London with Aunt Becky

Now that I am off work for the next few months (more on that later) it's time to catch up on my blogging.  I only flew two trips in November before going on the sick list, but I was able to snag a London trip and I was able to fly with my friend Becky.  I jokingly refer to her as Aunt Becky because her sister, also a flight attendant, used to live next door to me, and her children obviously  refer to Becky as Aunt Becky, so I started doing it to.  The last time we flew together was when we were on domestic and we had a long McAllen layover, where we had awesome Mexican food.  The pressure was on to top it!

I really couldn't have asked for a better trip or crew.  I got to fly purser on our new 777-300.  It's huge and it's pretty crazy in coach, but as purser, I work in first and there are only 8 seats.  My friend Lynn was my galley, and he's so no-drama, we just had a great time.

Since it was a Sunday layover and there isn't much going on in the way of the theatre, I had talked with Aunt Becky about going to high church with me at St. Paul's Cathedral.  She was up for it, and to my surprise, when word got out with some of the other crew, we ended up being six in our group.  I've never been able to get five other people to go to church with me.

It ended up being a lovely service.  It was Remembrance Day, November 10th, where the UK remembers those who served during the various wars and everyone wears a Poppy on their lapel.  The sermon was especially poignant because the minister spoke about those who served and about how we should strive for peace, which I really liked.

After the service, we started our "crawl" back to the hotel, with stops as random pubs.  I also wanted to introduce the girls to Byron's Proper Hamburgers, since none of them had ever been and I just love eating there!

I had never noticed the gum and butts disposal station for cigarettes and chewing gum before.

We were in need of refreshment and we stopped at the first pub we came across.  We all had Stella beers, but the service ended up being terrible.  The bartender was trying to appear to be overwhelmed, and we waited about a half hour for our drinks.

After leaving the pub, we made our way to Covent Garden and the Byron's on Wellington Street.  We were promptly seated downstairs and had a great dinner and great service!  Here, Aunt Becky and I are toasting to a great layover.

Even with the colder weather, my favorite way to head back to the hotel is on foot.  From St. Paul's to our hotel in Kensington, it's about 5 miles, and we made our way along Pall Mall and Buckingham Palace, which was all lit up.

One of the highlights of the evening was the portion of our walk thru Knightsbridge and Harrod's.  I personally think the inside of this famous department store is just like any other retailer, but the one thing they do well is Christmas Windows.

This year's theme was "The Harrod's Express" and each window was a different compartment of a train.  It was very 1920's in look with really fancy clothes, furnishings and liquor.  Seeing as I was walking with women, we ended up spending a lot of time in front of each window, while they decided which outfits they wanted to wear.

We made a final stop at a pub just beyond Harrod's and I enjoyed a nice single malt as we wrapped up the evening.  A great layover on what has ended up being my last trip of the year!