London - Day 4

We were both very tired this morning. After talking with the very helpful men working as concierge and Ian the door man at our hotel, we decided to do our laundry.

The Laundromat - oh I'm sorry, it's Laundrette and it was only a 5 minute walk. It was the cutest little launderette! The woman working there was so nice to us. She was older and I think she just enjoyed our company. Other people would come in and just leave their laundry to wash or dry, being a paranoid tourist, I was not about to leave my clothes unattended to. Between the woman working the laundrette and a local man from France, they both gave us all the tips we needed to get the laundry done fast and efficient. The local man insisted on showing me how to use the laundry spinner that would spin all of the water out of our clothes so we could dry them for less time and less money.

Later that evening, we took the subway over to the Tower Hill Station. It was quite an easy trip on the subway right off the Circle or District Lines. We met up with a guy named Shaughan (Shawn) who was a wonderful tour guide for the Jack the Ripper tour. We retraced the steps of Jack the Ripper and his victims. Shaughan was an awesome guide and just really got into the role. We walked all over town and then took the subway back home where we spent another evening in search of a late night dinner.

You know, 9 pm is late eating for folks in London...

London - Day 2

This morning Greg and I had our first British Breakfast it was good but different. I think Greg enjoyed the variety of meat they had to offer, but I enjoyed the Nutella and croissants!

We headed over to the Big Bus Company stop where we proceeded to take the Hop on Hop off bus all around London for the day. It was a great way for us to get to see a large number of things. We then took the bus over to near Millennium Pier where we took our free boat cruise along the Thames River. Our tour guide was hilarious and very knowledgeable of the buildings along the river.

We got off the boat tour near the London Tower. We walked back to the hotel which was quite a long walk. We became hungry and decided to find a pub to eat at. That was an adventure within itself because pubs in London stop serving dinner fairly early. We were finally able to find a place and we really enjoyed our second English dinner. We are both doing our best to try new foods... which is hard for us both! LOL!

London - Day 1

The flight to Philadelphia from Detroit had no issues, we left a little late, but these days it seems expected to depart late from the airport… From Philadelphia to London it was a long long trip but a little sleep helped to make the time go faster. Greg got less sleep than I did, but I had the window seat and something to lean on.

We got to London Heathrow and had a minor issue with Dot 2 Dot transfer. The women at the desk were super helpful to us and got us taken care of after a few phone calls. The Dot 2 Dot showed us all around London while dropping people off. It was alright with us since we were over tired and so excited to be there!

We arrived at hotel Jolly St. Ermin around 1 pm. Greg and I rested for a little bit just to recharge ourselves. Then we went out exploring and got some dinner. The streets were pretty easy to navigate.

There were enough landmarks around to get us where we needed to be. We walked around Buckingham Palace and spoke to some police officers, we were allowed to take their pictures but not with them... We watched the guards stand ever so still.

We walked through the very beautiful St. James Park which was right near our hotel. We crossed the Westminster Bridge and walked along the Thames. There were street performers near the Aquarium. There were quite a few different performers but Greg’s favorite was the gymnastics performer. He was a lot of fun and got the audience to participate.

The feeling of being in London was overwhelming for the both of us! Neither one of us felt like we were experiencing what we were experiencing... We felt like it was an out of body experience! But an adventurous one!