London and Transition to Greece

August 30 and 31:  I am writing this in Corfu, Greece and the WiFi is pretty sketchy.  Depending on how well the electronics work here, whether I get a SIM card and how good the service is on the boat, I may or may not be able to continue the blog.  I will do my best.

Yesterday, we rode over to the Portabella Market area of London, which is in Notting Hill.  The market has changed some from what we remember of our first visit in 1987.  There are less antiques and quirky shops and a lot more tourist souvenir shops and restaurants.  Also, the business owners were cleaning up after the previous day's conclusion to "Carnival."  The amount of trash on the streets along what looked like a parade route was significant.  Workmen were also dismantling 6-foot high wire barriers erected to protect front yards and presumably to keep visitors out. 

We walked to our hotel passing through Bayswater, Paddington and University College London.  We did a small load of laundry and re-checked our packing for the trip to Greece.  I was able to check-in and have the hotel print our boarding passes for the direct flights to Corfu.

For dinner we headed for a CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ales) pub, the Bree Louise near Euston Station.  On the way we stopped in the station to check on how frequent the underground trains ran to Heathrow, Terminal 5 - we were told every 15 minutes.  The pub was the CAMRA Pub of the Year for 2015/2016.  It had a great 'real ale' selection and was a very relaxed place to enjoy a beer.  I had my first porter-style, dark colored ale since coming to the UK.  We had dinner here, I tried one of their "famous pies" and Betsy had a salad with chicken.  We retired to the hotel and watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on TV.  

Today we got up early, walked to the Russell Street Station to catch the Underground (Piccadilly Line) to Heathrow, Terminal 5.  We arrived, checked our luggage and passed through security with efficient dispatch.  This terminal is a rather new one for Heathrow and it shows.  We had time for a leisurely breakfast (at Giraffe), and walked around the terminal looking at the duty-free items for sale before having the gate assigned for our flight.  We boarded and the nearly 4-hour flight was uneventful, though the pilot "stuck the landing," to use an Olympic gymnastic phrase.  Afterwards, he called it "firm;" most of us would have called it "hard and abrupt."  A cell phone slide down the length of the aisle after presumably getting bounced out of someone's hand.

We passed passport control (I think we were the only US travelers) without any delay.  The EU travelers just had to show their passport to an agent; we got ours inspected and stamped by another agent.  We retrieved our bags, taxied to the Govina Bay Hotel and were escorted to Building 30, Villa 304.  Jan, Ron, Varis, Karen were here and we have begun our last big adventure for this trip.

We walked out to dinner after catching up some.  After dinner and more tales of our past few months, we all walked back to the villa.  In route, Betsy and I bought some breakfast supplies.  When we arrived in Corfu the temperature was in the 30 + C range with clear skies - what a change from the past 2 months.