The Walter Blog: Day 13 - Our last day in London

After the breakfast from the hotel, powdered scrambled eggs, sausage and some juice for me and cereal and toast for the rest of them, we started our day. I think we’re all ready for some home cooking. Rylee has had a hankering for some good ole Apple Pie. We told her she’d have to wait until we get home. We had a little time to kill before our Volleyball event at 2:45 so we decided to go back to Piccadilly Circus since Rylee really wanted to stop at one of the shops we had been to last time we were in London. We picked up some knickknacks but still hadn’t found a Christmas ornament for our tree. One of the things we try and do is to pick up an ornament for our Christmas tree when we go on a big family vacation. Every year as we’re putting up the tree, we remember where and when we got the ornament and it helps remind us of the trips we’ve been on. We haven’t been able to find one until we walked past a Lladro, or Lardo as Jarret pronounced it, store. They did have a 2012 ornament for 65 Pounds. It was a little spendy but we figured we’re only here once…..until we got the bill in US dollars - $106……oh that darn exchange rate that is so easy to forget about. You know we can’t change our mind at this point, the only benefit that we get is that if it breaks within the next year, we can get it replaced.

We walked to the tube stop and on the way came across a little market set up in the courtyard of an old church. They had some neat little items but nothing that we couldn’t do without.

It was now time to head to the Earls Court Arena where the volleyball was going to be played. We got to see two matches, the first was Russia vs Tunisia and Russia won the match pretty easily. Russia does have a 7 foot 2 inch middle that can really hit the ball. He was fun to watch. There were quite a few empty seats for the first game.

The second game was Poland vs Argentina and this was a much more rowdy game. The fans filled the stadium and I bet ¾ of them were rooting for Poland. They were yelling, singing, and making a lot of noise. Poland won the match in 3 games but it was fun to watch, especially with the crowd. We must have been the only Americans in a raucous sea of Polska fans. Needless to say, we quickly became Polish fans. After the game was over, the Polish fans continued with their singing as they were exiting the arena. I told Jarret he should start a USA chant but we would have been drowned out very easily.

We stopped for dinner on the way home at a place that wasn’t very good. As we got to the hotel, we figured that we’d better start repacking everything tonight. Our suitcases will be brimming with stinky, dirty clothes as the hotels here don’t offer do-it-yourself laundry. And we’re too close to the end of our trip to wash anything more in the bathroom sink! Besides, with the humidity here, nothing would dry in time. Hopefully we won’t need to purchase a new bag to bring our souvenirs home. We also did our last Skype session with Dave Cotton at KHQ.

Jill and I were talking and both of us would like to come back to London again someday. It really is a nice place to visit, even if it is a little more expensive than other towns. There is so much to do and see that you can’t begin to see it all in one trip. As much as we like London, we’re ready to come home. We’ve been on the go, non-stop, for about 2 weeks now. We pretty much figured we haven’t been more than 20 feet away from each other for any length of time in the last two weeks. Rylee and Jarret have done well on the trip but I think they’re tired of not being able to have their own space. Tomorrow we get on the plane and head back to the states. And then we have to drive back from Seattle. I don’t think we’re going to spend the night in Seattle. If we’re that close to home, we might as well load up on coffee and junk food and make the drive home. This has been the trip of a lifetime and I’m so glad that it has gone so well. It’s been especially nice to take the trip as a family and share it with all of you.

It’s always such a rush to be at a live Olympic event and witness the dedication and years of training these athletes have endured. When we sit in the arena and cheer for them all, there is just nothing like the spirit of it. But we have missed watching the Americans compete and reading about it. We’re glad there’s another week of competition so we can watch it from home.

Jill: I need to send a big shout-out to Craig for pretty much organizing this amazing trip. He has done the research, purchased all the tickets (Olympic, plane, tube, Metro, Eurostar), and has been our expert map-reader. He enjoys figuring out where we are, and how to get from point A to point B, and we follow along like little puppies. He was the keeper of the subway and light rail tickets, and always told us to go “right!” or “left!” or “straight ahead!” as we jumped off the subways and tried to find the exits. You made our trip great, thank you!

Where are we going next??