Updating Post Trip Information

Another month has passed since we returned from England. I still have a few things to do to finish up the trip. Things have been put on hold the last month so that I could take care of other things and really nothing mattered that much. I still need to finish sorting out some of the pictures and I need do a few things with my logbook. I also have some papers and information that I am going to bind at the end of the year. I have gotten some things stored and organized and I am happy about that.


Unfortunately we are still dealing with the rental van issue. The charge was taken off our bill but the credit card company has issued a statement to the rental van company and they have 45 days to either let it go or recharge us. It is really annoying and I hope it all ends well. The charge is bogus and I feel that the rental van company is trying to get extra money out of us.

Anyway that is where we are at for now. By the end of the year I want to have everything regarding this trip organized and put away. I shouldn't have a problem with getting that done. I will make one last post at the end of the year to sum up this trip.

Getting Back into a Normal Routine

We have been home a couple of weeks now and our normal routine has kicked in. I am still working on things from the trip and trying to organize stuff. I have spent quite a few hours going through all the photos I took on the trip but I am still not totally finished with that project. I do want to organize all the photos and then pick out a good representation of the trip and create a slideshow. I also finished going through my logbook and I got all the stamp images I received logged in. I also updated my counts and spreadsheets with my finds. I have a pile of items that I need to decide how I want to store or save them. There are postcards, patches, pins, brochures, pictures, stamp images, receipts and other papers that are just sitting there waiting to be dealt with. I also have some ideas and things I want to do with my logbook. There are things I want to add and I would like to rearrange it so it is in a better order.

We paid for most of the trip before we left so we didn't have that much to worry about when we got home. But I am happy to say that the entire trip is now paid for and we did well. It was even a little less than we had expected. I am glad to have all of the financial things done. The only real thing that we are working on is the problem with the van. When we returned the vans they noticed a dent on the front left bumper of the van that hadn't been noted on the pick up form. So the company decided to charge Thomas £1500. We immediately called our credit card company to file a dispute. The only problem was that it was a Saturday and they couldn't really do anything then and also the charge hadn't actually been posted to our account. They told us to call when we got home. And that is what we did. They gave us lots of instructions and they told us they would work on it and get back to us. In the meantime they told us not to pay that charge until everything was handled. So far we haven't heard anything and we are still waiting. Our credit card company has always been good with handling these things so I think it will all work out.

The other thing I have done since we have been home is keep up with the Yahoo! Talk List. I don't post much but I have made sure to read what is being posted. And I have kept Mark P. informed about the van situation. I really enjoyed the trip and I am glad I have kept up with this blog - it will be a great reminder of our visit to the Moors.

Home Again, Home Again Jiggety-Jig

It is Friday morning and we are home. We left London early yesterday morning to begin our journey home. I guess we were both ready to come home because we were awake at 4:15am. So we showered, dressed, finished packing and were ready by 5:00am. [Note: We were up at 4:15am on Thursday morning London time which put us up at 9:15pm Santa Fe time on Wednesday night.] We had scheduled our taxi for 5:30am so we went down to the hotel lobby with our luggage and soon after the taxi showed up. The drive to Heathrow was quick and quiet. There was no traffic and the city seemed quite different than it does during the day. We arrived at Heathrow and made our way to the Virgin Atlantic desks. We checked in our bags and we were ready to go since we already had our boarding passes. There wasn't a gate assignment yet so we went through security - which was extremely quick and painfree, we didn't even have to take off our shoes - then we went and found a place to get coffee and some breakfast and wait for a gate assignment. It took about 40 minutes before a gate appeared on the screen and at that time we made our way to Gate 17. Here we had to have our passports and boarding passes checked - again it was very quick. At this point we only had about 30 minutes to wait for boarding. We were happy to have two seats by the window by ourselves - it is just nicer not to have to worry about anyone else. We got settled and were ready for takeoff but for some reason things were moving slow - so our 9:05am takeoff turned into a 9:40am takeoff. When things got settled I decided to watch a movie - Maleficent and then they came around with beverages. After my movie finished they brought us lunch - salad, chili, bun, passionfruit yougurt, coke and coffee. While eating I watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Later they brought us a strawberry popsicle type thingy for a snack and I also had more coffee. When this movie finished I took a break and filled out the customs forms for me and Thomas and then closed my eyes and rested for a bit. Then I decided to watch another movie - Noah. During this movie they brought us another small meal - cheese and sundried tomato sandwiches, chips, cookie and mints. Thankfully when the last movie finished we were close to landing, by this time I was getting really bored and was ready to get out of the plane. After landing we went through customs which went really fast and then we went to claim our bags. Once we had our bags we made our way to Terminal 5 where our next flight was leaving from but not until 8:30pm. The time at this point was just after noon NYC time. They told us it was too early to check-in so we had to find a place to sit and wait for a couple of hours. There was only one place to get anything to eat and that was a Dunkin' Donuts. So we had iced coffees and a doughnut and sat there and talked and read until we could check-in and get through security. Around 3:00pm we finally got bags checked in and our boarding passes and then headed for security. Again we got through security quickly - I really thought that security would be more involved since we were flying on 9/11, but it wasn't bad. We made our way to Gate 23 and settled in as we still had a few hours to wait. We spent the time reading, playing on our iPads, walking around, getting a few snacks and even taking a couple of cat naps. I really thought we would go stir crazy as time just seemed to drag - I guess we just wanted to get home. We finally boarded and began our non stop flight from New York City to Albuquerque. We ended up sleeping the entire flight which made it seem quick. The plane landed in Albuquerque about 11:00pm and by the time we got our bags, took the shuttle to our car and got out of the parking lot it was almost midnight. It was 1:00am when we got in bed - that means we had been up for almost 28 hours. We were so happy to home and in our own bed and I have to say we slept like babies and didn't wake up until 10:30 this morning.

So that is our trip to Dartmoor and London - we had a great time but as usual we are very happy to be home. This was a great experience and I loved Dartmoor. Maybe one day we can make another trip to the area and see more of the moors. At the end of this month I will write another post about what I took care of post trip - just to keep a full record.

London [Day 3]

Well today is our last day in England - early tomorrow morning we begin our journey home.We woke up this morning, got dressed and decided to get most things packed. We put aside the clothes we want to wear tomorrow and then packed our suitcases with what we didn't need. We also started putting our carry-ons together. Once this was organized we went down for some breakfast and made final plans for the day. Then I spent a few minutes getting our boarding passes for the first flight tomorrow. I put these in my carry-on and then we headed out for the day.

It was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel to the London Eye where we had a 10:00 time set up. I brought the confirmation to the ticket counter where we received our tickets and the we joined the queue for our ride. We didn't have to wait long before we were put into one of the capsules. The ride around takes about a half hour and we loved it. BEAUTIFUL-INCREDIBLE-FUN-AMAZING! These are the words we used to describe the ride, what amazing views of London. Well worth the time and money. I took lots of pictures and really was glad we did this. After our ride we went and got tickets for an all day hop-on, hop-off ride on the City Cruises boats along the Thames. Then we waited about 15 minutes for the next boat so that we could take a ride to the Tower of London. I enjoyed the ride and loved the different view of the city. During the ride we had a live commentary of the sites along the way. One of the things I liked was that there are these lion heads along the sea wall and there is a saying that goes with these lions when the river rises . . .

"If the lions are drinking, then London is sinking."

These days they have better ways of controlling floods but I like this insight to the history of the river. We arrived at the Tower pier and made our way to the Tower of London ticket booth. We used our London Pass to get tickets and the we walked to the entrance. From here we first saw the hundreds of thousands of poppies placed in the dry moat around the Tower. I had read about this before we left for this trip and I had marked this as a 'must see' for the trip. So I took a few pictures and then we went in to tour the tower, making a mental note to take a walk around the outside of the Tower to see all the poppies. In the Tower we did and saw the following . . . Traitors Gate, Medieval Palace & Wall Walk, Ravens, Crown Jewels and Bloody Tower. The history of the place and the architecture are both amazing. We really liked our visit here. We then exited and did the walk around the Tower and were moved by the poppies everywhere. Each poppy represents a fallen British soldier from World War I and was done to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the war. It really is a must see exhibition that is there from August 5 - November 11, 2014. Here are a few links about the poppies.


Tower of London Remembers
Row on row, the poppies flow at the Tower of London
Poppies in the Moat
Remembrance and the Poppy
800,000 Red Poppies Pour Like Blood From The Tower of London
Stunning Photos of the Tower of London's Poppies

From the Tower we walked to Tower Bridge to go to The Tower Bridge Exhibition. Again we used our London Pass for this. The exhibition takes you up to the top where you can walk across the bridge on walkways with nice views of the River Thames. Then you go back down and get a tour of the engine rooms. It was a fascinating history of the bridge and great information on how it works. And we got to walk across the bridge twice - once on top and the again on the bottom. Next we made our way back to the pier so that we could take the boat over to the Westminster pier. As we walked we got to see the drawbridge being raised. Arriving at the pier we walked past Parliament and over to Westminster Abbey. We had planned to go in but there was a line and the wait was around 30 minutes so we just decided to walk around the area. We found a pub (Westminster Arms) and went in for some fish and chips and some sticky toffee pudding. I also decided to have a guinness. After eating we continued our walk and we ended up walking through St. James Park and over to Buckingham Palace. We took a few pictures and then walked through Green Park to the Green Park Station so that we could get back to the hotel. Now that we were done for the day we got last minute things packed and then relaxed. It is now time for bed - we have and early and long day ahead of us tomorrow.

[Note: I have mentioned the London Pass a few times in the last three posts. When I got them I wondered if we would actually save any money. Well I kept track of all the things we used the card for and how much they cost. In the end we saved about $125 and for some of the attractions we didn't have to wait in the ticket line to enter so it made things move a little faster. I am glad we got the passes and would do it again.]

London [Day 2]

Once we were up and dressed this morning Thomas took a short walk to a dry cleaners to have our laundry done. When he got back to the hotel we went down for some breakfast. While eating we finalized our plans for the day. After we finished eating we went back up to the room and got our things for the day. Before leaving the hotel I got online and booked us tickets for tomorrow for the London Eye. Today our plan was to visit Hampton Court Palace. Over the summer we watched The Tudors and a documentary on Henry VIII and a documentary on Hampton Court Palace. This peaked our interest and before we even left Santa Fe we knew we needed to visit this palace. So this morning we walked to Waterloo Station and took a train out to Hampton Court Palace. It was about a 30 minute ride to the station just over the river from the palace. Then we walked the short distance to the palace. We checked in at the ticket counter with our London Pass and got our tickets and then walked to the entrance of the palace. Before we entered the palace I got a mangled penny (this is what the British call the elongated pennies you get from machines) and then we started our tour. We picked up free audio guides and continued on our self guided tour. The palace is huge and there is lots to see so we just started with the beginning of the audio tour. The tour started with the kitchens of Henry VIII. There are multiple rooms with some of the being very large with fireplaces that you could actually live in. I guess you need these if you are cooking for thousands of people at a time. When the tour of the kitchens was done we continued on to the apartments of Henry VIII. This area was incredible. The workmanship of the woodwork and the art and tapestries were beautiful. Also the history of the rooms was fascinating. One of the things I enjoyed was the characters that walked the grounds and building. It was like you stepped back in time where these people were interacting with each other with issues of the day. They would even discuss what was happening with visitors. You could follow them from room to room and continue with the discussion. It was amazing how they stayed in character even when walking from room to room without any visitors around them. When we completed the apartment tour we went to a scheduled tour that you had to sign up for when you first arrived. It was a guided tour called Secrets of the Royal Bedchamber. Usually this area of the palace isn't open to the public. After our guided tour we continued on the self guided tour of William & Mary's part of the palace. The palace was originally built in a medieval/tudor style and that is how it was when Henry was in residence. When William & Mary came to power and moved in they began changing the palace to a more baroque style. They were able to tear down and rebuild only half of the building before they ran out of money so the palace has two distinct architectures. I much rather the medieval/tudor design. Then we decided to see the gardens. We took a short ride in a horse drawn cart and got a little history of the gardens. Then we walked around the gardens and visited the maze. After walking through the maze we looked for a letterbox but we were unsuccessful. Most of the day was gone by now so we decided to head back to the train station.

We had to wait about a half hour for the train back to Waterloo so we got a snack and some water and relaxed on a bench. The ride back was another half hour and once we exited Waterloo Station we walked to the dry cleaners to pick up our laundry. We brought this back to the hotel then freshened up before heading out for more sightseeing. We went back to Waterloo Station and took the tube to Leicester Square and then walked to Covent Garden. Here we did window shopping and watched street performers and just wandered. Eventually we found a restaurant and stopped for dinner. We ate at Joe's Southern Kitchen. It was delicious and we liked the atmosphere but we were confused about what the thought was southern. They had a slideshow of images from Baltimore, New Orleans, Route 66 and California - so we weren't sure if these were just random pictures of the USA or if this is what they thought of as southern. Anyway, the food was good and we had a nice time there.

Then we decided to end our day with an evening walk. So we headed over to Trafalgar Square. The area was busy. There were people everywhere and it was filled with energy. We walked around, took pictures and enjoyed the people mulling around. After about an hour and a half we took the tube from Charing Cross back to Waterloo and then walked the short distance to our hotel. We had a great day and I really enjoyed the visit to Hampton Court Palace. Tomorrow is our last day in England and there is still so much we want to do. Time to get some rest for our busy day tomorrow.