Well, as you hopefully read in chapter I, I was fully incapacitated upon arrival at Heathrow and Elizabeth had to take over. Of course she’s the boss in our house but she sometimes allows me to lead when we are traveling. She located our driver from 24/7 and we somehow made it safely to our hotel, Crowne Plaza Docklands.

Travel Tip: There are several ways to get from the airport to the hotel. We have found that, for us, after the long haul, it is better to have car and driver waiting. We walk out of Immigration and Customs and find the lady or gentleman with our name on a placard and we are off. In London, 24/7 has always done a bang up job for us. It’s only about 20 Pounds more over the cheapest way (Train, Underground, and DLR) and there is no schlepping bags.

Okay, we are very biased when it comes to this hotel. This was our fourth Christmas Holiday to stay here. It has the amenities that we prefer; indoor pool, hot tub, spa, steam room, and a delicious English breakfast included. It is located next to a Tesco Express that has everything one needs for Happy Hour and just three minutes from the DLR, which transports you to Central London in 20 minutes.

All that having been said, we really come back for the staff. From check in to check out they are superb. We missed seeing Anna at breakfast but very pleased she got to spend Christmas with her family. We so enjoyed the warm welcome we received from Adina, Jarson, Kass, Julian, and Iris. We so appreciate Mari and the arrangements and are sorry to hear that Wim is moving on to “greener Pastures.” Of course it was also great to see Richard once again. We are already making our plans for next Christmas and I suspect they will once again include Crowne Plaza Docklands.

While the warm and gracious welcome given to us, especially by Adina, who actually ran outside as we were unloading the vehicle, to greet and hug us, lifted my spirits momentarily, I quickly checked in and collapsed in the room. Ah not so quick, Grass Hopper! Elizabeth reminded me that we had promised to return to the bar where many of our friends were waiting to buy us a drink and greet us properly. So, I had to pull up my big boy panties and go for a pint or two. Probably the best thing all day! Gee, my wife does know some stuff (go figure).

We accomplished our round of welcoming drinks, went next door to the Tesco Express and purchased our Happy Hour “supplies,” and just barely made it back to our lovely room in time for our fourteen hour nap. Yep, you read it correctly; we slept for fourteen hours straight.

One of the things that I aspired to do on this Journey was to keep an up-to-date   journal with names, dates, and places as well as write every day. Well, that certainly didn’t happen! So here I am trying to play catch up, still with the “crud” hanging on (Pernicious little devil). I didn’t keep my promise to myself to write each day but we got out and about to see and do somethings we hadn’t done before.

We are big fans of walking tours, both self-guided and with a bona fide local guide. Actually the self-guided tours use local guide books such as Insight Pocket Guide for London or You Tube Videos such as Joolz Guides. This year we visited Highgate Cemetery where we visited Karl Marx’s Family Grave as well as several thousand others (one could spend weeks and months here). Of course, our reward at the end of the day was a pint at the historic Flask Pub (founded in 1663).

Travel Tip: One of the best set of London advice we have found: 25 Mistakes Tourists Make While Visiting London

We also took two guided walking tours, one on Christmas Eve and the second one on Boxing Day. On Christmas Eve we took a “Dickens of a City” tour led by Dr. David Charnick. David did a great job of putting Dicken’s writings into the context of the London of his time and the impact that it had on his life. We also walked with Joanna Moncrieff, in her “Footprints of London” tour. Joanna led us throughout much of the commercial area of Central London pointing out areas of interest and especially “over the top” holiday decorations. In our estimation, all the tours were worth the price of admission.