Home leave is a concept expats grapple with. The idea is to visit your home country; Point-of-Origin in HR terms. Fact is, home is wherever I’m with you (thanks Ed). This year, home leave would involve 7 airports (18741 miles), 6 AirBNBs, 3 rental cars (2752 transit travel miles, plus side trips), 2 train stations, and 1 whole roasted pig. The title of these blogs is the acronym of all the airports in the order of appearance – YNB-IST-LHR-GLA-DUB-IST-ATL-LBB-IAH-IST-YNB.
The travels would go like this – family vacation to London and Scotland, family vacation with extended family to Ireland, family visits in Tennessee, I return to Yanbu, friends visits in Texas (previously mentioned Point-of-Origin), settling-in in Lubbock, Drew sets up camp and the rest of the family returns to Yanbu. In order to make the tickets affordable, the bulk of the trip was planned on Turkish Airlines. Home leave tickets are paid by the company only YNB-IST-IAH, so the itinerary mentioned in the title didn’t go over to well when submitted to HR. I negotiated to where they covered 80% of the travel. The drawback was flying from Dublin to Atlanta through Istanbul. We went to L.A., via Omaha, as Chuck would say.
We were all excited to spend a few more days in London. We could spend more time just roaming and not running around place to place. We had a flat near Kings Cross, from where we would depart for Edinburgh after a few nights. We had a van transfer from the airport, and were dropped off at our hotel for one night. Turkish had cancelled our original flight, and so we were lucky enough to move it up a day, but our flat was unavailable that night. The hotel we booked for the extra night was across from a park where there was some shouting, bottle smashing, and general hooliganism. A heat wave was sweeping through London, meaning our non-AC room required the windows to be open. Tired and cranky from a day of travel, I contacted the flat owner and requested the additional night. She said it was available, so we took our bags back down the stairs and directly to the other flat. The heat was still an issue, but at least the open windows didn’t invite in British slang which, I’m quite certain, wasn’t appropriate for the PG-13 crowd.
We decided to visit the British Library and see the Treasures of the British Library. We were amazed with the historical documents available for viewing. An 11th century Beowulf, letters from Faraday and Galileo, a 15th century Le Morte D’Arthur, Shakespeare’s First Folio, and Newton’s Principia Mathematica were some of the highlights we got to view. And the Beatles stuff, with scribbles and all.
I wasn’t feeling very well, so we decided to head back and the girls would go on a small shopping trip. I continued to get worse, and that’s how we ended up learning about national healthcare in the UK. Greene and I walked to the local hospital and into the A&E room. She tried to give them insurance information, but was refused. Because they don’t require insurance coverage, even for foreigners. A lady who walked in immediately before us had something in her eye. We waited in A&E for an hour, was called back, checked, and told to go to Urgent Care. So we walk through long hallways and climb three stories to get to urgent care. We waited for around 6 hours to be called back. So did the lady with something in her eye, who passed the time by reading a book. Ahem. We thought of leaving many times, but didn’t want the entire trip to be compromised by not dealing with something immediately. The doctor checked and requested some blood work. I was moved to another room full of men sleeping in hospital beds and given a chair to rest in. I fitfully slept some and waited for the results. Two hours later, the doctor came in and said everything was normal, gave me some medicine to deal with the symptoms, and advised me to get checked out when I got home. We left out as the sun came up, and slowly walked back to the flat.
After getting some sleep, we all headed out to revisit Hard Rock. Our first trip to London ended with the realization that our HRC bag hadn’t made it back to Yanbu, so ribs, beer and shirts were bartered for. We then took the Underground over to the Science Museum. It was a favorite for everyone. But mostly me. Cade walked around with me and I explained the basics of how everything worked. It was simpler then, without all this new fangled electronical gizmos sprouting wires and circuit boards everywhere. Cranks, levers, mechanical advantage and that was it.
We picked up some really cool souvenirs and took a rest for me, then headed back to the flat. Greene and I walked around the shops at St. Pancras, enjoying a leisurely date night in London, and picked up a small backpack. We stopped at a sandwich stand in Kings Cross and took supper back to the flat.
The next day was open for shopping in the morning, so we headed to Carnaby Street to see what we could see. I took Cade to Hamleys to kill some time while the girls shopped. After meeting back up, Greene and Drew had another stop to make, so Macy joined me and Cade on another trip to Hamleys. As we finished, we waited at a bus stop for bus 139 to take us to our next destination. Google maps said to take bus 139 from the bus stop in front of Hamleys. We waited for 10 minutes and finally saw bus 139 approaching. And suddenly, we were watching it pass by. Dad didn’t check the service board to realize bus 139 didn’t stop there. The kids got to ride in a black cab.
We had tea reservations at One Aldwych. We decided to go there for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed tea, which the kids would enjoy. The tea, sandwiches and savourys were delectable, but the real star was the sweets. Chocolate eggs with vanilla cheesecake and mango filling, chocolate caramel milk in individual bottles, and homemade candy floss left us in a sugar coma. The setting was proper, but relaxed enough that the kids could have some fun.
We made our way through Covent Garden on our way to the surprise for the night. The next two nights, really. We walked up Charing Cross Road until the we saw the Palace Theater. We had repeatedly checked the box office for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child leading up to the trip. About two weeks before we left, some tickets opened up for the nights we would be there. The kids were kept in the dark right up until I picked up the tickets. We went to Costa to have some coffee as we waited for the doors to open.
The show and acting are magnificent. The story is so-so. The stage effects are cutting edge, and we were constantly amazed with how the production could turn a stage play into a wizarding world. We all thoroughly enjoyed the first night, and eagerly anticipated the second part the following night.
We woke somewhat early the next morning to go back to the Breakfast Club. After indulging in some pork, we split up as the girls went for hair appointments and the boys went for boy stuff. Our first stop was the London Film Museum. It’s basically Bond on Film. They had many cars from all throughout the Bond series, even the stupid submersible Lotus from the Spy Who Loved Me (why would you mess with a Lotus?). Our favorite was the classic Aston Martin DB5, although the DB10 was pretty slick. They had movie clips showing each car in action. Cade played some video games. Okay. I did too.
Our next stop was the London Transport Museum. Cade wasn’t to sure about this one, but once we got started following the trail and punching his ticket at each station, he started to see the development of public transportation and learned a few things as he went along. He always enjoyed the Underground, so he took special liking to those sections of the museum.
After meeting back up, we headed to Poppie’s for fish & chips. We were entertained by the activity in the kitchen, but underwhelmed with the fish and service. We had Part 2 of The Cursed Child waiting to relieve the disappointment. We headed to the theater and got in line, which wrapped to the back of the theater. Once the doors opened, the line moved quickly. We settled into our seats and enjoyed the conclusion of the show.
We took the easy route and jumped the Big Red Bus for the last day. We hopped on at Kings Cross and transferred down to Leicester Square. We rode up around Marble Arch and caught the Horse Guard passing. We came back down by the Royal Mews and crossed over Lambeth Bridge, entering into Lambeth Roundabout. I got to yell, “Look kids! Big Ben” while maniacally laughing. Again. Never gets old. To me.
We hopped off for lunch at Waterloo. The place was terrible, and to boot, I lost my shirt. Literally. While opening the ketchup, Greene pointed the loaded bottle in my direction without the safety on. I looked like I’d been hit by a .45 caliber, red glopped and splattered all over my favorite shirt. We shuffled over to the gift shop next door, and that is how I came to own a cheaply made but lavishly priced Union Jack t-shirt.
Back on the BRB, we made the loop around London City and back up to Marble Arch. We then jumped on a different line to take us out to Shepherd’s Bush for some more shopping. We walked around the mall for a bit, making sure American Eagle Outfitters store-closing sale went smashingly well. We took the Underground back to Kings Cross to start packing and rest our weary butts.
From Tennessee To Texas to Saudi Arabia 