We're in London!

We made it across the pond!! The internet connection at ye old hotel is fabulously expensive and we are very busy, so you may not be seeing daily posts. This post was written on Sunday, Sept. 12, but it’s now Tuesday. If I can figure it out, I’ll back date it. Also, adding more than one picture is a bit of a pain, so since time is in short supply, I’m reverting to posting most of the pictures, such as they are, on my Facebook fan page.

The flight over was generally uneventful, so I decided to liven things up a bit by passing out in the aisle about halfway to London. Apparently poor Mr. MacKenzie almost had heart failure. I’m not quite sure what happened, but I was fine when I woke up. I got to chat with the flight attendants in the back of the plane as they gave me oxygen, water, and orange juice. When I wasn’t passing out, I had a nice chat with the chap sitting on my right who was a Scots engineer.

We arrived at Heathrow early, got our luggage, and hopped aboard the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station. We opted for a taxi over the tube from Paddington to our hotel--I had too much stuff to manage the underground if it involved climbing any stairs and far too little sleep. Plus I’d never been in a London taxi nor in a right hand drive vehicle--I was looking forward to the adventure.

Unfortunately, our room wasn’t ready when we arrived, so we parked our stuff with the concierge and prowled the neighborhood for a few hours. We went to church and explored Primrose Hill--what a spectacular view of London! Sadly, my camera did not do justice--and Regents Park. We saw a variety of waterfowl, at least one healthy looking rat, and some non-obscene shrubbery. The we walked over the canal and watched the narrow boats (I think that’s the term) motoring under the bridge. I’ve included a picture of one of the boats.

We finally got into our room around 2 pm London time which, if I’m doing the math correctly, is 9 am “our” time. Frankly, I’m amazed I’m not totally fried, since I think napped a very little bit, if at all. (Though I was out cold for the few seconds it took me to go from vertical to prone in the aisle when I passed out.)

We finished up with dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant.

Tomorrow, it’s into London.