Sat, 02 Nov 2002

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 21:15 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 2 ( all photos )

Back to London, Hello Margaret! ( 6 photos )
(Continued from The Cotswolds)
Well, Margaret is here, safe and sound. Apparently her flight was not bad, but she's pretty tired. I'm going to try and get her to write a bit for the journal, as well as reminding Liz that people like to hear from her as well!
The drive into London was not to bad - the motorways are very good, and signposting makes everything very obvious. We arrived at Heathrow terminal three, parked and headed off to the Arrivals area.
As we waited for the plane to land, we were both quite excited. Since Meaghan has left, it's good on our own, but always a little bit more fun with others around to talk to. Eventually, Margaret arrived!
The drive from the airport to Beckenham was one of the most challenging so far. The fog, heavy rain, and confusing motorways combined to keep me constantly on highest alert. Heavy traffic meant we made the last ten five in about an hour. Not good at all.
Arriving at the Goodwood B&B where we were last time, we were all very happy to get out of Percy, unpack our things and then head off to one of the pubs for dinner. The rain has been quite heavy all around the area, so the walk was brisk back to the B&B where Margaret is tacking the jet lag, Liz is watching TV and I'm typing away madly.
The batty old women who run this place are fun to be back with - their dogs can get more walks from us tomorrow, and in turn we listen to the same stories over and over again about the dogs' operations, and how they don't serve sausages any more since the mad cow crisis.
It is Guy Fawkes night here tonight, or just plain cracker night, so not sure how much sleep we will end up getting.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 21:15 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/Cotswolds ( all photos )

Towards London ( No photos )
We left Stow this morning in heavy fog, and attempted to go to the Motoring Museum in Burton-on-the-Water, another Cotswolds town. However, it was a total tourist town. We pulled into what we thought was the parking for the museum, only to be told that it was residents only. After a quick look up and down the street (no parking for miles), we decided to head towards Oxford and have a look around.
Once again, however, we were foiled by the weather. Traffic was also heavy, and we decided to have a quick run around the Ring Road (a fantastic British thing - a motorway all the way around the big cities, with exits a key points heading into town - highly recommended). Liz spotted in the road atlas that Legoland was not far away on the outskirts of London, on the way to the airport.
It was a reasonable drive into Legoland, however after a bit of reading we found that the entry price was about £18 ($55)!! Not quite worth it for an hour or two. Even the Lonely Planet guide took a dig at the prices.
So, we sat in the free parking (there was a Park-and-Ride - another great British thing where you park your car on the outskirts of a city and get a bus in) at Windsor reading our books from Hay-on-Wye until it was time to head into the airport in London.

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