And now begins the never ending day!
Wake up alarm at 0400 and haul everything up to Skippers pub at the end of the dock to wait for our taxi. In the cab at 0500, same driver as before, less chatty this time. Early for him too I guess. To the airport at 0600, security checks and luggage is gone. On the plane and out of Athens at 0800.
A two hour time difference and we are in Heathrow at 1000 London time.
We were going to head to London proper again, but it wasn’t’ so simple this time because of the terminal changes. A fellow at the British Airways customer service booth saw me thinking heavily and called me over with a friendly “Hello, we’re really very helpful”. Must have been pretty bored. He suggested that we go to Terminal 4, leave our luggage and take a taxi to Windsor. Great idea! Off we went to Terminal 4 and dumped our carry on bags at the Left Luggage (I still love that).
We walked outside to grab a taxi and were astounded when the driver told us it would be 48 Pounds to go to Windsor…it’s 11 miles! That’s $10 a mile in Canadian currency! We back pedaled pretty fast. Decided to take a bus to Ashford Station and then the train. Much cheaper and it was fun.
In Windsor we entertained the idea of going into the castle briefly. We decided to mull over the idea in a British Pub over a couple of St James’ beers and some fish and chips and shepherds pie. Good English food. The currency is so deceptive, the prices seem OK until you actually do the conversion, but so be it, England is bloody expensive, that’s just the way it is. The rain started to come down in buckets and the pub seemed like a good place to remain for a bit.
When the rain finally began to lessen we headed up to the Castle to see how much it cost. We really only had about an hour available and when we saw the cost, 12 pounds 50 each (conversion = approx $60 Cdn for the two of us) we decided browsing the shops was a better idea. We hailed a cab to go back to Heathrow and discovered that in this direction we were only facing an 18 Pound bill. Just a little over 1/3 the cost the other direction.
So, here is a little tip for you. If you are going to one of the communities outside of London proper, say Windsor perhaps, jump on the internet, find a cab company other than the Black cabs, and book it. The cabbie will be there waiting for you, and it will be less than half the cost. It’s the only way that another cab company can pick up there.
Back at the airport, but our adventures weren’t quite over yet……
We retrieved our bags and headed for the security clearance check where a nice man asked Kirk if he minded that he was just randomly selected for a special security check….Kirk replied “and what am I going to say, no?”. The reply was, “Oh that wouldn’t be good, we have special latex gloves in back for people who say that”, A few x-rays later and Kirk was at the head of the line. We flew out of Heathrow a bit late and arrived home in Vancouver at 1900 Saturday night.
And now we must return to reality.
The end? Or until next time…..
Thanx for reading!
Paige Ackerman & Kirk Kohn
