Welcome to London

08-18 & 19: We had a flight out of Fresno, that left about an hour and a half late. It didn't matter too much because we had plenty of time in San Francisco. We went to the Polaris Club and had a nice breakfast and played a game of cards. While waiting for our departure time and boarding

The Polaris seats were just as wonderful as the last time. I would like to be spoiled like this all the time, but it just can't happen. The lay down seats were wonderful. We got served delicious food. I slept through the snacks and last meal, which was breakfast prior to landing. Thank you Stuart. 

We went to the small United Arrivals Lounge once we landed in Heathrow. It was only 9:30a, we cannot check into our hotel until 3p. We ate and played cards and ended up arriving at our hotel via Uber around 1:30p. No, our room is not ready. No, there isn't even a lobby! Everything is totally digital in the supposedly “Boutique” hotel. I will say, it doesn't look quite like the photographs! The flowers on the front step are dead. We cannot enter the door as it is locked. Stuart called them and they said we should have a received information about check in by email yesterday. Of course we did not. So, I sat on the steps and filled out all the paperwork they requested and emailed it to them. They replied that they would let us know as soon as our room was ready. The housekeeper came and went inside and let us in as well. We did get in our room about 2:30p. We are tired and it is challenging to stay awake. We unpacked a few things, but not much as there are only 3 mall drawers for items and no place to leave the suitcases open. We will make it work. It is more like a room in a hostel, but we do have our own bathroom, such as it is. It is clean, but old, not in a good way. This was booked via Capitol 1, and I am disappointed. It says 3* and frankly it is barely 2* in my opinion. Someone did come along about 4p to ask if we needed anything. He told us where a close pub was for dinner. We did go to the Marquis of Westminster Pub and had some tasty wings and a pint. Then off to bed. At least the bed is comfortable. 

Monday, Monday!

Tomorrow, we leave on our next adventure. It is a 90 journey with lots of activities. I hope I have the stamina to keep up! We will have a relaxing month in the middle of the journey. We will be in our Airbnb in Mombrier, France where we enjoyed the month of July 2024. We also have a Seine River cruise, and a Transatlantic from Barcelona, Spain to the state of Florida. I plan to blog almost everyday so watch for more!

Traveling Home

07-15: Up and out early for us – Before 9a! We got a Bolt (like Uber) that took us to our airport hotel location in 20+ minute ride. We can get a noon check-in but, in the meantime, we played cards in the lobby. Their restaurant only opens for dinner. They have a bit of food/drink in the lobby. We split a club sandwich and a bag of chips, along with a Coke. We were in our room by 1:30p and spent the rest of the afternoon on our laptops and catching up on a few things. When we went down for dinner, we were met with a closed restaurant and a dinner buffet was the only option. Since there are no restaurants near us, we did the buffet. Then off to bed.

07-16: Up and to the airport by 5a. All checked in and waiting in the Polaris Lounge. There is some concern flying through Frankfurt airport as there have been many long waits and problems for us there in the past. This time things went smooth. I had a wheelchair, so we made it through the check in process faster. We are now scanned and set up for the new EES system, I hope. They did it differently for each of us and didn’t take Stuart’s photo. We’ll see what happens next time! Flight from Frankfurt to SFO was fabulous. We traveled in Polaris class. I could lay down and even slept for a couple hours. Nice movies, pretty nice foods, and friendly staff. True travel in comfort! We had a long wait in SFO, even longer with a delayed take off. We did walk in our front door about 11p. Good to be home. 

Bergen, Norway - Tuesday

07-14: Early lunch in the World Café. We talked about getting off. Since we have already spent about a week total in Bergen, there really wasn’t anything we wanted to do. After lunch we packed everything we could do without overnight and, put our suitcases out before we went to dinner. Our last meal onboard was good and dessert was delicious! I’ve never seen apples sliced so thin and retaining a bit of crispiness. We finished the night in the Atrium “Livingroom” playing cards and saying good-bye to some of our favorite people (Rot and Nonty, others have left already). Hopefully, we will sleep well and wake up refreshed in the morning for our move to the hotel for one night.