Off to Blighty...

Thursday, April 13. Not so cool. 

Last night was undoubtably the best sleep in 10 days. Nice to be in luxurious surroundings after several days of interesting accommodations I must say. 

The breakfast seemed to go on forever, at least for us. We interrupted our breakfast to say goodbye to the soldiers and those returning with them to Vancouver on a flight shortly after noon. We only had about 9 or 10 days mingling with them but it was great 10 days. The stories and the history that they shared was amazing. In particular CSM Rob Deans and several others. I brought with me the new Vimy book by Tim Cook that Myra gave me and am glad to have visited the site before reading the book. It now makes much more of an interesting read having walked and seen the ground. I will have to make a concerted effort to read the history of the Seaforths from inception to prior to WW II. Out of print now may be available somehow. 

We returned to the breakfast room to have coffee and a great chat with Doug Rae. We found out that we may be remotely related as my grandmother was a Rae and came from approximately the same geographical area in Scotland. 

We three then took the free hotel shuttle to the airport at noon to start the actual journey to Horseguards Hotel in London. The trip took 15 minutes and then the usual chaos as we got oriented and went through security, which seemed tight today, then to passport control which was civilized. Having the Global Security status certainly makes the whole process less stressful, as I struggled to keep my belt-less trousers up!

Lunch in the KLM lounge was a brief respite, there we said hello to Mike and Mary Shields, Soon we were in the departure lounge, read bus stop and in the plane and on our way. Quick as a wink we were at Heathrow and in a cab and next thing at the hotel. A very satisfactory and eloquent hotel called The Royal Horseguards located at the centre of everything in London. Out for a Pub Meal, a longer than expected tour of the area and back to the hotel to get this darn blog off so we can all get to bed. 

The walk after dinner was interesting: Craig was here last, amazingly 25 years ago, but he remembers it intimately, [except things are closer together than he remembers].

The place is amazingly clean and neat. And all the pubs and eating places are full of happy and very young looking people. As a matter of fact, everybody looks young no matter where we go.

We have a car and driver arriving at 9:00 AM tomorrow to take us up to Northampton for the day.

E&OE

Our first view of England in a few years.

The view from our window.

Out for a walk and to the Tank Memorial.

Fish and chips for dinner.

Canada House from Trafalgar Square.

Big Ben at dusk.

The London Eye.