Arrive in London

Trip Start May 14, 2008
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Trip End May 30, 2008


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Where I stayed
Ace Hotel (Kensington)
(London hotels)

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

We made it to London! Our flight left from O'Hare last night at 7:45 pm and we arrived in London at 9:20 am London time (3:20 am Chicago time). The flight went well. We left on time, there was minimal turbulence, and the food was good. I slept most of the time but never fell into a deep sleep, but for the most part I felt fairly rested when we landed. Greg slept about an hour but said he was fine. We both dozed off on the tube late in the day but luckily woke up before out stop.

After arriving at Heathrow, we took the tube to our hostel, Ace Hotel, which is in Kensington. It's a very cute, trendy neighborhood kind of like Lincoln Park. We checked into the hostel and then hit the town.

Our first stop was the food halls at Harrod's. There were several rooms of various types of foods from sushi to chocolate to fruits and vegetables. We both got sandwiches. They don't have anywhere for you to eat this food though so we sat outside of Harrod's and ate our lunch.

Then we walked around the area a bit and happened upon Hyde Park. It was a nice open green area with a pond, flowers, and some statues. There was a Princess Diana Memorial walk. After leaving Hyde Park we walked over to Piccadilly Circus which was sort of like a miniature version of Times Square with the electronic billboards.

Next we jumped back on the tube and went to the Tower of London. The Tower of London has been many things over the years: a palace, prison, place of execution, arsenal, royal mint, and jewel house. We took a guided tour led by one of the Beefeaters. Nobody is quite sure what a Beefeater is but you can only become a beefeater with 22 years of military service. The guide was very entertaining and told us about some of the more famous executions that have taken place within the tower walls. After the tour we explored the grounds on our own. We saw the famous crown jewels that are worn by the royal family. We walked through each of the towers and along the tower walls. We saw some old armour that had been worn in ancient times and some old artillery.

After the Tower of London we walked across the Tower Bridge and back and found a pub to have some fish and chips. It was actually pretty good.

And then we came back to our hostel, which is where we are now, and I think we are going to go to bed early tonight. It has been a long two days.

Tomorrow, we are planning on going to Buckingham Palace and the area around Westminster Abbey.

More to come...

Christine
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