows.  I tried to sleep pretty unsuccessfully.  

One ad on the screen was pretty.

For breakfast we had egg and cheese wraps and I had a horrible cup of coffee.

The windows were weird.  They had a button to darken the window.  I hadn't realized that, so I thought it was still dark out when we were getting ready to land at noon.  

We got in a little early to Heathrow.  It was a long trek to go to "reclaim" our baggage.  Just kept following the yellow signs.

The signage was very clear.

  

The only problem was when it came time to "reclaim" our luggage.  Some glitch in the system.  It was 1 1/2 hours before we got our luggage and headed out to the taxi.  It was over an hour to get to our AirBnB. The taxi ride was a little disappointing.  We had heard that the taxi drivers were chatty and informative, almost like a personal tour guide.  That was not true for this ride. We got to the apartment around 3:30 pm

The lockbox with the key was around the corner about a block away.  There were no instructions about relocking or changing the code.

The lock box was down near the base of the tree attached to the fence. I got the key.  Then it was a challenge to get into the building.  Wave the fob over the keypad, punch in the numbers, hit #, then push open the door.

It took 2 keys to get into the apartment.  No doorknob. (8th floor #629)

Cute little apartment.  2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, Very few plugs for charging things.  

Fridge, washer/drier combo, oven with range, and dish washer. I have never used a washer-dryer combo unit before.

No plugs in the bathrooms for things like hair dryers. 

My bedroom

The view from my window.

We thought that we would go to the grocery store after a little relaxation time but because getting our luggage took so long we had to change plans a little.  We settled in to the apartment and then had a little MDT (Meter Down Time or rest break). 

A little after 6 pm we walked to Mughal's Indian Restaurant on London St. We heard about this restaurant from a high school classmate of mine, Mike Spiller.  He had toured London last year. 

We learned that pedestrians do not seem to have the right of way. 

Paddington Bear in Norfolk Square.  I guess that there are a lot of them in this neighborhood.  

Note the name of the store next to Indigo.  Portlands 24/7 

We had butter chicken, tandoori shrimp, dal saag and a few other things. It was all very tasty.  We ate it all, pretty much.  At least we did not take any leftovers.

Pappadums with 4 types of sauces.

We seem to be in a foodie part of town.  There are several streets with restaurants one after another.

After dinner we walked to a grocery store which was close to our apartment. Waitrose & Partners on Edgeware Street. We got a few snacky things and breakfast things.  We ended out going around the block a few times trying to find our way back to our AirBnB. We even managed to go into the wrong building once.