England Day One

Monday Jan 19 2009 7:23 am - Email sent from the hotel

WE MADE IT!! Off to get lunch now. Not a bad flight, but our bags did not make it yet. Had to run for the London flight, but they reopened the doors for us. Thank God. More to come later, 12:20 local time.

I woke up on the plane pretty well. I was able to sleep most of the way, till they started making coffee on the plane. That smell will wake you, especially if you did not eat the night before.

Yep I travel with a stuffed horse as my pillow...You want to make something of it? His name is Dozer in case you wanted to know and I think he is as excited as I am.

I choose to believe those are the white cliffs of Dover. If I am wrong please don't tell me. I think this sight made it real for me.

I will use D's travel journal entry for this day too. I will add anything in italics to let you know it is me talking.

We arrived in Gatwick and went to talk to the Customs official. After a few questions he asked me why I want to go to Dover after I mentioned that we had planned a day trip. He then explained it would be disappointing in this weather and would do better in Canterbury. We then got some money to find our luggage was lost but a very nice gentleman guided us through that process.

We then rode the train to London. We sat nest to two chitter-chat girls dueling with their Ipods. We were able to tackle the train with no problems. It was probably better to navigate with out the luggage anyway. We got to St Pancras station and walked down Euston St into the Bloomsbury area. We are staying at The George's hotel. The room is cozy but nice. Luckily our room was done early so we could off load one of the backpacks.

The view out our window.

The hotel had a little area to lounge in and a computer for guest use. That is me writing the email above.

Back to D. We then went and ate at a local pub. An older gentleman kept remarking to Yarnkettle that she had a great smile! He kept going out of the pub and returning a few minutes later. (Smoke breaks?) I think the Pub name was Maquis of Cornwall. I love pub food and beer. My Gent also sent us off again when we left. By the way British bacon is way different and very good. (Had some on my sandwich)

That is my "gentleman" on the left in the picture above.

After lunch we wandered through the neighborhood and got caught in a brief, strong downpour. We walked on to Regent Gardens. Even though it is January I was struck by the stunning green and the number of grounds crew working.

D and me in the garden enjoying it.
D in front of one of the many fountains.

D took this shot. Just seems to me you could solve the world's problems walking through a garden like that.

We also saw some rugby players as well.

This was the fountain that was built to water the cows in 17 or 18 something. No this cow did not drink from it. It was dry.

Yes here we have our first English squirrel picture. D love his squirrels.
Sometimes you just know you're in a different country. This was one of those times. I feel like you could take pictures every 30 seconds when something new comes into view.

Returning after a long walk through the park our feet were very tired, we caught our breath while relaxing in the hotel.

This is our street. It curves around the tennis court you can see out our front window.

After some more emails we went to a local pub for dinner. I had a local brew (Bishop Finger) and some pub food while watching a football game(soccer). I had the biggest bottle of Newcastle beer I've ever seen. I had fish and chips, and D had mash and steak. Also it is amazing to see how excited Britain seems to be about the inauguration of Barrack Obama.

Monday Jan 19 2009 11:24 am - Email home

We went and had lunch at a real pub. We both had half pints of beer. Why? Because we could and a whole pint would have put us under the table. Had a real pub guy chat us up a bit. Took a long walk around the neighborhood. Had to stand under an awning to keep from getting hailed/rained on. We need to get umbrellas first thing tomorrow. We walked through Regents Park in the north of London. Beautiful. Now if we can manage to stay awake for a few more hours and get some dinner, we should be able to make a day of it tomorrow. Not sure if we have a schedule of what is on tap for tomorrow. I think Buckingham Place will figure in somewhere.