Day 13 - Home!

Yes, we are home, safe and...tired. Though not too tired. We had a very smooth flight home. The leg from London to Raleigh-Durham was very pleasant. Bob was smart and got us the seats in the first row of the main cabin where we had no one in front of us and plenty of leg room. I had my feet propped up on pillows resting on our computer bag. Made the long flight much more comfortable. The plane was not full at all, so it was a relatively quiet flight. Now the leg from Raleigh-Durham to DFW was not as comfortable, but thankfully shorter. We actually got in 30 minutes early. It was 8:30 pm Dallas time, but 2:30 am London time. I was okay until that last hour of the flight. Then I got really tired. I'm the lucky one. I didn't have to go to work the next day.

Well, just a few last observations from the trip. Though we share the same English language as the Brits, there's enough differences in sayings to make it interesting. I found it somewhat difficult "whilst" reading the UK paper to understand the writers. They use expressions I'm not familiar with. Bob and I had fun pointing out the differences and trying to use them like we knew what we were saying! Here's a few:
"Way out" instead of exit
"Tube or underground" instead of subway
"Take away" instead of take-out (as in food)
"still" water instead of just plain water, or as opposed to "sparkling" water
"sorry" instead of excuse me (Bob always thought Hugh Grant was wimpy in his movies when he was always saying "sorry". Now he knows what it means. Everyone says it in the UK.)

London IS the place to shop. Though expensive, it has ALOT to choose from. We did go into Harrod's, but I could only go up to the second floor before I knew we needed to leave. It was way too overwhelming for this Texas girl who grew up going into New York City to shop. It might have been because we walked right into the designer section of women's fashion and I knew I was not in the right place.

I never did eat fish and chips. But we ate alot of international food. Italian food is really good in London. So is Indian.

Sometimes you get a good taxi driver, and sometimes you don't. Don't expect all of them to get out of the cab to help you with your bags. Even when they see you struggling. They may just sit in their seat and wait. Won't even open the cab door. Then they grumble if you don't tip them enough. That was like the last driver we had. He asked us where we were from and Bob said Texas. He then replied "They must not tip in Texas!" as he drove off. Yea, that was our send off. Fortunately, "blokes" like that were rare.

More often than not, we found the British to be very friendly and helpful. London is a place I would definitely like to visit again. We've got the maps, know the tube routes, understand the buses, just need the money...Oh well. But right now, I'm happy just to be home in Flower Mound, seeing my family (Pam's coming home this weekend and we are going to see Becca at Pine Cove!), and chillin' with some ICED tea. Lots of ice.