Thursday, October 29, 2015
We were up early this morning and saw the earliest departing
couple leave as we had breakfast. We were packed up and cleared out of the
cabin before 7:30am. When we turned in our keys, she told us our driver was
waiting. Departure was warm and thoughtful if a bit too much compliment begging
which has been an annoying hallmark these 4 weeks. We were all early and we
left. We walked past the dining room windows and waved a final farewell to our
dining partner of the last few weeks.
Marseille is about 85 km away. We drove in moderate traffic
on a motorway and made good time. We were inside Hall 1 of the Marseille
Provence Airport before 9am and before BA opened their check in counters. I
bought a Lyon Starbucks mug with some of the last of our Euros as we waited. It
was good that we were so early because there was a very long line and wait to
get through security and Clay got a random search twice! The flight was on time
and fine at about 2 hours long. We had a 1 hour time change onboard. The flight
was full with all seats filled. They served a light lunch and beverages. It was
okay. The final 20 minutes of circling was tedious and the landing in a heavy
cross wind was a bit terrifying. We had an excessively long wait to clear the
UK border and go through customs. They didn’t give us as many questions this
time as the last 2 times we came through though. We topped off our Oyster cards and caught the
Piccadilly Line to Acton Town. If you’ve been following along then you may
recall Acton Town. Clay chose it to stay 2 nights earlier this year. Last time
we were in a garret room of the old townhouse. This time we are on the ground
floor of the new building down the alley behind it. Both are awful. The
location and price are right though, so here we are. If we do this again, we
need to find a nicer place and I am not really that picky about where I stay.
We decided to go into town to visit the London Transport Museum. We had never
heard of it before but when I Google mapped what was nearby, I found an Italian
restaurant and the LTM’s Depot. I clicked the LTMD and found that the nearby
Depot is only a storage facility to be booked for private functions and by
appointment but that the public museum part is near Covent Garden. That is on
the Piccadilly Line so we checked in and dropped the bags and went. The website
for the LTM doesn’t get a high grade from me because I never saw anywhere that
it was geared towards children. It is. Europe is in the middle of a 2-week
school break. Admission for those under 17 is free. You can work it out. It was
a nightmare. It probably would have been cool if you could safely move around
in the 4 story building but you couldn’t. Clay got a senior rate. I paid full
price. I got a Mind the Gap patch! We worked our way through more throngs of
kids and rugby fans and theater goers and rush hour traffic to get to Leicester
Square station since Covent Garden station is exit only for now and rightly so.
We thought we’d never get out of that station! It was raining a light mist most
of the afternoon and early evening. It isn’t too cold though. We went to
Casereccio, a small casual Italian family restaurant down the street from the
Tube station and our hotel. It was delightful and a delicious very thin crusted
pizza. We have another early morning tomorrow and a long day ahead so I’ll try
to post this now. Sorry, I can get on the hotel’s wifi but there’s no Internet
service available so I don’t know when I’ll get this posted. Tomorrow night in
our own bed!
