The part of the day we were responsible for planning went
smoothly – sort of. Our plan was to
drive to the Sheraton, check in and drop off our bags, drop off the car, and
take the 222 bus to the Underground Station at Haunslow West, and do our last
walk from Wellington’s Arch, through Green Park to Buckingham Palace, along to
Westminster, and find a pub for dinner, and then return the same way.
We said a grateful farewell to Clive this morning, thanking
him again for a wonderful stay, and Kathleen drove first so that I could take
over in London. We arrived without the
slightest hitch, Kathleen behind the wheel the entire way, and arriving with
the same quarter tank we left with.
A tiny glitch happened when we arrived at the hotel and went
up to our room to find it actively accupied . . . but that was soon sorted
out. There followed a tense 35 minutes
while Kathleen attempted unsuccessfully to relocate her Oyster (bus) card, and
completely unpacked, but weh we gave up, we found it in the car.
The Garmin had more problems
finding the car drop off place, and we drove around a bit, but we got there in the end. It took us a while to figure out where to
enter the code to lift the barrier arm to return the car, and then the bad news: somehow the front end of the car on the
driver’s side was scratched. Neither of
us can remember anything like this happening.
We never reversed without the other one watching, and our “weak spot”
was the left had passenger side, as it is difficult for us as North American
Drivers to “feel” the position of that side.
I do have insurance through my credit card, but my credit card expired
at the end of April, and I had to use my regular card to make a deposit of $999. Just to be extra safe, I had taken out the
“full meal deal” no fault no deductible insurance, but it turned out I had gone
through a car broker, and Green Motion, who we got the car from, charge us, and
we have to go back to Economy Car Hire to be reimbursed. It is exactly this situation I was trying to
avoid, and it was really difficult to maintain my composure and be civil with
the nice little boys working at the dealership.
Although we knew exactly where to
catch the bus, I needed to walk off my temper, and it was a good half mile down
the road that we stopped to figure out our route. We were right by the right bus stop, and I
was back feeling civil. The bus pulled
up and Kathleen swiped her Oyster card – and it didn’t work. Mine worked, and I offered to pay Kathleen’s
fee, but the driver wouldn’t let me, nor is there any way to pay cash. We found a shop that sold bus passes, but not
ones for a day. We were close to
Heathrow, so decided to walk to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 – only you can’t walk to
the terminals here, as there is a vehicles only tunnel, and employees only
gates. They arrest you if you try to get to the airport "overland" -- some sort of securty thing.
Bus after bus passed us by from
this hotel or that car park, so we headed to a hotel with a Starbucks, the
Renaissance. There we got on line,
briefly, and found out that we couldn’t get to the terminal or top up a bus
card without walking two miles, we decided to bag the whole thing and enjoy our
nice hotel room.
My map of London doesn’t cover
Heathrow, and we only had Wifi at the Starbucks, but we set off. Finally I decided that we had probably walked
far enough, and thought we were on the wrong road. We turned back, got Wifi – and then
remembered that we had a fully charged Garmin in my purse! It sent us off down a different route, at
right angles to the first one, and we went back past the ill-fated bus stop . .
. and then we realized that it thought we were driving, and was giving us a
U-turn. Kathleen held the Garmin, and I
held the map on my tablet, and we rewalked the entire route we had
covered. When we got to where we turned
back, we were .2 miles from the hotel – and had walked over five miles, most of
it in vain.
The batteries in both the Garmin
and the table died as we walked into the parking lot, and the rain started
falling. We went for our free glasses of
wine and I got really smashed – empty stomach and everything.
Wifi, even in the common areas,
is £6.95 or £15 for 24 hours, so I will post this tomorrow. We didn’t even take pictures of our lovely
walk!
We’ve decided that it was an
adventure, and a nice early night is probably the best thing that could
happen. See you tomorrow in Canada!
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