Two weeks ago today, my brother Sam and his wife Amanda (known jointly as Samanda) arrived in England. Sam is a KC-135 pilot for the United States Air Force. He just recently finished his pilot training and England was his first ever assignment! When Josh and I found out that Samanda would be moving over to England, we were super excited. Never in a million years did we think that we would have close family living only a few hours away from us in London.
The day that Samanda arrived, I took the tube to meet up with them. I only saw Sam for a couple minutes before he was whisked away to Mildenhall by his sponsors. Amanda came back home with me because she had to pick up her little doggie Hercules from the airport the next day. After showing Amanda around our flat (that took about 96 seconds), Josh and I left to go to meet our Aussie friends for Oktoberfest (we had tickets before we found out when Samanda's flight was coming in...and Amanda was happy to sleep and shower and relax until we got back!)
The London Oktoberfest was held in a huge tent in Kennington. The weather was miserable, cold and rainy. We had a great time, despite the weather! We even got up on the benches to sing some songs and wave our beer around! We are hoping to go to the real Oktoberfest in Munich next year...we need to start planning soon!
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| London Oktoberfest |
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| Josh and Kieran with their beer and food! |
After a few hours away, Josh and I returned home to hang out with Amanda. We ended up having dinner at a pub, my first "Sunday roast" was not that great, but the company was good!
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| Amanda having her first Cider. |
The next day, Amanda and I left the flat at 8:00 am to go pick up Hercules from the airport. It was a long tube ride back to Heathrow, but luckily uneventful. The day went downhill from there! The only paperwork Amanda had said to pick up Hercules at the United Cargo hold. We took a bus from Heathrow to the cargo area and promptly got confused and lost. The cargo area pretty much looks all the same, huge grey buildings with itty bitty tiny signs. We had difficulty finding the United cargo area. The first place we went was actually British Airways cargo, but we figured they could point us in the right direction. After three people gave us directions, we finally made it to the United cargo area...only to be told that Hercules was being held in a completely different building that was a 10 minute walk away on a good day. That day, was not a good day! It was pouring rain out and freezing. Thankfully, a lady who was familiar with the area told us she could drive us over to the Quarantine building. Hooray! We waited to get Hercules for about an hour. He was happy to see him mummy and we were happy to finally be able to head back home. Amanda and trekked back to the bus stop (me carrying a large kennel and Amanda carrying Hercules) in the pouring rain and crazy wind. I think we were both relieved to finally sit down out of the weather. We thought that our day couldn't get any weirder/crazier...but it did.
I've written about crazy people on public transportation before. The creepy guy on the bus to the airport who tried to touch me, the obviously drunk people, the lady screaming at a guy trying to push his way off the bus. Good times. This is more Amanda's story than mine, but I must share! About halfway to King Cross from Heathrow, an obviously drunk, lazy eyed man stumbled on our car. Amanda was holding Hercules and I was sitting next to her. The man was mumbling something that neither of us could understand, so we just tried to ignore him. There was a couple across from us who figured out what he was asking, he wanted to know if this was the right train to Kings Cross. Yes, it was, blah blah blah. The guy then chose to plop down on someones hard cased luggage instead of finding a regular seat. Amanda and I continued to try to ignore him, but he was talking endlessly. After a few stops, the lady whose luggage the man had sat on asked him to get off of it and luckily for Amanda and I, he plopped down right next to me. Joy! The lazy eyed man started to try to talk to us and we did our best to ignore him, but Hercules is like a people magnet! Everyone loves him! So the guy starts trying to reach over me to pet Hercules. Then he starts talking about how he is white, but his brother is black. He then proceeds to point to Hercules and then Amanda's face! His finger was literally centimeters away from touching her. At that point, we were only a few stops away from Kings Cross, so we got up and stood by the doors. Amanda was in shock, I think! Here she is, in London less than 24 hours and she already has her own "creepy guy trying to touch me" story. Welcome to the big city! Amanda barely made her train to Cambridge that day, it took so long to get Hercules, but she did and by the time I got back to our flat at 4:30, I was exhausted! What a day!
The following Friday, Josh left early for his trip back to the States for work. Luckily for me, Samanda and Hercules were coming down to visit on Friday night. We had a great time over the weekend, I loved showing them around some of London.
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| Samanda and Hercules at Westminster Abbey |
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| Samanda at Big Ben |
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| Samanda and Hercules with Parliament |
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| Amanda and I with St. Paul's in the background. |
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| Me and Sam at Tower Bridge |
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| Amanda in a classic London phone booth! |
I think our day out in London on Saturday totally made up for the crappy day Amanda had on Monday! We had a great time walking around, Hercules got a lot of attention! We ended our walk with some beers at the Blackfriars Pub. The next day we decided to leave Herc at home and visit Greenwich.
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| Samanda at the Greenwich meridian line. |
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| Samanda at Greenwich |
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| My favorite picture by far! Samanda loves London! |
I am so glad that Samanda came down to visit, we had a great weekend catching up! I haven't seen them since their wedding in January, so it was nice to be together again! It was so quiet in my flat when they left, it was a little sad, but I was looking forward to visiting them at Mildenhall over the next weekend while Josh was still away.
On Saturday, Samanda let me drive from their apartment to the gas station. It was scary! Luckily, Sam is a good instructor and I was able to drive on the left side pretty successfully. I'm so glad I don't have to drive over here! Sam was really good at it already, but he was fast which did make it a bit frightening. Amanda did really well too, I was impressed how much they had both learned in the short time they have been in England! Sam then drove us to Bury St. Edmunds, a town near Mildenhall that they are hoping to live nearby. Bury St. Edmunds was a beautiful town, centered around the ruins of an old abbey.
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| Pretty building in Bury St. Edmunds |
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| Cathedral in Bury St. Edmunds |
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| The cathedral |
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| Samanda and I by the Abbey ruins. |
After showing me around Bury St. Edmunds, we headed to a cute tea room for lunch. It was delicious! Then we headed to Lakenheath for my most anticipated stop of the weekend...the American food store! I was literally giddy with excitement seeing all the "American" brands and I happily filled our cart with stuff I can't get in London (unless I want to pay a gazillion pounds to have it shipped!). I was in heaven! My luggage on the way home probably weighed about 60 pounds, but it was totally worth it to huff and puff my way back.
I left Mildenhall early Sunday morning so I could see Josh. His plane was due early Sunday morning and I couldn't wait to see him :) The next few weeks are going to be crazy busy for us. My parents arrive this coming Saturday, we leave for Paris the next day, then guiding my parents around London, visiting Samanda again, then more touring around London. I can't wait!
Rachel x
