Day 8 (2025) - Off to Bloody Old England

Today (Thursday) was a travel day, so not all that much to report on. But report I shall. We were being picked up at 11:30am to go to the airport for our flight to London. Amanda had class in the morning, so after (mostly) getting all packed up three of us (sans Ethan -  see, I do know a little French) headed out for a walk before meeting Amanda at her school building to see where she had classes. 

Of course, by now the definition of "walk" had to include coffee for our newest coffee addict. Brian, Debbie and I decided we would try and grab a coffee and breakfast pastry at the cafe that overlooked the Imperial Gardens, which we had seen on our walking tour on Monday. It would have been a beautiful spot to grab said coffee and pastry, had the place actually been open at 9am. Since it wasn't open, we headed back to our old standby, Joseph Brot, for the desired caffeine fix. We ordered our preferred coffees and pastries and headed to Stephansplatz to sit and enjoy them. And enjoy them we did.

After our morning fix, we decided to see if we could get into St. Stephen's Cathedral, considering all of the times we had walked by it over the days we were in Vienna. We were glad to see that not only was it open, but it was free to enter, so we went in and looked inside. It was just as impressive inside as it was outside.

 

 

 

Amanda's class was ending soon, so we we took the short walk from the plaza to her building. When she emerged we actually went inside as one of us needed to use the facilities. I won't say which one of us, but it may have been the one of us that had the least experience with coffee.

Anyway, after all business was completed in the school building we headed back to the apartment where we finished packing up and met our car at 11:30am. Thanks again to miles, we were flying business to London which meant access to the lounge at the Vienna airport. And not only did this mean we could all grab lunch, but we could also grab another cup of coffee!

Like the flight Amanda and I took from Paris to Vienna, business class pretty much meant early boarding with slightly nicer seats and the middle row blocked off. The flight was pretty uneventful and the business cabin was half full, at best.

 

 

I had arranged for a van to pick us up at Heathrow and after gathering our luggage we met our driver who took us to our house in the South Kensington area. Yes, we had an entire house this time, not just an apartment. When I booked the house it seemed like a good idea - everyone would have their own bedroom and we would have plenty of room to hang out. And for the most part this was correct. The only small issue was the house had 4 stories, with the kitchen and washer/dryer on the basement level, the living room on the ground floor and the bedrooms on the upper two floors. It just meant a lot of up and down steps during our stay, but it was fine.

Basement with Kitchen

Ground Floor Living Room

 The rooms on the second floor, where Debbie and I stayed in one room with Brian in another room only had one bathroom, which was part of our room. Ethan and Amanda stayed on the top floor, each with their own bathroom. 

But back to our bathroom for a minute. It's hard to explain how many things were just weird/wrong with it. First, the floors were little stones to match the walls. This might have looked good, but it was quite uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet. There were no outlets in the bathroom, and I mean none. So we would have to get ready in the bedroom area. The bathroom was one big room, with a sauna (Brian used it once), shower, tub and toilet. If anyone needed a little privacy in the bathroom (say, after a few coffees, perhaps) you would need to close the door to the bathroom. However, this wasn't even possible because the door would not stay closed - it would slide open and while there was a hook on the door there was no latch for it to connect to. 

However, the most bizarre thing was the shower. First, it had one of those annoying half doors that do absolutely nothing to keep you warm while showering. But that was the least of the issues. The bigger issue was that the shower area was small, and right at the end of was the tub - and I meant RIGHT at the end of it. There was no barrier or anything from stopping you from tumbling into the abyss of the tub if you moved around too much in the shower. I cannot imagine someone thought this was a good plan.

 

My feet hurt just looking at this floor

Anyway, after settling into the house, I found a place to eat that was about a 15 minute walk away, so out we went. Dinner was fine, nothing exciting, and we walked a slightly different way home to check out the area. 

Brian has been to London recently, so he has some ideas of things to do tomorrow. Until then I will make sure I stand still when I shower.