On to London and WHAT DID THEY DO TO MY BAG!!

• Big_red_truck's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from London

Trip Start Jan 01, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Dec 31, 2009 Next
Entry

  London, England, United Kingdom
Monday, May 4, 2009

We arrived at London Heathrow and thought everything was going to go smoothly...until the luggage carousel brought around one of our bags in the big plastic trash bags. I knew it wasn't going to be good. Sure enough...the Paris luggage handlers had somehow managed to PEEL the side of the suitcase. It's a good thing I use luggage straps...otherwise the entire side of the suitcase would probably have come off and we would have lost a lot more stuff. As it was, we lost Jacqui's 2 new necklaces (don't worry, they weren't that expensive, but she never even got the chance to wear them), all the Brazilian coffee we'd bought for my neighbor, Jacqui's dad, and Oz, and most of Jacqui's socks. There may be some other stuff missing, but it isn't important enough for us to have noticed yet.

So after spending a long time with the baggage agents, deciding we didn't want their cheapo replacement bag (luckily I travel with duct-tape and can make on the spot repairs) and getting all the forms to put in our claim for after we bought a replacement (which we did on Wednesday morning before leaving London, nice new hardcase). We made our way to the train stations to catch one into London. I was trying to save some money so we didn't take the Heathrow Express and bought tickets for the Heathrow Connect...which we must have just missed because there was a long wait for the next train. Didn't bother me though because it gave me time to walk to the Tube station and buy us Oyster cards (highly recommended if you're visiting London).

Is my bag sticking it's tongue out at me??

And I got an important phone call while I was walking.

Then we were going to take the Tube over to near the hotel and walk to the hotel. Now for some reason, I figured that there would be some sort of handicap access for all the Tube stations...and I was wrong...very wrong. There were lots of stairs, going up, going down, going sideways. And here I am, with ~80kg of luggage between 3 bags and a backpack. Luckily, I'm like a donkey (in strength and stubborness) and I managed fairly well with getting from Paddington train station to the Underground and then back up to Notting Hill Gate. I've gotta say though, I had soaked through with sweat, every last fiber of clothing I had on me.

Then we walked over to the Blue Bells B&B (which is much farther than it looks on GoogleMaps when your arms are that tired). After checking in and taking showers, Jacqui crashed and I went out to a bar with Oz, and Pete and Rose (who were, coincedentally in London on a tour but leaving the next day). Pete and Rose if you're reading, it was great to see ya'll and catch up and Jacqui and I will definitely come to visit this summer.

By the time I got back to the hotel, it was 2:30am...and we needed to be up at 7:30 to get ready to head to Warwick Castle.

As a note, I wasn't impressed with Blue Bells and will not be staying there again. My first impression was very poor due to the inattentiveness of the night clerk (he was IMing as I was trying to check in) and he didn't give us the right room. Also, the breakfast is very poor. It's supposed to be a bed and BREAKFAST. All they had was plain cereal and toast. And they're not as close to the main roads as other places.

More Pictures

I use straps on all my bags for this reason	Only that corner was missing stuff	It's a good thing we pack tight :)	And one more angle
My Duct-tape repair	The new bag...courtesy of Air France	Me, Pete, and Oz doing Southern Comfort shots	Rose, Pete, Oz, and Me

Slideshow Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry