Ritas Ireland Dream: Albany to Kensington Palace in only 30 hours

Our Hotel - Lancaster Gate

After 30 hours of flying, attempting to sleep, flying, walking, walking, walking we are finally in our beds at 8pm London time or 12 noon PST April 17. Your April 17 will only last 24 hours, but our April 17 will last 32 hours. We were both up at 6:00 am in Albany because of the excitement of beginning our adventure and now 30 hours later the only excitement we can muster is sleeping and trying to figure out how to flush the bloody toilet.

You don’t go hungry on a Delta International flight. We not sooner got on the plane and we were served a snack and drink closely followed with a full meal with 2 more to follow. Great movie choices with all the latest Oscar winners and Mary Poppins. The walking marathon started in the Amsterdam airport going from hallway to main hallways with no end. Heathrow is a close second of hallways that are like mazes. But all that pales with the shuttle drive to our hotel. You would think that a cultured and modern town like London could at lease have two lanes for 2-way traffic. Let’s just say having those little black cabs coming at you head-on only to swerve at the last second causes even the most cool and brave to scream “watch out”.

Once settled into the our room I decided I would find Paddington Station to get our train tickets for Friday. Remember my warning that people in this part of the world say “it’s just a short walk”, after 2 hours of being lost on winding streets I finally returned to our room with my TWO TICKETS. I told Rita that our short walk to the train station on Friday would be in a cab. The flowers were in bloom in windows and doorways along the streets.

Rita walking in Hyde Park

We are only two blocks from Hyde Park where the Kensington Palace is located. Rita was ready for a “short walk” so off we went for a 45 min walk to the Palace. The Sunken Garden and Palace interior was well worth the walk…not sure Rita would agree about the “walk” part. After our palace tour we continue walking to Queensway Road to try and find something to eat (again). One thing about London, it is truly International. Any food you can want, except English and American 😊 There’s Chinese, Polish, Chinese, Russian, Chinese, Moroccan, Chinese, Indian, Chinese. So we decided on Chinese. Rita was so tired that she actually fell asleep at the table while talking. I think she sleep walked all the way back to the Hotel – another 5 blocks.

Well, it’s time to turn off the Telly, dream about the Red Bus London Tour tomorrow and be assured that we definitely got all our steps in today.