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Monday, August 01, 2016

Day 2 - London - At 6AM - We Landed in London For The Olympics

We are spending the next 2 weeks in London.
4 years ago - we spent August in London. Lulu was teaching a course here for Florida State University - so all the family came over and enjoyed the Olympics with us. Lulu spent 6 summers in London teaching - and enjoying their summer weather and entertainment. So with the Olympics in Rio this year - we decided to return to London to watch the games from here. Usually when we were here - Lulu had class during the days. Now she is free to do whatever she wants - 24 hours a day.

Last week - Lulu and I were doing our daily walk in the Governors Square Mall in Tallahassee. I was sweating a bit and said to Lulu - if you wanted to go to London for 2 weeks - I would not protest - just to get away from the humidity. Within hours - she got us 2 plane tickets using frequent flyer miles. She emailed FSU London - and got us the apartment next door to our old London Olympics apartment. We were set.



On Sunday at 11AM our plane left Tallahassee. We flew to Atlanta - then Detroit - finally to London. It was a great route. On the last leg we were flying with Virgin Airlines. The plane was only part full - we each had 3 seats to ourselves so we could lay flat. The flight was our quickest ever to London. We left Detroit at 6 PM and in a little over 6 hours - we were circling Heathrow Airport. We had a strong tailwind across the Atlantic and our plane was moving at 650 MPH! The pilot announced at 5 AM Monday London time - that we were too early and could not land before 6 AM because of sound laws. We set down at 6:02 AM. Lulu slept most of the way - I even got a little nap.

Monday morning - I was stumbling around Heathrow in my shorts and into the Tube station. We had a few old Tube cards and 52 minutes later we were at our local Russell Square Station. By 8:30 - we were in our  apartment - and zonked out in some of our beds. We have 12 to chose from! We have 13 nights here - maybe we will spend a night in each bed :-)

We asked for a 2 bedroom apartment - but they gave us a larger one at no charge. It is huge. 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It has a kitchen - living room - and dining room. There is a back courtyard. It is just like our old Olympic apartment except it is broken up into more rooms.

After our little nap here - Lulu got all cleaned up and she is off to shopping for groceries. I am hooking up our Apple TV and making sure everything is on the Internet.

It is overcast and 66 degrees here and cloudy at 3 PM.

It is a shame we have 5 bedrooms here in this wonderful apartment in the best area of London - and they will mostly be wasted. We did not expect this much room. Usually when Lulu teaches here - FSU pays for her lodging. This is a pleasure trip - so the rent is on us. Still - I think of ways to make money from it  :-)  Maybe I can advertise on Craigslist or AirBnB :-)

Our plans are simple. We plan to spend every night in this apartment. We will go to shows - museums - parks - shopping - and enjoying the natives. The city has put up giant screens for watching the Olympics - all over town. This is one way to avoid the Zika Virus.

We will take a day trip to Liverpool.

Lulu and I each have our own bathrooms. We have 4 bathtubs - 4 showers - 2 toilets. We have a big screen TV and we have hooked our Apple TV to it. The windows are open - front and back - and a gentle breeze blows through. I will take pictures soon.




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