First stop....London...

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Thursday February 9, 2012.....We landed at 8 am (U.K Time) the next day in London and after what seemed like an hour of wandering through miles of empty terminal, we made our way through customs.

NOTE: Either they spend many hours training their agents to look bored and disinterested or they must only hire those who can already maintain a totally disaffected look. In fact we saw one agent who performed a remarkable eye roll and glare when a traveler ahead of us was directed to her desk. Quite amazing really...she was able to make all the passengers in line cringe and shudder. I do believe I saw one or two older passengers cross themselves and mumble a quick prayer to the saint of air travel not to get sent to her.

Once allowed out of customs unscathed, we headed to the main terminal to store our carry-ons for the day while we explored the city. We stopped to buy our Heathrow Express tickets and then found the luggage storage booth. We had already bundled ourselves into additional layers preparing for the 30 degree weather awaiting us outside, so we were both perspiring by now. Michelle had her special telephoto lenses and camera equipment so we had to unbundle her items for clerk to see and then re-bundle...after we got everything locked and secured with zip ties we could not find our express tickets....so we opened things
back up and tore through them to no avail....finally after three tries searching her safari vest's numerous zippered pockets, Michelle found them and we were very happy!

In terminal 1 at London-Heathrow, you take an elevator down to the "tube" and jump on the express train into Paddington station...( never did see a single bear there,..not even a picture of the creature made the station so famous). There it gets quite
confusing and eventually we figure out red line and central line are the same. The ticket man told us if we waited 4 more minutes til after 9:30 am, we could save almost 25%!o(MISSING)ff ticket price. Being a week day they charge more for the commuters who pack the tubes from early hours until 9:30 am... Same thing in the evening ...tickets out of the city are higher until the rush is over at 7.

Note: I know they are speaking English, but I have the hardest time understanding what they are mumbling...and my goodness are the Brits (or at least Londoners) a monochrome lot. 99 percent are dressed in drab browns, blacks and greys. With the drab skies and all the drab stone and marble, it makes one feel like they have stepped into a sepia photo.

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Photos

Heathrow
Michelle embraces the warm welcome we recieve when deplaning at Heathrow....

Deciphering "the Tube"....
Blimey these Britt's have a confusing train system...