Arrival in London - not a good day

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Well as everyone would know by now, London was not the place to be in today. We arrived in London at 7am at Heathrow. Due to delays in Bangkok and long lines in customs we were late getting out of Heathrow, which turned out to be a blessing. We arrived at the tube station at about 8.45am to buy our tickets for the Piccidily line to central London. We had to wait for a while and suddenly the station was closed down. At the time we were told that a power failure had stopped all all the underground. We thought that if we waited a while it might start up again, but as news spread it soon became clear the tube stations were not going to open up again and we would need to make other transport arrangements. So our journey through London began. We started on a bus, then transfered to an above ground train. Then waited for an hour for a taxi. Then we had to walk to our hotel because the roads were closed and weren't not letting cars through. But as we walked to our hotel we were stopped by a police line. Our hotel was near Russell square, which was close to where a bomb in the tube station had exploded and the bus that exploded. They had no idea how long the streets would be closed for. At that stage it had taken us over 5 hours to get from the airport. We found a pub and ate lunch while making phone calls to family and trying to figure our where we would end for the night. Finally it became clear that we would not be allowed to get to our hotel. So we rang a family friend of mine and she graciously took us in. So we took yet another taxi, another train, and another walk. We were so exhausted and dragging around our luggage in amongst all the confusion and chaos was starting to take it's toll. We met up with Alexis and she gave us the keys to her apartment. We were finally, at 6pm, able to put our bags down and relax. We later found out that the roads were stilled closed but that they were doing police escorts to hotels for guests that had bookings. We contemplated going back into the city but no one really felt like staying in central london tonight.

The day has been surreal, not quite real. We have all now showered and had something to eat and are absolutely exhausted. We have to be at the hotel at 5.30am tomorrow to get on the bus and start the tour. There's been a lot of emotions today, but we are hopeful to get the holiday back on track.

Love from all the girls to our families and friends,

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