London Lite

---

As the title suggests, we didn’t spend a lot of time in London. In fact, the only reason we ventured into this world renowned city was because the prospect of a 9 hour layover spent entirely in Gatwick airport was not particularly appealing.

The 9-hour flight over was relatively easy if you polled the travel group. Even though it was a “budget” airline, the food was good and the individual screens allowed you to watch whatever you wanted (including the take-off and landing from a camera that was mounted just in the nose of the plane). We dubbed this the “crash cam” but fortunately it did not live up to its name. It was however, a really cool way to experience take-off and even better the landing. We touched down in London at 7:30am local time and checked our luggage in as we were continuing onto Dubrovnik with British Airways. We did a quick calculation and even though we were pretty exhausted, as was stated earlier, a 9 hour rest in an airport was not thrilling. We checked into the cost of getting into London and for $40 Canadian (for the whole family), we could get a train into London (45 minutes) and then have unlimited bus and underground usage while in London. Departing for Victoria station, we took the train in and then jumped on a No. 11 bus, parked ourselves up top (double decker) and proceeded to give ourselves a self-guided tour of London (hey, that’s Westminster Abbey - What’s an Abby? Is that New Westminster? Is it always this cold in London? Why is it raining here when it is so hot everywhere else? London is pretty dreary.” I am sure that the local tour buses had much better answers to these questions so the Connor tour was not as exciting. Sights included: Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Big Ben, London Eye and “London Bridge”, to name a few.

We dined back at Victoria station on the traditional Fish and Chippies and then hiked over to catch a quick glimpse of the Queen’s pad (Buckingham Palace). The train-ride back almost had us sleep past our Gatwick Airport stop had it not been for the kids waking their parents (not sure who was in charge there - the adults couldn’t quite keep their eyes open- oops!!). The flight to Dubrovnik was fairly uneventful as the Connor crew slept through dinner and snacks (notice the drool on the kids faces - they didn’t seem to be able to handle their tea and crumpets!!!). The adventure is getting off to a fast and furious start as we sleep our way around the globe.

---

Photos

The Adventure Begins ... Again
Notice the rested happy faces -- not for long!!!

Great London Architecture
Connor tour can't quite remember what it was but it looks cool.

Big Ben
London wouldn't be London without seeing the big guy.

Typcial London food fare
Had to re-energize with what Matthew claimed was the BEST fish and chips he had ever had.

9 hours in London
How to do London in a day on under $50 for 5 people.

Victoria station
Trains and buses - the Connor London tour begins

St Paul's Cathedral
All this rain reminds us of Vancouver - ahhh, we're at home.

London Bridge
Through the mist, we are reminded that childhood song about a bridge falling down -- we now hope it won't leave your head either!!

New London Monuments
It was a slow day so the tour decided to go futuristic - parents thought about leaving them there too!!!

Typical London scene
Couldn't resist!

28 hours into the trip
Matthew is probably praying, not sure what Courtney is doing but she does need to clean her nose.

Are we there yet?
Some girls just don't seem to be able to handle their tea and crumpets.

Comments

[Lauralynn]

Great Post on London!
I really enjoyed reading about your trip so far. When I left for Denver on Sunday the airport was quite busy and I was hoping that you were all on time and made your flights. Looks like everything is going according to plan at this point but I did get a good laugh about almost missing the airport after the London adventures. Keep up the interesting posts...we'll enjoy following your adventures...Lol, Carl, Ayden and Hallee.