Richmond

Friday, July 5, 2024

On the plane they had lots of Olympic movies, which I thought was cute. I chose Miracle over Cool Runnings, Eddie the Eagle, or I, Tonya. I had never seen it. Of course, I know the story, but I fist pumped when Team USA scored against the Soviets. I was going to write Russians, because I have forgotten about the Soviets; then I thought “how quickly we forget”, then I realized it has been 35 years…. When did that happen? Anyway, I was distracted by the lady who kept serving me food, so my idea to watch a bit of the movie became the whole movie, then I went to sleep. I didn’t sleep well, but man, was I comfortable. Every time I adjusted, I would think “I’m so comfortable!” Yay.

Keith and I were next to each other in the customs line. We each put our passports in the machine. I was really focused on me, because I am always putting it in in the wrong direction or something and have to have a customs agent help me. Augh. When my door turned green and I was welcomed into the UK, I went right in. I walked by the No Waiting Here signs, because no waiting there. Around the corner, I turned to look for Keith. No Keith. I leaned. I waited. I figured the custom agent was helping him. HA! Not me this time. I waited. I looked. I walked back and forth. I started to think of the story “he was next to me and then he vanished into thin air. There was no record on the cameras of him ever being there. Was he a ghost, or a figment of my imagination?” A police officer walked by and I asked where I might expect him to show up. He said if he hadn’t come through, he had been rejected by England and sent back. I asked if I should just ahead with my holiday then? and he agreed. Then he pointed out where his coworkers would be working with the rejects – and I found Keith. Happy little reject.

The Virgin Atlantic revival lounge was available to us, so we went. VA and Delta are partners, so sharing. We could order breakfast off the menu. My tummy was a bit upset (too much food last night and not enough sleep, I think) so I had toast and fruit salad. Keith had a beautiful dish (eggs Benedict with salmon instead of ham), toast, a cronut with hazelnut cream, and a chocolate croissant. They have 20 shower rooms, but we did not shower. I thought we both looked pretty good, and felt pretty good. It actually seemed like a big deal to shower, so Keith just used the room to change (because his salad dressing jumped off of his salad and onto his shirt last night) (I hope that comes out). It was really raining and grey and I was very happy to just sit there for a while.

We deftly (Keith did and I followed, but that is kind of we) maneuvered the train/underground to get to central London. We even altered our route after the electronic sign on the train said the northern line was experiencing severe delays. Woooo us! Our hotel is a block off of Trafalgar Square (obviously named for King Trafalgar – he is up on a plinth in the square…I think). It is called both The Grand and Club Quarters at Trafalgar. Huh. Either way, they didn’t have a room for us when we showed up early, so we dropped our suitcase and headed for Richmond, home of Ted Lasso! Here I am, so excited to be on a train I am taking my picture.

Here is Keith, hardly noticing he is on a train.

Apparently, I have been to Richmond before. My sister and I visited Kew Gardens, the national botanical gardens, when we were here in 2016. She said we turned right to see flowers and we could have turned left to see pre-Ted Richmond. Today we turned left. Keith found an online walking tour and we walked around town for an hour, seeing Nate’s parents’ house, Rebecca’s house, where Higgins walked his dog, the lot where Keely and Jaime had a serious conversation, where the unfortunate paparazzi got on the bad side of Roy, the place where Rebecca and Ted do not get into the pedicab, and finally to Ted’s house, the alley he and Beard walk down all the time, the “Crown and Anchor”, and Richmond green. The weather had turned lovely. All day (and evening) most people we saw were wearing winter jackets – fur lined hoods and the whole nine yards (that’s a kilt reference, which is more Scotland than England, but, oh well). I was wearing a sleeveless top and was never the least bit chilled. I had a (summer) sweatshirt in my bag – didn’t need it at all.

There was an official Ted Lasso store on his home street and we enjoyed going in there.

We walked along the Thames. There was a bank of gorgeous plants between us and the river. I loved it. The purple and the yellow flowers were lovely together, and then I noticed that the yellow flowers had purple stems. What? Self – coordination! Well done, plants.

I can’t not mention my favorite name of a pub for the day – Slug & Lettuce! And some well placed bins. What they can’t do with topiary these days. I need to remember to mention that as we walked, we saw scores of Jaguars and a few Astin Martins. You just don’t see that at home.

Back in London, we picked up Upper Crust sandwiches at the train status before we returned to the hotel. We love Upper Crust. Our room was ready. We were ready for it to be ready and went immediately (IMMEDIATELY) to sleep. Look how fancy the lobby is! Our room is very regular, and it looks out on scaffolding and construction garbage. 🙂 We do have a very nice feature in the hall – cold water, ice that fits in bottles, and empty bottles to fill.

After a two-hour nap and a lot of lingering in a sleepy way, we set out to look for a Sainsbury’s grocery store. There are a lot of Sainsbury Locals – smaller, mid-city stops – but we were looking for an actual full-sized grocery store, because we are questing for a Sainsbury’s brand of wine gums, a candy you cannot get in the United States. It said it was 0.8 miles and that seemed a lovely outing. We walked through the West End and saw the theaters for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Sister Act, the Heathers, Stranger Things, The Mousetrap (now in its 72nd year!) and more. There are restaurants everywhere – such fun to look at. It was raining just a smidge, so we umbrella-ed. We got to Sainsbury’s, and it was a Sainsbury Local. Stupid map. Arghhh. I will continue my quest tomorrow!

There was a giant (GIANT) room (?) open on two sides with massive projections to sit and watch. We scored a seat right away and watched a number of different shows. This one is using the ceiling, but you almost can’t tell where ceiling meets wall. It was about 30 feet high and cool cool cool.

I love signs wherever I go, but the UK has some particularly great ones. Enjoy!

This last was an ad in the underground. Can it seriously be true?!