Day 1 - May 23, 2008 - Arrival in London

  London, United Kingdom
Friday, May 23, 2008

London Heathrow

The flight over from LAX to LON was quite pleasant, taking only 10 hours. We were entertained by a personal entertainment system (Go Air New Zealand!). We had quite a few items to take to our trip since Sofia is staying back for her summer program at Cambridge, so here we were in London, dragging 8 bags (4 + 4). In retrospect, taking the Heathrow Connect into London was perhaps not the best idea. Dragging so many bags through the terminal and onto the platform, we were somewhat of a spectacle.

Across from the hotel - Sofia House

We emerged at the Paddington station, and took a taxi for a short ride over to the hotel. As we pulled up to the hotel driveway, we were delighted to see a building called Sofia House right across from it. We would wonder about the building and what was inside every time we would pass it during our stay.

The hotel room at the Holiday Inn Regents Park is small but I am told that is normal by London standards, and the hotel is in a great neighborhood.

We (read Sofia) was hungry so we headed to Vilandrie's for scones and tea. The warm jam complemented the scones perfectly. Then back to the hotel for a nap. Now we had every intention of going to the Ismaili Center in London (since it was Friday), but we overslept.

Nando's in South Kensington

Ladies made short work of the Chicken

At 9p, we took a taxi to South Kensington, where we met Sofia's cousins Sheliza, Malik, his wife Chehnaz and adorable daughter Leen for dinner at Nando's: a portuguese style restaurant that served grilled chicken, fries and chicken livers.

On the way back, we purchased an Oyster Card each (that allows us to prepay for public transportation (tube and bus) at a very reasonable rate. We hopped on the Bakerloo metro and headed back to the hotel. Looking forward to a good night's sleep.