Day 1 in London

Wow! We made it! I am coming to you live from London!!!

So, definitely glad we decided to make London our first stop, as hopefully it will allow us to slowly adapt to the changing cultures and language barriers. (They speak English, we speak American.)

We left Hartsfield at 10:30pm last night, and arrived at Heathrow in London at 12:30pm; but the flight only took about 8-9 hours. Basically, that means it is 11:15pm right now in London, but only 6:15pm in ATL. The jet lag wasn’t too bad though, so far anyway.

So, after clearing customs and getting some quinn (pounds), we headed for the Underground. About twenty minutes later we got off the train and proceeded to drag our luggage up the stairs (hehe), to burst forth into the sunshine; looking around like tourist for our hotel (which we spotted shortly, but strange thing is a lot of the streets do not have street signs at all and obviously they all look exactly the same).

We left the hotel, and headed a few stops up the Tube to Hyde Park (it’s kind of like Central Park in NY, with one notable exception). This “exception” is “speaker’s corner”, where people come out to on Sunday afternoons to debate and basically “preach”. Very interesting—as you will see from the pictures—and definitely entertaining; if you’re ever in London on a Sunday take ten minutes and go observe the spectacle.

After Hyde Park, we jumped the Tube over to Piccadilly Circus (has nothing to do with a circus), which is very similar to Times Square only the streets are much narrower, and I think the cars/buses/taxis fly by much quicker. Sadly, we weren’t very adventurous on our first day and ate at the KFC—which was still different than ours. Think no mashed potatoes, biscuits, mac and cheese; more like chicken and fries.

To finish off our day, we went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour through the olde city. Very interesting, and actually a pretty good value (7 quinn each for about 2 hrs); definitely recommend that too. They gave you a lot of info and history about the oldest part of London (which was settled by the Romans). Then a long Tube ride back to the hotel to type this up before passing out…j/k.

Anyway, more to come! Thanks for all your prayers!