Merrie old England!

I'm sitting on the cold hard floor in a crowded tube station at Earl's Court - right around the corner from my hotel.  The Windsor House Hotel - it sounds a lot more grand than it is.

Got in last night about 9:20 local time.  Great flight - free moview the whole way and I had an aisle seat with an empty seat neat to me.  Couldn't have been a better flight (except for the miserable food).

Once I got through immigration, the misery began..  My checked bag wasn't on the carousel.  All friendly helpful airport personnel had left for the day and no one was willing or able to listen to my problem.  They shut down the entire baggage claim area so I gave up about 11p and startd trying to sort my way through the railway system to get to my hotel, and still didn't find all those ehlpful friendly people to steer me in the right direction.  Finally got to my hotel after about an hour and £60, only to find my toom three flights up, no elevator, no hot water, no complimentary toiletries for someone like me with no baggage, and a toilet across two halls and three doors to the leftl.  Of course, I tripped over the step trying to find the bathroom in the dark, but made it through the night without serious problems and woke up to a better day.

I discovered I can do a back and forth trip to Heathrow for only £11, found my suitcase and many apologies, came back to hot water, clean clothes and my toothbrush!  This is the first time I have brushed my teeth with anything but an electric for over 10 years!   A pretty minor new experience amidst all the really exciting ones I am having.

I looked out the windows on the return trip from Heathrow, and just wallowed in the English-ness of it all!  Lots of ivy pouring over all the buildings, chimneys everywhere with a million different types of chimney pots on top, walled gardens, and everybody is speaking with an English accent!  (Except me, but I will work on that)

I am at an internet cafe - hey - they keyboard is different and I have had to retype half of this because lots of the keys stick and the shift key isn't in the right position.

Don't know if I will be able to keep this up, but I will try.  Thinking about you poor suckers stuck in the old routine back in the states!  Going to do some real sightseeing now.