Welcome to London

I spoke too soon in the last entry--they moved the gate at Newark a fourth time. But at that gate we did finally get on the (really large) plane, and after sitting on the tarmac for an hour, something like twelfth in line to take off, we flew out only an hour behind schedule.

The flight was around six hours--more spacious seats, dinner and breakfast, and personal TVs with 9 channels of movies to choose from. We were once again all sitting fairly close together, except for Chris and Rebecca who were separated to the back of the rest of us. Here's a pic of Liz looking out at the lights of New Jersey just after take-off:

After six hours of flying and on average about 1 1/2 hours of sleep, we landed Gatwick airport and negotiated immigration, money exchange, and baggage claim. All of our baggage made it, which isn't always the case. We were pleased.

We were met at the airport by Mike, our tour guide, who right away took us in hand and got us on a small bus/people transport (driven by the intrepid Dave) to drive us the thirty-five miles from Gatwick to London. Driving on the expressway during morning rush hour on the left side of the road was an eye-opener for some of us, especially when we reached London itself, where the traffic got heavier, the streets got narrower, the stopped trucks got more numerous, but Dave got no slower. Having survived the drive in, we left luggage at the hotel and went on a walking tour of the central areas while our rooms were gotten ready.

Mike did the honors for the tour, and made sure everybody learned how to get on the Tube and negotiate line changes and what-not. He also walked us by the Houses of Parliament (where Big Ben is), up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, through Leicester Square to Picadilly Circus, and then over to Covent Garden. At each spot he stopped and gave a brief bit of history and tips on how to orient ourselves. We also saw No. 10 Downing Street, which was a-swarm with TV news crews awaiting Tony Blair's announcement today of the timeline for his stepping down as Prime Minister.

Then we had lunch--nine of us ate at a pub called the Essex Snake, where fish and chips were the order of the day, and Will, Robin, Kali, and Chris wandered the streets near Leicester Square and had sandwiches from a street vendor. We met back up at 2pm and came back to the hotel.

Now, after a full 24 hours of no showers, toothpaste, or much sleep, we're taking break to perform some basic hygiene and rest before we go out to dinner at Ishtar, a Mediterranean place near Baker Street.


Incidentally, clicking on any of these pictures will give you a much larger, nicer version.