On Our Way (Part 2)

  London, United Kingdom
Friday, September 14, 2007

At JFK we had to transfer to T4 to board our Air India flight. With waiting in all the lines we again boarded without too much of a wait. This flight was perhaps 35% full. All the window seats were occupied, most of the back section and only some seats in the middle. Service was not what I'm used to and the food was questionable. There was only 1 round of movies shown but we did see Shrek The Third. We landed almost an hour late then joined the masses at passport control by standing in line 2 hours! Luckily the couple who was going to tag along with us on the tube to downtown London decided to go off on their own. We found our luggage, bought our tube ticket and emerged in Trafalgar Square - the very center of London. The Trafalgar Hilton is sleek with modern furnishings and is quite comfortable.

The Trafalgar Hilton

There's complimentary full-size bottles of Earthrise shampoo, conditioner, body gel and lotion in the bathroom.

We met up with UK Phil, Helen, Garry & Bob, Marti & Phil, Rosie & Dennis, Ruth & Mike, Joanie & George, Jenny, Tammy, and Susan & Ed across the river and took the Duck Tour together.

Duck Tour Vehicle

All of these people were posters on our Cruise Critic roll call thread for our trans-Atlantic cruise. The 'duck' is an amphibious vehicle from World War II that was used to carry supplies from ships to land. The hour-long tour showed us the highlights of London and then we drove straight into the River Thames to see the Parliament buildings from the water.

We returned to the hotel and located our luggage already in the room. A bar on the 1st floor was full of young people and a DJ was playing CDs. We meant to be in the room for only a few minutes but wound up taking a 1 1/2 hour nap. We freshened up and headed out to find an ATM and convenience store. We ate dinner at McDonald's and had a Big & Tasty meal, 2 Big Macs, medium fries and a large drink. Total was 8.30 pounds (about $16 US). And that was with a buy 1/get 1 free Big Mac coupon!