No photos for this post, but some rather amusing anecdotes...
When I had left my B&B that morning, I had to check out by 10:30 am, so I wasn't the most organized when I gathered my things together. I had planned a full day of sightseeing before leaving London on an early evening train to Milton Keynes. The friend I was going to visit had mentioned that I might want to pack what I would need for the week in just one suitcase so I didn't have to haul both of them around. I could then store one suitcase at Euston station for that week until I returned to London. Excellent advice, HM! Thank you! Fortunately for that day, until I left for the train station, all of the B&Bs/hotels where I stayed during my trip allowed you to store your luggage there if you were an early arrival (read, the room was not yet ready), or if you had checked out, were sightseeing and not leaving the city until later. As I threw my stuff into the two large suitcases and my purse that morning, I did not think past that day's sightseeing and required tickets. So for whatever scatterbrained reason, instead of putting my train tickets I would need at Euston back into my purse, I put them in the inside zip-up compartment of one of the big suitcases. And later forgot that. Each suitcase weighed around 40+ pounds.
Having been on the tube, I knew it was out of the question for me to haul both those bags down numerous stairs and onto the tube train, then haul them back up when I reached Euston Station, where I would take an overland train to Milton Keynes, so at the end of my day's sightseeing, I returned to the B&B, retrieved my bags, and took the easy way out by hailing a taxi, whose driver hossed my bags in and out of the car. Taking a taxi across town during rush hour in London can be, uh, expensive, but if you're physically unable to accomplish what you need to...so glad I hadn't stopped at Harrods that morning. The driver was a very friendly young bloke who loved that I was from Florida. He had visited a couple of times, adoring the warmth and sunshine. He and his wife were saving up to visit in about three to five years when their two young children would be old enough to enjoy the Disney parks. I tipped him an extra pound and told him to add that to the Florida fund. He smiled wide, thanking me profusely.
After he unloaded my bags at the underground taxi stand of Euston station, it then hit me that I wasn't sure where I had put my train tickets. Definitely not in my purse. Anywhere. Which only meant they had to be in one of my two huge suitcases. I knew once I got upstairs to the main terminal it would be controlled packed human chaos, so I made the executive decision to somewhat get out of the way of other arriving taxis and open both my suitcases to search. It took ten minutes, much panic, then much prayer on my part to find them, but find them I did. I then found a lift and the suitcase storage place. One less bag to worry about for a week. Next time I travel over there I will know how to pack. For now, though, I had to suck it up and pay an extra fee for bag storage. Still glad I hadn't stopped at Harrods.
I joined the throngs standing in front of the Departures board and found the platform for my train. The train itself was so crowded, I had to stand for the first 30-45 minutes of the trip. Once I arrived in Milton Keynes, the lift at the train station was closed for repair, and I wasn't sure if I could haul that 40+ pound bag up what amounted to two flights of stairs, but a kindly station officer volunteered to carry the bag for me and wouldn't take a tip. "It's my job, madam," he said. "Bless you," I replied.
A huge highlight was getting to finally meet one of my TwiMom friends, whom I had conversed with for over two years online. Oh, and we had become Facebook buddies, too, so it's like we had practically known one another forever, right? She was there at the station to pick me up and house me for a weekend of adventures. Talk about a true blessing!
When we arrived at her house, her dear, sweet husband, nicknamed "Sir," had prepared a fantastic dinner that awaited this starved traveler. Two more gracious people I will never meet. For the next three days, they made me feel most welcome, drove me around to various tourist sites, and conducted themselves as the most perfect of hosts.
HM and Sir, you will never know the level of gratitude I have for the two of you, and what a special place you will always hold in my heart.
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