Let's Do the Time Warp
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2008
1
2
6
Trip End
Jul 05, 2008
London,
England,
United Kingdom
Thursday, June 19, 2008
So, it's rather exciting to be leading my second tour to Europe. The group I have is wonderful and they are all bonding really well, which is nice. Everyone made it to the airport with plenty of time, and no one forgot anything important. First hurdle mastered.
Our flights went through without any lost luggage or problems, although the thunderstorm near Denver made our arrival and departure a little more like an amusement park than I would have preferred. Similar conditions near London meant several people with white knuckles when we landed in Heathrow.
It was not our Tour Director who met us at the airport. An interesting little lady named Thrity met us with an "EF Tours" sign. She then gathered Idaho, who she thought was coming from San Francisco, and we bused it to our Travelodge in East Croydon, which is south of London.
After getting checked in and such, we hung around a bit until our tour diretor Matthias returned with the Rhode Island group. I think I slept for two hours. We walked into town and had dinner at a Spanish restaurant (?!). They had lovely tapas, even if they were potato-dominated. After dinner we went back to the hotel where we left Rhode Island. The rest of us took a train into London where Matthias (our tour director) led us on a walking tour. It was too much fun to watch the awe of the travelers as we came up out of the Westminster tube stop right under the clock tower. I remember how I felt that first time I laid eyes on it. Wonderful.
We walked past Westminster Abbey and around the square and up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and then Leicester Square. By then we had taken a bunch of photos and it had grown dark. The lights of the square were all aglow and Amanda and I decided to grab a little gelato in a cafe that sported more flavours than I have ever seen in one place. We wandered the square chatting and munching while this fellow tried to coerce us into going into a night club. At first we said ok, because he said it would be free. Then, as we stood there, we watched him almost get in a fight with another fellow who was coercing people into the club and when the women at the door tried to charge us, we bailed. It was time to meet the group, anyway.
An express train back to East Croydon meant we were in bed before midnight. Day 1, success.
