Day 166-on to the United Kingdom



The window at the top
belongs to our flat.


   June 18-When Joslyn woke up this morning, she felt fine.  Thank goodness!  We slept in and then packed our things to leave.  Since the owner of the apartments had indicated that we could leave at any time, we spent the rest of the morning walking around the downtown areas of Brussels and taking in the narrow streets and the old buildings.

  

Views around the Grand Place.



A final look at the gastronomical delights of Belgium.



   We came across the Bier Temple beer store and went inside.  We could not find the Barbe Rouge, but we did find a 2009 Reserve of Rodenbach, so we bought it, took it back to the apartment, and drank it for dinner.  A final check of the place revealed that we had left nothing, so we packed our bags downstairs, turned in the keys to the owner, who was having the places cleaned at this point, and walked over to the parking garage to get our car.

   We got lost again trying to get out of the old city, but once we got our bearings, we made good time getting out to the airport.  In fact, we made too good of time, because the next thing we knew, we were in the lane heading to the car rental return and we had forgotten to refill the gas tank!  Since we had just topped it off the day before it was mostly full, but I suspect that we will see a grossly overinflated charge on our credit card for the small space of air we left in the tank.  In any event, we had made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we checked in, and then looked for food.  We were trying to use up most of the rest of our Euros, but we quickly discovered that most of the places would use them all up and then some more.  Pizza Hut to the rescue!  We got the special deal for two people, which included four big pieces of pizza and some buffalo wings, which was plenty of food for this family of five!  Thank goodness for the oversized portions of American fast food chains!  

   We next headed for the terminal, where we had somewhat of a scare.  Before going through security, we first had to go through passport control.  The fellow who checked our passports thumbed through our passports quizzically and then asked us when we had arrived in Europe.  First we explained that we had arrived in Iceland January 5 and he told us that we could only stay three months on a tourist visa.  We next explained that we had gotten visas to stay in Iceland for six months and that we had only arrived on the Continent on June 1 in Munich.  The problem was that there were no stamps in our passports, because we had not gone through any passport control when we arrived.  The mention of Munich caused him to surreptitiously look at a piece of paper and then he calmly stamped each passport and waved us through.  Sally figures that there had been a lapse in security in Munich when we came in and that the piece of paper listed the lapses, so by checking it and seeing that we had come in when such a lapse had occurred, everything was explained.  In any event, we got through that hoop and then we got to go through security, which was did not take too long. 

   The flight was delayed for a short while, but then we got on and flew to London.  The British Air flight itself lasted less than an hour.  With the time change between Brussels and London, we landed five minutes after the plane departed the gate in Brussels!  The stewardesses were very nice to the kids and even gave them extra snacks and drinks.  We forgot that British Airways still provides free beer on their flights, but the tea that we got seemed more appropriate given our destination and airline! 

   We arrived at Heathrow Airport and joined the queue working their way through passport control for non-EU passport holders.  It was a terribly long line, but it moved rather quickly.  We were worried that we might have the same sorts of problems that we had encountered in Belgium, but the passport control officer was very friendly and was more interested in talking about the relative costs of alcohol between Iceland and Britain than our passports.  He stamped our passports and we were in the UK! 

   We headed straight to baggage claim and arrived at the carousal about the same time as our bags.  Since we were the last people off the plane, though, this is not too surprising.  We collected our luggage, pulled some English pounds out of the ATM, and headed to the Underground to take us into London.  We took a 45 minute ride and then transferred onto a second line for a short ride to the Embankment station in central London.  Our one-room basement flat was only a short distance away and we got there in a few minutes of walking.  The place was very small.  When the couch was made out into a bed, it, the double bed, and the extra cot bed hardly left enough room to walk around in the place!  However, the apartment did have a washing machine and it was centrally well-located, being just off Trafalgar square, so it worked out very well for us. 

   After sorting the laundry and getting the first load going, we trooped out to explore our immediate environs and to get supper.  We ended up eating at an Italian restaurant, where Spencer lost his first tooth.  It had been loose for a while and he had been showing everyone how he could wiggle it, so it was not too surprising when he finally pulled it out, although it was probably a bit disconcerting for other patrons to see his blood-stained napkin sitting in front of him with his tooth proudly displayed in the middle of it.  He made certain to put it under his pillow that evening so he, too, could start cashing in on this tooth fairy thing!  Once the kids were in bed, the adults walked 50 feet down the street to the Ship and the Shovell Pub and the Sherlock Holmes Pub to drink some pints and relax.