I finally made it to London, UK today after a long 12 hour plane ride! Luckily I was able to sleep the majority of the time even though it does feel very odd to have lost an entire day of my life. I met Trevor @ Gatwick Airport in London and we headed directly to our hotel to drop off our luggage. I rode on my first train ever and it was exciting! The seats are like booths with tables in between you and a man in a cart does come by selling all sorts of candy & beverages from his cart (Harry Potter style :). We then jumped onto the "tube" (subway-like) and got off at King's Crossing (another Harry Potter reference) which is about a 1 minute walk to the Apollo Hotel. The hotel is a quaint B&B, but charming! The road is a pretty authentic cobblestone and it is very clean and safe. The room is no bigger than a normal-sized bedroom and the toilet is down the stairs. As long as there is a nice bed to sleep in I am happy!
We ventured into London for the entire day in the pouring down rain. I have named London the umbrella capital of the world (luckily I packed mine!) I ate my first European meal at a little corner cafe and got a kebab (similar to a gyro). It was delicious! We walked through a huge beautiful park swarmed by all sorts of birds/ducks straight to Buckingham Palace. I noticed a huge line to get in and was informed that the Queen was having a garden party and it was invite only. Everyone in line was dressed to impress with feathers in their hair and typical royalty clothing. The cliche red-suited guards with their big, tall, black furry hats were surrounding the beautiful castle- it reminded me of Austin Powers! We went into a big beautiful cathedral with amazing architechture and mosaics. We walked around Westminster Abbey and sighted Big Ben. Tomorrow we are planning on touring more of Big Ben and down by the water, as well as Picadilly Circus (good shopping and eating area). After all that we literally had to go back to our hotel and change into dry clothes and blow-dry our hats, shoes, etc. with the small and less than powerfull blowdryer offered in our room. Talk about SOAKING wet!
A few things I already love about England because of the cultural difference- people really do drive on the opposite side of the road as us (very bizzare to see)- which also means when you are getting on an escalader or doing anything in line you need to start on the opposite that you are used to. Everyone has an awesome British accent (maybe I will form one by the time I get home, ha), the "loo" is hard to come by and I paid 50 pents to use one, there are a ton of "take away" restaurants we are all familar with (McDonalds & Starbucks of course, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc).
Here are a couple pictures to capture the first day. We will be spending Thursday in London and leaving Friday morning on the Chunnel straight to Paris. I hope everything is going great back and home and let's all stay in touch!
XO
Shawnie
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