Day 9 & 10

We got up early had some great breakfast and traveled back to England.We stopped very quickly at Stratford upon Avon and saw Shakespeare'swife Anne Hathaway's house. We had our photo taken in front of it as agroup, there were 42 people in our group and it was really fun! We allpretty much got along and only a few people continued to be late to geton the bus to get to our next destination. Anne's house was a thatchedcottage, they were really neat to see! They still use the Reeds fromEngland I think Sussex area to thatch them. They last around 20 years.Then we were off to Shakespeare's home town, just down the road. Therewere quite a few folks wandering about here, it was super busy. I foundsome cute stuff in some of the shops and Mom went to the book store. Shereally didn't find much. We were going to see Shakespeare's birth placebut it costs 10 pounds. Mom decided no that was too much. We walkedaround trying to find a bathroom for quite some time. Finally we sawJohn the tour director and he pointed us to it. We went off to see themarket and the American statue. Apparently an American paid to have astatue built for some reason and they have a street market/flea markettype of thing. We wandered thru and Mom found a cute scarf. We went offto eat at a restaurant near the market and got a chicken sandwich,crisps and tea. Very yummy! We split the sandwich and had to eat fairlyquickly with not much time before needing to be back on the bus. Due totraffic we only got to have 1 1/2 hours there to wander. We found our way back to the bus and looked at the photo that was taken.We both decided it was a great reminder of our trip and got one each.
I have tried to email a few of the people we talked to but only Jessicaresponded with 1 email. Oh well, I am sure people are on to their lifeand super busy once they got back. We were on our way to England and thehotel. Mom and I were going to go to bed early since we had to be up at3am to get to the airport and leave by 05:30am. Jess and Jessica saidthey were going to go on a boat ride and see Buckingham palace and a fewother places. We had no plans on going on the Tube, things change ratherquickly. We teamed up with the girls and got a Tube pass for the day.First time ever for that! We don't have a lot of public transportationthat runs at night around here so I really don't know how to use it, letalone figure out the London Underground. Jessica and Jess were veryknowledgeable about what to take and which stop we need to get off andsee something. It was very different, but there were quite a few folksthat use it. We found a boat that took us down the river seeing manythings on shore. It was pretty nice the crew member talked about thisand that and we all took lots of photos. Before we left the dock we sawbig ben. This is not very big anymore but still pretty cool, it chimedas we were getting on the boat. We went under several bridges, saw abunch of sights and stopped near the tower of London. While we weregetting off the boat, Jess was in front with her umbrella since it hadstarted raining before we docked. Jessica, Mom then me going down somesteep stairs. Jess slipped when the boat bumped the dock really hard andfell down a few stairs. She hurt her elbow pretty bad, nothing lookedlike it was broken. We ran to Starbucks to take refuge from the rain andJess gathered herself and took a moment. Eventually she was ready tofind the Tube and off we went. Her elbow hurt a little more if she bentit but she said she was ok. We passed a restaurant that had strawberriesand cream listed as a dessert. She said she was really thinking ofgetting some after we found Buckingham palace. We walked and walkedfinally we found it. We stopped for a photo opp for everyone. It waspretty cool seeing it up-close.

Jess said her elbow was hurting pretty bad so we went back to the Tube. Jessica asked a person in charge where the closest hospital was to the exits. They were going to leave us early from our stop by the hotel to get Jess x-rays. We had to be brave for Jess but I was terrified of being on my own and finding the right colorTube to get us to the hotel. They got off and Mom and I were in for anadventure. Well, it turned out just fine and nothing exciting happened.We walked and walked and walked back to the hotel. We were famished!!!Nothing to eat since that afternoon and it was 8pm. We stopped at aPizza Express and had some yummy Za! The waiter was lovely and brought apitcher of water which I quickly downed. Apparently I was thirsty too.We had Gelato for dessert and walked back over to the hotel.
We were beat! My feet were super tired! We went to the top floor of the hotelwhere they had a window built in one whole side of the wall. We steppedto the edge and looked out over London being cloaked in darkness. Thelights were on and the sun was setting, it was really gorgeous! Westumbled back to the elevator and back to our room. We both hopped inthe shower and I called the front desk for a wake up call. After myshower I called again just to make sure I had one set and Mom set the TVfor 3am. Which one do you think happened?? The TV!!! Of all things, ifthat had not went off we would have missed our flight. We were bothstill really tired and ready to come home.
We took a van to the airport and got in line with plenty of time to spare. They did not even open up until 5am. We went thru got totally separate seats since we had no idea how to change them in the computer to sit together for the long flight,the short flight from Chicago was no problem. We found the gate wentthru customs got our passport stamped and away to the gate to wait andwait. I bought a water at Heathrow and had to throw it away in Chicago.I don't know why I didn't drink it but oh well. I watched he is notreally that into you and Watchmen. Watchmen was really nice since Icould concentrate on the cinema not so much the story since I hadalready seen it. Very pretty cinematography I thought. We landed noproblem again went thru customs but this time we were back home!!! Sovery nice a dollar is a dollar no exchanging anything. We were welcomedback by customs and went ok except the water part. We found our gate andI went back to get some yummy Starbucks!!! We drank and sat and tried towake up a bit. I got out my knitting and people watched as I knit. Awoman was walking thru and almost took out her husband and other as shecame to a complete stop pointing saying "LOOK!!! Knitting!!" Her husbandsaid "yes dear" I waved and she looked a bit embarrassed and moved on toher flight. I had no problems with my knitting needles, of course I hadsomething cast on so they could see I was working on something. ThanksSP!!! She as an ex-pat was super helpful with what I should andshouldn't do while flying. We got on the plane on time no problems andfound our way back home.
I got the car while Mom waited with the bags and we were happy and weary. I dropped her off at home said hi to my uncle and went off to my house. DH wanted to eat and I realized I was pretty hungry too. We went to CiCi's pizza and ate and ate and ate. We talked and talked and finally way too late I went off to bed. I didn'tget much sleep before I was up and still weary. DH was pretty nice tolet me just do what I wanted to and when I wanted to. He understood jetlag. I can't believe I got hit so hard once I got home and not so muchwhile I was there. I am sure it was because I didn't sleep coming back.I just couldn't-I tried. We bummed around until I had to back to work.