DAY 2- London

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Day 2. We. Are. Tired.

To catch up- we left Dulles Tuesday eve on a red eye, arriving at 7:00 am into Heathrow. The flight was pretty bumpy, and they turned the lights on at 5:15 am. Needless to say, I sleep not much, and Tim slept through the whole thing. You will see that this is a pattern as we travel. We got to our hotel around 9, and Tim stayed in the lobby to check email, arrange meetings and change. I put on my sneakers and starting walking. I almost slept walked through Hyde Park, and considered sleeping in the park, but the grass was wet, and there were mainly bums, so I decided to just get some coffee. I had no real itinerary except to familiarize myself with the city again, but ended watching a parade-type thing with the palace guards outside of Buckingham Palace, then winding round to Piccadily Circus and Trafalger Square. I meandered through the National Gallery for a bit - hey its free- then headed towards Covent Garden. Once there I decided it was time for a pint, so I went up to a pub called Punch and Judy, surrounded myself with English football fans and watched the street performers do their thing. Apparently there was a big football game that night, so a lot of rowdy men were singing their songs, drowning out the street performers. It was pretty entertaining. After that, I went to meet Tim near Liverpool station (near the Big Gerkin), we had a pint, he met another colleague for coffee, and we headed back to the hotel to check in, shower and change. That night, we met my Uncle Andrew for a pint (you will see another pattern here) and some dinner. He took us to a part of town called Islington, and we had a drink by the canal and then dinner at an organic tavern.

Today we got up bright and early to take the train to Trowbridge to visit my Grandmother. She and her neighbor Stewart picked us up from the train station and we had a great visit, that included a beautiful english countryside pub, with great fish and chips. It was too short of a time to visit, but great to see her. Hopefully we talked both her and her neighbors, Stewart and Mary into coming to visit us in DC. We got back to the train station and our train was delayed a bit, so we had travel mishap #1 (already!) and missed our train in Bath. But, we just had a pint in Bath (pattern) and got the next train to London. Really, what's a trip to London without the mandatory visit to Bath anyway?

So now our eyes are closing and we need some sleep before our 4:30 AM wake up call so that we catch the 6:30 AM Eurostar to Paris tomorrow. Why did we book everything to start before dawn???

On to Day 3! Paris!

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Photos

Landing in London
Shocking- complete cloud cover.

Redeye
Tim looks ready to go

Morning
Red eyes suck.

Group pic
Vic, Gran, Stew, Mary and owner of pub

Train back to London
Strong advertising.

Comments

[Ally]

WHOA
Did you leave all of your hair in DC? I was talking to you, Vic, not Tim. LOVE!

[Sarah]

I am sensing some trends here...none that suprise me yet though! Glad to know that you made it across the pond safe and sound...keep up the posts so that I can travel vicariously :)

[Auntie Barb]

Hi
Enjoying hearing about your trip and the photos!

[Father]

Great blog
Keep it up. This will be fun! Also fix your phone as we can't call you. Something about setting up a mailbox? D

[1820 Travel]

No hair!
I cut it off before I left so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Of course now I'm sunburnt on the back of my neck. Karma.

[MARY]

wE ARE HERE iN oMAHA
tIM AND vIC jUST TO LET YOU KNOW THAT WE MADE IT TO OMAHA - WITH JANE MOM SHELIA DOT --AND WE ARE AT dAN - HIS PLACE IS NEAT - lITTLE dAN IS HERE TOO- SO GLAD YOUR ENJOING YOUR TRIP - ALSWYS GOOD TO HERE FROM YOU - BLACK sAND - MUST BE HOT - WE LOVE YOU - HAVING SUPPER TOMORROW WITH LITTLE MARGARET- WILL SEE BEN AND rOBERT - EVEN HIS LAUNDRY ROOM IS NEAT - YOU WOULD LOVE IT - YOUR LOOKING GOOD. aUNTIE mAME SAY HELLO -