We picked up around the flat and packed up our remaining things. It was raining a bit and we decided to bring our suitcases with us and 'check out' of the holiday flat.
With the rain and needing to kill a bit of time till our 5:45 p.m. flight, we decided to head to the Westfield shopping center /mall. One of the first stores we saw was another Disney Store. I sat with the suitcases and the free WiFi and Jason went inside with the kids.
We shopped a few other stores including Next (I've only ever shopped online) and even bought a Christmas gift for Dalton (a book...in English...on sale) to bring back with us. Before long we decided we'd better get some lunch. The mall had a large (and very busy!) food court. We took turns waiting in line for things we wanted and staying with the kids and suitcases. Easton had more fish and chips! Autumn had some stuff we cleaned out of the fridge in the flat...cheese and yogurts and I popped open a Pimm's (some 'well-known' UK liqueur) that I'd bought from the grocery store to try.
Wanting to make sure we had plenty of time for our commute, we decided to leave shortly after that, taking the tube back to Victoria station. We turned our transit passes (Oyster cards) back in to get a refund on the cards. First I had to wait in a super long line again and then they had difficulties putting the money back on our credit card. They blamed it on my bank. Refunding me in cash wasn't an option, apparently. But okay... I think they wanted me to say "Oh, just forget it" but I wasn't gonna. I stood there while she called America for some authorization code and --their fault-- the cards were done in two separate transactions so they needed two separate transactions and two authorization codes (and therefore two phone calls) to put all the money back.
We were then hoping to buy some Krispy Kremes Dalton had excitedly spotted on our trip in (we don't have Krispy Kreme in Germany) but they were already closed at, like, 2 pm. :( Big bummer.
Instead we got back on the Gatwick Express for our train ride back down to the Gatwick airport. Dalton entertained himself with seeing what names he could create using only the letters in our first names.
Autumn wrote things. First try EVER and she spelled my name exactly right:
So fun!
We arrived at the airport and again, had lots of time to kill.
We wandered around taking turns with the kids. Eventually we popped into Boots and picked up pieces of their "meal deal" to have for our semi-dinner on the plane. Eventually we were able to board and we headed home for our rather uneventful flight.
(This is me making the single bottle of water I bought work for more than one of us.) :)
We've gotten really good at helping Autumn manage her motion sickness. Essential oil and also making sure she's at the window and looks out a bunch when possible, especially take off and landing. The kid a few rows up puked but not my Goose!
We collected our luggage and made our journey back home. What a trip!
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