01/01/13. - Happy New Year to everyone.  Here we are in London. We were up early again on the 30th  and repacked our bags for our flight to London. Mason and Glen returned the rental  car and we caught the shuttle from the hotel to San Francisco airport at 12.30pm. Our flight did not depart till 4.30 pm but we were happy to check in and go through security at leisure then grab a cup of coffee and relax on the way to the departure gate. As it happened, there was free Wi Fi available throughout the airport and we were able to chat to family right up to boarding the plane. We were quite impressed with Virgin Atlantic, the seats were comfortable and the service and food very good, in fact we thought  better than Air NZ. It was a long night though as I always find it hard to sleep in planes. We arrived at Heathrow at 10.45 am on the   31st and decided to travel to the city via the Tube. What a nightmare!! We each had one large case and a small carryon and with two changes and stairs to climb in many of the stations, limited time to get on and off the  train before the doors closed, two ladies who needed help and crowds of people and four aged people who felt exceedingly old before the trip was over, it was a very stressful few hours. Thank  God for the kindly folk who came to our aid and helped to carry cases up/down stairs and in out of the train.  We did however finally make it to our hotel and fell into bed for a few hours sleep.  Mason was feeling shattered and still suffering from the effects of the cold and wouldn't budge so Glen, Alice and I had some dinner in the hotel cafe and went walking to see if we could find an exciting place to see the New Year in. We made it down to the Thames and watched the firework display and listened to Big Ben chime in 2013 then made our way home via theTube. It was free after midnight and packed to the gunnels with mostly young people. We pushed and shoved just like them and managed to make it back to the hotel OK. 

News Years Day we slept in and Glen, Alice and I left Mason in bed and ventured out early afternoon to find something to eat. Alice and Glen took off on the bus to find a street where Alice's grandmother lived and Mason and I just relaxed and caught up on washing, reading and sleep.  After dinner  we ventured out, caught the tube to Victoria Station and sussed out how we would get ourselves and luggage to the bus station for our trip to Southampton on Thursday. Tomorrow we intend to start early and look at some of the things we missed last time we were here.