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Day 2
Thursday August 21st 2003 Our plane landed at the London Gatwick airport at 5:30 in the morning London time and although we were tired and jet lagged from the plane trip we were both very excited to get into London and start sightseeing. We found our luggage and went through customs, and then we sat down and had a much-needed cigarette. Then we found an ATM and a money exchange where we both could get some British Pounds. We decided that we had better find out where to get a train ticket on the Gatwick express train to London. We found the ticket booth and boarded our train. We arrived at Victoria Station at 8am and went to Starbucks to get some coffee and to sit down and look at our map to see if we could find out where our Bed and Breakfast was. When we thought we knew where we were going we set out for Georgian House Hotel. After carting our luggage through what felt like half of the city we eventually found St. George Street and Georgian House Hotel but we were to early to check in. The concierge at the front desk was a lovely woman, and let us keep our luggage behind the front desk until noon when our room would be ready. After being lifted from our luggage burden , we thought that we would set off and head back to Victoria Station to take the London City Sightseeing Tour on one of the big red double Decker buses. This was the best thing we could have done to orient ourselves on the trip. It made a full loop of the city pointing out all of the major attractions with some history and commentary built in and if we found somewhere we wanted to go we just hopped off and we could hop back on anytime. We decided that in every city we were going to do the same thing. The first stop we made was to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. When we heard Big Ben’s Bells Chime on the hour we knew we were in London. After walking around for awhile we decided that a cruise down the Themes was in order and so we hopped on a boat and saw London from the Water. It was Beautiful. Especially the London Eye. Since both of us are such avid Sherlock Holmes fans , we decided we should go to 221B Baker Street and pay homage to the great detective. But unfortunately it was closed. We did get to see the outside though, which was enough. When we went back to catch the bus we discovered they were all done running for the evening, but we ended up getting our own private tour of London on the City Sightseeing Bus by a very nice bus driver named Jesus. The name fit him because not only did he drive us to where we needed to go but he also showed us some short cuts through the underground that brought us right to Trafalgar Square where we wanted to go. After thanking Jesus for the ride we walked to the Sherlock Holmes Pub and had our first pub grub experience. Cari had Fish and Chips and Grandma had a Beef Sandwich. The atmosphere and the food were wonderful. After becoming very full and sleepy we decided we had better trek back to our home at The Georgian House Hotel, and get to sleep as we had been up for at least 36 hours! |
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