Dang tired

 Today was a busy day

When planning the trip there were certain things some people wanted to do.

    For instance, I wanted to see the Tower of London, the Tower. Bridge, Big Ben , Globe Theater, take a Thames River. raise, watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and either tour St. Paul's or Westminster.

    Well, some it happened.

    I saw Big Ben, watched the changing of the guard, and took a river cruise.....today.  I had seen the Tower of London, the Crown Jewels and the Tower Bridge earlier

    There were no tickets left for Westminster and no, we did not order in advance, because we could not decide.

    The Thames River cruise was ok, but let's just say the Thames is not quite as attractive as the Chicago River.

    And Kensington Palace?  Julia said there was a display of fashions through the years.  We all assumed it meant clothing worn by the Royals at some point.

    But we were wrong.  

    These were current fashions worn by celebrities to recent galas.  The pieces were set in  various rooms, but there really was not mention of the rooms in relation to the Royals.  

    The changing of the guard was interesting.  I could not see much because there were at least 64 million people there. But I heard a lot of yelling, saw horses, and heard some nice music from the bands.

    I wish I could download pictures so you could see the crowd.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

    We took a train to Liverpool and that is when the fun started.

    When we got off the train, the 6 of us with 45 bags of luggage, Julia plugged in the location of the hotel into her phone and we started off on a 10 minute walk. following Google Maps directions.

    90 minutes later we had gone in almost a full circle and were near the hotel.

    I went ahead to locate it.  I found it, went inside to ask if I could leave what I was carrying while I went back to get the others and help them.

    She asked for the name on the reservation and I told her Dickow.

    Nope.  No reservation under that name. 

    Then the clerk mentioned there was another hotel of that chain in the opposite direction.

    For some reason I started laughing like a lunatic.  Sherie came looking for me because I was gone for so long and I told her and she said I had to stop laughing.....but I couldn't

    I got back to the group and told them it was the wrong hotel.  No-one was happy.

    Julia pulled out the reservation and showed it to me.  I told her there were no rooms reserved ed for Dickow.

    She said no, they were reserved under Graber and Klindera.  

    So we tromped back to hotel and yes, we had rooms.

    It took us about 90 minutes to walk from the train station to the hotel.  I am not saying I was nervous, but I will say Liverpool is a tough looking town with tough looking people hanging about.

    We finally get settled in our rooms.

    We could not figure out why it had taken so long for such a short walk

    While drinking some really low grade wine, Julia yelled out, "Shit"

    When she entered directions for the hotel, she entered the driving directions, not the walking directions.  There are a lot of one way streets in Liverpool.

    We ended up doing a circle, each of us c carrying 68 pieces of luggage.   I t think the train station was behind the building next to us....about a 10 minute walk.

    Now, we are tired.  I am going to bed.

Peace and Love

PS......Julia changed her phone so we get walking directions for tomorrow's  Beatles fun day.