Keep calm and go to London

​Where were you Thursday, November 6, 2014, and what were you doing?

I know exactly where I was and what I did—I was at work, monitoring Chiefs news on my breaks. And then the news broke—the Kansas City Chiefs were going to have a home game in London at Wembley Stadium on November 1, 2015. I immediately contacted my British Aficionado friend in Minneapolis about planning a trip. She was on it like a bonnet. A few days later, a local friend and fellow Chiefs fan inquired about the possibility of the trip. She was on board as well.

The mission, as I chose to accept it, required these actions over the next year:

NOVEMBER 2014

Educate myself about all things London and decide what to do and see in addition to the obvious, the Chiefs/Lions game. I have become a devotee of Rick Steves and have read his London travel book twice, and will probably re-read it on the flight over. Great tips and information on how to tour like a local and how NOT to be a stereotypical ugly American.

JANUARY 2015

Get a Passport. Duh.

Shelter in a Strange City. I am fortunate that my greatly increased business travel this year awarded me enough points to book a hotel for ten nights at no cost. Culture Shock: London is not home to a lot of hotel rooms that accommodate three people, so our choices were limited, but I’m happy with the site and brand. This is the least local-like aspect of our trip, but it’s free, so I’m forgiving myself.

Party On, Dude! Purchased tickets to the Halloween party for Chiefs organized by Arrowheads Abroad. Probably my first chance to meet my international Chiefs-fan friends for the first time! So excited about this!

FEBRUARY 2015

Investigate London Public Transportation. The UK government transport site has been a wealth of information. I learned about and acquired an Oyster card, have saved various maps for later reference, and bookmarked their Plan Your Journey site that advises the quickest routes. This, and my limited experience with New York subways, has probably given me false confidence that I can navigate our trio everywhere for ten days without getting lost or wishing we’d rented a car.

Start monitoring Dollars to Pounds Currency Exchange Rates. Accounting and numbers make my eyes glaze over, but I slugged through, checking this daily. I should have converted back in April when a pound was $1.48, but I just had this feeling, like a bad gambling addict probably does (at least I wasn’t shaking)……..

MARCH 2015

London Pass? Yes, please. The six-day pass will either provide us free or discounted entry and/or give us access to fast-path lines to most of the places we plan on visiting.

APRIL 2015

Group Tours? Oh, this could be a trap--herded like cattle, in huge, lumbering busses, stereotyped by the natives. Rick Steves to the rescue! International Friends, and their small-sized tours and vans were the answer. Booked two—a Downton Abbey tour and a Bath/Stonehenge tour for each of the Fridays we’re there.

Organize our Do/See list so that we maximize our sight-seeing without wasting travel time around the city. Another friend and I have visited New York several times, and she is a master of both subway routes and planning site-seeing; I intend to make her proud. I have created spreadsheets (hello, fellow OCDers!) sliced and diced several different ways to designate London-Pass sites from those not included lined up by direction and distance from our hotel so we can take in as much as possible at any given time as well as get the most out of our London Passes. At this point, my friends have stopped calling me “Neta” and just refer to me as their Personal Travel Agent.

MAY 2015

Chiefs Tickets! Who has two thumbs and couldn’t wait for the American release of tickets? This writer! After a very much appreciated effort by Arrowheads Abroad to get everyone tickets in the same block (section, to you American sports fans) fell through, I found my way to Ticketmaster UK who were selling selected seats months earlier than they would be available in the USA. Used the Wembley view-from-your-seats feature to determine which available would be most desirable, and found three seats together near the front rows on the Club Level. Bonus: Found out that these also give us a “VIP” entry gate (What does that mean? Are there topless, oiled, and well-muscled men from the practice squad fanning us and offering us grapes?) and access to an area where we can spend even more money at food and souvenir stores. Ain’t life grand?

Traveling the globe. Even though I am tremendously excited about this trip, this step was painful. Over $1000 just to get there and back, and after watching and searching for fares for months, the price wasn’t going to improve. There has been a little hassle with flight time changes and cancellations, but nothing that wasn’t resolved with a phone call or two and no extra charges. Delta and Virgin Atlantic, you better treat me like a queen!

JUNE 2015

Learn about electrical engineering. With summer heat came the realization that the rest of the world does not use the same electricity as America. Invested in both a converter and adapter, and Googled all my electrical appliances. Also invested in some readers so that I can see that dog-gone, blasted tiny print on all my plug-ins. When did all the writing in the world get so small and dim?

JULY 2015

Fellas, you probably are not going to understand this one. Started planning my wardrobe and identifying any needed accessory pieces, as well as determining how many pairs of shoes to bring—all in one checked bag under 50 pounds and in one under-the-seat carry-on. A truly daunting challenge. Amiright, Ladies (*virtual fist bump)?

AUGUST 2015

Periscope Up! Downloaded this Twitter-based, live action app that I’m hoping to use during the trip to do my NFLFemale.com reporting while in London. If you don’t have it, check it out!

SEPTEMBER 2015

Gave up my old-school technology and prepared for international connectivity. I think I was the only person left in the world choosing to use a Blackberry for personal use. Man, I loved that keyboard! But, it just wasn’t cutting it for what I needed and will need traveling. So I upgraded to an iPhone 6+, and signed up for international phone / text / data usage. I’m not even going to kid myself—there’s going to be overages, period. But, it’s money well spent in making and documenting great memories.

OCTOBER 2015

Moolah! Well, the exchange rate dropped to $1.51 early this month. Since I missed the $1.48 back in April and travel day was rapidly approaching, I put my order in at the bank. Turns out, it was a good call, as it looks like it’s been climbing ever since. Queen Elizabeth has never looked so good!

DRAMA! The past three weeks have been filled with concern and nail-biting as to the delivery of the Chiefs tickets. Ticketmaster UK did a less than stellar job in updating order statuses, and I never received a tracking number from them. After some tweeting to their Customer Service, I got directed to the UPS My Choice site. Once registered, my package and delivery date popped up. I still marvel at the fact that the envelope was in London on Tuesday and in my hands on Thursday afternoon at 3:10 pm Central time.

Packing, packing, weighing, repacking, and more packing. With business trips the weeks before and after London, this has been a fashion logistical challenge. I think I’m 90% done, with a few wardrobe pieces ordered and hopefully waiting for me when I get home Friday night. 40 pounds, 4 pair of shoes, and 15 outfits. The test this weekend will be cosmetics and toiletries. I’d love to bring some BBQ sauce and KC whiskey, vodka, and gin, but sorry, guys, they didn’t make the cut. L

Plan of Attack. Two of us are traveling together and meeting up with the third. Of course, we are not flying into the same Heathrow terminal. So, we spent an hour Sunday plotting our plan and downloading Glympse so we can track each other’s location on our smart phones. And then, figuring out how to get to the Picadilly line and remembering where we change to the Jubilee line. What could go wrong?

In LESS THAN A WEEK (!!!), the three of us will be flying across the pond to begin our London adventure. Words can’t do justice in describing the butterflies and pure enjoyment that planning this trip has caused. Never underestimate the power of planning something that you are passionate about. It has been an endless labor of love, full of highly anticipated events, activities, and memories to be made.

CAN’T WAIT TO MEET ALL OF YOU! SEE YOU SOON!