The Four Funny Foreigners

Yesterday, I didn't really have any lax so my mom, mom mom jo, and I drove to see the Chepstow Castle and also went by the Tintern Abbey. They were both gorgeous but both would have to be a day trip so we will go back in the spring when my mom and dad visit. My mom decided that driving here is not for her and I agreed after we got back to the school and I was nauseous and lightheaded from being in the passengers seat with her driving all day. She thinks that if she hits curbs and almost hits a lady with a walker, it's better than hitting another car and also damaging theirs along with ours. She tends to stop when another car is coming and I told her that the people behind us would start honking if she continued stopping everytime there was another car but she isn't from here so it was ok apparently. We ended up finding the Europcar Rental Car place perfectly fine this morning which my mom said was a gift from God since it was so small but I didn't think it was hard to get to at all-but I guess that's just because I'm kinda a local now:-) So we got a ride from there to the bus station where we were told the National Express office was closed on the weekends. The lady working at the other desk came over and told us that we could call the number on the door and order them and then show the driver our ticket number on our mobile phone (which is mine) or we could buy them online, if we were able to find somewhere with internet because we couldn't use hers. My mom was beside herself and said "how were we supposed to know that they weren't open today?!" and the lady calmly said "well it says it right here" pointing to the door at the office. We shrugged it off and decided to call the number. This was a task in itself with me trying to buy the tickets because for some reason we had to do them separately (senior, adult, young person). The lady on the other line told me about 50 times "annnnd this is the service bus 201 leaving Newport at 10:10 and arriving at the Heathrow Central Bus Station at approximately 12:45". I was like yesss I understand that! Over and over she told me that. So then I had to tell her the billing address of the card we were using and she didn't understand that I was saying sparrow because of the way I was saying sparrow. When I asked her if she needed the zip code she said "no I have most of the address, it's fine." So we finallyyyy got the tickets and then the bus came and he asked what kind of tickets we got and I said adult, senior, and young person. I bought mine with my Young Persons Coachcard but only had the number because I am still waiting for it to come in the mail. The lady on the phone didn't mind but the driver was not nice and insisted that I needed the actual card whenever traveling and then left us standing there wondering if I could go with them but he said it wasn't our fault, it was the ticket agent's and to make sure I read the terms and conditions of the card when I got it because it must be with me when I travel.
We made it to Lisa at Heathrow Airport where she was patiently waiting our arrival. We got off the bus with our 5 suitcases and headed to the tube. We survived the tube with all 6 suitcases and people standing all around them as they were obstacles throughout the tube and cheered when we got off because they actually had some room to stand. They we took the lift (elevator) to where we needed to go, which opened on both sides. We thought we were supposed to exit the opposite side we entered, however we found out otherwise. The doors opened, everyone else went out the right way and for some reason we began to exit the wrong way where many people were waiting to enter. Lisa was very agitated at how people had been acting throughout the station so told a guy to "at least wait until we get off" (rolling over his foot and catching his jeans on the way) while I am following and get told my an old lady with a cane, who is banging her cane on the floor, that we were going out the wrong way. Then we tell my mom that we went out the wrong way and she said "I know! We had to walk through the riot you created with 3 suitcases." She told the rioters that we were tourists and apologized after Lisa and I were laughing hysterically off to the side. She came over and joined us and we laughed about it for awhile. We left flustered from that and pulling our 6 suitcases, finally making it to our London Town Hotel. Lisa and I walked around town for a little while and went to Starbucks while Mom and MMJ rested. Then, we all went back to the tube more experienced with less luggage and made our way to the tourist attractions. We took multiple pictures of Big Ben, a museum, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye (which we rode and was amazing) and various street performers. I will learn at some point to post pictures but I'm not quite there yet so be patient. We went to get pizza tonight and had a nice dinner near the hotel and will go to bed early because we are all exhausted. Tomorrow will start another adventure!:-) We'll keep you posted!

Cheers from the Foreigners.