Back in the Old Country

Hampton Court Palace
see all photos »

This morning we said our final goodbyes at breakfast to our travelling companions. We were scheduled to take the 9am shuttle to the airport for our 12:20pm flight to London Heathrow. When we arrived at Berlin Tegal airport, we found that we could not check in to our flignt for over an hour. So we sad on those uncomfortable chairs they have in airports waiting for the desk to open for our flight. Then Joe noticed that our flight dissappeared from the board. We found they moved our flight to a different counter 200m down around the corner. We eventually got our boarding passes and headed for the British Airways lounge for the 40 remaining minutes before boarding.

Foyer of the Kings Appartment
see all photos »

We arrived at Heathrow and easily found our way to the Hertz shuttle bus. We were given an free upgrade to an Audi A4 Diesel sedan. Once we figured out how to start the car (the key was not a normal key - push the entire key-ring into a hole and push - but only after you have depressed the brake key. Then it was our battle with the road system, and our out of date GPS system. We found our way to the first stop - Hampton Court Palace. Here we spent a couple of hours walking around the palace and grounds, listening to the audio tour recounting the life of Henry the 8th and then King William.

Finally somewhere they speak english!

Palace Fountain Court - they could learn something about fountains from the Russians!
see all photos »

We then headed off about 5:30pm for our drive up to Oxford. This went smoothly with only a small amount of congestion along the way. We arrived at our B&B, Warsborough House, and was greeted by our happy host Elizabeth. We were taken in to this cosy cottage and given a choice of two rooms - one with a bath and one with a shower - we quickly chose the shower. After dragging our heavy suitcases upstairs we headed off on foot down the road to the local pub. Here we were served by a friendly Aussie barman, deciding on beer and Strongbow cider. While we waited for our meals, we sat and watched a soccer game on TV. The pub slowly filled with people very enthusiastically cheering on the players of the three games being shown on the pub TV's. It had been a long day of check-in waiting, flying and driving that we decided to head back to our room.