{"id":1335,"date":"2012-04-30T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T02:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/?p=1335"},"modified":"2019-12-06T18:08:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T23:08:16","slug":"last-day-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/?p=1335","title":{"rendered":"Last Day In London"},"content":{"rendered":"

For my last day in London I only had two trips planned, a visit to the Natural History Museum and afternoon tea at the John Lewis Department Store. I went back to the South Kensington neighborhood for the Natural History Museum. I arrived early and had to wait outside the gates for a half hour but at least I was first in line. By the time they opened the gate there was a very long line. I was eager to get inside because it was raining. While I waited I saw some very modern tour buses including some Wettels<\/a> German buses. I was able to read their slogan “Reisen mit Stil”\u009d (Travel With Style). I also took a photo of the Lycee Fran\u00e7ais Charles de Gaulle across the street, further proof that South Kensington is home to many French expats.<\/p>\n

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I saw Dippy, the large Diplodocus<\/i> cast which dominates the vaulted central hall and the statue of Charles Darwin. I managed to see most of the museum’s highlights; the Cocoon, the Blue Whale model, the animated T-Rex, the giant sequoia, the Vault, and the giant sloth. I deposited my umbrella at the coat check and then lost my claim ticket while filming the animated T-Rex. I had to go back through the entire dinosaur hall to find my ticket. Fortunately I saw it on the floor. I had a sliced egg with mustard cress sandwich and a cup of coffee in the Darwin Center Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

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While on the way back to my hotel I passed the Institut fran\u00e7ais du Royaume-Uni again and took some more photos of the building. As long as I was in the area, I decided to visit another French book shop, The French Bookshop<\/a>. The store staff asked me what I was looking for so I said something easy to read “facile \u00e0 lire”. I bought four books;<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Le Fant\u00f4me M\u00e8ne L’Enqu\u00eate<\/em> par Jacques Asklund<\/li>\n
  2. Zo\u00e9 calamit\u00e9<\/em> par Chanteal Laborde<\/li>\n
  3. Nouvelles\u00a0 chute<\/li>\n
  4. Nouvelles chute 2<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When I got back to the hotel and freshened up I headed out again to the John Lewis Department Store for afternoon tea. Unfortunately I arrived a little too early at 2:30 p.m. They don’t serve afternoon tea until 3:00 p.m. so I went to their coffee shop on the floor above and had a Danish pastry, a scone with cream, and a pot of tea.<\/p>\n

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    Since I still had some time to kill I decided to visit another book store, The European Bookshop<\/a> on Warwick Street. It took me awhile to find the bookshop. In fact I found Carnaby Street before I found Warwick Street. At The European Bookshop I bought two more French books; Le Ping-Pong<\/em> by Arthur Adamov (a rare avant-garde play) and Le Malade imaginaire<\/em> by Moli\u00e8re. According to my receipt it was 15:28 or 3:38 by then.<\/p>\n

    When I returned to my hotel I decided to spend my last few hours in London walking in Hyde Park even though my feet were killing me. Eventually I walked clear across Hyde Park and saw the Serpentine, the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial, and the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen. I walked until I came to the Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall where I took lots of photos. The Albert Memorial is a grand monument and something I had wanted to see so I was glad I made the effort.<\/p>\n

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    That concluded my trip to London. It was a grand experience and I managed to accomplish all the goals I set out for this trip. I wish I could have stayed longer and seen even more of London but my feet could not take the punishment.<\/p>\n

    There are a few details about the trip home that I want to record for the sake of future travel. I had to lug my three pieces of luggage back up Edgware Road to Paddington Station in the rain without an umbrella. I had to leave my umbrella behind because it was too large to fit in any of my suitcases. Then I had to pay 19 pounds again for the Heathrow Express. At least I used a luggage cart when I got to Heathrow. I had to find the United Airlines counter where I used a self check-in machine to print my boarding passes. It cost me 44 pounds to check in my excess baggage, the Marks and Spenser luggage I bought just for the books.<\/p>\n

    Fortunately my flight to Washington Dulles Airport took off on time. The seat next to me was empty so I had plenty of space. I put my coat on the empty seat. The flight was long enough for me to see four movies; My Week with Marilyn, The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe, Young Adult, and Chronicle. As we approached Washington Dulles Airport I was able to see the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center out the plane window. I filled out a customs form on the plane.<\/p>\n

    When we landed I had to go through customs and then collect my checked bags. Basically I collected my bags, walked through immigration, and then re-checked my bags by placing them on a conveyor belt. Collecting my baggage was sort of a pointless exercise but you have to do that when returning from an international flight. I just had time to walk through the airport to find the gate for my connecting flight to Philadelphia. I remember I had to take a train from terminal C to terminal A. Fortunately the flight to Philadelphia only took 25 minutes of actual airtime. When I arrived in Philadelphia I just had to collect my baggage. It cost me $4.00 for a baggage cart though which I only used to get to the Economy Parking bus. The bus dropped me off near my car in the Economy Parking. The Philadelphia Parking Authority charged me $88.00 for parking! It may have been cheaper to fly from our regional airport after all. Then I had to find my way out of the airport to the PA Turnpike. Unfortunately my directions weren’t very good and I had to drive around until I saw a sign for Interstate 76 which eventually led me to Interstate 476 and the PA Turnpike. I didn’t remember the number of the correct exit on 76 but fortunately the signs were clear enough when you know what exit you need.<\/p>\n

    I stopped at the Allentown Service Plaza where I refueled and used my electric razor. I also used the restroom and had a slice of pizza, a large cup of coffee, and an espresso for even more caffeine. It was the caffeine shot I really needed after that long flight. The PA Turnpike cost me $6.30, something to remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For my last day in London I only had two trips planned, a visit to the Natural History Museum and afternoon tea at the John Lewis Department Store. I went back to the South Kensington neighborhood for the Natural History … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[693,692,691,690],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1335"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3130,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions\/3130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}