One day in London

Writing is good for my mind. And re-reading these blogs is good for my soul.
But actually going on international trips, well, that’s good for just about everything. I’m feeling a bit stagnant right now — which is why I’m resorting back to one of the most rational and fantastic ways I have to express myself and to ultimatly re-live parts of my life; blog posts.

This one, as the title suggests is about a layover in London, September 2022. Our original itinerary did not have us making any stops in England so CHEERS to travel for always keeping us on our toes.

Who is us?…You might ask. Well, my road-dog for lyfe, Rachel, was getting married! You may remember her from when we climbed Mt. Doom, in New Zealand or from when we told you to “Go to Berlin”.

She’s easy to remember and hard to forget 😉

Anyway, Rachel asked me to officiate her wedding. To LEGALLY marry her.  I was to be her High Priestess.  And the wedding was in Albania.  I couldn’t have been more flattered! (More on that later.  When I feel like posting about it.) For now, Rachel had her fiancé, a handful of close friends, and her road-dog for lyfe (that’s me!) who had a boyfriend named Ryan (hi, Ryan!) who was ready to use a block of his vacation days.

Large group of travel mates

As we departed the Pittsburgh airport I learned that PIT has a stadium license! And that some of the shops have a to-go license which, combined with fair market prices make for an extra fun adult airport experience.  No wonder our sweet airport won airport of the year in 2017.

After finding our hotel (Who knew there were so many Ibis budget hotel options?  Certainly not our cabbie.) we set off in search of some classic English pub grub.

Obligatory fish ‘n chips and smashed peas, battered to perfection.

We continued to walk around and take in as many sights as we could before the highlight of our brief trip started– our Jack the Ripper tour!  We had a fantastic guide named Jamie who walked us around narrow alleys and dimly lit streets regaling us with tales of the infamous serial killer who had terrorized the area in the late 1800s. We were shown the locations of Ripper’s victims, and learned chilling details of his heinous acts. It was both disturbing and fascinating to learn about the brutal murders. With an emphasis on history, wink, we visited bars including Ten Bells Pub, a pub that still stands today and was frequented by several of the poor women victims. We ended the evening pontificating on who Jack the Ripper really was.

Our guide in the red hat, Jamie.

After the tour we went off in search of dinner.  It ended up being from a ‘corner shop’ located in strip mall and not an “actual corner”.   We ate an assortment of “actual chips”, not French fries.  Tomato, tomato, as they say.

The London tube. With our own ‘tude.

Hogwarts express, incoming!

London was fine.  The best part was that so much happens every single day when you travel; it’s enlivening!

A mere handful of hours of sleep later — but with no fire alarms going off, just our phone alarms — we were back at Heathrow airport.

Bloody knackered and ready for our intended adventure,
‘mi