Day 1: Sep. 4, 2018 - The Trip to our London Flat

It is our last day in Seattle for a while. Later today we will board a plane for the 9-hour flight to London. The flight is scheduled to leave at 7:20 PM, so we have no pressure as we awake and finish off our “To Do” list (packing, et al). We even decide to splurge on breakfast at the 5 Spot at about 8:30. Really good meal, hope they still have New Mexico as the region of focus when we return.

We have decided to store the X3 in the garage and take an Uber to SeaTac, saving weeks of car parking fees. It was a small challenge, but we squeezed it into the garage along with all the junk we have stored. After breakfast, we finalize the packing and get all of the bags and carry-ons ready. We are, of course, way ahead of schedule, but we don’t see any reason not to leave now. We access the Uber app and get to the airport, check in, grab some late lunch/early dinner and finally get on board the 747 to Heathrow.

The next part is expected to be the hardest thing we do for the next 5+ weeks, sit in our cramped airplane seats for 9 hours. It actually turns out to be fairly easy. The dinner service is good and the food is not too bad: wine for no extra charge! Three movies and some reading and naps later, we are on the ground at Heathrow.

We deplane and make our way through customs with no trouble. We find the Heathrow Express for the train ride to Paddington Station. Very nice. We exit the station seeing no bears and find the taxi stand where we are whisked away to the east to our new home for the next 4 weeks in Notting Hill.

There is a little confusion about which building contains our flat, but we get it sorted out and are inside our new digs with no more fuss.

Pinehurst Court