The Inherent Dragonfly A journey of discovering hope, change and love within myself.

Viewing the gardens through Kensington Palace When people learn that I traveled to London, I get many questions.  Here are answers to the most asked questions along with some budgeting ideas. Was it hard to get around?  No, the Tube is super easy and affordable.  For the the 2 of us, on average we spent a little less than $10 a day.  The maps were easy to navigate and the tapping of your credit or debit card to go on and off saved the hassle of buying tickets.  We never got on the wrong train and the travel was quick. Did we ride on a Double decker bus?  We did not.  We thought about it, but the buses were often crowded and the traffic heavy.  We thought we would get to our destination faster avoiding the traffic and traveling underground on the Tube or walking. Did we go to Liverpool’s or see anything about the Beatles?  We did not.  It held my interest, but not Bruce’s.  It was a long way to travel for one person.  Maybe if...

Our direct flight to return to the Pittsburgh International Airport was scheduled for late afternoon.  Our check out of the hotel was noon.  So it looked like we would be spending some quality time at Heathrow airport.  The Tube ride only took an hour.  Upon check out my husband surprised me be booking us afternoon english tea. It was something I had wanted to do, but we didn’t have extra time in our schedule.  The tea was hosted by the hotel’s adjacent restaurant and served outside in the garden beneath a temperature controlled glass dome.  It was very decadent and well as being deliciously filling. I enjoyed a pot of Strawberry Cream Tea with my tier of delights. After our tea, we walked over to the Tube to take us to Heathrow.  From there it was a normal travel day. I couldn’t connect to the airport wi-fi, our gate was not announced until it was boarding and we had to walk a great distance and take a bus to our airplane.  It is always so odd to...

  In our original planning of this trip, we had thought to return to the states on Sunday.  After discussion of what we want to do and see if this is our last time to London, we decided to add a day and go to Stonehenge and Windsor Castle.   Stonehenge is about 2 hours from London with no easy way to get there.  We decided to book a 10 hour coach bus tour through Viator .  We were both looking forward to a 2 hour bus ride if that helps express how tired we were.  It was more money than I wanted to spend, but we appreciated the lack of planning and navigating we would have needed to do. Also I had no interest in trying to rent a car in London. Our tour guide was nice and gave us a lot of information as we traveled through Chelsey, the Famous Three Kings Pub and Fuller's Brewery. I enjoyed her information about the local landscapes and information about the barrows and death mounds found near Stonehenge. Once we arrived at Stonehenge, she walked us right to ...

Cholmondeley (pronounced Chom-lee) Walk  For Bruce’s 2nd travel planning day, he planned a trip to Richmond where the television show “Ted Lasso” was based. Like many people in the world, we loved the show "Ted Lasso" for it's upbeat and positive message "Believe". We used our phones and took a free walking tour around the quaint town that pointed out different places and shots from the show. I took several photos, but tried to be respectful and not take photos of personal residences and some businesses.  I have included a few photos of where various scenes were shot. An outdoor table at the White Swan Pub looking upward the the cottage lined street. Season 1 The Thames River walking path. Season 2 Season 1 It was nice to get out of the city.  There were still plenty of people walking about since it was a Sunday. We made our way to a river walk and were teased with the possible sighting of seal, but no luck this time.  The days of walking and exploring were weig...

Our London City Go pass was expired, so we were no longer tied down to an itinerary.  We knew we would be traveling by Tube over to the Excel to watch some of our son’s Flesh and Blood Pro Tournament.  The event itself is not conducive for fan watching.  We were amazed at the over 900 hundred players in the space.  It took us a while to find Alex.  He was still in the roped off part of the tournament so we had to watch from afar.  We were happy to see him win a round, but knew our old tired legs would not be able to stand and watch his next match.  After a couple hours, we headed out.   Our travel tradition is sharing in the planning and where we want to visit. We talk things through, but the ultimate decision is left to the “assigned” spouse.  I was in charge of planning our first three very heavy touristy days.  Bruce was in charge of the last three days.  We were on his schedule now. After leaving the Excel we traveled to Canary ...