Back in London

Once leaving Scotland, we drove to Woking where we caught a 40-minute train to London. Getting into the city later that evening, mum and I decided we didn't want to hassle with tubes and called a taxi (imagine mum flagging a taxi like in the movies...I wish! It was just waiting outside the station). For our final 3 days in London, our accommodations were the Youth Hostel at Holland House in Holland Park. Imagine my fright when the taxi cab dropped us off outside the darkened park telling us we had to drag our luggage through the shady looking alley's to make it to our beds for the night. I was frightened. Mum called the Hostel's reception desk and got a hold of the man, but he wouldn't come out to make sure we would make it safe (not a gentleman in my opinion!)--although he did assure us that the walk was not far. Puffing ourselves up with acting courage, mum and I walked assertively through a gated walkway and indeed, the Hostel's door was not far (thank goodness). We checked in and pulled our luggage up 2 flights of stairs to a room shared with 10 other beds. Ah-ha how unrestful! lol

Waking up the next morning we met some of our roomies--women from places like Germany, New Zealand, Spain, etc. This Youth Hostel offers a free breakfast (very unusual) so we took them up on it and had an okay breakfast (Vi and Carol--and even Mrs. Galloway really spoiled us! lol). Today's goal was to see the British Museum. Guiding ourselves on 3 different tube lines, we located the museum and got to work at seeing the ancient artifacts of Egypt, China, and our European ancestors. I felt like Evelyn Carnahan in the movie "Mummy" as I examined the remnant's of the Pharaoh's. It was quite fascinating! Did you know they even mummified their cats! Cats were considered precious and even like gods! (I love my cats, but they are certainly far from godhood! haha)

After we had seen as much as we could possibly take in, we were exhausted and wanted an excuse to sit down without having to return to our hostel. What about seeing a movie? Star Trek it was! Something interesting: You actually pick your seats like when going to a play--and they check your ticket stub and direct you to your seat! So we sat in row K, and our seats were in the middle. Besides the usual unnecessary things common in today's movies, the picture was very exciting and since I'm a Star Trek fan, I enjoyed the movie a lot. I had to tell Kevin right away cause I felt bad seeing it without him cause he's like the biggest fan ever! (but it was the only movie playing at that particular hour that was decent!) At the end of the movie, I was ready to see it again, or better yet, have it just go on and on with a new adventure for the crew. But alas, it was time to return to the hostel for another nights somewhat restful sleep.