Oct 28, 2017 Touch Down!!!

 Oct 28th, 2017

Touch Down…

We arrived at Gatwick as per our itinerary, on time at 9:15 am Saturday morning. Chris had slept some, on our overnight flight from North America. I had not. We were up and mobile, off the airplane and into the main terminal. 

Such excitement!

Since both Chris and I are Bright Line Eaters we had each planned ahead and packed enough breakfasts to carry us through the duration of our trip. 

We looking for a place where we could sit down, get coffee and hot water to animate our rolled oats, along with our other breakfast accoutrements; nuts, seeds,and fruit! We also wanted to plan our next steps for transportation, to take a moment and catch our breathe before we descended upon the great City of London.

We found a small airport cafe, ordered our coffees and two large cups of hot water. Without thinking, both Chris and I dumped the contents of our baggies of oatmeal and mixed nuts and seeds into the once boiling water only to realize we were going to end up with oatmeal soup. The ratio of water was a little high for the volume of oats we had portioned out. I tried adding some apple pieces in a vain attempt to beef things up but…alas!…we were destined to inaugurate landing on terra firma in the UK with having to drink our Oatmeal rather than have the dignity of being able to eat it.  Chris and I had a bleary eyed chuckle over that as we finished up and made our way to an Information Counter where we decided to buy a Transit Underground Train Pass called an Oyster Card. This was to be our ticket into the city along with reaching our digs in Soho. 

I’ll admit to feeling somewhat self satisfied at our decision to take the train/underground into London as we had heard that a Taxi into the city from Gatwick could be upwards of 100 pounds…Gasp! So we were good to go with our 45 pound expenditure on the Oyster Cards which would most likely see us through the entirety of our trip! 

We jumped on a train! 

The excitement began! 

Unlike the North American subway systems I have been used to, it seems that the UK system has a rather large step-up to get onto the train and subway. I had a substantial suitcase and a carry-on which I piggy-backed onto each other and strung together with a bungee chord for ease of movement. Chris had an enormous main piece of luggage and a backpack. Though I dare say she maneuvered like a pro… once again Chris was to trump me in the art of seamless mobilizing! 

The wheels on my suitcase were moving less than ideally and the smaller carry-on felt sloppy and unstable; most especially when having to pull my luggage up an 8 to 10 inch lip to get onto the train. I’m not sure how we did it but “we did manage.” That statement was to develop and stay with us for the duration of our trip into London, right up to when we arrived at our Airbandb in Soho.  Yes! “we did manage! “

Chris was of great help and as the heavens would have it, she turned out to be our principal navigator for the rest of the trip. Thankfully!

When we got off the train to move onto the subway Chris realized she had lost her Oyster card; most likely helping me shlepp my suitcases onto the Train in the beginning. Our movements were by and large inelegant but we did end up getting to where we needed to be. 

We had hoped to be at our Airbandb around noon to check in and then a meeting with some of Britains finest Bright Line Eaters at a lovely eatery near where we were staying. I thought we would have loads of time but as it turned out we ended up being a 1/2 late for our luncheon date.

To wind the clock back a bit: We transferred from the Train to the Underground. Things got pretty interesting from there. Throngs of people, moving at a furious but polite pace. By that I mean if someone knocked into you or you ended up losing your balance there was always a sweet British apology issued. Never any shortage of magisterial dignity that I ever noticed. 

The escalators going down to the underground are…well…really underground. Dangerously so, if your luggage is precarious, (which mine was) your surroundings unknown and a need for speed is exerting itself. Down we descended to the Tube. Serious humanity, serious movement, serious but polite people, getting to wherever anybody needed to go. 

We became assimilated into the “underground” experience. 

After a few near calamitous misses at the bottom of an escalator where my luggage would not move off the steps and people just kept pouring off that moving stairway, Chris and I did, however miraculously, live to tell the tale. Then… in what seemed like mere moments later to be caught up in a turnstile bottle-neck…where I guess I had just about reached a breaking point…as a young girl kept trying to push my luggage through the turnstile. What seemed like about a billion hurried and harried people waited and looked on. I took exception to her manhandling my luggage and tried as nicely as I could to tell her get her hands off of my suitcases.  Chris tells me that I gave the young person what has now become infamously know as “Linden’s Death Stare” and at the same time so sweetly saying “ Honey, please don't touch my things” Lol 

We went up some stairs, we went down some stairs,  a nice gentleman offered to help, the masses kept moving, we managed to get Chris a new Oyster Card. Ever close to our destination we began treking to our Airbandb. It was getting close to 2 pm. We had been travelling from Gatwick for 5 hours! On no sleep…and if any had been had, it was not of the kind that gives you extra oompa-pa when you are most in need. Finally we reached our destination in Soho. We phoned our Airbandb Hosts to let us in, while barely making it up the three full flights of “fun house” stairs to our Soho retreat, just in time to run a comb through our collective hairs and run off to meet our beloved ladies for our Bright Line Eating Luncheon date at 2:30 pm. London is stunning!