Tuesday, June 10

Our flight was uneventful. I managed to sleep 5-6 hours, thanks to benadryl and a few sips of wine. We tried to watch Horton Hears a Who on our seat-back TV's but man, when your body thinks it's 3am, that crap is annoying! As we were nearing the end of the flight, I kept looking out the window, and at one point I went, "Oh my god!" and literally had to catch my breath. My eyeballs must have popped out of my head like in the cartoons. It was the London Eye! I grabbed my camera and started snapping away--I posted the photo earlier.

We landed at Heathrow around 3pm and thankfully there was not a really long line to get our passports stamped. There were at least a dozen agents so it went quickly. The giant sign that says UK Border was begging to be photographed. We managed two shots and then got yelled at by security for taking pictures. Welcome! Our luggage arrived safe and sound, and the chaos of Terminal 5 we'd heard on the news was nowhere to be found. It was, in fact, eerily quiet. We may or may not have seen Simon Cowell's girlfriend at the baggage carousel. (Nicole insists it was her; I had no clue.)

We'd decided to hire a car to take us to our hotel, and our driver was waiting for us with all the others. He took our luggage and led us to the car, which was a Toyota minivan. The drive to our hotel took about 50 minutes. We passed by several landmarks on the way, like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. The driver could have been friendlier, but we arrived safely and checked in. Our room was “triple as twin,” which means there was a double bed and a twin bed.


The room was huge compared to what I was expecting, and compared to the other London hotel we stayed in towards the end of the trip. Our view was other hotel windows--not beautiful, but we could see the sky at least, and the top of the London Eye. We settled in a bit then went out to explore!

It was a beautiful day; barely a cloud in the sky. We walked along the Thames, across Westminster Bridge (there's Big Ben!)


then up Whitehall (stopping to see the Horse Guard)


to Trafalgar Square.


On the way to Covent Garden we stopped to buy our 7-day passes to use on the Tube. Covent Garden was not as lively as I expected, although granted, it was past 8pm. We had Cornish pasties for dinner--they're like pot pies, but semi-circular in shape, and you hold it in your hands like pizza. Yum! Less than ₤3 each. We stopped at a Tesco to check out what a British grocery store would be like, and ended up buying junk food—Cadbury bar, mint Aero bar, and weird chip flavors (Steak & Onion, Prawn Cocktail, Bacon Rashers).* We meandered our way to Waterloo Bridge, getting some great dusk shots of Big Ben, the Eye, etc.



It’s disarming how late it stays light outside! Then it was back to the hotel to get some sleep in an actual bed.

*Go here to see all the disgusting tantalizing flavors of Walkers crisps. Worcester Sauce? Seriously? Didn't see those.

New Milk Jugs

This is what I'm talking about. We need more of this.

Click to enlarge.

Read the great New York Times article here. And come on, it can't be that hard to pour.

Elefante gets around...

While I was away, my coworkers took turns having Elefante visit their offices. And they even took pictures to document his journey.

In Susan's office, he enjoyed playing with the world.

In Sy's office, he even had a portrait of his ancestors.

He felt most at home in William's office, with its lush jungle atmosphere.

My favorite: In Erika's office, the little people run screaming in fear. Relax, he's a gentle giant.

And in Laura's office, he chills out with a brisk refreshment.

Meaty crisps

You may know that in Brit-speak, french fries are called chips, and potato chips are called crisps. I read this before I went. What I didn't read about is how they apparently like their crispy snacks to be flavored like meat. My favorite was Bacon Rashers.


A rasher is a serving of bacon, as in, your eggs come with two rashers of bacon. But Bacon Rashers are crispy corn and rice snacks that look kind of like dog treats, and taste very, very much like bacon. And yet they are "suitable for vegetarians." (How much do I love that all vegetarian things are labeled as such, and every place we ate had veggie options clearly labeled on their menus.)

The drawback of Bacon Rashers is they "give back" in a very unpleasant way, so you can only have a few at a time.

(Tesco, by the way, is a grocery store chain.)

We also tried Strong Onion and Cheese potato chips (not bad) and Steak and Onion potato chips (yuck!). At the airport we saw Roasted Chicken potato chips...we did not partake.


And they're not Lays potato chips. They're Walkers. But the design of the logo seems to indicate it's the same company.

Cornish Pasty

These are so yummy! It's like a calzone, but instead of pizza dough, it's made with a flaky crust, and there's a pot-pie-like filling inside. We had these twice. Once for dinner our first night in Covent Garden, and then again for lunch in Bath. Chicken and vegetable, cheese and onion, chicken and mushroom, yum yum yum! And by the way, you pronounce it past-ee, as in not the future, but the past. It's not paste-ee, like glue. Cheerio, love!

Big Ben Bong

London from the airplane

Dog on the Tube

Well behaved, and appeared to be quite happy. Did druel a bit.

We didn't see nearly as many dogs in London as we did in Italy. And only one cat, out in the Cotswolds.

London and the countryside

Cheers from England! We are having a fantastic time taking in all the sights in London and the surrounding countryside. We've seen so much, and I'd love to go into every little detail, but it is late and we have an early start tomorrow. This is the first chance I've had to hop on the internet because we've been so busy. It stays light until 10pm so we have been getting back to the room late, then going over our plans for the next day, and by then we are just exhausted. We have been walking so much my feet are ready to fall off! I tried to plan a reasonable itinerary but once you're here, you just want to run around and fit everything in. So here is a small sampling of what we've seen and done so far, with a few comments thrown in. There will of course be MUCH more once I return to the States. I have a few days in Santa Clarita where I'll be able to relax and journal about everything that happened.

First Night

We saw the Sound of Music at the theater

View from the London Eye

Changing of the Guard - band marching in

At St. James Park

Classic pose

Beefeater tour at Tower of London

Tower Bridge

At the Horse Guard

Beautiful gardens in the Cotswolds

A few more pictures here.

Dis. Gus. Ting.

9am, 86 degrees, 70% humidity. Yuck.

It's supposed to reach 100 here in Raleigh on Saturday and Sunday. The high for Santa Clarita this weekend? 82, with max humidity of 32%. Then in London, we're looking at highs in the low to mid 70's. Can I just say? Good time to get the heck out of Dodge.