A Trip to the Doctor

I have been meaning to document this for awhile and finally got around to it. Below are photos from my trip to the Drs - a bit different than my normal drive down El Camino to my Dr in CA!!

I typically started by driving into Reading and then the train to Paddington but this time I took the train directly from Henley which only runs every hour.

Waiting for the train at Henley on Thames

Arriving in Paddington after 2 train changes

Head downstairs to the Underground and swipe the oyster card, the best way to pay for the tube

Head on over to the Bakerloo line, always stay on the right on the escalators

Waiting for the tube, the best people watching is down here

Arrive at Bakers street, LOVE the tiles down here each little "dot" that makes up his profile is also a mini profile.

Head out into the streets for the half mile walk, pass Madame Troussards where even the ads of the wax figures are creepy looking. When there are more tourists I have seen a 3 hour wait to just get in! There is a Museum of Music and Academy of Music that made me wish we could go in for a performance. And of course the streets are filled with taxis and buses and trinket shops on ever corner.

Finally make it to the drs office, you have to be buzzed in downstairs and it is a darling part of town. Then the process is repeated in reverse, sometimes with a treat picked up along the way!

For reasons documented in other posts, I wanted to go to a private Dr when I found out we were expecting Elise. A friend of a friend recommended the Dr she used when she delivered over here and I was so happy to have a referral. The dr was very nice, American Certified and most of his clients were expats like us. His office was in downtown London, just down the street from Madame Troussards. The first few appointments are pretty spaced out and Jamie would drive us into the office. Around October though, when the appointments started getting closer together, he told me he wouldn't be able to take off to drive us in, he would need to be in the office for his busy season. I have mentioned before that we have struggled to locate babysitting out here and since not all of the stations have lifts it was not plausible that my pregnant self could take Hadley in with me. I was starting to panic when I met a darling girl in one of the classes that has a little girl Hadley's age, we became friends and then just a week or so before I needed to go into London I met her sister. She was college age and since she lived with my friend she was really comfortable with kids, she said she would love to babysit! Hadley loved her. It wasn't cheap, it is a 5 hour round trip and with the train ticket we figured it was around $100 for me to attend each appointment but it was priceless to know Hadley was taken care of while I went to the Dr I wanted. The funny thing is she moved back to Ireland just days after Elise was born, she really was here just while I needed her. I would have loved if she had stayed and we could go out every once in awhile, but we got exactly what we needed when we needed it and feel very blessed.

Definitely a different way to travel, and I promise not to complain about the trips to the dr office ever again, but an interesting way to see part of London and become familiar with the trains and tubes!