2025- England. Arrival

LAX Tom Bradley International Terminal

Our journey to the UK this time included a mind numbing 15 minutes of baby shark at top volume on the airport shuttle, laps around the terminal, the most ear splitting noise that went on for tens of minutes making my hearing aids respond in kind in my ears which I won’t lie was torture, and maybe worst of all, $70 for two pizzas which we didn’t even have the room to finish. In fact we had blown through 1/4 of our budget before we even left LA.

The shuttle listening to baby shark on repeat

The flight over was thankfully the easiest one we’ve ever done. We chose the bulkhead exit row seats, which were freezing from being so close to the door, but also gave us unlimited space in front of us and first dibs on the toilets. The only downsides to these seats? No overhead bin and they are small! Like really small.  Because they don’t have a row of seats in front of them the trays have to be stored in the armrest. That’s significant because the sides of the seats are solid from top to bottom. For someone whose widest point is my hips this meant I had to squeeze into that narrow space with no forgiveness. Fortunately for me there was no one sitting to my right so I tilted myself sideways and found a comfortable way to sit, and honesty after popping an advil PM I slept the whole second half of the flight. 

We landed at 2pm UK time which meant by the time we went through customs, gathered our luggage and picked up our rental car offsite there was no time to site see or utilize the day. 

Landing at Heathrow

Our rental car this trip was a purple metallic BMW that we were talked into by the Avis saleswoman. We always opt for the least expensive, and smallest car they have available and we always get talked into an upgrade. Never fails. This time it was because the type of car we had reserved doesn’t come with a navigation system. Let me tell you, a navigation system is integral to any driving in the UK. We would literally be lost without it and I wasn’t going to rack up the bill on my cell phone, so we concluded an upgrade would be cheaper in the long run. Our options were a beautiful dark blue Mercedes A class hatchback that doesn’t exist in the US or the purple BMW 1 series 120 M sport (which also doesn’t exist in the US). We wanted the Mercedes but were talked into the BMW because it was brand new- and who could resist an M series? So off we went in our purple car feeling so very conspicuous.

Mercedes A Class hatchback

Our purple wonder

This purple car would be something we would be teased about our whole trip, but let me tell you we never lost it in a parking lot and by the end of the trip we were both quite fond of it. 

Our first stop of the trip was the town of Amesbury, or rather the Holiday Inn on the outskirts. This stop was for convenience sake, it just happened to be the right distance from Heathrow with a large and accessible parking lot (which is so important, particularly on your first day there when you’re still getting used to the tight spaces). Amesbury also just happened to be less than 5 miles from Stonehenge. Which also happened to be on our way out of town the next morning. How auspicious. We have passed Stonehenge twice before but never stopped so we decided this was the time. It’s unlikely that we’ll be going through that part of England again anytime soon and this felt like our last chance to see it. 

Against our better judgment we fell asleep once the room got dark and our sandwiches were sufficiently digested. If you travel internationally then you’ll know that it’s not advised to fall asleep too early or you will suffer the consequences. Usually you want to stay awake as late as you possibly can to get on the local time. We have managed to stay up until 9:30 pm only one time, usually we crash out around 5pm like amateurs.

You will be unsurprised to find out I woke up wide eyed and bushy tailed at 4am… great way to start a vacation.