England Trip, Day 10

Sunday, 24th October, 2010

We got up, ate breakfast at the Copthorne Tara Hotel, packed our bags and walked to the High Street/Kensington Station, where we caught the District Line (also known as the Green Line) to Victoria Station.  (I don't know why each line has TWO names - a word-name and a color-name, but they do!  It was a bit confusing to me, but, then, i get confused a lot anyway, so...)  From there, we got on a train to Gatwick Airport.  Once there, we called the Arora Hotel (in the small town of Crawley) and had them come pick us up so we could spend one night there and be close to the airport so we wouldn't have a big hassle (and possibly miss our flight) the next day.

The Arora Hotel was nice.  It had a h-u-g-e atrium with a 4-story "waterfall" in it.   Very beautiful and modern hotel.

That's the waterfall (the white space between the 2 elevators with the silver "thing" at the top). 

The water really "slides" down fishing-wire-looking stuff, so it doesn't really splash when it lands at the bottom, and so it doesn't make too much noise.

But it was pretty (in person. Sorry this isn't a great picture.)

This is a shot of the atrium from the elevator on the top floor.

Sorry it's kinda blurry and not with good lighting, but we worked with what we had...

This odd thing was in the atrium, and Boyfriend figured out what it was...

A chair!

I love people's imaginations!

And this was another chair.

All wood.

Our room.  We actually took pix of *every* room we stayed in.

We would leave our luggage in the hallway & take pix before we "messed it up".  =-)

Another shot of our room.  See that item on the left?  It's...

Tea service and an ironing station!  Every room we stayed in had a place to make tea.

I don't know why i was surprised...

It's ENGLAND!  =-)

(I've *almost* come to the conclusion that i'm an Airhead...)

(And now i'm wondering who's reading this and saying, "Duh!")

This type of contraption was in almost every room we stayed in; it's on the wall as soon as you enter.

It's, um, i don't know what it's called, but it's like the Power Center for the room.

When you enter,  you put your keycard in, and the lights and heat/air come on.

That way, when you're not there, the room isn't using ANY electricity!

Genius, right?

Why don't we do that over here in the States?

England is truly WAY more "Green" than we are!

 

This was in the "basement" next to the work-out room.

We liked all the blue, and how soothing it looked.

We didn't take swim suits, though, so we could only stand there and look at it.  =-)

"Who knew we  would need swim suits in England in October?!"

After tourning the entire hotel, and walking around the town, we ate supper in the very nice restaurant that was in our hotel.  It's called "Gallucci".  It was Italian, and it was very good. 

Good food.  Good wine.  Good friends.  Another excellent night that followed a nice day.  What more could i ask for?  It was a little melancholy for me, though.  It was our last night...

After a leisurely supper, we went up to our rooms to re-pack and get a good night's sleep to get ready for our l-o-n-g  trip the next day.
We came home on Monday, October 25th.
It was without incident. 
I *HATE* flying, but i've resolved myself that if i want to really go anywhere, it's just a necessary thing.  So i just "suck it up" and DO it!  =-)

And i made it home safe and sound.  =-)

(I've told myself that *if* i die in a plane crash, at least i don't have to worry about whether or not i'll get Alzheimer's, so that's my rationalization and it helps... a little!)  =-)


Our entire trip was from October  13th through October 25th, and i loved every minute of it!
People ask me, "What was your favorite part?!", and honestly, i don't have one.  i loved the WHOLE THING!!!
My *least* favorite part was the flight there and back, but everything in between?
LOVED!!!
I would go again in a skinny minute!  There was so much we *didn't* see, so *if* i ever get the chance, you can bet i'll do it!

And if you ever get the chance...  GO!  There is *so* much history there!  The architecture is amazing, and a mix of old and new.  Everything is just fascinating!

I hope you enjoyed my trip through my eyes.
Now i'll see if i can get back to quilting something! 


=-)