September 26, 2008 – Venice / London

We started our morning early as we had to walk our bags to the Rialto Bridge pier to meet our private boat that would then take us to a private car to get to the airport. We gave ourselves 30 minutes which worked out beautifully – we were able to view all of the produce, laundry and similar boats going down the Grand Canal. And then there were the water buses that were packed to capacity with people going to work, etc. Our boat was a bit early – there was to be a taxi strike starting at 9am so we got underway at 8am in order to avoid it. We had to wait a bit for our private car but it was worth it – we were driven to the Marco Polo airport in a Mercedes Benz. The scenery wasn’t as impressive as those along the canals but it was interesting nonetheless. We had a long wait at the airport. We had some breakfast, including freshly squeezed orange juice, while we waited for our ticket counter to be opened. When it did we had a long wait in line to check in. Once we got past security we relaxed until our flight as announced. We were on a smaller plane so we had to board a bus and then boarded the plane on the tarmac. The flight was quick. We got to see Venice from the air then Switzerland, Germany and Belgium and eventually we even got to see us leaving the Belgian/French coast and flying towards the English coastline. Aidan was able to point out Dover, Folkestone and Romney Marsh as we flew over them. Once we landed we got our bags and caught the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station.Our favorite hotel, the Thistle Victoria, is now simply renamed ‘The Grosvenor’. We checked in and were more than a little stunned when we walked into our room! It is wonderful! It is one floor above Buckingham Palace Road with large windows and even a balcony (we can’t use it for security reasons though). All I can say is that I am grateful to be able to enjoy this lovely room. We set up our wireless internet access and then headed out for lunch. After lunch at Top of the Town in China Town and a walk around Charing Cross (we needed schedules for tomorrow’s trip to Dover), we headed back to the hotel to do a little shopping (I had to visit a NEXT store and get something from LUSH). We met up with everyone (Roz, Alan, Josh & Kerry) a little after 6pm. We took the underground to Embankment station and walked to Chinatown for dinner. After a lovely meal we headed to the Noel Coward Theatre to see Avenue Q. It was absolutely insane – we really enjoyed it. We then started back to the hotel but discovered that Victoria Station was closed. We had to get off at St. James’ station and walk to the hotel. When we neared Victoria we could see all of the emergency vehicles. They have the whole area cordoned off – thankfully, they have not evacuated the hotel.