September 23rd 2014 - Travel from Bowness to London England

Today was a travel day, so we woke up early as usual and started to pack up and clean the house for our departure.  Once we were all packed up we locked up the house and started our journey down to London.  It was about a 5 hour drive, so we all got comfortable and before we knew it we were heading into the outskirts of the city.  Unfortunately I made a wrong turn on the first major roundabout and took us about 15 minutes back up the highway we just traveled with no means to turn around.  I was a little frustrated (to say the least) in adding 30 minutes to an already long drive, but we got over it and soon we were pulling into the rental car drop off with all of our bags.  

It was around lunch time so we decided to grab a bite to eat at a Japanese noodle place around the corner from the car rental location.  Once we were refueled we figured out we were just across the river from Big Ben and Parliament, so we wandered over to the river and took some pictures.  

After our tourist visit to Big Ben, we loaded onto the tube and headed over to Notting Hill to find our apartment.  The trip was pretty easy and we were able to get into our flat with no major problems, however, the flat turned out to be pretty disappointing.  The size was great, but it was pretty dirty (hairs on the pillowcases, and mold in the bathroom) which was not a great way to start our stay in London.  After the hobbit house we stayed in at Bowness, we are wondering if we are going to really struggle with our houses along the way.  So far we have not had the greatest luck - out of the 7 places we have rented only two have been good.

  • D.C - Projects across the street
  • Fergus on Newmarket - Rapist dog
  • Kinsale - Very Good
  • Camp - Excellent
  • Edinburgh - Ok, but terrible internet problems and not enough beds
  • Bowness - No internet and hobbit house
  • London - Mold, not clean, hairs on pillow cases

Hopefully it gets better from here.

After we got settled in we called the owner and complained and started to look for new lodging.  The owner told us he would refund the money, but he did not have another solution for us.  Stacie jumped in and started kicking some ass.  I was trying to find another rental, but was having no luck at all.  

Stacie and I decided we needed a night out on our own so we headed down the street and found a nice little Italian place and had a great meal with a bottle of wine to cool off a bit.  We have high hopes for London, so hopefully we can resolve the lodging issue quickly and move on to the fun.