Sep 15
2012

The time has finally come! I feel like I’ve been looking forward to this trip forever and I’m thrilled to be underway.

leaving orlando

 

on our way!

The flight from Orlando to New York was fairly comfortable. Somehow we managed to get three seats to ourselves so there was room to stretch and lay down. Sadly, the longer flight from New York to London was more like being packed into a sardine can. I tried to get some sleep but was not very successful and ended up with many aches for the effort. Once we landed, however, none of that really mattered because we were finally here. The only hiccup, really, was that the TSA decided to select hubby’s suitcase for screening in NY and chose to not put it back on the plane. Hopefully we’ll get it tomorrow. We grabbed the Hertz shuttle and picked up our rental car. Now this is going to be an adventure!

and now for the real adventure!!!

 

honey, you're on the wrong side

Hubby’s knuckles were a little white for the first few miles. He said it was very strange and he was having to concentrate very hard to keep things straight. We drove around London looking for the big Tesco store that we were told to use for currency exchange so he got plenty of practice. Tesco, for what it’s worth, was an experience. When we pulled into the ginormous parking garage, I figured it for a British Ikea. When we got inside, it seemed to be more like a humongous Walmart Supercenter. Figures… we can’t seem to go anywhere without hitting Walmart off the bat.

very strange to be navigating from the driver's side

 

high pucker factor for hubby

We left London and headed west for Bristol where a British friend had invited us to come stay with him. The drive wasn’t bad (says the person who wasn’t driving on the wrong side of the car/road). Our new GPS managed to get us all the way to Bristol and then the battery died just before turning onto Brad’s street. After some slight searching, we managed to find his flat and we were ready to begin our visit.

brad explaining the history of his building

We started our walk around Bristol with a pint at a proper British pub.

sharing a pint at a proper British pub

 

hubby and i immersing ourselves in the local culture

We then continued walking around and stopped at a great little pizza shop for dinner.

hospital in bristol

The chilly night got the better of hubby and he ended up stealing my hoodie since his was somewhere between NY and London. He was disgraced to be wearing my good ol’ blue/orange but I thought it looked awfully good on him. He went on to further disgrace when a bloke called him a yankee and then he was told he was cheeky.

i'll make him a gators fan yet!

We ended up meeting up with a friend of Brad’s and visited some more pubs.

my first pint. turns out cider is a very nice drink

 

hubby, higgy, brad

I love the architecture around here.

church in bristol

 

lovely silhouette of the bell tower

 

grammar school in bristol

Hubby’s goal was to stay out until midnight and we managed to not get back to the flat until nearly 0200 so it was a successful outing. After a very, very long day I am incredibly ready to crawl into bed.