Eye Spy….Big Ben! – June 25

Bright and early this morning…okay, around 11:30, I finally arrived in London Heathrow airport – after a fun-filled 9 hour flight. A recap of the flight – sitting on the plane for an hour waiting for passengers who had been delayed, watching The Office and Confessions of a Shopaholic, magical lasagna plane meal, and about 5 or 6 hours of freezing cold and/or burning up restless sleep, where I’m sure the guy sitting next to me probably got to know me more than he wanted to. Overall, it was a good flight though.

After arriving in London, I hiked roughly 12 miles through the airport, then went through customs. On the other side I was happy to find both of my checked bags had also found their way to London, as had Anna. After meeting up, we made our way to the tube station, purchased our tickets, and settled in for a 45 minute ride into the city. Unfortunately, we had no idea how many sets of stairs are in London tube stations, and getting around with our suitcases was not very much fun…at all. Luckily, there were lots and lots of nice people who were willing to help out some struggling American girls.

We finally made our way to the hotel, after much struggling and fighting with luggage and traffic. Our room was really cute – tiny, but cute. After quick showers and relaxing a bit, we headed out into London for the afternoon. Our hotel was about 2 or 3 blocks from Buckingham Palace, so that was our first stop. We then wandered down to Big Ben and Westminster, wandered back up to Trafalgar Square in search of something to eat, the stopped in Trafalgar Square for sandwiches. After our late lunch, we purchased cell phones – they are international cell phones…how cool! They won’t work in the US, but they work anywhere in Europe, you just get a new SIM card in each country and put money on it. It’s awesome! With new cell phones in hand, we crossed the Thames and strolled along the south bank, checking out a cool used book sale, and sitting around in the park, just resting and calling home. Then it was time for a flight on the London Eye. The half hour, 17 GBP flight was definitely worth it – the views were AMAZING! Of course, we took tons of pictures. And had to give a big Roll Tide to the Florida fans in our pod.

After the London Eye, we crossed back over the Thames right by Big Ben and Westminster. We walked through government square and checked out the house of parliament and Westminster Abbey. We finally journeyed back towards our hotel, and stopped a couple of blocks away for dinner – crisps (salt and vinegar potato chips), nuts, olives, and a bottle of wine. Afterwards we were exhausted and headed home to go to bed early, around 10.

Overall, it was a pretty awesome day, just walking around London and seeing what there was to see. It was nice to be able to just walk with no strict plan of where to go.

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