London? Check!

We’re back!!! Still trying to recover from the dreadful jet lag and general exhaustion from the trip. But I expect I’ll be up on my feet again in a short while, ready to tack on the seemingly insurmountable task of editing 2000+ (yes you read right) images and  7-days trip reports. I’ve managed to edit three photos so far, at this rate I won’t be done until next year. So I’ll try to pick up the pace and add more to my Flickr collection.

I miss London already, isn’t that pathetic? I don’t think I’d want to live there to tell you the truth. I’ve never been a big fan of metropolitans but London was thoroughly fun to visit and we had a fabulous time there. I doubt this will be our last visit to London ever but for now we have other places to explore. I estimate 3-4 years from now, unless we either win the lottery or inherit $$$ from an obscure uncle somewhere, we can return to London just to feel overwhelmed yet again by the many attractions it has to offer. We tried to stick to our itinerary as much as possible, without being too rigid of course. So if I were to give a percentage I’d say we covered about 90% of the things we want to do and places we’d like to see. I think our pace was very reasonable, we stuck to our guns and didn’t try to do them all.

 

Weatherwise

I’ve been a bit obsessed with London/UK weather recently, and it’s driving me mad that the forecasts call for some ambiguously wet/sunny weather during our stay. I’m assuming there’s very little difference between sunny intervals and scattered clouds although the former suggests a glass-half-full approach that gives hope for some good weather. I’m not afraid of a little rain, but I think I’ll be disappointed if the days are thoroughly overcast with constant drizzle. I hope the weather won’t affect our plan to visit Henley-on-Thames since we’re really looking forward to the country/riverside walks there. I’d hate to change our plan again, which might switch to visiting Windsor since most of the sightseeing will be indoors. I guess we won’t know until we get there. So far absolutely nothing is reserved for that day so anything is possible.

 

D-3

It’s hard to believe that we’re only 3 days away from London, especially since it seems like only yesterday when I started looking for cheap airfare to LHR. Today I bought a bunch of stuff for our travel first-aid kit, not that most of these items like bandages, etc. can’t be found in London, but from my experience emergency situations can also arise during the flight. Nothing more serious than a couple of paper cuts and upset stomachs though. On that note, I also just printed out our traveler’s insurance confirmation and evidence of coverage. We’ve never been in a situation where we actually need to claim our travel insurance but I think it’s only prudent that we get some kind of protection. I can’t imagine the hospital bill should anything happen to us. As it is my partner is fighting off a cold that he caught during his recent business trip, I’m hoping he’ll recover by Monday.

It’s weird how I always get this knot in my stomach just before my travels. I just don’t want to miss anything, although technically if we have money and passports we should be fine. I don’t have a packing list although I do have a long to-do list that thankfully only has a couple of tasks left unfinished. Unfortunately, no matter how “prepared” I think we are for the trip I can’t relax until we’re sitting on the plane, quietly waiting for it to take off. That reminds me, I need to decide which book(s) I want to read during the flight. Great, I managed to add yet another item to the to-do list….

 

…and the winner is…

I finally have both bags in my hands and I was able to compare them today. Both are cute, lightweight, and feel comfortable to carry. However, I must say that the Messenger bag by Baggallini feels more awkward when it has stuff packed in it, and accessing the compartments when the bag is slung across the body is not convenient. The water bottle pocket on the side is very small and doesn’t look very secure. So I’m going for Overland’s bag because it seems to overcome the problems that the Baggallini Messenger has. The side compartments look secure and more generous in size. When I was comparing the overall quality of the bags, I think the Overland is really well-constructed whereas the Baggallini seems flimsy. I’m really looking forward to carrying the stylish Overland bag in London next week. It fits my digital camera, cell phone, light jacket, notebook, umbrella, and water bottle, with room to spare.

 

Bags…bags…bags

I have a slight (yeah, right!) fetish for bags. Naturally I think it’s only logical that I need a new bag for the London trip . I plan to bring my laptop with me so my one carry-on bag will be a laptop tote. But I don’t want to lug my laptop around, so I’ve been shopping on eBags for a day trip bag that will be more convenient for walking around in London. I did have other travel totes but the one thing that I wish they have is a compartment for water bottle (I’m a water fanatic). So I’ve narrowed my options down to these two:

• Overland Equipment Donner in Slate/Plum (plus: love the color combo and secure water bottle compartments; minus: not sure about how packable this bag is)

• Baggallini Messenger Sling Bagg in Red (plus: love the color and it’s advertised as “lightweight and easily packable”; minus: not sure about the security of the bag being carried in the back like a backpack)

Staring at my computer screen, trying to compare these two is next to impossible for me. So I decided to just purchase both and will return the one I like the least. They both receive positive recommendations from eBags customers so I’m not too worried about not liking either of them. Let’s hope I’ll have an easier time choosing the right one once the bags are in my hands…sometimes too many choices is a bad bad thing.