Arrival to London
So… waiting for Roxanne to clear customs, I was amused by the number of people holding signs waiting to pick up arriving passengers. Feeling slightly out of place, I decided to create my own sign. Unfortunately, all I had was a small piece of paper. Attempting to jockey for position, one driver was not amused in the least. He kept stepping in front of me, blocking my way. Every time I moved over to the side, he moved over in front of me! Sheesh… it’s just a joke! After my “pick up” arrived, I grabbed some cash out of the ATM. The Euro is actually a beautiful bill…
In an effort to simplify our travel, we decided to forego the train and just take a BOLT (like Uber) from Gatwick to the hotel. It was very reasonably priced. We were slightly confused not realizing the Hyatt hotel was located inside a mall. What a convenient location! Also inside the mall… the train station! Thankfully, the front desk agent allowed us to check in right away. We were in our room quickly. My advice to Roxanne was NOT to take a nap. It was a red eye flight and with the big time change, that would be a challenge but in the long run, it’s far better to stay awake and go to bed early… so we walked around the mall area.
Initially, it was my plan to do a little walk around the area. Close by was a water feature and I figured that would help in keeping Roxanne awake until early evening. She just wasn’t up to my 30 minute exploration haha. So, we checked out some of the nearby restaurants. We ended up in a fun spot with great food. It was after lunchtime but before dinner… we basically had the place to ourselves! Cocktails = vacation. Vacation had officially begun!
After picking off a stray tomato… this taco disappeared in two seconds flat! Shrimp and grapefruit… sounds odd but it was the most amazing taste combination! I ended up ordering a second one. This restaurant also had cheese balls. I was in heaven!!!
Thought this door was cute. In the restaurant, there was a “disabled restroom” but because we were in London, it was called “disabled loo”. Just another word I kind of knew but not really. We needed to ask for the loo… With a tired travel partner and a relatively early and long day, it was bed time. Back to the Hyatt…
